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.
Tom Brady had plenty to smile about during yesterday’s rout of the Jets.
Where do you start to dissect a win so complete that the Jets looked completely lost for much of the second half. Where do you start to analyze a game in which the Patriots absolutely and totally demolished the one team thought to have a chance to become a legitimate division rival? Who gets the credit when everything works, almost perfectly.
The first few names are obvious:
1) Tom Brady was beyond Tom Brady-good yesterday. He finished the game an astounding 22-of-28 for a whopping 297 yards. He also inaugurated his sterling new corps of receivers with TD pases to Randy Moss and Wes Welker, not to mention Ben “Dr. Watson I presume”.
2) The aforementioned Moss was absolutely outstanding, making any questions about his health or performance after a lost preseason from ankle woes downright delirious. Moss pulled down a game-high nine catches for a monstrous 183 yards - including one 51-yard bomb - and a touchdown in his best performance in seven years. Yes, seven years. Guess that whole playing with Tom Brady thing pays some dividends, huh?
3) Welker looked like a junior Troy Brown, which is precisely what he was supposed to look like when he was brought to Foxboro. The mission practically already looks accomplished with Welker.
4) The defense, down arguably its two biggest playmakers, was supposed to be ripe for the picking. Not the case. Despite missing Richard Seymour on the front line and obviously trying desperately to compensate for a group of safeties without legendary playmaker Rodney Harrison, the Pats throttled the Jets attack. New York expected to establish the run against a Seymour-less Pats front line with new weapon Thomas Jones, but instead found itself shaking its head after a performance in which the Jets gained only 60 yards on 19 carries. Not quite a dominant day on the ground.
5) The special teams, marked as a question because of preseason struggles by kicker Stephen Gostkowski and the sudden dismissal of presumed starting punter Danny Baugher, was surprisingly impressive. Chris Hanson, the veteran who replaced Baugher after the second-year punter’s assault charge led to his cutting, only had to kick the ball once. Cornerback Ellis Hobbs established himself as a special teamer to be reckoned with, taking a kick off back an NFL-record 108 yards for a touch to start the second half. And Gostkowski nailed the one chip shot field goal sent his way, while hitting all five of the extra point attempts from the hash, starting his season with perfection.
Randy Moss was beyond terrific during his first game in a Pats uni.
Now, does any of Sunday’s excellence ensure that the Pats will keep rolling next week in San Diego? Hardly. The Chargers were impressive in finding a way to win yesterday afternoon, overcoming a particularly stout defense with LaDanian Tomlinson’s versatility and a nice touch down the stretch from Philip Rivers. Add to that the lingering hard feelings from last year’s early playoff exit at the hands of New England - and the rowdy post-game celebration, more significantly - and there’s motivation and talent to knock off New England come Sunday.
But really, does anyone think that’s actually going to happen? After yesterday’s performance, a game that many may have written off as a touch pull for New England now seems to be just another matchup in a line of winnable games.
If that doesn’t have Pats fans breathing a sigh of relief, while simultaneously puffing their chests, I don’t know what will.
Can the Pats just make Jon Bon Jovi an official assistant coach already? I mean, the guy’s logging the hours and travel time from New Jersey!
It’s my life, and it’s now or never. He doesn’t want to coach forever!
That’s right, the king oflate ’80’s hair rock - and really, if you’re going to be a king, isn’t that what you want as your dominion? - hung out around Gilette Stadium again yesterday for the team’s two practice sessions. No word on whether he had his own gray hoodie stenciled with “JBJ” or a microphone to sing “Who Say’s, You Can’t Go Home?”, after which we imagine Richard Seymour would have promptly told him he was welcome to go home after all.
Look, everyone knows that Bill Belichick has attained a certain level of celebrity stardom with the success of recent seasons. Florida coach Urban Meyer and Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops? Those are no brainers, smart football coaches who are always looking to adapt, much like Billy B. Tony La Russa? Fine, they’re both World Champion coaches. Bob Knight? That tests the moral sensibilities of New England a bit, but hey, I think people can come to grips with it.
Jon Bon Jovi? Are you serious?
Here’s the thing: Yes, Bon Jovi is technically the owner of a football franchise, if you can swallow the Arena League as football. Yes, he is a noted fan and football lunatic. Yes, he has great celebrity hair.
Someone take the Pats jersey off that man. Immediately. They don’t even allow 0’s before numbers in the NFL. Come on!
But how does that make it understandable that the coach of a Boston team would constantly cavort with a New Jersey native, born, bred and, most horrifically, proud! How has this not been met with total outrage already? Where are the screams for Bon Jovi’s field passes to be revoked? Where is Myra Kraft to say that it threatens the moral fiber of the team?
More importantly, where’s my Bad Medicine CD? That thing is going out. Right now.
Some quick thoughts on today’s best stories from the local press:
According to Reiss, Adalius Thomas like how he’s fitting in. And his new team’s color scheme.
BOSTON GLOBE
He’s open to change - Mike Reiss catches up with new linebacker Adalius Thomas one week in, and finds he’s fitting in perfectly, comfortable and excited about new schemes and concepts.
Earful is an eye-opener - Reiss and Christopher Gasper combine on the Patriots notebook, leading with the bitch-out of rookie Kareem Brown by esteemed veteran Richard Seymour. Looks like No. 93 got his point across.
BOSTON HERALD
Morris in rush to help out - Jeff Horrigan takes a rare day off the Red Sox beat, and does so on a rare day (trade deadline?) to catch new running back Sammy Morris on the football field.
Cassel won’t pass on chance - Albert Breer of the MetroWest Daily News writes about backup quarterback Matt Cassel, and how he’s taking advantage of the rare days that Tom Brady takes off.
Tom Brady may be the man, but Matt Cassel’s making sure he’s heard from.
Wilson aims to be heard - Karen Guregian covers Eugene Wilson, and how the safety just wants to play like himself, whether that’s at safety or cornerback.
Watson revs up - Horrigan writes that tight end Benjamin Watson is psyched about new passing wrinkles in the ‘07 offense.
Kicking it up a little bit - Guregian writes about what it shaping up to be a serious race for the starting punter spot between youngsters Tom Malone and Danny Baugher.
PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
Cornerback James keeps his eyes, ears open - Shalize Manza-Young takes her pen and heads straight to veteran bench player Tory James. It’s an interesting piece, if a bit out of left field.
Rookie heeds advice from on high - The ProJo notebook, a combo job by Manza-Young and Kevin McNamara, also leads with Kareem Brown’s “discussions” with Seymour. Ouch. Those must have really hurt.
In the aftermath of rumors and rampant speculation, a couple huge scoops leaking out this morning:
BOSTON GLOBE
Richard will be resting up to start training camp.
Seymour on PUP list - Mike Reiss nails the big story, announcing that defensive superstar Richard Seymour will start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list with a knee injury, the second straight year he’s entered training camp hampered by a gimpy knee.
BOSTON HERALD
Belichick stands Pat - John Tomase puts together the pieces to dispel the growing urban myths that Bill Belichick could bolt Foxboro for the greener - or at least more concrete - pastures of Giants Stadium within the next two years.
Tedy’s set, Richard’s not - Tomase writes his version of the breaking PUP list story, twisting in an address of the bizarre Tedy Bruschi heart-attack scare (for the record, he didn’t have one, contrary to public rumors).
NBCSPORTS.COM
Former ProJo writer Tom E. Curran posted this piece to address the rampant Bruschi death speculation, which was spiraling throughout the New England media and - to a lesser extent - public airwaves last night. For what it’s worth, Patriot Reign has learned which Boston-area media member received the “Bruschi is dead” email. And while journalistic ethics force us to restrain from revealing who it is, we will say that his initials are B.S. (luckily for us, there are multiple Boston writers, columnists and TV personalities with those initials).
Anyway, here’s Curran’s snippit:
Bruschi Lives!
A bizarre rumor that Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi died on Monday is swirling through New England.
I’m in Atlanta and I’ve gotten four phone calls and two e-mails asking whether it was true.
Happily, it is not.
How did it get this far? Well, the answer won’t really drape the journalism industry in glory.
Apparently, an anonymous e-mail to a TV affiliate in Boston came in Monday afternoon saying that Bruschi had gone to Jesus.
Before getting confirmation from the Patriots that Bruschi was (and is) indeed alive, the rumor made its way to other media types putting them on red alert as well. This caused them to start calling every contact they could to find out if tragedy had struck Bruschi and the Patriots again. And they called two friends and so on, and so on.
The rumor mill has continued churning through the day on Tuesday.
Bruschi, who suffered a stroke after the 2004 season, has been tremendous with the media throughout his career but abhors having his privacy invaded by the media. This episode, which he is aware of, is not going to be a hit with him.
