Bob Ryan gets it right

[spacecrime]

Sounds nice but I can't see us winning any game if Cassel is the starter.

It's an opportunity - for the Patriots - The Boston Globe

Rob Ryan in a rather lengthy article that looks like it was taken right from these pages shows why the Pats won't win with Cassel.

Excerpt:

Hey you, Randy Moss, this is (Patsfans) speaking: Those 23 TDs you caught last year? All Tom Brady. All those acrobatic, highlight-film catches you made? Play-acting. We know that was Tom Brady putting the ball right on the money.

Hey you, Wes Welker, this is (Patsfans) speaking: So you caught 112 passes last year? All Tom Brady. All those extra Yards After Catch? Tom Brady hitting you in stride. Vince Wilfork could have done the same thing.

Hey, you, Matt Light, Logan Mankins, and Dan Koppen, this is (Patsfans) speaking: Brady's sixth sense about pass rushers made you guys look better than you are, except in the Super Bowl, where you guys just played like crap.

And more. Just the kind of stuff that first appeared right here on Patsfans.

It was all Brady. Without him, we are doomed.

 

[xmarkd400x]

Good article.

Don't read it if you can't detect sarcasm in text.

 

[JSn]

ahaha... Pure gold!

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

Schadenfreude indeed.

Great link, thanks.

Hey NFL ------> GFY

 

[NYCPatsFan]

Sorry, I don't care about Mr. Ryan or his colleague, Mr. Shaughnessy, at the BG pontify.

Ever since Mr. Ryan wrote that amazingly moronic article that attacked BB personally, I lost whatever little tolerance I had for Mr. Ryan. (It's a different issue that I lost all respect for him when he made all those comments about Jason Kidd's wife a few years back.)

I am planning to regularly write to the BG requesting them to keep this 'expert' trio - these two + Mr. Tony Massaroti - from writing anything about the Pats.

 

[Cannon Arm]

It's an opportunity - for the Patriots - The Boston Globe

Rob Ryan in a rather lengthy article that looks like it was taken right from these pages shows why the Pats won't win with Cassel.

Excerpt:

Hey you, Randy Moss, this is (Patsfans) speaking: Those 23 TDs you caught last year? All Tom Brady. All those acrobatic, highlight-film catches you made? Play-acting. We know that was Tom Brady putting the ball right on the money.

Hey you, Wes Welker, this is (Patsfans) speaking: So you caught 112 passes last year? All Tom Brady. All those extra Yards After Catch? Tom Brady hitting you in stride. Vince Wilfork could have done the same thing.

Hey, you, Matt Light, Logan Mankins, and Dan Koppen, this is (Patsfans) speaking: Brady's sixth sense about pass rushers made you guys look better than you are, except in the Super Bowl, where you guys just played like crap.

And more. Just the kind of stuff that first appeared right here on Patsfans.

It was all Brady. Without him, we are doomed.

No, it wasn't all Brady, but it sure as Hell wasn't Kerry Collins, Andrew Walter, Aaron Brooks, Gus Frerotte, and Joey Harrington who were throwing balls to Moss and Welker.

This is bordering on sacrilege. Yes, football is a team sport, but Tom Brady is the greatest QB to ever play in the NFL. The greatest. It matters whether you have the greatest of all time or you have a guy who wasn't good enough to start in college. Show the man the respect he deserves. Matt Cassel may be an okay QB, but he can't hold Brady's jock, and we all know that.

 

[fgssand]

Show the man the respect he deserves. Matt Cassel may be an okay QB, but he can't hold Brady's jock, and we all know that.

Your right....that is why I say we "only" win by 10 instead of 27 against the New Jersey Brats.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

....

This is bordering on sacrilege. ...Show the man the respect he deserves. Matt Cassel may be an okay QB, but he can't hold Brady's jock, and we all know that.

Here we go again with the disrespect card and the slamming of MC.

Think you have been influenced by the recent political events.

 

[OtisCampbell]

Sorry, I don't care about Mr. Ryan or his colleague, Mr. Shaughnessy, at the BG pontify.

Ever since Mr. Ryan wrote that amazingly moronic article that attacked BB personally, I lost whatever little tolerance I had for Mr. Ryan. (It's a different issue that I lost all respect for him when he made all those comments about Jason Kidd's wife a few years back.)

I am planning to regularly write to the BG requesting them to keep this 'expert' trio - these two + Mr. Tony Massaroti - from writing anything about the Pats.

You beat me to it. That douchenozzle is dead to me.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Actually, no we don't know Cassel can't hold Tom Brady's jock any more than his toadies knew that the 6th round, dink and dunk, system QB couldn't hold Bledsoes...

This was classic FU Ryan. And right on the money. They're certainly a better team with Tom Brady at the helm - duh...you could say that about 31 other teams too. But they weren't chopped liver without him, and that is what the oddsmakers and NY pundits want to sell the masses. Reminds me a little of 2001, and 2003. And last September after Commissioner Jetdell slapped BB like some disobedient biatch, and the rest of the morons piled on to gleefully kick him and us in the nuts while he was down. How'd that work out? This is what this team is predicated on, what others mostly pay lip service to, situational football when the situation is you're being disrespected. Finding a way to win when EVERYONE says you're down for the count. Coming together and stepping up to prove the whole is greater than just the sum of it's parts. It's what even allowed Tom Brady launch a HOF career...

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

This is bordering on sacrilege.

No, it isn't. Claiming the team is dead, because we loss Brady is the ultimate insult to Moss, Wes, BB, etc.

 

[SVN]

bob ryan is another pats hater. he has criticized BB a lot this yr because of spygate and how the celtics won. Both him and shaugnessy are waiting for the pats to fail so they can go after BB again. these reporters in boston think they are not good enough unless they can take on their own team and coach. Worst for me is when they write as if this is how the fans feel and depict fans as idiotic as these guys are..
But these idiots are popular among the national media. For e.g shaugnessy is going to break down cassel's game tommorow on the dan patrick show. what does CHB know about football? he is busy writing the next "patriots cursebook".
ryan used to be good , now he is just another pats hater for me regardless of how this article was written.

 

[MassPats38]

Great article, especially from a source other than Reiss on from Globe. I tend not to sift through the authors anymore but this was a good piece.

As for sacrilege comments made any time someone claims the Pats can win without Brady, give it a rest. By the frequency of your making the remark, I will assume you either are not being sarcastic or have let the joke run to the point it's tired. There is a reason the "defense wins championships" theory was floated pretty much every year prior to the Colts winning in 2006. The Patriots have emphasized defense first in their championship seasons, and the offense prior to last year was asked to put enough points on the board to win. Watch the 3 Games to Glory DVDs and listen how many names are called that are not "Tom Brady".

Brady has been instrumental in this team's successes and he is a great pressure player, but he is not the Patriots. Would Brady be a hero if Vinatieri missed the kick in 2001 or 2003? Probably not. Would the Patriots be there again in 2004 if we had lost those championship games as veterans showed up later because of past successes? Maybe not. Would Brady even be in the NFL if Belichick hadn't chanced a late pick on him and given him a shot after he was passed over repeatedly by every other team in the NFL and was still on the board very close to the end of the draft? Maybe not. Has he thrown interceptions that have lost games? Yes. Has he thrown touchdowns that won games? Yes. Will he be replaced regardless of what happens this year barring an inability to recover from his injury or lose his starting position? Not a chance.

Any thoughts of winning without Brady reflect what fans want the team to do in a team sport when a superstar level player is hurt: pick up the pieces and move on until he returns. His accomplishments are a matter of record and only a fool would forget that. Brady comes back next year. Count on it. Until then you are either a fan of the Patriots, in which case you cheer for the team whenever it is on the field, or a fan of Brady only, in which case you retreat into a shell until next year as clearly no good can come of this season. This is the PatsFans board, not the BradyFans board.

I trust if Cassel does reasonably well today and in the future you will note as much and take a big bite of the crow you will need to eat with all your comments on his lack of ability as a QB based on little data (as even the sportswriters acknowledge he is an enigma at this point). The starting QB role for the Patriots is not his to win from Brady, so if he plays well he may get the opportunity to start on another team next year that he would not otherwise have earned. The Patriots get Brady back for next season and benefit this season from Cassel's efforts to win that starting position next year. Cassel will not be bitter from that result given the fact nobody else gave him the opportunity to earn a starting QB role and he otherwise would not be in the NFL. Everybody wins in that scenario from Cassel playing well this year, which is why true fans will back him rather than lamenting the loss of Brady and pointing out Cassel is no Brady (an observation bordering on the painfully obvious given Brady's combined ability and experience).

 

[Section103]

I find the comments about Bob Ryan amusing in this thread. I have never been a big fan of the mustachioed blowhard but he gets this article right. And as one previous poster said 'if you can't detect sarcasm in text' don't bother reading.

I agree Ryan can come across as a 'Pats-hater' but this article is anything but anti-Pats. In fact it can be summed up as this...

... Many across america are taking pleasure in the Pats pain. It's absurd and an insult to everyone in that organization to think that the loss of Tom Brady, although huge, is an automatic indication of the Pats' demise. There are too many good players and coaches that all contributed to their success. Come 4:15 we'll have an idea of what they are made of, but 3 hours later it will be funny to see if the Pats will be taking pleasure in everyone else's pain.

Ryan said it much better than that though...

 

[Pats726]

bob ryan is another pats hater. he has criticized BB a lot this yr because of spygate and how the celtics won. Both him and shaugnessy are waiting for the pats to fail so they can go after BB again. these reporters in boston think they are not good enough unless they can take on their own team and coach. Worst for me is when they write as if this is how the fans feel and depict fans as idiotic as these guys are..
But these idiots are popular among the national media. For e.g shaugnessy is going to break down cassel's game tommorow on the dan patrick show. what does CHB know about football? he is busy writing the next "patriots cursebook".
ryan used to be good , now he is just another pats hater for me regardless of how this article was written.

I have to agree about Bobby boy..after that classeless article where he showed how ESPN he is, I have no use for him at all. He's a wind bag whose days of great writing are way in the past...once ESPN was part of his life, it was teh loud mouth know nothing attitide and te writing suffered Sorry bobby boy KNOWS zip about the Pats..he's way out of his league..stick to the roundball bobby Get out of trying to write about things you know little of..And that pig DS?? When has he ever written about Brady and broken down his game...Neither wrote or followed the game when the team was terrible or getting better..The worst stretch..writers out of their fields..

 

[Leave No Doubt]

I have to agree about Bobby boy..after that classeless article where he showed how ESPN he is, I have no use for him at all. He's a wind bag whose days of great writing are way in the past...once ESPN was part of his life, it was teh loud mouth know nothing attitide and te writing suffered Sorry bobby boy KNOWS zip about the Pats..he's way out of his league..stick to the roundball bobby Get out of trying to write about things you know little of..And that pig DS?? When has he ever written about Brady and broken down his game...Neither wrote or followed the game when the team was terrible or getting better..The worst stretch..writers out of their fields..

Same here. After all the crap he's said and written about the Pats and BB, he's an outcast as far as I'm concerned, and the fact CHB is going to analyze anything REMOTELY connected with the Pats is ludicrous. Nothing they say or opine means anything at all. Just 2 more bandwagon media ho's trying to cash in. Sorry-NO ticks from me

 

[Cannon Arm]

Brady has been instrumental in this team's successes and he is a great pressure player, but he is not the Patriots. Would Brady be a hero if Vinatieri missed the kick in 2001 or 2003? Probably not.

Vinatieri's FGs in SB XXXVI and XXXVIII were to break ties, not keep us from a loss. Brady would have eventually won us those games in OT, or Adam would have had a shot of redeeming himself for having missed critical kicks in regulation in OT, so he'd have had to have missed two critical back-to-back kicks in each of those games, which is quite improbable.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

I find the comments about Bob Ryan amusing in this thread. I have never been a big fan of the mustachioed blowhard but he gets this article right. And as one previous poster said 'if you can't detect sarcasm in text' don't bother reading.

I agree Ryan can come across as a 'Pats-hater' but this article is anything but anti-Pats. ...

Well, it looks like you have never read much of his earlier columns on the Pats, especially the one where he went after BB and show remarkable lack of class by pulling in BB's personal life.

And among the avoid-the-BG-trinity (Ryan/Shaughnessy/Massaroti) posters, who said anything about this article being anti-Pats?? None of us want to know what his thoughts are about our beloved team. Period. :snob:

 

[SVN]

I find the comments about Bob Ryan amusing in this thread. I have never been a big fan of the mustachioed blowhard but he gets this article right. And as one previous poster said 'if you can't detect sarcasm in text' don't bother reading.

I agree Ryan can come across as a 'Pats-hater' but this article is anything but anti-Pats. In fact it can be summed up as this...

... Many across america are taking pleasure in the Pats pain. It's absurd and an insult to everyone in that organization to think that the loss of Tom Brady, although huge, is an automatic indication of the Pats' demise. There are too many good players and coaches that all contributed to their success. Come 4:15 we'll have an idea of what they are made of, but 3 hours later it will be funny to see if the Pats will be taking pleasure in everyone else's pain.

Ryan said it much better than that though...

frankly i didnt even read the article. i can read bob ryan for the celtics but he doesnt know jack about football IMO.

 

[MassPats38]

Vinatieri's FGs in SB XXXVI and XXXVIII were to break ties, not keep us from a loss. Brady would have eventually won us those games in OT, or Adam would have had a shot of redeeming himself for having missed critical kicks in regulation in OT, so he'd have had to have missed two critical back-to-back kicks in each of those games, which is quite improbable.

As your apparently unhealthy Brady crush blinds you to the team aspect of football (which I assume you have never played at any level or we would not be having this conversation), I will leave you with these thoughts. In 2001, the Pats were up 14-3 with 7 points attributable to a defensive score. The Patriots were outscored 14-6 in the second half (no offensive touchdowns).

In short, against one of the more prolific offenses in NFL history, the Pats offense scored 1 touchdown, the lead was gone and the Rams were getting their offense into gear. Probable outcome of a missed field goal? Rams win, Pats lose. Your Brady vision blinds you to the fact defense put as many points on the board as Brady did in that game passing. And Vinatieri's kick was no chip shot to win the game (48 yards), so the final drive did not stall at the goal line. You may refresh your obviously hazy memory with the box score.

Flash forward to the 2003 championship. The Patriots had lost pretty much the entire secondary to injury (as did the Panthers) and neither team really displayed the ability to stop the other defensively due to those injuries. You may also recall that Tom Brady threw a costly interception when the Pats were in a position for 7 points on an ill advised pass (in the event Brady's halo blocks such memories) that may have avoided the slugfest in the 2nd half. As such, your "win in overtime" theory really amounts to "winning the coin toss." If the Panthers won the toss, the probable outcome would have been another loss given the way the second half went in that game and the defense's injury status.

The fact is great players step up in big games. Tom Brady did. So did Ty Law. So did Tedy Bruschi. So did Corey Dillon. So did Antowain Smith. So did many others it would take too much time to identify. Everyone on this board loves Brady, but the others apparently are sufficiently aware of the fact a QB alone does not win championships (If that is true, explain the 2000 Ravens and the 1991 Redskins - Dilfer and Rypien were great quarterbacks? ) that they can hope that Cassel is enough with all the other talent on the team to get the Patriots to the promised land. If you cannot see this and are still claiming that "Brady is my world, my god," I suggest intensive therapy as even Brady would be frightened by that level of adoration.