godef
In the Starting Line-Up
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- Sep 13, 2004
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I've had the opportunity to watch most of the games from 2001 in their entirety, and was surprised by a few things...
- Media recognition of Tom Brady began much sooner than I had remembered. Had I not known any better, I would have thought it really came on around the end of the season/beginning of the playoffs. But in fact it was already building some momentum in the San Diego game, and it was in full gear by the first Buffalo game.
- The use of two-way players was already going on thast season. Perhaps most of us remember Bryan Cox and rookie Richard Seymour being used on offense; Cox even caught a pass. But I was stunned to see Terrell Buckley occasionally lining up at wide receiver.
- When arguing the merits of the infamous tuck rule, we all have pointed out how it was called against us in the first Jets game at a crucial point in the game. But I was surprised to find out the rule had been invoked on at least two other occasions. The first being in our favor in the 2nd quarter of the first Bills game, and against our favor in the final play of the first half of the regular season finale against Carolina. Whereas no big fuss was made about it in the Bills game, the announcer of the Carolina game was besides himself that a fumble wasn't called on the play; however, the color commentator nailed it, not even minding the throwing motion had ended but pointing out that the QB had yet to tuck (yes, he used that word) the ball to his body, and that the play was correctly called incomplete.
- Despite the loss, it appears the Patriots made a good national impression against the Rams in Foxboro. ESPN was broadcasting the game hyped it up as a defining battle of the dynasty-in-the-making Rams and the up-and-coming Patriots, and the game lived up to that billing.
- Joe Theisman indicated implicitly through his comments that he thought Bledsoe ought to get his job back when he became healthy again. Given Joe's background, that surprised me a bit. He was not unlike Doug Flutie when he started out professionally, considered too small to be a legit pro QB. He paid his dues and even particiapted on special teams prior to eventually becoming a starter with the Redskins, so I though he might have been one to empathize with Brady's plight more than he did.