Entries Tagged 'Bill Belichick' ↓

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.

– Cameron Smith, Globe, Herald photos

OK, the game’s not quite in the books yet, but both third-string quarterback Matt Guttierez and 86th-string running back Kyle Eckel are both on the field at the same time, which as far as we can tell is the visual equivalent of taking a knee. So we’re calling it at 52-7.

Tedy Bruschi cast a Halloweenish figure on the field yesterday in another Pats whitewash.

Now, 52-7 is the biggest rout yet. Against the team that was supposed to put up the second-toughest test yet. Does that mean the Patriots are getting better? Quite possibly.

No matter what it does, it shows that they’re getting more diverse. Randy Moss only caught two passes, but the Pats rolled. Tom Brady threw three touchdowns, again, and ran for two. With the Redskins clearly keying on Moss, Laurence Maroney looked terrific.

Then there was the defense, which didn’t allow points until the game was well out of hand, already up 52-0. Tedy Bruschi forced three, count them, three, fumbles (Editor’s note: It was actually Mike Vrabel who forced all three fumbles, not Bruschi as alleged here, with an assist to an alert commenter for pointing it out). Rosevelt Colvin returned one for a touchdown. And the entire time, Bill Belichick stood on the sideline looking slightly smug and unfulfilled, which is the exact thing that will keep the team moving forward.

For what it’s worth, not that it matters at all - period - in the win-loss column, here’s the final heat-check board:

Tom Brady: 29-for-38, 356 yards passing, 3 TD’s through the air, 2 rushing TD’s

Wes Welker: 9 receptions, 89 yards, 1 TD

Randy Moss: 3 receptions, 47 yards, 1 TD

Donte’ Stallworth: 4 receptions, 44 yards

Jabar Gaffney (remember him!): 4 receptions, 39 yards

Laurence Maroney: 14 carries, 75 yards, 2 receptions, 37 yards

At a certain point, even video game offenses get completely out of hand. And when you consider the fact that New England backup Matt Cassel was nearly as effective as the Washington offense was all day, if not more so, this qualifies as one of those games.

After all, the final score is all you need to see to know how ridiculous it was.

– Cameron Smith

Ummm, 38-0? How about we just forget that post we had that runs a few below here, huh?

Fittingly for a Bill Belichick-coached team, it was a defensive touchdown that put New England over the top, none other than linebacker Roosevelt Colvin returning the third fumble forced by Tedy Bruschi today alone, and taking it to the house. The camera panned over to Washington quarterback Jason Campbell as he walked off the field and he looked positively stunned.

For what it’s worth, if the Redskins were worried about being burned by Moss, they’ve avoided that. The speedy and elusive wideout has only two catches entering the fourth quarter. Instead, it’s been everyone else, almost literally. While the Patriots find themselves running out of people on the roster to throw to, Washington is getting the look of a dazed puppy.

Here’s the quarter’s scoring rundown, and you’ll see what I mean:

Another Brady run in the red zone for a score, this one from two yards: 31-0.

Colvin’s 11-yard return: 38-0.

Translation? Ouch. And the best part, for New England fans, is this: It’s hard to bet that there isn’t more coming.

– Cameron Smith

Go ahead, take the 16 1/2 points. We dare you.

Make no mistake, this Washington Redskins team isn’t exactly a collection of world beaters. They’ve struggled to score points throughout the season. They watched leads against the Giants and Packers evaporate into thin air in both of their losses. They boast a cool, collected quarterback whose young enough to get ID’ed in most states.

Adalius Thomas and the Pats defense may have a lot to say about just how confused Jason Taylor is on Sunday, and ergo, how close the Redskins actually get.

But despite those problems, this Redskins team is not as bad as many, likely including most fans in New England, think they are. They have a dominant defense, a pair of wideouts as good as almost any in the league and coaches who won’t be afraid to bring all out blitzes with so little expected of them.

Believe it or not, Redskins running back Clinton Portis wasn’t completely out of line when he said Washington had the most talent of any team in the league. Well, he was out of line, but maybe not by as much as most people think he is. The Redskins have compiled more speedy playmakers on defense than any team outside of Baltimore, their closest regional rival. And who captains that group? None other than London Fletcher-Baker, former extraordinary New England enemy via Buffalo. They have Portis, a back whose been kept under wraps by injuries and inefficiency early this year, but who has the power and speed to break open nearly any game. They have Antwaan Randle El, a wide receiver who poses a versatile threat for a possession grab or deep route over the middle.

Despite all of Washington’s speed and hitting prowess, the Redskins should still struggle to control Tom Brady’s trio of top notch receivers; Randy Moss, Donte’ Stallworth and Wes Welker. And there’s little doubt that budding quarterback Jason Campbell will havce a hard time reading the defenses designed by Bill Belichick and executed by Tedy Bruschi, Adalius Thomas and co.

In the end, make no mistake, this should be a New England win. It’s just possible that Campbell may find Randle El and Santana Moss for a few more deep balls than people expect, and Brady may find more opposition in front of his receivers than he’s used to.

And that just may make this game a lot more competitive than a lot of people think it’s going to be, a trend that might even be in New England’s best interest right about now.

– Cameron Smith, AP Photo

OK, so things devolved for the Pats there a bit in the fourth quarter. We get it. But we’re not willing to say that it took anything away from what was a truly ridiculous whitewash in Miami this afternoon.

Even Kyle Brady got in on the routing act in Miami.

Just look at the final numbers:

- Tom Brady finished 21 of 25 for - get this - 354 yards and 6 TDs. Six! It’s almost preposterous.

- Randy Moss had two more touchdown catches, both on pseudo jump balls where he out-battled defensive backs. One was from 50 yards. That’s almost not fair.

- Wes Welker actually led the receiving corps, catching 9 balls for a whopping 138 yards and 2 TDs of his own. It seems fair to say he’s hit his stride.

- Donte’ Stallworth had a touchdown on three catches, but set the tone with his early grab and juke to the end zone.

- Kyle Brady caught a touchdown pass for the second straight week after not getting one in years. Coincidence? We think not.

- Miami scored 28 points, but only 14 were truly given up by the starting defense, which spent an awful lot of time on the field because the Pats offense was so efficient.

Oh, and in case you forgot, there was an excellent fourth quarter exclamation mark: Brady’s second TD toss to Welker. The score came after Bill Belichick had already pulled Brady for backup Matt Cassel, but Cassel threw a pick which was returned to the house by longtime Pats nemesis Jason Taylor. It temporarily pulled the Dolphins within 21, not that it would last. Billy B brought Brady back in, the quarterback led another quick touchdown drive and the Miami crowd tried to figure out how to absorb yet another stomach punch.

That’s exactly what you wanted if you’re a New England fan: Lots of stomach punches for Miami. Sunday afternoon you got them. In a bundle.

– Cameron Smith, AP Photo

Sure, the Dolphins are 0-6. Their designated starting quarterback, veteran Trent Green, is officially done for the year after yet another head-scrambling concussion. So how can Miami possibly expect to compete with undefeated New England Sunday?

Tom Brady is a cover boy again. Surprised? Neither are the Dolphins.

They can’t. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try.

Just look at past experience. No defense gets under Tom Brady’s skin more than Miami’s. They spoiled the team’s glory run down the stretch in 2005. They knocked Tommy boy around like a rag doll last year, to the point that it was the Pats who were hardly even competitive. Even Bill Belichick was scratching his head over his team’s struggles with the perennially lowly ‘Fins after the debacle in Miami last year.

Add unseasonable heat - in all seasons - to the equation, and you’ve got a sudden set of question marks that just make things a bigger question.

That being said, New England clearly should dominate this game exactly as they have all six others they’ve played this year. They’ll have a distinct advantage on all defensive sets, using experience linebackers again up-and-coming runner Ronnie Brown and a struggling Miami offensive line. They should be able to frustrate fill-in quarterback Cleo Lemon, a signal caller who is bound to get pasted by Miami fans who are still clamoring for Cleveland rookie Brady Quinn (you’ll remember his awkward departure from the green room in last spring’s NFL draft after being passed over by Miami … for receiver Ted Ginn. Now Cleveland doesn’t need him and Miami has no one to throw the ball. Interesting how that one is working out, isn’t it?). That matchup could get awful ugly.

Then there’s the New England offense, which currently looks unstoppable. Miami is sure to blitz the hell out of New England, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be as effective as it has in the past, when defensive end Jason Taylor and linebacker Zach Thomas have spent so much time in Brady’s face mask that he’s smelled their breath for a week. This year the Patriot offensive line has improved from sturdy to dominant. And Brady suddenly has former Dolphin Wes Welker, the ultimate receiving safety valve when the blitz comes hard.

Of course, none of this ensures that any of these things will happen. And whenever a team looks like it has a whitewashing level of dominance entering a game, something usually slips.

That may happen again Sunday, but this year it’s incredibly unlikely that enough will slip to make a difference. Or so it seems.

– Cameron Smith

How good are the Patriots? Good enough that media outlets far and wide, well beyond the normal scope of Pats-centric coverage in New England, are weighing in on Brady’s bunch and their chance of running the table. As each week goes on without a New England loss, it’s likely that the attention will only increase. Or at least continue.

Randy Moss is happy and winning, so everyone just hold your breath.

So, with that we’ll clue in to more than just the usual suspects, if you will. Still, that’s always a good place to start:

BOSTON GLOBE

QB receives more support this season — Bob Ryan drops a doozie on paper, talking about, fairly predictably, the sudden explosion of the Pats passing attack. Another nice effort from the city’s best columnist. No surprise there.

Moss has praise for Belichick — The Globe’s go-to guys on the Pats beat, Mike Reiss and Chris Gasper, come through with a strong piece about the respect Randy Moss has for his new coach, a revelation which only became more striking after Terrell Owens’ comments regarding Wade Phillips later in the week.

Stallworth’s love of music is no bum rap — Donte’ Stallworth is finally synching up with the emerging New England offense, and Gasper ties together his love of catching footballs and rap music. A nice feature on an underrated performer thus far.

BOSTON HERALD

Moss loves his new job — Can you tell that Karen Guregian is starting to get really comfortable with the Pats beat? The one-time Herald columnist nails a feature about Moss, tying his quotes and performance in with that of another Beantown favorite: Manny Ramirez.

Pats still in running — Guregian writes a nifty slide piece about how the team has prospered despite a sudden rash of injuries to runners, and how they’ll try to keep winning regardless.

Motivation not hard to find — Jeff Horrigan takes a turn writing a Pats feature, weighing in on Bill Belichick’s ability to motivate his team, even against a winless foe.

WASHINGTON POST

Pats poised to be perfect — Veteran columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon jumps on the undefeated bandwagon, coming to the conclusion that the Pats are just too good to be stopped after watching the Dallas dismantling in person.

Pats may be scary good, but running the table is out of the question — Meanwhile, fellow Post columnist Leonard Shapiro says that as good as New England may be, there’s no way they’re running the table.

As major writers across the country are starting to realize, Dr. Watson is just another one of Tom Brady’s arsenal of targets.

LA TIMES

A year to revere for Patriots - Sam Farmer weighs in on the team’s early dominance and Tom Brady’s continued surge while watching from the left coast.

– Cameron Smith, Herald and Globe photos

Who knew Wes Welker, the Tom Brady-annointed labrador of Patriot receivers, had such a big wow factor.

Wes Welker’s feet hardly touched the ground Sunday.

Not only did Welker carve up the Dallas secondary for two touchdowns Sunday, he also pulled down a stunning 11 catches for 124 yards, both career highs to go with his first two-touchdown, single-game effort. While Randy Moss fought off double teams to pull down New England’s first touchdown (two more later scores went by the wayside due to penalty calls), Welker made the Cowboys pay for leaving themselves exposed over the middle to crossing routes from the slot position.

It was exactly the type of performance Bill Belichick and his coaching staff envisioned out of the Texas Tech grad when they signed him away from the divison-rival Dolphins in the offseason. While Moss stretched the field and Donte’ Stallworth provided a dash of pizazz on the flank with screen passes and bump-off deep routes, Welker served as Brady’s security blanket, a younger and faster incarnation of the role played by PUP-listed veteran Troy Brown for ages.

In fact, the Pats got even more than that out of their slot receiver. Welker also returned kickoffs on Sunday, tag-teaming with regular return man Ellis Hobbs to give the Pats special teams unit even more oomph. By game’s end, the veteran had two returns for 55 yards, his best returning performance of the year and a mark that gave Belichick plenty to reflect positively on.

Of course, Hobbs remains the return unit’s biggest star, a credential punctuated by his 108-yard touchdown return against the Jets in the season opener. Hobbs now leads the team with a return average near 30 yards on a total of 15 bring backs.

But, according to Christopher Gasper of the Globe, that doesn’t mean that Belichick won’t keep using Welker to bring back kicks, something former Billy B colleague Nick Saban - now of the Alabama Crimson Tide, of course - did with Welker to the tune of 3,858 yards in past seasons.

The question becomes whether the returning duties will slow down Welker’s otherworldly productivity on out routes. That’s a good question in itself, but it doesn’t seem to be worrying Belichick or Brady, as you can tell from their quotes in Gasper’s article.

And after his performance Sunday in Dallas, there doesn’t seem to be much reason why it should worry anyone else, either.

– Cameron Smith, AP photo

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.

– Cameron Smith

Maybe he just needed to throw an interception to get his blood boiling. Who knows. What we do know is that Tom Brady’s second-quarter pick was a truly bad decision. And it led to a Cincinnati touchdown that momentarily brought the Bengals back into the game, pulling them to 10-7.

Of course, as alluded to, it was a momentary shift in momentum. The very next drive, New England drove down the field behind sudden star running back Sammy Morris, crammed the ball down the Bengals’ collective throat, then finished it off with one of the most magical touchdown receptions Patriots fans have seen in a long time.

On the pass to Randy Moss - which, incidentally, was Brady’s second TD toss of the game - Moss not only goes up and catches a ball while off balance yet still gracefully drags his feet in bounds, he does it while pulling the ball away from a defender! Seriously, it’s not like Moss was uncovered or anything. Rather, he had one defensive back (We think it was Deltha O’Neal) draped all over him, with another in pursuit. Yet he still brought in the pass for a score that not only re-established New England’s drive toward a win, it also served as a first-half gut punch to the Bengals.

For what it’s worth, here’s your first-half Brady and Moss stats, proving just why they’ve led to so many one-sided fantasy wins this season: Brady is 13 for 18 with 2 TD’s and 105 yards, though he did toss the one pick. Moss, meanwhile, is a perfect 3 for 3, for 30 yards and a touchdown. Wes Welker, meanwhile, has already pulled in three balls for 22 yards while swing back Kevin Faulk leads the receiving department with 31 yards on two grabs.

Then there’s the almost shocking success of Sammy Morris, who has 98 yards on 13 carries for an impressive 7.5 yards-per-carry average. The guy’s going to break the century mark on his first couple carries of the second half, and is looking like a completely viable alternative to Laurence Maroney should the second-year scat back miss any more time.

Does any of this mean that the rolling success will continue in the second half? Not necessarily. Marvin Lewis is a pretty strong coach when it comes to adjustments. Then again, so is Bill Belichick.

Smart money’s sticking with the Pats people. Better play it safe.

– Cameron Smith