Not Doing What Works Spells Defeat For Pats

CHICAGO — Behold, we bring you tales of two very talented men, and a fable that Aesop never got around to writing.

First Tale: The Quarterback and the Defense

Two of my favorite words are “hurry” and “up”.

If they were to pass out “laid back” awards, yours truly wouldn’t be among those considered. Most New Englanders who live near the city (as opposed to rural areas) tend to be more “type A” than others who prefer the mellow, Pudge Fisk-esque lifestyle.

Being one such lad in the 60s and 70s, the words “hurry” and “up” were common staples of my vocabulary. Life at “vivo allegro” (very fast for you music buffs) works best for me. More fun. More exciting. Get more things done. There’s always time for relaxation. You make more time for relaxation if you hustle during the day.

Nothing’s changed today. I married a laid back California girl. Every other sentence out of my mouth is “Hurry up, dear!”. Bob runs on time, Mrs. George runs late. Once in a while, Mrs. George does hurry up, but only if the nearby shopping mall is on the agenda. Or an evening performance involving one of our beloved children.

Drew Bledsoe is whatever the opposite of type A is. He has my wife’s temperament. Mellow. Laid back. The last man you’d think would be good at an offense named “hurry up”.

But Bledsoe is anything but mellow on the football field. Bledsoe is one of the best, if not the best, orchestrators of the two-minute drill. It was unveiled last Monday night against Kansas City. Bledsoe used that approach to run up 30 points on the Chiefs.

So, duh, why not keep using that approach?

Bledsoe did in today’s game versus the Bears. He used it on three drives. Two of the drives produced touchdowns. The third probably would have if time had not run out.

But the Patriots had eight other drives. No hurry-up was used in these cases. These eight drives yielded exactly three first downs and a field goal off of a 16-yard drive.

The Patriots scored only 17 points today. They gave up 24.

Second Tale: The Cornerback and the Wideout

It was as if a magic wand had been waved over Ty Law last Monday night.

Except for one anomaly of a play, Law blanketed his former Michigan teammate, Derrick Alexander all evening. Every time Elvis Grbac threw to him, boom! Law was right there to break up the play. If only for one game, Law had regained his style of play that has made him one of the richest cornerbacks in the NFL.

This week, Law and Belichick went over game tapes of Monday night. Belichick asked Law if he liked what he saw. Law said he did. Belichick asked Law if he would like to continue this style of play. Law’s eyes lit up. He eagerly answered in the affirmative.

Ahhh. No more dropbacks. No more soft zone coverages. No more read/react. Law’s back to his old, sweet self again. Play the man tight, and use his God-given speed and talent to shut down the other guy’s best wide receiver.

Trouble is, the only cornerback we saw today that batted down any passes was Otis Smith. Where was Law?

Seven yards downfield on every play. Watching Eddie Kennison catch eight passes for 100 yards and a touchdown. Watching Shane Matthews complete 22 of 27 passes for 239 yards, including a club-record 15 in a row. Watching nobodies like Kaseem Sinceno, Marty Booker, Scott Dragos and D’Wayne Bates make mincemeat of the Patriot secondary.

Law’s defensive unit gave up 24 points. His offense scored only 17.

Moral of the story: Do what works.

In life, one should always follow that basic rule. Do what works. That’s how I approach my job. It would be nice if Bill Belichick and Charlie Weis felt the same way.

But they don’t. Otherwise, there is no conceivable way the Patriots lose today, unless they commit more penalties with more hurry-up plays.

It was refreshing to watch the Kansas City game and realize that Belichick and Weis had finally figured out how to work around the biggest problem that plagues the Patriots. Absent of any running game whatsoever, the Patriots kept the Chief defense on edge all night long, and Bledsoe feasted on it. No running game was needed, and the confusion in the Chief defense actually helped open up a few holes here and there.

But Belichick and/or Weis (whose call was it, folks?) went away from that idea. For most of the day, the Patriots went back to their produce-nothing offense, and watched J.R. Redmond and former reject Raymont Harris bludgeon their way to a collective 32 yards on nine carries. With time to react, the Bears held Bledsoe to only 25 completions in 46 attempts, and sacked him twice.

And to sit there and watch Matthews do what he did was just plain sickening.

First, a little bit about this guy. He hates Chicago. He wants out at the end of the year, and has told his team as much. He is in there at quarterback only because Cade McNown, the former UCLA star, is out with an injury. Matthews wants to return to Florida and perhaps join Steve Spurrier on his staff at UF. The way he played today, Matthews alone could probably solve Florida’s election mess all by himself.

So here’s this disgruntled second string retread quarterback going out there and hitting on 22 of 27 passes. Fifteen in a row. Yikes.

In the 80-year history of the Bears, that’s a record. Steve Walsh, who has much better passing credentials than Matthews, hit for 14 straight in 1994. And this is a franchise that is much more in love with their running backs (Nagurski, Sayers, Payton) than their quarterbacks.

But with Law going back to his soft zone fluff, Bear receivers were open all day over the middle. Zone pockets were bigger than kangaroo pouches. It was pitch and catch all day for Matthews.

Of course, some fans will look at this game and immediately think of last year’s Philly Flop, when much of the team quit on Pete Carroll. This was not the case today. Some of the play was lethargic, but the Patriots had a chance to win in the end and did play hard in trying to do so.

Patriot defenders did dole out some good licks today, and they did recover a Bear fumble (actually two, but replay overturned the call even though in this writer’s opinion it was a fumble). But the defense didn’t do much in trying to stop James Allen, who was a workhorse’s workhorse today.

Allen punished the Pats with 97 yards rushing, and punished himself with 37 carries. But Allen proved tougher than any Patriot out there, a black mark on a defense that usually contains the other guy’s stud running back (as long as they’re not named Martin or Davis). Despite only a 2.6 yard average, the Patriots’ inability to fully contain him also helped in this defeat.

But the gameplan was what killed the Patriots today.

It is inconscionable that the Patriots would abandon the very things that helped them beat Kansas City the other night. Most football experts called Monday night’s game the best of the year for the Patriots. And to a degree, they’re correct.

This writer still prefers the Denver game as the best one, but the win over the Chiefs, leaving the ending out of it, was both exciting and truly encouraging. It seemed that the Patriots were on the verge of snapping out of this rut they’re in, and showing Patriot Nation some real promise for 2001.

But any such promise is artificial if Belichick doesn’t realize what works or chooses to go in other directions that have proven not to work.

Why be different if the opposition can’t stop it? Why tell your all-pro cornerback to stop playing the way he best knows how? These questions are perhaps better left unanswered, as most of you won’t like the answers anyway.

It simply makes no sense. The K-Gun took Buffalo to four straight Super Bowls. It could do the same for the Patriots.

Try telling Lawrence Taylor to ease off and make sure he holds containment in the flat. Or tell Rich “Tombstone” Jackson to come up with something else other than the head slap.

The Patriots should put the soft zone in the same file as the Michael Bishop option play. In File #13 (archaic slang for a “wastebasket”).

And Bledsoe needs to take more caffeine pills. The less time between plays, the better.

Soft zone, no hurry-up. Yeesh. Maybe Aesop’s ghost ought to haunt Belichick and Weis tonight.

About Bob George

Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139

View all posts by Bob George