Experts Like Boys, Bolts over Pats

The Patriots received the second-most votes to be the next Super Bowl champion in ESPN.com’s expert predictions.  The Pas received three of 16 votes, with both the Cowboys and Chargers receiving five.  The fact that the Patriots aren’t at least the highest vote-getter in the AFC comes a surprise to this blogger.  One could chalk it up to the tendency of prognosticators not wanting to seem dull by picking the best team, or a team that won all but one game last season.  The Patriots remain the overall favorite to take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy this season.

Could there be real reasoning behind the Pats being somewhat snubbed by the experts?  Brady’s foot injury has to be a concern until he steps on the field and performs like his old self again.  The defense, in this blogger’s opinion, is the biggest concern.  The cornerstones aren’t getting any younger and skills eventually diminish.  The team lost cornerback Asante Samuel, probably their best defensive player, and now find themselves rather thin at the position.  Bill Belichick is known for getting the most out of his defensive unit and turning no-names into studs, but can he do it again?  Most people think so, but maybe the experts have their doubts.

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Pats Own AFC East

The Patriots are overwhelming favorites to win the AFC East this season.  Coming off of a 16-0 regular season in 2007, the Patriots have a really good shot at going undefeated within their division again.  The Bills are an up-and-coming team in the conference, but are still probably a year or two away from the playoffs.  They’ve got a lot of young talent, but their overall roster is so young that they’re not quite ready to challenge the Patriots.  The Jets made the big offseason splash by acquiring Brett Favre, but his presence alone doesn’t do enough for the team in terms of win total to challenge New England.  Brett Favre, for the first time in his career, isn’t even the best quarterback in his division.  This blogger reserves that distinction for one Thomas Edward Brady.

The Dolphins may surprise some people with their final win total, but they’re in a major rebuilding mode.  The Patriots should win the division handily, without much resistance from these three other clubs.  The team looks set for a 12 or 13 win season, which should provide a nice buffer between them and the Bills or Jets, neither of whom this blogger can see eclipsing nine wins.

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No Excuses

The Patriots are not making any excuses for their poor performance in the preseason thus far.  The team has struggled in their first three preseason games, but players and staff have refused to take the easy way out by pointing out injuries and roster issues.  “Regardless of who’s out there, it’s up to us to execute and do our own job,” said running back Sammy Morris in a story in The Providence Journal. “Regardless of who’s in there, we’re not executing. That’s the bottom line for us.”  That kind of accountability is exactly what fans want to hear from their players.

The Patriots have not fielded a complete offensive or defensive unit in the preseason, the most glaring absence being that of Tom Brady.  One area of concern is the Pats’ special teams.  The Patriots have been just awful in coverage, but this is the kind of thing that Bill Belichick will not let occur in the regular season.  With Brady under center, the offensive unit is an entirely different entity.  He may have to shake off a little bit of rust in week one if he doesn’t take any snaps in Thursday’s preseason finale.  The defense is aging, but that side of the ball is Belichick’s specialty.

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Brady Says He’ll Be Ready For Season

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady assured fans that he’ll be ready to go when the team kicks off the 2008 NFL season against the Kansas City Chiefs.  On a local radio show, Brady said that even if he misses the team’s final preseason game against the Giants he’ll be under center week one.  Brady has been nursing a foot injury that has caused him to miss all of the team’s preseason games this year.  He has been practicing with the team during the week though, signaling that Brady’s confidence in not unfounded.

Even if he had to miss a game or two, you don’t want Brady going out there if he’s not ready.  The Patriots figure to run away with the AFC East division title this season and could afford an extra loss to make sure that Brady is healthy and remains so for the season’s entirety.  It’s paramount that Brady is playing in December.  It’s music to Patriot’s fans’ ears though to hear Brady confidently declaring his availability for the season opener.  Already one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, Brady is the most important piece of the Patriot puzzle.

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Brady Questionable for Tonight’s Game

The Patriots remain mum on whether quarterback Tom Brady will play in tonight’s preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles.  Brady has been battling a foot injury and is unlikely to risk further injury in a preseason contest if he feels that injury is a possibility.  Meanwhile, backup Matt Cassel is in the midst of a battle for his job with rookie QB Kevin O’Connell.  Neither has looked great in preseason competition thus far, but Cassel has been getting much more scrutiny than the rookie, and rightfully so.

There is no way that Brady should give it a go if he feels the slightest doubt.  There is no reason to give him what are really unnecessary snaps in a game that doesn’t matter unless he feels up to it.  The team needs Brady for the games that count, and the battle for the backup spot is still not settled.  This preseason contest will be a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX in which the Pats took down Donovan McNabb and the Eagles despite a herculean performance by Terrell Owens.  McNabb figures to get his highest snap total of the preseason tonight and it should be a good test for the Patriots’ defense.

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Getting Defensive

While their juggernaut offense is expected to roll over opposing defenses as it did last season, the Patriots will have to make sure their defense performs at a high level if they want to make it back to the Super Bowl this season.  Despite boasting the 10th-ranked defense against the run, the Pats allowed 4.4 yards per carry last season, good for 26th best in the league.  Did it matter much?  No, because so many teams were playing from behind due to the Pats’ offensive prowess that teams didn’t run the ball all that much.

But this aging defense is not what it used to be.  Their pass defense is going to suffer without Pro Bowl cornerback Asante Samuel, a top five corner in the NFL.  Samuel is now flying with the Eagles and will not be picking off passes for the Pats.  The Pats’ deficiencies against the run last season have to be a concern in a conference whose other top teams have running backs like LaDainian Tomlinson, Joseph Addai and Maurice Jones-Drew.  The Patriots are still the favorite in the AFC, but there isn’t a whole lot of breathing room between them and the likes of the Colts and Chargers, and even the Jags.  But Bill Belichick always seems to find a way.

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Brady Has Cassel’s Back

Patriots starting quarterback Tom Brady came to the defense of his backup, Matt Cassel, after Cassel was berated by analysts following the Pats’ preseason game this weekend.  “I see Matt every day in practice and the improvement he makes. I love what I see in Matt. I have a lot of confidence in Matt . . . for the three guys sitting in the booth, I thought it was unfair to criticize the way they were criticizing, because I don’t think they really knew what was happening,” Brady said in a Boston Herald article.

Marshall Faulk and Sterling Sharpe were particularly hard on the fourth-year USC product, but Sharpe defended his comments.  “I didn’t mean anything negatively, or maliciously, but from my point of view, here’s a guy who’s been in the system four years, and he’s in a quarterback battle,” Sharpe was quoted in the same story in the Herald. “You just thought things would look a little differently.”  As a Pats fan, you’ve got to love Brady sticking up for his teammate; he’s the consummate pro and a great leader.  Boston area fans might not like the comparison, but he’s a lot like Derek Jeter, only with gaudy stats.

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The Brady Bunch

Patriots fans got a glimpse of how good they’ve got it this past weekend.  With Tom Brady nursing a foot injury, the Pats sent out backups Matt Cassel and Kevin O’Connell to split quarterback duties for the preseason contest against the Bucs.  New England fans had to watch their high-powered offense sputter and muster a lackluster 10 points.  No Patriots receiver totaled more than 31 receiving yards and both running backs that registered more than five carries failed to average three yards per carry.  Why is that good?  Because it reminds them of how lucky they are to have Brady.

Despite the talent that this offense boasts, it’s obvious that it goes as Brady goes.  Brady’s historic season last year was due, in great part, to the presence of guys like Randy Moss and Wes Welker, but without a future hall-of-fame quarterback throwing them the ball, they’re not record-setters either.  Brady has been so consistent since taking over the reins in the Pats’ memorable 2001-2002 season that it’s been easy for fans to take the reliability he’s brought to the position for granted.  Just ask Ravens fans what it’s like to have a shaky quarterback situation year in and year out.  Brady should be good to go by the time the games begin to count, but it’s obvious that the Patriots are not dominant without him.

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Brady Sits With Foot Injury

Tom Brady was held out of yesterday’s preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a foot injury.  The injury is not the same one that Brady played with in the Super Bowl last winter.  The club struggled with backup Matt Cassel running the offense and the unit didn’t fare much better with Kevin O’Connell at the helm.  When head coach Bill Belichick was asked whether Brady would have played if this had been a regular season game, he replied in very Belichickian form, “Well, it’s not a regular season game.”

While there is no cause for panic, this is certainly something the team could have done without.  It’s unlikely that Brady will miss any significant time and this blogger suspects that he would have suited up had this been more than just a preseason contest.  Brady is a tough guy and told reporters it would take a lot for him to miss a regular season game.  “I spent some time this weekend getting treatment on it, and hoping that it responds quickly like it usually does,” he added in an interview with a Boston radio station.  Were Brady to miss time, it would greatly hinder the team offensively, but it’s hard to see that happening.

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Pats Add Veteran Lynch

When it seems like an aging, once great veteran has nothing left in the tank, the Patriots pick him up and turn him into a more-than-serviceable player.  This could be the drill once again as the Pats have signed safety John Lynch to a one-year deal.  Lynch spent the bulk of his 14-year career in Tampa Bay playing in the vaunted Buccaneer defenses of the late ‘90s and early 2000s.  He won a Super Bowl under Jon Gruden before playing the last three years in Denver.  The Broncos recently released the 36-year-old as opposed to altering his role on the team.

This is a great fit as the Patriots lost Tank Williams for the season in their preseason opener against the Ravens.  Bill Belichick will put Lynch in a position to succeed because that’s just what he does.  Do you think Junior Seau and Tedy Bruschi would have played at such a high level last season for another team? It’s doubtful.  Lynch can still play and can still hit with the best of them.  This is the kind of pickup that will really pay dividends for the Pats in the playoffs as they add another experienced vet to their squad.

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