Great game by the pats, good to see. my thoughts
QB/Oline: thought both looked sharp, even Matt light, who i have been on for years because the speed rush destroys him, was kicking butt.
Tom looked sharp as well, missed on that one deep ball to a wide open randy early, but for the most part looked like the tom we all know and love.
WR/TE: just so awesome to see Wes back, i jumped up out of my chair when he scored that first TD. also, speaking of that first TD, i think it really showed off the versatility of the three TE's we have. That quick screen to wes can be deadly all year with how fast Hernandez and gronk are combined with thier blocking abilities. It's nearly like getting wes the ball behind two undersized O-linemen. Love to see more of that.
Also nice plays by tate, moss and hernadez. Everyone looked sharp.
Defense: I loved what i saw out of this unit, just the energy and the SPEED. great early return to form by mayo (16 tackles!) and i like the rotation at the will with guyton/spikes. That macordy (sp, hurrying to finish this before i go to class) is going to be a player. Safties looked good, my one concern is that both merriweather and chung are hitting safeties, which i love, but would be nice to have a cover guy back there. Sanders is aqaqate at coverage but not good.
Overall i think they just need to keep up that energy and speed. They'll still make mistakes, but ill take mistakes from being over aggressive to mistakes from being passive and unsure any day of the week.
Also, and i know i'm probably firmly in the minority here, but was anyone else not really annoyed by what randy said?
I mean, i was annoyed by the timing, yes. but since there's no good time to get something like that out there, and if he really does not speak to the media after week 1 about it and just bust his tail going forward im fine with it.
I mean, removing the "pro athlete" from it for a minute, if i worked on contract and i had 6 months left to work, and my boss had not even discussed my future with me, I'd be [pee]ed too.
I know we all love how the patriots do business and wait until they get the full value of a guy out of their contract before they even bother to start negotiations (ala mankins) in an effort to show no one is above the team, and your contract will be done if and when we say it's done, but i can see how that wears on players. It would wear on me.
mainly, this is what i took from the randy stuff:
1. Seems like some in the media don't like me, spin anything i say negatively (true, looking at you felger, borges, ect. Hell, felger is still butthurt that he called the moss signing a huge flop, bashed him and the pats for 4 months leading up to 2007, and then got proven wrong for 3 straight years of 1000 yard 10 TD seasons. he's salivating for moss to fail on his show every afternoon) and want to see me fail.
VERDICT: true, zo, another anti moss guy, asked him a combative question about whether he hates the media the second question in and tried to get him to turn on his teammates with the "do you know how bad you look to your teammates right now?" question.
2. I want to stay a patriot, i love it here, and would sign here if offered a contract. however, i understand this is a buisness, and since they havent contacted me at all, through my agent or myself, i suspect i'll be moving on.
VERDICT: true, and i'm confused as to why people don't like him saying this. The patriots key to success has been evaluating when they have gotten max value out of a guy and then cutting all ties and moving on. happened with law, lawyer, asante, willy, ect. they have clearly made the determination that moss will not be worth it after this year. Ok, i'm on board with that, but im not going to slurp the pats koolaid like WEEI and say that Randy's out of line for detailing the fact that the Patriots don't open the check book for veterans.
The patriots don't overpay for vets unless its a special case, like Tom. What outrage am i supposed to feel over him saying they are following their business practice and he understands that, but it still sucks because he wants to be here but appears not to be in thier plans going forward?
3. No matter what i say about the contract, it's going to get spun. So i just want to put out their that I'm going to work hard, play some [dang] good football, and I'm not retiring at the end of the year. I don't want you guys writing that i'm unhappy and a cancer when i have a bad game, thats going to happen.
VERDICT: see, i think this is why were seeing the media outrage and the attempt to make it out like Randy was so out of line yesterday comes from. you KNOW this is what they were going to do ALL YEAR. heck, they took one comment last weekend and ran a "does randy moss hate the patriots?" week over at the globe, WEEI, and the sports hub which led to what randy said yesterday.
This cuts them off at the knees, and they are butthurt over it. They are still going to say it every time he has a bad game, but now it's not as juicy and easy to write story, espically if randy just says "i said what i'm going to say week 1, no comment" everytime they try to turn the screws.
Now the media doesn't get it's built in 17 weeks of juicy quotes it can spin and they hate it.
I for one DO NOT CARE boston media, I care about what he does on Sunday. considering Tom's comments on D & C this morning that he understands where randy is at and so does the rest of the locker room, the players, who matter way more than the media, despite what the papers and radio think of themselves, then I'm fine with it.
If randy continues to play like he did yesterday, and run out his routes all day (heck he even took a screen pass back across the middle, which given his aversion to contact with LB's and safeties is rare) then I'm very ok with him cutting a distraction off at the knees and getting his side out there.
/rant off, and i know I'll most likely be in the vast minority on the issue, but thats my .02 cents.
