Thursday Morning Third Down Back

Up Aaron Hernandez - Again... I love this kid. I expect big things. O-Line - Much better this week. Brady had all day back there. BenJarvus Green-Ellis - 16 carries for 98 yards. Can we just give him the starting job already? Patrick Chung - Actually looked pretty good at times, but that may just be because of how much the rest of the secondary sucked. Down The Defense - My math may be off a bit, but I think they gave up 900 yards to the Bills on Sunday. Last week it was Sanchez. This week it was Fitzpatrick. We have a way of making bad QBs look really good. Bring on the Dolphins.

Up The Moss. Best. WR. Ever. Down Everyone else! Bring on the Bills.

Up Everyone! Nothing like a week 1 ass-whuppin' to make me feel good about football again. And the defense looked much better than I expected. Now, it was just one game. But... Damn. I'd much rather win like that than be on the other end of that beating. Down No one, really. Bring on the Jets.

Up Tom Brady Sammy Morris Brandon Meriweather Wes Welker Randy Moss Down The Mannings!  Sweet, sweet Manning tears.  I love it.

Down Everyone. Bluh. Overall Record: 7 - 4. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 3 - 1. Flying Elvis 4 - 3.

Down Punt Team - Nice blocking there guys. Mark Sanchez - Ha ha!  (/Nelson) Up Wes Welker - Put him on the 2006 Patriots and we win that Super Bowl, too (Damn you, Reche Caldwell!) Vince Wilfork - He just owns the middle of the field.  It's really tough to find guys like that. Tully Banta-Cain - Sure he's "just a guy", but Belichick knows how to use him properly. Leigh Bodden - The secondary is a lot better this year. Mark LeVoir - He absolutely leveled a guy on a screen block.  Holy crap.  Any time you've got a lineman on a DB, bet on the lineman. Overall Record: 7 - 3. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 3 - 1. Flying Elvis 4 - 2.

By Patty O'Tool Downs Again... No downs last week.  Unless you want to count me.  Because the bye-week sucks. Ups Brandon Meriweather - He's looking like a stud, isn't he?  They brought him along slowly.  He was a first round pick in '07.  And now it's all paying off.  Good stuff. Wes Welker - Consistently awesome.  We totally stole him from Miami. Tully Banta-Cain - Is he a role player?  Sure.  But the Patriots seem to know how to use him much better than San Francisco did. Myron Pryor - Did anyone else see #91 flying around out there?  He was all over the place. Overall Record: 5 - 2. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 3 - 1. Flying Elvis 2 - 1.

By Patty O'Tool Downs Ummm... Nobody, really. Who is going to complain after a 59 - 0 ass whupin'? OK, fine then... Adalius Thomas. Ups Tom Brady - Brady to Moss was workin'. That flea flicker was downright orgasmic. Offensive Line - Brady looked pretty clean all day. Plenty of time back there. Plus Sebastian Vollmer looked good. Matt Light might be done after this year. Defense - Maybe younger and faster is a good thing. Kerry Collins looked JaMarcus Russell-esque out there going 2 of 14 for -7 yards. Ouch. Overall Record: 4 - 2. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 2 - 1. Flying Elvis 2 - 1.

Downs Tom Brady - Brady kinda stunk. 5 for 14 in the 2nd half. Ugh. If we just play our "B" game, we win that game. Instead, we turned in a "C minus" game. Pass Rush - Orton did a good job of getting rid of the ball quickly, but his uniform stayed pretty clean all day. Ups Benjamin Watson - Catches his 3rd TD. He already has more more than all of last season! Linebackers - Mayo returns and forces a fumble. Rob Ninkovich and TBC made some nice plays. Good stuff. Defense - It took 4 and 1/2 quarters for the defense to finally give up 20 points. Our defense has suddenly become a strength. I like it. Again... a little bit more of a pass rush would be nice though. Losing always hurts. But relax... We're still in first place. We've got two 0 and 5 teams coming up the next two weeks. We'll be fine. Overall Record: 3 - 2. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 1 - 1. Flying Elvis 2 - 1.

by Patty O'Tool Downs Laurence Maroney - Seven rushes for 6 yards? Ouch. Joey Galloway - I think I'll start calling him Joseph Galloway. That has more gravitas. Ray Lewis - Made about as many plays as Joseph Galloway. Ups Tom Brady - Has he been shaking off the rust? Or was that the suck of Joey Galloway rubbing off on him? The Secondary - Brandon Meriweather is starting to look like a stud. These might be the best corners we've had in years. And McGowan is my new binky. (Plus there was some kind of double safety blitz that resulted in a Flacco sandwich. Awesome.) D-Line - Anyone miss still Seymour? I told ya. I like seeing Mike Wright and Jarvis Green out there. What a great game that was. I like it. Overall Record: 3 - 1. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 1 - 0. Flying Elvis 2 - 1.

By Patty O'Tool Downs Joey Galloway - It's a good thing they had a home game yesterday. Brady might have dropped Galloway out of the plane at 30,000 feet. I really, really wish we had kept Greg Lewis instead (seeing Lewis all over Sports Center this morning hasn't helped). Special Teams - Bluh . We look like C-R-A-P on kick-off coverage. The Redskins - Oh my Gawd, they suck. Doesn't anyone else see how bad they suck? Ups Brady - Was he pissed at the end of the first half or what? I like it. It also looked like he had a ton of time all day. Fred Taylor - Wow, he looked really good. I don't know how many more miles are left on those tires, but I like what I saw yesterday. And it's amazing how much better the play-action works when there is actually the threat of a running game. Defense - I've been right about the D. They're good. Not great. But good. Granted, a huge part of that has been that they haven't had to spend that much time on the ...

By Patty O'Tool Downs Joey Galloway - Either Brady is overthrowing him, or he's running the wrong route on every single play. Tom Brady - He doesn't look right. ugh. This could be a long season. Me - I'm hurtin'. That one sucked. Moving on... Ups Julian Edelman - Played OK. Not great, but OK. Defense - I thought the defense played well (Wilhite especially). The fact that defense isn't the glaring weakness we thought it was going to be has been a pleasant surprise so far. Uniform Record: Pat Patriot 1 - 0. Flying Elvis 0 - 1.

By Patty O'Tool Down Tom Brady (0:00 - 55:00) - Shaking the rust off? Feeling out the new knee? Where's the Tom Brady I knew and loved from 2007? The footwork doesn't look like what we're used to seeing out of Brady. Like he's trying to get it there all with his arm. Bill O'Brien (QB Coach / Unofficial Offensive Coordinator) - Dude, you've got the keys to one of the best offensive machines ever assembled. Act like you know what you're doing. Joey Galloway - I think I saw him out there last night, but I'm not really sure. Up Tom Brady (55:00 - 60:00) - There he is! Pierre Woods - Way to be in the right place at the right time to force that fumble. And kudos to Meriweather for standing McKelvin up until help could arrive. Way to play smart football, guys. Ben Watson - He made a couple of great grabs. Unfortunately, those two TDs will probably be his total for the year. It was a win, but it sure wasn't pretty. Either the Pats aren't as ...

I'll be honest... I fell asleep during the 4 th quarter of Friday's game. I had a glass of wine and a Benadryl . You might as well have given me a roofie . Here's my thoughts on what I saw: Randy Moss - If Brady and Moss had been together for their whole careers, they could have rewritten the record books. Joey Galloway - Hasn't shown me anything yet. Is he going to make the team? Kevin O’ Connell - After a sub-par performance on Friday, Kevin got the axe. Didn't see that one coming. It sounded like they were grooming him to be "The Guy". Guess it just wasn't taking. BenJarvus Green-Ellis - They've got to keep him, don't they? He ran the ball for 8 yards a carry on Friday. Tom Brady - Oh God, please don't be hurt. Can't handle another season without #12. Tedy Bruschi - Thanks Tedy . You done good.