Playing Bledsoe Made No Sense Whatsoever
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Posted Under: 2000 Patriots Season
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CLEVELAND — This season has gotten so ugly that we may see Zeke Mowatt on the cover of GQ any day now.
In what was supposed to be a “gimme” game, the Patriots instead played like it was ten years ago all over again. Against an injury-plagued, talent-starved Cleveland Browns team, the Patriots played like a totally talentless, listless and rudderless team. In other words, just like 1990.
The 1990 version of the Patriots was arguably the worst edition of this franchise since the move out of Boston, maybe ever. The Lisa Olson incident belied the hideous composition of that team, which bumbled and stumbled its way to a 1-15 record under former defensive coordinator Rod Rust.
Bumbled. Stumbled. Former defensive coordinator. You saw all that today at Cleveland Browns Stadium from the Patriots. This is not good, folks.
What was to have been a promising season under new coach Bill Belichick first turned to disappointment. Then it turned to despair. Soon it became hopeful. It plunged right back to devastating. Going into today’s game, it was now abyssmal.
What would you call it now? My guess is it would be something that wouldn’t get past our editors and censors. So we’ll just let you think it.
For the first time all season (and some of you fans will claim that you felt this way a while back, but we’re trying to scope out the majority here), Belichick will now be viewed as a coach that may not have learned from his mistakes in Cleveland. Or simply stated, he may still not have this head man job totally down yet.
Maybe. Belichick is still in a grace period, and not having Willie McGinest or Ted Johnson today didn’t help things much. Cleveland did score only 19 points (the magic 23 would have done it today), but when you consider that Cleveland’s touchdown today was their first in some four games, it becomes all the more maddening.
The big issue that fans will take from this game is Belichick’s handling of the quarterbacks. These good fans of Cleveland who gave Belichick such a warm reception (chants of “Bill Must Go!” and “Belichick (stinks)!” reverberated around this rather awkward stadium today) certainly know about Belichick and quarterback controversies, even though Belichick was proven right in 1995.
Will he be proven right in 2000? To put it bluntly, what in the Sam Hill was Drew Bledsoe doing out there today?
The Patriots suffered four critical turnovers today, which directly led to their 19-11 defeat. Three fumbles, one pick. All can be directly traced back to Bledsoe. He committed three of them and made a bad pitch on the fourth. All but one of them can be traced further back to his bad thumb.
Again, I ask you: What in the Sam Hill was Bledsoe doing out there today?
Further compounding this quarterback soap opera was the fact that one of the quarterbacks on the Patriots did not dress for this game. That quarterback was Michael Bishop. This has become more explosive than the Kingdome in the spring.
Right now, Bishop could probably run for selectman in Foxborough. He has to be the most popular Patriot folk hero since Mosi Tatupu. Again, like last year, Bishop has been handed a scenario where logic dictates he gets his chance to see if he can play in the NFL. And like last year, the coaches refuse to put him in.
Pete Carroll wouldn’t do it in the final two games of 1999. Likewise, Belichick won’t do it this year. Why?
Belichick glumly and blandly states and restates that, to paraphrase, Bishop hasn’t learned the offense yet, and that Bledsoe and John Friesz know it better. Bishop keeps laying eggs in practices, while the veterans keep doing all the right things. This assumes that we read the coach right when he speaks.
Today, Bledsoe got the start. Friesz was number two, and rookie Tom Brady was the emergency quarterback. The result was an eight point loss to a 2-8 (now 3-8) team that had lost seven straight and possesses the worst offense in the NFL. Guess starting Bledsoe didn’t work.
Of course it didn’t. Bledsoe had nothing today. Many of his throws misfired. Most of his completions were tosses you and I could make. If you still had to be sold on this fact, Bledsoe tossed a 25-yard lob to Kevin Faulk on the final play of the first half, when a 50-yard Hail Mary toss was the only way to go. Bledsoe could only throw the ball 25 yards today, yet he was the one who started.
There were two and only two quarterbacks who should have seen action today: Bishop and Brady. No one else. Period.
Bledsoe is hurt. Why risk further injury to The Franchise against a bum team with nothing at stake whatsoever? Bledsoe should go grab a clipboard and heal up for 2001. Hang this warrior stuff. Warriors aren’t stupid. Brave, yes. But brains should prevail over bravery where Bledsoe is concerned.
Friesz? Steve DeOssie had a good take on Friesz last week on WBZ’s Sports Final. He said, to paraphrase, that “Friesz should go nowhere near a football field. He will be cut at the end of the year, and he doesn’t figure in the future plans of the Patriots. Why bother with him?” Friesz’s cap number soars in 2001, which will necessitate his release after this season.
But Friesz is a veteran, and healthy. Why bench him? Simple.
This season is going nowhere. With Bledsoe hurt, why go with someone who isn’t going to be here in 2001? Play Bishop, then Brady in that order. See who handles the pressure of the NFL better. What’s the worst that can happen? Pats lose? They’ve been losing. So what?
Belichick is left with explaining why he played Bledsoe today. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that there is no logical answer Belichick can give. All he’ll say is something to the effect of “Drew wanted to play…he’s a warrior”. That’s it. Bledsoe plays.
Maybe Belichick had Bernie Kosar on his mind by allowing Bledsoe to play today. The last thing he wants to do is torque off his veteran quarterback again. But this is one time that Belichick may have ignored common sense and made a decision based on a past bad experience.
Belichick was right by replacing Kosar with Vinny Testaverde. The years and results have borne that out. Who was the Cleveland Browns quarterback that beat Bledsoe and Bill Parcells in the 1994 playoffs? Testaverde has gone on to become a great quarterback once out of the football purgatory known as Tampa Bay (when it was a purgatory).
But the fans of Cleveland reminded Belichick today what they thought of his deposing local fave Kosar. To put it in perspective, think of how Patriot Nation felt when Doug Flutie lost his quarterback job to Marc Wilson. The Dawg Pound really let Belichick have it today with derisive chants, an unfortunate display of total football ignorance by fans who should know better. Belichick did the right thing with Kosar, but Cleveland has never forgiven him.
Going back to Bledsoe, one has to wonder if this was on Belichick’s mind. Nothing about putting Bledsoe in today made any sense at all. Bledsoe demanded to play, Belichick didn’t want to kick up a fuss.
This is a bit disconcerning, if this is true.
Belichick promised when he took this job that he “learned from his mistakes” in Cleveland. One has to wonder if he knows the difference between “mistakes” and “good but unpopular decisions”. Sitting Bledsoe today would definitely have been “good but unpopular”. As far as we can tell, the only person who’d think sitting Bledsoe would be unpopular would be Bledsoe himself.
Today’s result stinks. Nasty, putrid, pungent, odious. This isn’t as bad as last year’s wretch at Philadelphia. But if this team can’t even beat Cleveland, you really have to wonder.
You can sit there and think about Bledsoe, McGinest, Johnson and the offensively offensive line. But the plain truth is that the Patriots lost a game they had to win today. They lost to a team that makes the 1976 Buccaneers look like the 1999-2000 Rams. They lost one of the “gimme” games on this otherwise brutal schedule. They lost it by a close margin, as if that surprises you anymore.
What now, coach?
If you do nothing else, let Bishop play his way out of Foxborough versus sitting his way. Then we’ll all feel better.
And sit Drew. Make him sit. Give him a doggie biscuit. Certainly you might have found a few behind the Patriot bench today.
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