Plenty of more national attention for the surging Pats, this time after Tom Brady and the receivers dismantled one of the NFL’s better defenses.
Roosevelt Colvin and the Pats defense had plenty to celebrate Sunday.
BOSTON GLOBE
Seymour proves to be a bit rusty in return - Mike Reiss and Chris Gasper tag-team to tell the tale of Richard Seymour’s return, a non-factor factor in New England’s latest dominant win, 52-7, over Washington.
Defense felt it needed to make point - Reiss chimes in on the defense’s dominance of Washington, noting their multiple turnovers and complete frustration of Washington’s inept offense.
For Vrabel, both sides now - Globe regional writer Monique Walker tackles Mike Vrabel’s versatility in a strong feature piece.
BOSTON HERALD
Under scrutiny - Karen Guregian writes on Bill Belichick and how the coach is being taken to task for running up final scores. Another nice piece from the former columnist.
Pats keep rolling, set to deal with Colts - With seemingly every other Herald writer covering the Sox in the Series, Guregian doubles her effort to get across a solid gamer.
NEW YORK TIMES
This season, Moss is in the mood to play - William C. Rhoden, longtime New York Times “Sports of the Times” columnist, takes Randy Moss to task for his lack of effort in the past, and his current success.
The murmuring about Belichick and Brady running up the score continue to get louder, on a national scale.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Brady gets it, all right - Rather than find fault with the Pats, Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins says that the Redskins should learn from quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick’s drive for perfection.
Redskins go a little too quietly - Similarly, Michael Wilbon claims its the Redskins’ own fault they got beat so bad, saying that they should have attacked Brady when the score started slipping away.
Whenever a team is undefeated, it’s bound to get plenty of attention. The Patriots are no exception, particularly with abundant built-in storylines of a trap game (before a presumptive, and eventually accurate, undefeated face-off with Dallas) and crossover between teams (i.e. the Romeo Crennel angle) of last week’s tilt with the Browns. So, who wrote the best stories? We’re here to tell you.
His career is starting to look like Joe Montana’s. Admit it, you’ve thought it. John Tomase just wrote it down on paper.
BOSTON GLOBE
With 4 catches, TD, Stallworth gets into act — After an outstanding game - finally - you knew this story was coming. Dante Stallworth’s emergence may have been the most compelling underlying theme from the game, and the Globe’s Jim McCabe nails it in his day-after-game introspective.
Catch him if you can — Whenever Charlie Pierce writes anything - anything - we take notice. And he wrote elegantly about Bill Belichick and his drive to win at all cost, in this case in the form of a mock letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell. Brilliance, as always.
It’s Junior achievement day — You can’t have a Quick Hits list without at least a mention of a story by the prolific Mike Reiss. This week, Reiss found his pieces tastiest when opining about linebackers, particularly the emergence of Junior Seau. A strong effort from the Globe’s go-to guy.
BOSTON HERALD
Tattoo’s message lost in translation — She may not be as good on football X’s and O’s as some of her colleagues - John Tomase and the since departed Albert Breer most notably - but Karen Guregian is still a terrific reporter, and she’s the one who finally gets to the bottom of Asante Samuel’s garish “Get Rich” tattoo. Evidently it’s a reference to a Gnarls Barkley song. Who knew? Guregian.
Asante Samuel may have been shook up on this play, but he was on the money all game, and Karen Guregian was on him all week.
Brady hard to stop in Montana-like start — Plenty of people have been thinking it, but evidently Tomase is the only one with the guts to write it: Tom Brady is starting to look a bit like vintage Joe Montana, isn’t he? It’s scary. And if it keeps going this way, Brady may be on his way to another ring and, possibly, a regular season MVP.
Samuel picks up where he left off — Maybe the trick is just to have Guregian shadow Samuel, huh? Karen scores her second big hit of the week with a day-after-win piece on how Samuel is already back in spectacular form.
And not by a little bit. As Rodney Harrison works his way through the week’s practices, it’s becoming clear how much better he makes the entire New England defense.
Rodney Harrison is back, and that makes the Pats a whole lot better.
No one here is going to defend Harrison’s use of Human Growth Hormone. What he did was clearly wrong, regardless of whether he was acquiring it to recover from an injury, get a bigger hat size so Tedy Bruschi would finally stop calling him mini-cabeza or just to get buff to impress the ladies. He just shouldn’t have dipped into the cesspool of performance enhancing drugs. And he definitely shouldn’t have done it so clumsily, using his own name to order through an online service based out of upstate New York. Clearly, Harrison never heard of Eliott Spitzer.
But now that he’s done his time, Harrison is back. For that matter, not only is he back, he suddenly has a reason to return with a vengeance, a factor which has transformed him from a dominant DB to an almost unstoppable one in the past.
Harrison is that guy. The type A personality who goes off at the drop of a hat, yet only when it’s fortuitous for him to do so. The team leader who you would never want near a tank in the military. The playmaker who looks like the guy who hits the clubs after big wins, but turns out to head straight home to his family’s house in the ‘burbs.
But Harrison always needs an agenda to get him juiced up. It’s in his blood. That’s where the current HGH controversy actually helps him, and New England in the process. While he might be a bit rusty for the first quarter or so, Harrison now has people to prove wrong. Again. And while he’s made it clear that he won’t talk at length about the suspension now that it’s over, he’s almost certainly creating a mental rolodex of names, people who have brought it up, a group of personal Harrison dissidents that he can use as ammunition for his personal tackling powder keg.
What Harrison brings to the defense is undeniable. He’s athletic enough to cover more ground, providing a valuable buffer in both the run and pass game. His sheer presence allows other defensive backs to thrive. Just look at Asante Samuel’s performance. While he was close to gathering in a pair of picks last week in his first start of the season, he couldn’t ever quite finish the deal. With Harrison back behind him, Samuel will have a better safety net behind him, and impetus to try and jump more routes in the process.
Of course, the Samuel example is just the start of a snowball of advances the unit is likely to make with Harrison back on board. But that’s the point. His influence is almost too large to measure, the Tom Brady of the defense in both his understanding of the team’s systems and his role in building pride and performance.
And that’s precisely why the undefeated Pats just got a lot better without even playing another game.
Leave it to Tom Brady and Randy Moss to take the drama out of a ball game, huh?
Sammy looks awful good tonight, doesn’t he?
Asante Samuel drops a pick, but the Pats still find a way to stifle Cincinnati’s defense. The Pats offense starts with the ball and rolls 80 yards down the field for a game-changing touchdown. After all, 24-7 is a hell of a lot more one-sided than 17-7, isn’t it?
Sure, the quarter wasn’t perfect. But then again, this Cincinnati team is supposed to be a lot better than the previous victims of the Jets, Chargers (didn’t see that coming, huh) and Bills.
Then again, did anyone see Sammy Morris trotting this type of a game out there? A former Texas Tech running back who only had three 100-yard games across two previous seasons? Texas Tech running backs catch the ball, not run it. Just ask Wes Welker.
Speaking of which, Wes is due for another big play, don’t you think? Let’s see if he pulls one out.
Has anyone else noticed how much talk about tonight’s Patriots-Bengals firestorm has centered on it being a “offensive explosion”? Doesn’t that seem like just the kind of bulletin board material that Tedy Bruschi and the Pats defense feasts on … constantly?
In case you didn’t notice, Ellis Hobbs knows how to create a ruckus, and he’s been proving it all fall.
We thought so, too. Which is why, in combination with the Bengals characteristic defense that ebbs and flows between mediocre and downright shoddy, we’re predicting a surprisingly one-sided Pats win tonight. Tom Brady and his phalanx of multifaceted receivers should be able to put up plenty of points on the Cincinnati defensive backfield. But Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and T.J. Whosyamama? They may need some help to do any serious scoreboard lighting.
That’s because the Patriots have an emerging star and team leader in their defensive backfield. And no, he’s not the guy who held out of training camp looking for a pile of money suitable to sleep on. It’s Ellis Hobbs, a former running back who’s finally getting completely comfortable with life as an NFL cornerback, a guy who can lay punishing hits but emerged as a top cover cornerback down the stretch of the 2007 playoffs.
There’s two distinct reasons why Hobbs will show up with particular gusto tonight: 1) Hobbs’ biggest strength is in direct, man-to-man coverage, which the Pats are sure to wear out tonight against the handful of dangerous receivers Cincinnati puts on the field every down, and 2) He always plays with an enormous chip on his shoulder, trying to stand out against top-flight receivers like Marvin Harrison and, hell, Chad Johnson, Mr. Future Hall of Fame himself.
Sure, Hobbs may live in the shadow of other great defensive backs on his own team, but he’s becoming the kind of stand out stopper that won’t live there for long. While Rodney Harrison may be the unit’s best hitter, Hobbs is second with a bullet. And while Asante Samuel may be the group’s highest profile star with his timely interceptions and, how should we say, flamboyant “Get Paid” tattoo, Hobbs is the sturdy, energy man who makes hits and keeps things from happening.
Tonight he’ll probably get plenty of chances to keep things from happening. We, for one, are pretty damn sure he’ll do his job, too.
Here’s the latest Pats injury report, courtesy of the Globe’s man on the beat, Mike Reiss and his Reiss’s Pieces blog:
Limited participation in practice
QB Tom Brady (right shoulder)
OLB Rosevelt Colvin (ankle)
CB Randall Gay (thigh)
RB Laurence Maroney (groin)
G Stephen Neal (shoulder)
WR Donte’ Stallworth (knee)
WR Kelley Washington (hamstring)
NT Vince Wilfork (shoulder)
DE Mike Wright (knee)
G Billy Yates (shoulder)
Brady is probable. Every other player on the report is questionable (50-50).
Anyone else want to bet that all those players, with the possible exception of Stallworth, give it a go at Paul Brown Stadium tonight? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
And just for good measure, we leave you with three keys to the game for each side, courtesy of ESPN and Stats Inc.
Naturally, keep with us come game time, as we’ll be giving Quarter by 1/4 breakdowns as the action moves along, as always.
It’s too easy to just look at the recent re-addition of Asante Samuel and call it a coup for the Patriots. Instead, you have to look at how it effects the entire team.
Asante Samuel is ready to go, despite a definite lag from a lengthy holdout.
Now, that also requires significant reflection about the state of the team’s secondary, which, quite frankly, wasn’t so stately. The Pats were getting by in rather piecemeal fashion by using traditional fill-ins (Randall Gay anyone?) while rapidly developing first-round pick Brandon Meriweather as a cornerback, not the safety he played in college. That, in turn put a lot more pressure on fellow cornerback Ellis Hobbs and Rodney Harrison, who was forced to run the offense practically without breathers. Not that he ever wants to leave the field anyway, but you get the idea.
Now, here’s what getting Asante back on page with the team means:
1) Hobbs will look significantly more effective. Let’s face it, as impressive as Hobbs’ rapid development as an NFL corner is, he’s not a shutdown man yet. Emphasis on yet. But a No. 2 corner? Sure. Hobbs is not only proficient as the main supporting man, by season’s end you might be able to make a case that he’s one of the best in the league. Regardless, bringing Samuel back to play the lead corner slot, where he can jump Marvin Harrison’s routes and read Rex Grossman’s mannerisms better than the Bears receivers themselves allows Hobbs to play at his own strength: big hits and acrobatic deflections.
2) It gives the entire secondary a huge bump in depth, a critical issue after losses early in training camp. With Samuel and Hobbs inked down as the starters week after week, the team can use Gay as a solid option to let the star corners catch their breath. Perhaps more importantly, the team can use Meriweather as a sort of sliding relief player, able to come in and spell corners or safeties, ever the issue with a banger like Harrison prone to more injuries than one of Michael Vick’s pit bulls.
The only action Samuel has seen so far has been with the news media, but that’s a step in the right direction.
3) It gets rid of all the drama and hoopla that took away from the team’s focus in last year’s training camp. Getting Samuel in camp and working essentially nullifies the dischord that was rampant into the start of the season with Deion Branch’s holdout last year. What’s more, for once the Pats front office actually negotiated. We know, it’s shocking because it’s nearly unprecedented. Still, the move to allow a conditional provision in the franchise tender that would keep the team from repeating the process was a huge step to make sure Samuel would not only be back, but be back and working hard to be productive. And on Samuel’s end it quells his desire for assurances he’ll be able to live up to the ink on his arm, “get paid” next year. So what did we learn from the compromise? Nate Clement envy can be assauged, it just requires 75 percent of the season’s snaps.
Now, will Samuel be back at full force for the Jets in week one? Seems far fetched. But will he be back on the field, contributing and providing the best secondary possible for the Pats? There’s no question. And that’s a huge step forward for a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.
Take care New England fans, your long national nightmare is over. Asante Samuel is back.
Asante Samuel didn’t practice, but he did show up at Foxboro yesterday, which is a vast departure from the state of the Pats over the past few months.
The team’s franchise cornerback, at least according to tag status, is back in the fold. The addition solves the team’s most glaring problem - a lack of depth in the secondary and a lack of an elite corner opposite Ellis Hobbs - and also brings a close to a potential soap opera which could have rivaled the sob-fest that led to the departure of wide receiver Deion Branch last year.
Of course, that was a sob fest because Branch had powerful allied on his side. He had sympathetic offensive teammates. He had fellow receivers who understood how he was the lynchpin to the team’s success and depth at the position singing his praises. And most importantly, he had the guy in the No. 12 jersey saying the team needed him.
Samuel never had any of those things going for his negotiation. Was he at a position of need? Absolutely. Did he have sympathetic teammates who felt he was needed to shore up the team’s one glaring defensive weakness? Without a question.
But Samuel wasn’t seen as quite as essential as Branch. And even more importantly, Samuel had a strong contract sitting on the table for him. The cornerback’s franchise deal will be him a sweet $7 million this year alone. Branch was still under a truly undervalued deal that made the Super Bowl MVP one of the best wideout bargains in the league.
No. 22 is back Pats fan, prepare yourselves for the ruckus.
So Samuel never had the leverage many thought he did, and he never had the team sweating the way Branch did a year ago. And it meant that the Pats were truly confident they would get the corner back by the start of the season.
And that means they were confident their defense would be at full strength by the start of the season. Naturally, that’s all that matters. Oh, and the health of that guy in the No. 12 jersey, of course.
An interesting thought occured to us today when combing through the Boston Globe’s Reiss’s Pieces blog by Patriots writer Mike Reiss.
James Sanders is making a difference in the Pats’ defensive backfield. Now, if only he had some similarly named friends …
Reiss was talking about the sudden elevation of Patriots safety James Sanders, who is now working out with the first team. Of course, that development is significant for the rest of the Pats for a number of reasons: 1) It gives the team a more comfortable grip on being flexible with rookie Brandon Meriweather, whom they can continue to play at cornerback, 2) It allows the to keep another player at another position instead of using an unintended slot for another defensive back and 3) It means there’s another great defensive player named Sanders.
That’s because James Sanders probably isn’t even the best safety named Sanders in the NFL. That honor would have to go to Bob Sanders, who spearheaded the Indianapolis defensive renaissance in the playoffs, costing the Pats another Super Bowl berth in the process.
Then there’s the classic NFL D-back Deion Sanders, now a professional suit wearer and NFL analyst. And there could be a Sanders calling the plays: Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Bob Sanders, a former interim coach of the Miami Dolphins.
That’s almost an entire defensive backfield of Sanders. Which got us thinking about the possibility of an entire defense made up of Sanders. Here’s what we came up with for possibilities:
Defensive line: Defensive End Donnell Sanders, Kareem Sanders (North Carolina A&T), Morris Sanders (UIF Evansville ), Marlon Sanders (West Alabama)
Linebackers: Luke Sanders LSU (OLB), Dontez Sanders (Wisconsin), Jeff Sanders (Hobart)
Defensive Backs: James Sanders, Bob Sanders, Emmanuel Sanders (SMU cornerback), Jim Sanders (Johns Hopkins cornerback)
Allright, so that’s a bit more Division III talent than we bargained for. Still, it’s pretty amazing to be able to put together a team comprised of all players with the same last name, each of which played at least some college football, isn’t it? We thought so, too.
And if nothing else, it bodes well for James Sanders’ emergence. We’ll see if he can keep it up. Here’s betting he can, based on pedigree, if a name can pass as pedigree in itself.
The deal broke almost prohibitively late last night, but it broke nonetheless: Ty Warren is going to be a Patriot for a long time.
Ty Warren’s new deal will keep him in Foxborough for years to come.
Instead of heading into the 2008 offseason as a free agent - and likely franchise tag recipient, perhaps even one headed for an Asante Samuel-like protracted holdout - Warren inked a longterm pact with the Pats, getting $18 million up front as part of a signing bonus and guarantees.
It’s a monster deal, and a monster addition for the Pats going forward. Furthermore, by pro-actively signing Warren now, and committing serious funds to him, the team may be signaling a change in philosophy about rewarding important existing pieces of the organization’s current bedrock.
Here’s what Warren told Boston Globe reporter Mike Reiss for his Reiss’s Pieces blog:
Reaction to the deal:
“It means everything to me. The commitment they showed me, I’m going to show the same commitment back.”
On how it went down:
“I can’t say going into the season that I was wondering if they would do this, or do that, as far as my contract is concerned. It surprised me, like it did a lot of people. We found a middle ground and it was a fair deal. This wasn’t an ego deal and there was no venom in the paper. That’s the way I’d rather have it.”
On finishing his career as a Patriot:
“That would be the ideal situation for me. You ask people why they play football and some might say it’s because they’re good at it, others might say it’s because of the money, and others might say it’s the love of the game. Obviously, playing this game helps me provide for my family but I put myself in the last category.”
Warren is a big man, but he has an equally big affect on the team’s future and defensive schemes heading forward. A young contributor, Warren has emerged as a reliable source of pass pressure and a wreaker of general havoc in the backfield. Will he keep it up? That remains to be seen. If he does do it, he’ll probably be doing it in a Patriots uniform.
What may be most striking about the deal is how quickly it resolved itself. According to Reiss and other sources, Scott Pioli and Patriots brass approached Warren about an extension, and Warren’s agent, the incomparably named Van McElroy, responded by making what has been declared a reasonable offer in return. From there, the two sides found room to compromise, and eventually struck a deal.
Josh Miller warms up during happier times, in Denver during the 2006 playoffs.
While no one saw it coming, it’s possible that the deal also serves to send a message to Samuel’s camp. Warren compromised, and he got a lucrative deal done. It’s hard not to make the comparison between the two simultaneous cases that are millions of dollars and a world of bartering apart.
Of course, it would take a mega-deal like Warren’s to overshadow one of the only truly significant developments of training camp so far: the cutting of punter Josh Miller. The veteran marksman, who made his living by killing kicks inside the 20 and using unfailing accuracy to boost the strength of his substandard leg, was given the heave-ho after consistently strong workouts from both of the team’s second-year punters, Danny Baugher - who got the starting snaps last Friday - and ex-USC punter Tom Malone. While it’s unknown which will get the start against the Jets, whoever does will be a new man in the deep drop for the Pats, a significant change on any normal day.
Of course, yesterday turned out to be much more than a normal day, because it helped pave the way for the Patriots defense in the years to come.
It’s funny what will get players to break a coach-mandated silence. Struggling performance? No dice. Defending a decision in game? Not a chance.
Randy Moss: Just one of the new Patriots with a Madden speed of 97.
The new Madden game? Absolutely.
Such was the case in the locker room yesterday, when Boston Herald and MetroWest Daily News reporter Albert Breer witnessed the following discussion between new wide receiver Donte Stallworth and running back Laurence Maroney. Of course, the entire exchange is brought up on The Point After blog:
“He thinks he faster than everybody,” said Maroney of Stallworth.
“What did you come and tell me this morning? About the video game?” Stallworth replied. “They had him at 91 speed.”
“Me and Madden gonna have to have a meeting,” Maroney said. “There’s no way in the world (Stallworth’s) speed should be a 97. How many 97s have there been in the league? I mean, you are slow.”
Then a reporter stepped in and proposed a race.
“Nah,” said Maroney. “I don’t want him to pull his hamstring.”
Next it was asked who is faster, Maroney rolled his eyes and added, “Man, if you go by combine times, you have go with this guy right here.”
“What was your combine time?” Stallworth asked.
“I didn’t run at the combine,” Maroney said. “I pulled a hamstring too. I’d just tell Madden to upgrade me a little bit. Get me right. At least a 95.”
“You know how many guys are 95 on that game?” Stallworth asked. “Not many.”
“And you’re one of them, huh?” Maroney said.
“I just happen to be one of them,” Stallworth said.
Naturally, that smackdown got us thinking: Which Patriots player would have the best Madden speed rating if they raced it off?
You want players to talk? Ask them about this game.
There’s some intriguing prospects. Mauroney would certainly be able to lay a claim to the title, based both on his kick return speed and his combine times after his junior year before the NFL Draft. Then there’s the wide receiver competition, which would be a burn off between Stallworth - who’s made a marquee name of himself the last three years on blazing out routes, and Randy Moss, whose legendary speed was once recorded as a 4.28 across 40 yards. That’s almost mind numbing.
And yet there’s more! Like Jabar Gaffney, who can light up defenses across the middle or along the line. With cornerbacks like Ellis Hobbs - a converted high school running back who can stick with any receiver in the league - and Asante Samuel, who may be faster than any receiver out there, there’s an entire race-off to be had between players on defensive side of the ball in itself.
So who’s the winner? That’s too close to call without watching the races themselves. But at the moment, here’s how we’d seed the preliminaries, with a final title race between the offensive and defensive winners:
On O: 1) Moss, 2) Stallworth, 3) Mauroney, 4) Gaffney, 5) Chad Jackson 6) Reche Caldwell, 7) Kelly Washington and 8 Sammy Morris
On D: 1) Hobbs, 2) Samuel, 3) Brandon Meriweather and 4) Dante Wesley
Naturally, the one player who’s not on that list is a significant one, a slightly less than blazing runner whose most memorable jaunt was a desperation take-off which eluded Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher.
That player? Tom Brady, of course. Let’s keep this all in perspective. Randy Moss may run a 4.28, but Tom Brady runs a 4.EVER.
