| It’s the Circle of Life, though New Yorkers may put it
more bluntly with
“What goes around, comes around”. In the
2002 Divisional Playoff game which pitted the Raiders vs. the Patriots,
New England This launched the Patriot
Dynasty. Skip to the 2008 Super
Bowl. Justin Tuck and his cohorts on the
New York Giants defensive line effectively put an end to that dynasty
and even
call into question the existence of the so called dynasty. To be
fair, Tuck had just 2 of the 5 sacks of
Brady tonight. Strahan, Mitchell, and
Alford had the others, but this line applied constant pressure on Brady
all
night and hit him hard even when he got the ball off. I’m not
sure how this team was able to do
what 18 other teams could not do this year, that is get to Brady and
knock him
off his game. The pressure seemed to
come immediately and from all angles. I
actually felt rather sorry for Brady tonight.
He reminded me of the Burmese Soldiers who were being cut in half by a
.50 caliber machine gun in the latest Rambo movie. The defensive
MVP really was Osi Umenyiora
who turned Patriots pro bowl left tackle Matt Light into a
turnstile. Though he did not get any sacks, Umenyiora
was constantly in Brady’s face, and hitting him hard just after
releasing the
ball. One of the big differences I
noticed in this game as opposed to a regular season game is that the
referees
let the players play. There were no
ticky tack roughing the passer calls that we’re so used to seeing Brady
get. I was actually impressed by
Brady’s toughness tonight. He usually
never gets hit, so we never get to see how tough he is, but he kept on
getting
up after taking a beating. received a gift when Tom Brady had an
apparent fumble
reversed due to an obscure, still difficult to understand rule called
the tuck
rule.
It’s hard to believe Eli got the MVP. He has a way of
making some terrible throws,
then having some very good plays to make up for those. His
quarterback rating was in the 70’s, but
he made the plays when he needed to. In
my opinion, David Tyree should be going to Disney World. He made
the most spectacular catch ever in a
Super Bowl, eclipsing even Lynn Swann’s acrobatic catch in Super Bowl
10. He also scored the first Giants touchdown on
a nice grab in traffic.
| Now that their team
has lost the Super Bowl, the pain for
Patriots fans has just begun. All that
talk about this team being the greatest in the history of all sports
has just
gone out the window. They can’t even
claim to be the best team in the NFL this year.
Sure they were undefeated in the regular season, but they lost in the
biggest game of the year when they were double digit favorites.
Can this team even claim to be a
dynasty? The past dynasties: the 70’s
Steelers, 80’s 49ers, and 90’s Cowboys never lost a Super
Bowl. Though this team won 3 Super Bowls and had
an undefeated regular season, they just lost the biggest game in their
history. True, the Cowboys of the 90’s
also won only three Super Bowls, but ironically, since they never got
to a
fourth, they never lost one. This loss
tonight will loom large in the bar rooms of America
as we debate whether or not the Patriots truly are a dynasty. |
|
Next up for the Patriots is a date with the Commissioner and
the Senate Judiciary committee. In case
you haven’t heard, the whole Spygate scandal is back in the news.
Senator Arlen Specter, a big Eagles fan wants
to know why the Spygate tapes were destroyed by commissioner
Goodell.
Previously, the commissioner had stated that
he had all the tapes from the Patriots and that he was satisfied that
they did
not cheat in any Super Bowl. He then
destroyed all the tapes. Every football
fan outside of New England let out a collective “what
the f—k” when he did that. Well it turns
out that Goodell only had tapes back to 2006.
Since the Patriots last Super Bowl win was 2005, of course he didn’t
have any evidence of Patriots cheating in the Super Bowl. The
destruction of the tapes even prompted New Jersey lawyer to file a
class action lawsuit on behalf
of all Jets fans who felt they were cheated.
Because this particular lawyer had a history of filing frivolous
lawsuits, no one particularly took him seriously and expect this
lawsuit to get
thrown out. Enter Arlen Specter, ranking
republican on the Senate Judiciary committee who wants to get to the
bottom of
this. He likens the destruction of these
tapes to the CIA destroying evidence.
This will certainly ad credibility to the lawsuit. As if on cue,
a new player emerged in the
past few days. This man, Matt Walsh,
worked for the Patriots video department and has intimate knowledge of
the
workings within that department. He has
implied that he knows something which could be very harmful to the
Patriots. Both Specter and Goodell want to talk to him.
Then yesterday, it has come out that the
Patriots taped the Rams final walkthrough prior to Super Bowl
XXXVI.
This would be the proverbial “smoking gun”
that we’ve all been looking for. The
Patriots of course denying any knowledge of this tape while they
frantically
feed their shredders. As I stated in an
article earlier about this incident, Belichick will not survive it.
The Patriots will have to deal with the impending free
agency of Asante
Samuel. He is one of the top 5
cornerbacks in the league, and will command top dollar when he hits the
market. They almost certainly will lose
him. Randy Moss is the other big
question mark. He was undoubtedly the
best receiver in the regular season, but had only 7 catches in the post
season. His value to the team goes far
beyond catches though. Because of Moss,
Welker rarely sees a double team and Maroney never sees “8 in the
box”.
Can the Patriots afford such an expensive
decoy? If the Patriots do not continue
their dominating ways, will he remain the “happy” Randy Moss we’ve seen
this
season, or will he revert to his old ways, ie., playing only when he
wants to,
leaving the field before a game is over, playing at half speed when he
is not
the primary receiver. Some team with
lots of cap space will offer Moss a huge multi year contract. The
Patriots would not be able to match it,
especially since they paid big free agent money for Donte Stallworth
and may
have to renegotiate Wes Welker’s contract.
For his part, Moss has stated he loves playing with Brady, but since
he’s on the downside of his career, and his free agency value will
never be
higher, can he forgo one last huge offer from another team?
As long as the Patriots have Brady, they will be in
contention, but the Giants showed the league tonight, that Brady is
merely
mortal. The usually unflappable “Tom
Terrific” can be flapped by bringing lots pressure. No team will
make Jacksonville’s
mistake and let Brady sit back to pick the secondary apart. Brady
will see constant pressure next year,
and without Moss to heave it up to, the pressure will be much more
effective.
The Patriots did not make any friends in their quest for
perfection this year. First there were
the complaints about running up the score, and then in the playoffs,
several
Chargers complained of dirty play by the Patriots. Osi Umenyiora
then came out before the Super
Bowl and complained of a dirty play by Matt Light who he later
embarrassed in
the Big Game. The Patriots may be as
disliked by other players around the league as they are by other fans
around
the country. They will have to play next
season with even bigger targets on their backs, but this time, their
veneer of
invincibility will be gone. In addition,
their defense will be a year older. The
linebackers who are the heart of this defense, are by far the oldest in
the
league. Seau will be 40 (probably will
retire)! Linebacker is the most
physically demanding position of the field.
Intelligence and guile will only get them so far. They need to
make plays and their bodies will
eventually give in. Vrabel had the best
season of his career, and is unlikely to repeat it. Help will
come in the draft where they have San Francisco’s seventh pick, but
it’s unlikely they will
be able to draft an impact defensive player, even with that pick.
Keep your heads up Boston Fans. Spring training is
right around the corner,
and there should be a lot of 19-0 T- shirts available on Ebay.
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