Thursday Morning Third Down Back

"So Tom... We need to ask if you're OK with something a little unusual for this photo shoot.." "I'll do it!" "Don't you want to wait to hear what it is?" "Whatever it is, I'll do it!"

Draft Day - 2005.  I'm rocking out to a pre-release copy of the new White Stripes album ( ed. note - "Get Behind Me Satan" ).  It's no Bon Jovi... but it's still pretty good, I guess. Theo Epstein from the Red Sox is sitting in with us in our Draft Room.  We've got the 32nd pick in the first round (again), so there's a lot of sitting around waiting for the Buffaloes and Jacksonvilles and Minnesotas of the world to get their heads out of their asses. I mention to Theo that I'm thinking tight end with the first pick. Anyway, the Steelers take Heath Miller off the board at #30 and Theo starts chirping. "Wait... I thought Heath Miller was your guy ." "Yeah.  He's going to be good.  And I love drafting tight ends." "And the Steelers just took him." "Yeah.  So?" "They're your rivals!  Your mortal enemies!" "Pretty much." "Why aren't you flipping out over this?  Why aren't you t...

The Patriots play their second playoff game of the season at Gillette against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday January 22nd at 3:00 PM. So much for not having won a playoff game in 4 years. If I may be allowed to turn into Tawmmy from Quinzee for a moment...     HOLY CRAP BRADY IS FACKIN' AWESOME. Are the Patriots really as good as they looked last week?  Or was Denver just that bad?   Gronk is ripped!   I'm a little worried about Baltimore.  Joe Flacco is not so good.  Ray Rice still scares the crap out of me.  But I'm mostly concerned about how well our offensive line holds up against their defense. Here's five guys I'll be counting on to keep Brady upright this week: 1 - 5) Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Dan Connolly, Brian Waters, Nate Solder - Brady will only be as good as these guys play upfront.  When they can give him time, he's deadly.  That's pretty much it. Did Chad Ochocinco have a catch last week? NO....

The Patriots play their first playoff game of the season at Gillette against Denver Broncos on Saturday January 14th and 8:00 PM. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to track down any information about who's playing quarterback for the Broncos on Saturday.  If anyone can find this information somewhere, please let me know and I'll send it along. Somehow Belichick whipped this team into shape and went 13 - 3.  13 -3 with a horrible, horrible defense.  But the NFL has changed.  It's not even the same league it was 10 years ago.   Does defense even matter anymore? I'd really like to see a deep playoff run this year.  But with the recent history of this team in the playoffs, I'm keeping my expectations low.     Sterling Moore, winner of Week 17's "Wait, Who's That Guy?" award.   Here's five guys on offense I'm hoping can carry the team this week: 1) Tom Brady - I can finally bring myself to admit that Brady had a bad game again...

The Patriots play their fifteenth game of the season at Gillette against the Miami Dolphins on Saturday December 24th at 1:00 PM. Yay!  Saturday football. Don't look now, but the Pats are on track to have the number one seed in the AFC. Really. With that defense. Really. Aaron Hernandez makes it rain against the Broncos. Dear Santa - I want a pass rush for Patriots this year for Christmas in these last few games.  Please?  What's that?  We lost Andre Carter last week?  Oh... OK. Here's five guys in the secondary I'll be hoping can pick things up a bit in the next few weeks: 1) Patrick Chung - Will Chung be back this week ?  Maybe!  2) Devin McCourty - Is he getting slightly less terrible as the year goes on?  Kinda.  Not a great sophomore year for #32. 3) Kyle Arrington - Also questionable.  I see a lot of "questionables" on the injury report this week.  Outlook not good. 4) James Ihedigbo - I think he got h...

The Patriots play their fourteenth game of the season against the Denver Tebows Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High on Sunday December 18th at 4:15 PM. Aaaaand we're back to 4:15 games this week.  Crap. Also... There's only three regular season games left.  Crap crap. Who had their sexual assault charges dropped this week?  THIS GUY! Anyone watch any ESPN this week?  I'll recap for you: Tebow.  Tebow Tebow. Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow. Tebow Tebow? Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow Tebow. How do you contain Tebow?  He's too fast for a lineman to catch him.  He's too big for a defensive back to take him down.  If I'm the defensive coordinator for the Patriots this week, I want linebackers taking up space and making tackles.  Linebackers everywhere.  Put 5 or 6 of them out there at a time (note to self - do we even have 6 healthy linebackers at this point?)....

The Patriots play their thirteenth game of the season against the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field on Sunday December 11th at 1:00 PM. Oh wow... That field looks like crap. I predicted a complete and total blow-out last week ... and I was way off.  I can't handle watching this defense give up 500 yards every week. From now on, I'm going to turn the channel when the Pats don't have the ball.  Maybe I'll watch a movie or something. Here's five guys on offense I'm going to be watching this week: 1) Tom Brady - Brady is going to have to play out of his mind for us to do anything in the playoffs. 2) Benjarvus Green-Ellis - It's December.  Time to start giving BJGE the rock. 3) Stevan Ridley - Still loving this kid.  4.8 yards per carry. 4) Chad Ochocinco - Up to 12 catches on the year now.  Or, you know, about one game's worth of balls for Wes Welker. 5) Matthew Slater - And let's go with Matthew Slater.  Sure. Why not? Also, Mike S...