New England’s Defense is New Star of Show

Somewhere between Tom Brady’s record-setting performances and game-winning touchdown passes, New England’s defense has disappeared from the radar. With all the hype surrounding the unstoppable offense over the past few seasons, everyone has simply forgotten the Patriots even had a defensive team. Until last weekend, that is. Between Richard Seymour, Adalius Thomas, Ellis Hobbs and Brandon Meriweather, the mighty New England defense abused Brett Favre and the Jets in Sunday’s game against the New York team, putting the Pats’ defensive team back in the game and on the scene.

According to a poll by the Boston Herald, the New England defense was the team’s most valuable player of Sunday’s game, taking 65% of the votes. This quiet defense stepped up and struck hard in the wake of Brady’s absence, allowing just 20 points in the team’s last two games (a season low since coach Bill Belichick hopped on board in 2000.) Protecting the Patriots’ soft offensive grounds for now, Richard Seymor and Co. stopped Favre and his offense from getting much of anything done, holding the Jets to 256 yards while sacking Favre twice.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 16, 2008 - Post a comment

Pats Start Season 2-0

Tom who? The hype surrounding Brady’s injury last week faded away at the Meadowlands yesterday as Matt Cassel stepped in for the lead quarterback, helping to hand the Jets their first loss of the season. Putting a damper on Brett Favre’s home debut, the Patriots made four field goals and a touchdown (scored by Sammy Morris) to slide past the Jets 19-10 in yesterday’s game. The win gave the Pats a boost to their shaky season, shutting out doubts that New England is only as good as Brady makes them.

As for everyone’s new favorite quarterback, Cassel held his own on the offensive, going 16-of-23 for 165 yards while leading the Patriots to victory. The New England team dominated Favre and the Jets from the very beginning, scoring the only points in the first quarter and keeping the pace steady throughout the rest of the game. The Pats broke away from the Jets after Brandon Meriweather picked off a pass from Favre to Chris Baker, ultimately leading to a 1-yard touchdown by Morris, giving New England a 13-3 lead over New York in the third quarter. Winning yesterday’s game was a monumental achievement for the Patriots, as it alleviated pressure on the New England superteam. Look for next week’s game against the Dolphins to let the Pats further prove their dominance.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 15, 2008 - Post a comment

Pats-Jets Rivalry Comes Alive

The East Coast isn’t big enough for head coaches Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini, and this weekend’s Pats-Jets matchup should prove the temper-flaring rivalry between the teams that goes along with the Boston-New York competition, amid a long history of ups and downs for the two teams.

The rivalry between the Patriots and the Jets started flaring up in 1996 when Pats coach Bill Parcells left New England for the Jets, heating things up by signing Chris Martin for a price that Patriots couldn’t match. Parcells then left the Jets in 1999, succeeded by the brief Jets coach Bill Belichick, who resigned before he even got started. After a hefty lawsuit, Belichick went on to coach the Patriots, and his beef with Mangini came when the Patriots then-defensive coordinator left New England to become the Jets’ new head coach. This behind-the-back flip-flopping ignited even more animosity last season when the Jets reported the Patriots for videotaping violations. So what will come with Sunday’s game?

Look for a good Cassel-Favre competition, if nothing else. The two faces are new to their respective teams, and the players are still testing their grounds. We’ll bet the game isn’t the friendliest, but it will make for great viewing, anyway.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 12, 2008 - Post a comment

Brady’s ACL/MCL Injury Confirmed

The timeline has officially begun for Tom Brady’s recovery. News of Brady’s ACL and MCL tears in his left knee has been confirmed, which leaves the Patriots counting the months to his return. Typically with this type of injury, the recovery period starts with a four to six week wait for the MCL tear to heal before the ACL can be reconstructed. For the Patriots quarterback, this means surgery is likely planned a month from now, with a six to nine month recovery period and rehabilitation following (keep in mind the Pats start their training camp for the 2009 season 10 months from now.)

While facing a season without Brady is a grim fact for any Patriots fan, perhaps good news is on the way. Coach Bill Belichick wasted no time doting on his quarterback’s fate, immediately opting to replace Brady with Matt Cassel. When questioned about a starting QB for the rest of the season, Belichick told ESPN he would stick with Cassel, choosing not to sign a veteran to the team instead. New England instead signed quarterback Matt Gutierrez, who had joined the Pats last season but was released Aug. 30, to its practice squad Wednesday.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 11, 2008 - Post a comment

Stacking Up

The results are in – or should we say rankings? Week one of the NFL was one of the craziest in years, chalk full of twists and turns of injuries, upsets and expectations. Who came out on top in the season opener, and who was the biggest loser? Well, ESPN’s power rankings for week two are up, and some of it might surprise you.

The Patriots no doubt suffered a great loss last Sunday as Tom Brady went down in the season opener against the Chiefs, but is QB Matt Cassel strong enough to continue New England’s dominant streak? ESPN is giving him a chance. The Patriots fell from the number one seed to number nine despite Sunday’s win over Kansas City, but are still hanging in strong behind a tough Colts team coming in at number eight. Another player ranking has Cassel locked in as the number 22 quarterback in the NFL (Brady was at numero uno before this week.)

Sure, some of the rankings show the Patriots slipping out of complete football domination, but Randy Moss is still in the top 10 in wide receiver standings, with New England at number four on defense rankings. And let’s not forget about Bill Belichick, one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. These Patriots will be just fine.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 10, 2008 - Post a comment

Meet Matt Cassel

He may have been just another number on the sidelines until last week, but Patriots backup quarterback Matt Cassel has been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Number 12, out; number 16, you’re up. Tom Brady’s knee injury has just cost him a season, but the mighty New England team will go on without their star quarterback, and Cassel is stepping up to the plate to prove his worth.

When you look at Cassel’s history, there’s not much to run off. The four-year veteran has sat behind the wings of the atrocious Brady for practically his entire NFL career, and before that he was a backup to Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC. The QB’s last starting game was in high school, for crying out loud. But there is still hope for the wounded Patriots. Cassel managed three decent quarters in Sunday’s game against the Chiefs, going 13 for 18 with a touchdown and no interceptions. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s throwing to some of the NFL’s most invincible players, namely Randy Moss and Wes Welker. In the end, the Patriots’ perfect season may just have to wait one more year, but if we know Bill Belichick, New England’s got some sort of trick up their sleeve and we’ll just have to wait to see it.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 9, 2008 - Post a comment

Brady’s Season May Be Over Before it Starts

In what should have been a cakewalk of a season opener, New England’s Goliath fell. Hard. Quarterback Tom Brady limped off the turf midway through the first quarter in yesterday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs after suffering a blow to his left knee, coming from a hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard. Just how serious is Brady’s injury? He’s got the entire NFL waiting in limbo.

When Brady didn’t come back into the game yesterday, we all knew something was wrong; he always pops back up after a fall. The Patriots’ super secrecy regarding injuries is no surprise, but Brett Favre made a statement saying Brady had supposedly hurt his ACL, which would result in surgery and a devastatingly long recovery period. At this point, nothing is confirmed except that the New England superhero is having an MRI today.

As word of Brady’s knee spreads, so does speculation of team standings. Brady’s potential season on the sidelines puts the New York Jets in a preferred situation for the AFC East, leaving Favre and the Jets as the division’s new favorites while all that remains for the Patriots this season is a big fat question mark.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 8, 2008 - Post a comment

Forgetting Last Season

The Patriots’ heartbreaking 2007 Super Bowl loss to the Giants might be a healing wound, but the New England superteam has little to fret about this upcoming season. Except for the new Philadelphia Eagle Asante Samuel, the Pats have returned every one of their eight Pro Bowlers and, perhaps most importantly, they still have the superhero Tom Brady. The depth of this team is incredible, and with newcomers Terrance Wheatley, Jonathan Wilhite and Jerod Mayo, the Pats might just have their chance for redemption at the 2009 Super Bowl.

Last season New England became the only NFL team in history to win a combined 18 games in the regular season and in the postseason and not win the Super Bowl, giving them incentive in the off-season to reboot their team-crushing machine. Between NFL gods Brady, Randy Moss and coach Bill Belichick, one more shot at Super Bowl domination will definitely be in the cards this season. This weekend’s opener against the Chiefs will most likely be the starting tally mark to the Pats’ perfect season, so stay tuned to all the history-making action this season. Asante Samuel, watch your team recover without you. The Patriots are back and strong as ever.

To get New England Patriots tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 5, 2008 - Post a comment

Patriots Take on Rookie Chiefs in Opening Game

The New England Patriots are a machine. They’ve proven it year after year, and their level of expertise just keeps getting stronger with every pass Tom Brady completes. This year’s Pats are looking just as tough as last year’s, even despite Brady’s foot injury (is he in or is he out?) Is this team one that the Chiefs should be worried about come Sunday?

You bet. Kansas City’s rebuilding stage started with their brilliant roundup of draft picks, but the inexperienced team may run into trouble in Foxboro with the Pats’ rock-solid offense. The Boston Herald predicts tough times in the future of Chiefs rookie cornerback Brandon Flowers (among others,) who has the all-star lineup of Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Tom Brady to battle when the teams play each other this weekend in their season opener. Even with the dangling chance that Brady may be out of commission Sunday, however, the young Kansas City team still has enough on its plate to worry about. The ring of fire every rookie has to run through as a rite of passage into the NFL will surely be tested this weekend, and good luck to the Chiefs because the Patriots never surrender, especially at home.

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Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 4, 2008 - Post a comment

Tom Brady has a cracked bone in his foot!

Well, maybe. Sorry if that’s a bit of a bait and switch headline there, but you can never tell when you’re dealing with the New England Patriots. The Pats are notoriously secretive when it comes to injuries, and it may take a while to get official confirmation, but according to this article, quarterback Tom Brady is now suffering from a cracked bone in his foot. The article cites a radio report on WEEI 850AM Sports Radio in Boston, which first broke the news.

Apparently, Brady is still expected to play this Sunday, Sept. 7. But with a cracked bone in his foot, it doesn’t seem likely, and could cost the Patriots one of their most valued players. As the article says, this is sure to shake up fantasy league players this weekend, who will be glued to online and broadcast reports, trying to suss out the truth about Brady’s (potential) injury.

In any case, the Pats are still running strong, and sports tickets are still selling. If you’re looking for New England Patriots tickets, head over to Stubhub.com.

Permalink - Posted in Uncategorized on September 3, 2008 - Post a comment


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