SB Nation - Chris Hanson

Game Recap: Colts defeat Patriots, 35-34

MaPatsFan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:07:57 -0000

More photos » by Elise Amendola - AP

about 1 month ago: New England Patriots NFL football head coach Bill Belichick speaks at a news conference in Foxborough, Mass. Monday, Nov. 16, 2009, in the aftermath of Sunday's 35-34 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

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I am stunned, but not surprised. I am stunned because as our biggest rival in the AFC, a win would've meant a lot: a chance to go 2-4 against Indy, a better face-to-face record for potential home field advantage (if tie breakers come into play), seeding... you name it. Most of all, I simply wanted to beat Indy. And for a large portion of the game, New England had the upper hand.

I am not surprised because the Colts are that good. When the Patriots get up on a team with as wide a margin as they had, it's usually lights out. Rivals simply can't recover and usually get stymied in all three phases of the game. Not so with the Colts, especially Peyton Manning. I remember thinking to myself that Manning just wasn't clicking with his receivers Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, and Austin Collie. If he DID begin clicking, it would create problems.

For most of the first half, Tom Brady appeared to be firing on all cylinders and doing an excellent job of finding the weak spots in the Indy defense. As I discussed in my game preview, picking on the young, inexperienced Indy secondary was one of the keys to success and Brady did a good job of that. With the half coming to a close, Brady had managed 24 points and our defense held Peyton Manning and crew to 14, an admirable task. I remember thinking, "This is cool. We seem to have control of the game, but it ain't over until it's over." Boy, was I right.

The third quarter remained scoreless which was ok in my book; maintaining a 10 point lead against Indy for 15 minutes is a VERY good thing. Then, as if to guarantee the win, Wes Welker broke loose for a 69 yard punt return to the Indy 7 yard line. A 2 yard pass to Kevin Faulk was followed by a beautiful leaping grab by Randy Moss for a 5 yard TD. Brady put the ball where the 6-4 Moss could catch it and no one else. 31-14 - a 3 score lead with 14:23 left in the 4^th quarter. As if in response, the Indy offense drove down the field with 5 plays in 2:04 minutes to reduce the lead to 10. I remember thinking, "Uh oh." The Patriots, working off of a Jonathan Wilhite interception, marched back down the field, only to settle for a Stephen Gostkowski field goal; 34-21.

Some call it momentum, but I call it pacing. NE seems to have a methodical, calculated approach to pacing a game - much like our head coach is perceived to be. After teams are lulled into this pacing, we switch it up. The Colts' hurry up offense is a major weapon in their arsenal and one that appears to win games on a regular basis. It's built for sprinting down the field and sets a frenetic pace that defenses have a hard time adjusting to. The result is a defense that can't work in substitutions, causing them to get gassed, especially the large defensive linemen.

In yet another sprint, the Colts scored on a 6 play, 1:49 minute drive; 34-28. A really big, "UH OH!!" NE would get the ball on their 20 after a McAfee touchback and before the drive even started, Brady burned timeout #2. Kevin Faulk went up the middle for no gain. Timeout #3. Then, Brady went to his old standby, Wes Welker, for an 8 yarder up the middle, putting us at third down and 2. Another pass to Welker was broken up by Powers, leaving us with fourth and 2. Decision time.

We've discussed the odds ad nauseam on this site. From a statistical perspective, going for it was the right thing to do. And Belichick trusted his offense to convert. Knee the ball 3 times, punt away, and Manning has almost no time to score. That was Bill's calculated risk. There's more. Belichick won't say this, but his defense was exhausted and he probably felt the offenses' chances of converting that fourth and 2 were better than the defense's chances of sustaining another Peyton Manning drive, even if a Chris Hanson punt would've planted Indy at their 30 or so. After all, the Indy offense had just demonstrated how they can score with a pair of 2 minute sprints. Hindsight is 20/20 and we now know Belichick's calculated risk more than likely lost the game. We all know what happened next. Handing the ball to a Manning lead offense on your own 29 is most likely suicide. And it was.

1 single play, player, or coaching decision does not win or lose a game; I have never subscribed to that theory because it ignores the hundreds of plays and decisions that lead up to it. But there are some that are certainly memorable.

To correct a misconception, the Laurence Maroney fumble would not have been the difference maker in the game. Horrid to see, but Indy did nothing with that gift, punted away to Welker for a 69 yard return, and a 5 yard TD pass to Moss followed. The most a LoMo TD could've accomplished was to keep 2 minutes on the clock.
The 31 yard PI against Darius Butler with 3:03 left in the fourth was questionable, but Austin Collie made a veteran play by recognizing he didn't have the ball and slowing down, allowing Butler to collide with him and giving the refs the impression Butler impeded his progress.
A questionable timeout to start NE's last drive. We may never know what the reasoning was, but Brady felt he needed it.
Not converting with 4:17 left in the fourth, forcing a field goal. RedZone efficiency (or lack thereof) strikes again.

There are a number of positives from last night:

The rust appears to have worn off. Brady and his receivers are connecting well and didn't seem to make any mental errors like we saw in the beginning of the season.
Sebastian Vollmer is a beast. Any rookie who can take on Dwight Freeney and be relatively successful is ok in my book. He's made a case for a starting position at left tackle while Matt Light should be moved to right tackle and Nick Kaczur benched; Colts DE Robert Mathis abused Kaczur, allowing too much pressure on Brady.
The return of Julian Edelman was good to see. The more receivers we have, the more opponents have to worry about. Spreading the field is a good thing.
This game was so close, it came down to a yard. If we can do that against Indy, just think what we can accomplish against the rest of the NFL.

That's all I can stomach for now. I'd like to send a shoutout to the Stampede Blue crowd for a fun week of cross blogging leading up to this matchup. We had many well mannered and thoughtful exchanges which is what it's all about for me.

New England Patriots 53 man roster - some thoughts

MaPatsFan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:04:36 -0000

by Stephan Savoia - AP

7 months ago: New England Patriots head football coach Bill Belichick looks over his rookies during football minicamp at the team's practice facility in Foxborough, Mass., Friday morning, May 1, 2009 (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

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We stay with 2 QB's, LB is a bit weak, TE will be a position to watch, OL is stacked on the interior...let's break it down position by position (props to NESilver for his comment in this thread)

Offense: 25

QB: Tom Brady, Brian Hoyer (2) - Odd we keep only 2, but that could change when the season starts.
RB: Laurence Maroney, Fred Taylor, Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk, BenJarvus Green-Ellis (5) - Solid group.
WR: Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Joey Galloway, Greg Lewis, Saim Aiken, Julian Edelman (6) - Break out the air raid sirens. Edelman looked like "Little Welker".
TE: Benjamin Watson, Chris Baker, Michael Matthews (3) - Like this group, Matthews is a big man which must mean "blocking TE". Baker has good hands which we haven't seen in NE TE's for a long time.
OL: Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Dan Koppen, Stephen Neal, Nick Kaczur, Sebastian Vollmer, Rich Ohrnberger, Dan Connolly, Ryan Wendell (9) - Deep on the interior, Vollmer is the next stud.

Defense: 25

DL: Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Jarvis Green, Ron Brace, Mike Wright, Myron Pryor (7) - Liking the depth, glad to see Pryor make the roster
DE/OLB: Derrick Burgess, Tully Banta-Cain (2) - Can you say, "4-3?" I knew you could. Here comes the pass rush.
LB: Adalius Thomas, Jerod Mayo, Gary Guyton, Pierre Woods, Eric Alexander, Rob Ninkovich (6) - Might be considered a little thin, possibly why NE is experimenting with a 4-3.
CB: Leigh Bodden, Shawn Springs, Jonathan Wilhite, Darius Butler, Terrence Wheatley (5) - Wheatley barely hung on to his spot. I hope a "shutdown corner" emerges.
S: Brandon Meriweather, James Sanders, Patrick Chung, Brandon McGowan, Matthew Slater (5) - Good group, although Slater will, most likely, be IR'd.

Specialists: 3

K: Stephen Gostkowski - What can I say? One of the best kickers in the league. A machine through the uprights and consistently boots kickoffs into the endzone.
P: Chris Hanson - Game changer. Massive hangtime and very good accuracy.
LS: Jake Ingram - Many laughed when Hoodie drafted Ingram. The rookie wins the long snapper battle.

Injured Reserve

OLB: Shawn Crable - Depressing. The dude can't catch a break.
RB: Chris Taylor
OL: George Bussey - Adds depth for next year.
LB: Tyrone McKenzie - Looking forward to seeing him inside for 2010.

Poll

What do you think of the roster?

Lovin' it!

524 votes

Too early to tell.

722 votes

Hate it.

66 votes

1312 votes | Poll has closed

New England Patriots Training Camp, Day 4 - MaPatsFan makes the trek

MaPatsFan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:41:23 -0000

Training Camp - Moss

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48.9 miles North of Gillette Stadium, I rustled the family out of bed for the trip to Mecca, Gillette Stadium. We hit the road around 7:30am, a refueling stop at Dunkin Donuts (refueling for us, not the car), and started south. 495S, 3S, 95S, Exit 9 to Route 1 towards Wrentham/Foxboro. Yeah, this North Shore boy was in unfamiliar territory. No, it's not my first trip to Gillette. It is, in fact, my fourth. The South Shore just ain't right. Sorry Marima, but I know you feel the same way about the North Shore. ;-)

I was surprised at how easy a drive it was and how very easy parking turned out to be. You see, every time I go to Gillette, I expect ridiculous traffic and insane parking problems. I know this was training camp and should only expect about 2,000 of the faithful, but in the back of my brain, I still thought it was going to be a nightmare. Not so. Signage was plentiful and easy to follow with very helpful parking attendants waving you into spaces.

We got there at approximately 8:30am, and after a short walk to the training field entrance, were greeted with a line about 200 deep. Around 9:00am, they allowed folks in and the line moved extremely fast. Grandstand seating is provided near the field closest to the Dan Farber indoor practice area (check out this map for more details). A word about seating: the higher rows will provide a better view, but will make it difficult to get an autograph when selected players come up to the grandstand area. My best advice is to know your priorities upfront: great view, sit further back; autograph, sit closer to the front.

The whole event had the air of a High School game. I don't mean to say it was High School level play - FAR from it. The grandstands, the free admission, able to take pictures, it just "felt" that way. It just made the whole experience fun and easy to deal with. This is especially important if you choose to bring your kids (which I highly recommend - I'll explain later); we had a total of five ranging from 10 to 20. Ok, enough about the "experience"; let's get down to brass tacks. Here's a few things I observed:

Tom Brady - Wonderboy looked VERY good. Running, doing drills, dropping back to pass. I didn't see any range-of-motion issues whatsoever. From bombs, to quick passes, to checkdowns, there didn't seem to be any problems.
Randy Moss - He's ridiculously talented. I've said for a long time that when you put the ball where only Randy can catch, only Randy will catch and I got to see that up close and personal. I recalled a few passes where Moss was one-on-one with a DB (Terrence Wheatley is one pass that comes to mind) and Brady put it sky high. Moss turned, jumped, fuhgetaboudit. Wheatley didn't stand a chance.
Wes Welker - Wes is a freak of nature. He catches just about everything thrown his way. As long as he can put a hand on it, he's pulling it down. After the catch is where the real magic starts to happen. On one play, he was juking and jiving. He made a small hop in the air as if to decide where to go, and hits the ground going 90 degrees left. The defensive back was a bit stunned, to say the least.
Laurence Maroney - Maroney not only looks strong, but fast. He made a few "Wes Welker" cuts that had linebackers scratching their helmets. I'm really happy for him and hope this is a sign of good things to come.
Cornerbacks - Leigh Bodden looked good, very good. At one point, he was covering Greg Lewis and just smothered him, causing an incompletion. I'm really excited about him.
Kick Return - Chris Hanson knows how to kick the ball to make it insanely hard to catch. When it leaves his foot, it turns into a spiral with one end facing the sky and the other facing the ground. It then drops straight down, making it very hard to grab. In fact, Greg Lewis dropped one right in his hands. An interesting note: Wes Welker worked on kick returns for a long time. He didn't drop one. I suspect we'll see more of Wes in this capacity.
Bill Belichick - Coach chats with a lot of guys as their stretching. He looks around a lot and when something catches his eye, he's all hands on, becoming a position coach. Then he's off to the next thing.

A few words about autographs. Only select players approach the grandstands. My guess is this is rotated so it's never the same set of players. This morning, it was Brandon Meriweather, Mike Richardson, and Herana-Daze Jones. Bring a sharpie and whatever it is you want signed. Training camp rosters are handed out to the fans and make good autograph material if you don't have anything else to sign. Training camp is broken up into 9 "periods" of different lengths. I believe it was the end of period 9 when all the players came to the center of the playing field for some final words. That's when the mad rush to the ropes takes place; be ready for it. Kids get stuff signed easier than adults.

Those are some of my thoughts as best as I can recall. There's a lot going on and a lot to soak in. The media has a much better vantage point, their grandstand at one end, dead center. No wonder why Mike Reiss gives you better notes than me. ;-)

Game Review: Patriots defeat 49ers, 30-21

MaPatsFan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:23:40 -0000

In what can only be described as a mediocre showing overall, the New England Patriots were able to pull this one off. I guess a W is a W, but I was hoping to see a number of things fixed after having 2 weeks to do so. That being said, I do believe Cassel looked far better in this game than against Miami. He was scrambling at times (more on that later), but he seemed to be making good receiver choices (if you discount not seeing Moss uncovered in the end zone). At any rate, let's get into it.

Offense

Cassel and Receivers - The bye week seems to have done Matt and the receiver corps some good. The 66 yarder to Moss was a thing of beauty, something you'd see wonderboy throw. Matt and the WRs went 22 for 32 with 2 interceptions throwing up 233 yards in the process - not bad. Matt seems to be making better decisions and picking his receivers well. That one bomb to Moss that turned into an interception was underthrown, but I'll give him that if it's all part of developing a long ball with The Real (Talented) #81. Welker quietly puts up 8 for 73 while Gaffney does 3 for 35 very important grabs.
Running game - Only putting up 144 yards rushing, the running backs were having a tough time with 43 rushing plays and a paltry 3.3 yard average. Maroney was a disappointment with 10 touches and only 26 yards while Sammy Morris managed 16 touches and 63 yards. Kevin Faulk went 7 for 32, but had the only 2 TDs for the running backs. He was "Mr. Big Play" when the Pats needed it. Jordan balanced Morris' precision with steamroller efficiency.
Offensive Line - A better defense would've ground Cassel into the turf. JHR has a better analysis in the postgame thread, but they have got to stop letting LBs and DBs into the backfield. In addition, they're allowing defensed to jam the line and force RBs to work harder. Maroney is bouncing off the line looking for holes; I can't blame that totally on him and gotta spread some of the demerits to the O line.

Defense

Speed Package - According to the Boston Globe's Mike Reiss, the Patriots are sometimes employing a "speed package" which utilizes 1 DL, 4 LBs and 6 DBs. I'll have to keep my eye out for this one.
Third Down Conversions - Holding the 49ers to a 1 for 9 third down conversion efficiency, the defense was able to keep the Patriots' offense on the field for 40 minutes vs. the 49ers 20 minutes. I always harp on this as a difference maker; In my mind, third down efficiency is the mark of a good offense and keeping low, the mark of a good defense.
Defensive Backs - Both Rodney Harrison and Brandon Meriweather managed 1 big interception apiece, but the DBs seemed perplexed by the 49ers WR, Isaac Bruce. Bruce came up with 2 TDs.
Frank Gore - I said in my game preview that the Patriots had to contain Gore and they couldn't manage it, giving him 12 touches for 54 yards. This is a D-line/linebacker issue. They need to jam the line and plug up those holes or guys like Gore with chew them up.

Special Teams

Stephen Gostkowski continues to absolutely spank the ball on kickoffs, putting the ball in the endzone with 3 touchbacks. His 35 and 40 yard field goals were money.
While G-Man is doing great, punter Chris Hanson continues to infuriate me. A 25 yard out-of-bounder and a touchback are just not cool and situations like this. His accuracy needs to improve or Belichick will be exercising more kickers.
Ellis Hobbs continues to show he's one of the most solid and dangerous return men in the game. He may not be a top 5 CB, but let's see Asante Samuel average 28 yards per return with a long of 35. Way to go Ellis.