Entries Tagged 'Editorials' ↓

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.

– Cameron Smith

Sometimes there are seminal victories in a campaign, wins that validate a team’s status and potential.

Randy Moss has been absolutely unstoppable for the Pats. Don’t expect it to stop soon, either.

Last night’s 38-14 victory over the Chargers was definitely one of those wins for the Patriots.

Seriously, did anyone see that coming? There were plenty of detractors who had inked San Diego up as one of New England’s scattered losses. There was the LaDanian Tomlinson revenge factor. There was the loss in last year’s playoffs. There was the possibility of offensive improvement with “offensive genius” Norv Turner calling the shots. There was all the distraction from Belichick-gate last week.

Of course, none of that actually mattered, because there was also Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Tedy Bruschi. And that quartet was more than enough.

Can anyone remember a wide receiver corp as versatile or dangerous as the one the Pats are rolling out there right now? It’s truly ridiculous. Donte Stallworth, one of the top wide outs in the league for Philadelphia last year, has hardly even been mentioned. Instead, it’s been the Redemption Story of Moss and the incredible emerge of Welker, who looks even better than he did in Miami. If that’s possible. Can you have a white wide receiver with mediocre speed as an All-Pro pick? We may find out.

Then there’s the defense, which is still missing Richard Seymour, yet is playing as if they don’t even realize it. Instead, the team’s linebackers have absolutely dominated, flying all over the field for tackles, turnovers and game-changing hits.

Ohh, so Tom really is happier when he has nasty receivers to throw to. Hmmm, why didn’t they do this earlier?

How good have the Pats been on both sides of the ball? Good enough that Tedy was barking after last night’s win, challenging any detractors to build back the team they had during the Patriots’ run and play New England. Bruchi is taking the Pats every time, so long as they’re coached by Yoda in a hoodie.

You know what? I think all of the rest of us would, too.

– Cameron Smith

As the Belichick furor starts to dim a bit - you can tell from the general press headlines shifting from caustic analysis to jocular matter-of-factness - its time to move on to the last Belichick controversy.

That, of course, would be the brief feud he had last year with San Diego’s do-everything superstar LaDanian Tomlinson. It was quick, snippy, expressive of a legitimate vendetta and, after last week’s Spy Kids episode, a moment that suddenly has new legs.

What happened to all the talk about the last Belichick controversy?

It wouldn’t necessarily have to have new legs, but it does because Tomlinson is, well, Tomlinson. Amidst the drive to dig up any news about the sketchy video techniques used by Billy B and his CCCP cronies, one prominent media member thought to call Tomlinson and get his take on his upcoming opponent.

Naturally, Tomlinson was more than happy to oblige.

“I think the Patriots actually live by the saying, ‘If you’re not treating, you’re not trying,’ ” a chucking Tomlinson said Monday. “They live off that statement. Nothing surprises me really.

“You keep hearing the different stories about stuff that they do.”

You keep hearing the different stories about stuff they do? Really? We hadn’t heard that. Certainly, the acquisition of Randy Moss in the offseason might be a bit of a smudge on the old sterling franchise reputation, but it hardly brands the Pats as a football Lazarus.

Neither does a spying scandal, despite what a number of columnists at papers local and of a much broader scope might tell you. The Pats aren’t the only team spying, they’re just the only team stupid and/or brash enough to spy at the same place they’ve already been caught. And to do it with the same guy - Matt Estrella - who was caught the last time.

The fact that spying happens all the time in the NFL is anything but a secret. It’s also anything but a secret that San Diego will use Tomlinson as a triple-threat - in case you forgot, he threw for a touchdown last week - and that Tomlinson wants to pound the Pats. Badly.

That’s where defensive leaders like Tedy Bruschi come in. The big beer man has far too much pride to be run over by a running back, no matter how shifty he is. And with the linebacker corps actually healthy for a chance, Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, former Charger Junior Seau and co. should be more than ready and willing to frustrate San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers.

Then again, shouldn’t we be talking about Seau’s own hopes of vengeance/repentance here? Shouldn’t Junior be getting some ink, with reporters comparing and contrasting his quest to Tomlinson’s? Isn’t that a great storyline?

Not with the Spy Kids around. Which means we can all forget about hearing any of it, at least until the teams meet again the playoffs.

– Cameron Smith