I wrote this yesterday morning but never got a chance to post it. So here ya go!
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Hey check this out. It's the Monday after the Superbowl and I still am not really sure who won the game. I did not watch one second of it all day yesterday. Before I went to bed last night I checked the little scoreboard widget that I have on the Mac just to see what happened (I kinda had to know) and when I looked at the score, it looked to my tired time-for-bed brain that the Colts had won. So I felt semi-iritated for a few seconds and then went to bed glad I had not witnessed Manning's smug face and the blue and white confetti raining down..
Now, this morning I come in to work and I overhear people talking about the game it's sounding like The Saints actually won. Really??
So here we go I'm going to go check the score and find out what the real deal is… wait for it…
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- time passes -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
31-17, Saints? Am I reading this right? I think I am! YAY!
I almost wish I had watched it now. Sounds like Manning had a melt-down and I'm sure the Peyton Face that Patriots fans all know and love was on full display. I would have liked to have seen that, mean-hearted meanie that I am. Ha. Oh well I still have no regrets about missing it. I'm sure if I had watched the game the result would have been different because the Football Gods do like to fuck with me in that way. So all you Saints fans can thank me for not watching the Superbowl yesterday. Enjoy the Superbowl title. It's something you get to keep forever no matter what. In good times and bad, that Superbowl win is there for you.. Enjoy.
I only read a couple stories to catch up but this was my favorite quote:
"But the way people were talking about him [Manning] the last two weeks was shocking, especially when you consider that his entire post-season reputation hinges on what happened in 2006, when he beat a Bears team led by Rex Grossman in a rain-soaked mess. (And he didn't even play that well, despite being named the game's MVP.) In fact, if Bill Belichick hadn't decided to force Tom Brady to play that season with junior varsity wide receivers, I'm convinced Manning wouldn't have even made it to that Super Bowl."
That's right. Is the lame-stream media finally waking up? I'm sure it's only temporary..
(GO PATS)
Wow the Patriots gave up an 83 yard Ray Rice touchdown to The Ravens on the very first play of the game and as amazing as it seems, things have actually gotten WORSE since then. It almost does not seem possible, how badly the Patriots are playing right now in all three phases. It's actually indescribable. And this is a playoff game for fuck's sake.
The Ravens are up by 24-0 as the 1st quarter comes to a merciful end. Holy crap this is horridly bad.
All I can say at this point is I hope the Patriots will at least put up a fight and not roll over. Losing a playoff game at home would be painful enough, but losing because they flat out quit would be worse.
I have faith in this team. No more typing time to send all possible positive vibes out to Foxboro.
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
somber update:
Alright. Well. The game is over. The Pats lost. Spotting a team 24 points in the 1st Quarter is not a good way to win a playoff game. So there you go. The team simply did not have that spark and I kept waiting for them to fight back a little more. It just didn't happen. There was no counter-punch to the Ravens attack.
I thought Edelman played his guts out, Kevin Faulk was obviously not giving in, Brady kept fighting.. congrats to those guys. I can't really say I saw that fighting spirit from many other guys though, unfortunately.
So now it's time to re-tool and get ready for another year. The Pats had a good year. Hey they went 10-6 and won the AFC East, they made the playoffs so despite the outcome of today's game, they were a good, playoff team. As a fan that's what you want. Obviously I wish The Pats could have advanced but as much as I may want them to, the Pats can't win the Superbowl every year.
One thing the Patriots seemed to search for all year was consistency. This was an erratic team. There are all kinds of factors that contribute to that, both on the field and off the field.. I won't go into my opinions on what some of those factors might be, I'll just say that hopefully next season they will regain that consistency that was missing this year. On the superstitious side, one thing I will be glad to see is the nautical blue uni's and Flying Elvis, all year long. Until then… one more time.
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
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What a difference a year makes, eh? Last year The Patriots were 11-5 and wound up on the outside of the playoffs looking in. Making things worse, they were probably better than several of the teams that edged them out.
This year, The Patriots are 10-6 and are AFC East Champions. That's one of the things ya gotta love about the NFL. Every year things are different.
I'll tell ya, missing out on the playoffs last year, that sucked. Fully. So this year I am feeling so upbeat and am just psyched for The Pats to be back in and competing for that chance at a Superbowl. A lot of people don't give the Patriots much of a chance, but as has been shown year in and year out, anything can happen once you make it into the Playoffs. So lets do this.
It's about a 1/2 hour till game time.
It seems like all of the talk and print and what-have-you out of the lame-stream media has been 110% focused on Julian Edelman this week. All I've read all week is how Edelman is going to have to step in for Wes Welker after his truly unfortunate injury and how is he going to do it, how are the Patriots going to adjust, what happens to their offense… yadda yadda yadda. On one hand it's kind of annoying. Since when were the Patriots a one man team? On the other hand, it keeps the focus on that one aspect of their game and the rest of the team can go about the business of prepraration without harassment. It also gives the Patriots some motivation, since it's been made clear that the prevailing lame-stream opinion is that they can't win without Welker. At least that's how I interpret it..
Alright it's like 15 min till game time. As Tom Brady once said so eloquently, 'We're baaaa-aaack!"
Enough with the typety-typing. See you on the other side.
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
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It's Playoff Time! Yay!! And The Patriots are back in the tourney as they like to call it. Extra Yayz!!!
So here's who I'm pulling for this weekend, other than The Pats.
AFC
New England / Baltimore: I think this is clear. Look around you.
Cincinnati / The Jersey Guys: No Brainer once again (Cincy).
NFC
Dallas / Philly: Philly. C'mon, I can't root for the C'boyz. Even though The Pats are the team of the 00's, I still can't bring myself to cheer for the team of the 90's. I can hold a grudge my friends. Maybe if Jessica Simpson were still on the sidelines.. Is she still on the sidelines? I don't pay any attention to that stuff. I'm sure Tony Romo's got a hottie rooting for him somewhere over on the Dallas sidelines, other than Wade Phillips, but he doesn't count. I'm rooting for Philly.
Arizona / Green Bay: Another pretty easy choice, Arizona. I always root for the teams that have been down for a long time, kicked around as doormats of the league forever and now have finally risen to the top. I know the feeling of rooting for a team that was bad for a looong time and then finally finds it's stride and wins three Superbowls, two of them back-to-back (*sniff* Patriots, Team of the Decade… sorry, where was I? I just got a little dust in my eye..) That's why I'll always root for teams like Arizona, New Orleans, Cincy, over teams like Dallas, Green Bay or The Steelers. (Of course, I know that's how a lot of people feel about my team now, but I'm ok with that.)
GO PATRIOTS - TEAM OF THE DECADE (get used to it because I love typing it)
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The Patriots can clinch a playoff berth by winning one more game. Hopefully they will get that done today. It's hat and t-shirt day, if they get it done against the Jags. A win today will also give them an opportunity to rest up a bit next week before the playoffs begin.
This Jags team will be tough, as will the Texans next week, so let's just put the worry out of our mind and get some t-shirts and hats today in our last regular season home game.
Where did this season go? It goes by so fast..
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
Three games left and all are playoff critical. The Pats still need a road win this season and getting it in Buffalo in December is going to be a tricky prospect. I have been wondering what the weather is like up there all weekend. It's snowing here.. a-gain, dammit. It was supposed to start yesterday afternoon but when I went to bed without seeing a single flake last night I thought we were going to luck out. No such luck. I awoke to it coming down this morning. Ug I hate it…
I got so sick of reading about the Randy Moss saga this past week. Every time I went into google reader to get an update, it seemed like every post was about Moss' performance last Sunday. Give me a friggin break. Talk about making a whole lot of something out of a whole lot of nothing.. It's getting so I can't read Pats news sites any more.. since they seem to report less and less news and more and more plain b.s.
Even the formerly straight-up, just the facts Mike Riess seems to have become ESPN-ized.. I guess it can't be helped, since it says ESPN on his pay-check now.
It's affecting my newspaper too, Patriots Football Weekly. With all of their writers blabbing on the various sports talk radio stations these days, I'm starting to see that influence creeping into the writing.
Ah well what can ya do. Turn the TV on and turn the radio up for Gil and Gino.
GO PATS!!
Hey what's up evera-body. Sorry I haven't written in a while. Thanks to anybody out there who still keeps this thing on their read list.
I'm just sitting here watching what has so far been a very frustrating Patriots game. The offense has shown a few occasional signs of life, but mostly they've been sputtering along. It's been a very 'WTF' kinda game. I've got Gil and Gino on the radio, as I always do, and even those guys, who are almost always upbeat, have been voicing their frustration with The Patriots play in this one.. Defensively The Pats have been hanging in. Hopefully that will continue and the offense will get on track.
With four games left, the 4th Quarter of the season is here. Anybody following the team doesn't need me to tell you this is the critical stretch. Thankfully we've got the night games out of the way, we've got those damn throw-back games out of the way, (give me Elvis and the Nautical Blue uni's any day, any time) time to focus in and bear down. The AFC East is there for the taking.
I've been watching this team a for long time, though lotsa ups, and lotsa downs, and I've always tried to keep things on an even keel. First and foremost goal number one for me every year is always a winning season. The Pats can get to 8 wins today. Right now all I want is to get that check mark out of the way. One game at a time.
The Pats are up by four as I write this, 14-10. With the way our offense has been performing in this game, this one is certainly not a lock. We need to put another score or three on the board here in the last 12 min..
GO PATS
The throwback thing continues this weekend with The Pats facing the team formerly known as the Houston Oilers. At 0 - 5, Titans fans are probably taking a week to enjoy their team pretending to be somebody else.
Despite being up against an 0 - 5 team this week, this is a game that makes me a little nervous for The Pats, primarily BECAUSE they're playing an 0 - 5 team.. I mean The Titans / Oilers gotta win a game eventually I figure.. hopefully it won't be against The Pat Patriot adorned Patriots.
One thing that makes me a little less worried is that I seem to recall that The Pats always played pretty well against the Oilers. (I'm not going to look it up for fear of breaking the spell..)
One interesting thing to note, it's FRIGGIN SNOWING here!!! What??? We had our first snow of the season on Friday and it's snowing now. Once again, WHAT??? It's good for football but it's really bad for my psyche. Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March. Count em up that is SIX FUCKING MONTHS OF SNOW AND WINTER CONDITIONS. I haven't got my lawnmower put away yet. The patio furniture is still out. The shed is still in summer configuration with the snow-blower stuffed in the back where it belongs.. ACK!!
In order to give the Pats a hand, I have appealed to The Football Gods with some nice, hot chili, some fresh guacamole, a fireplace fire, and of course the usual candles, Lucky Patriots Fleece Blanket, Superbowl 36 Beer Mug and other Patriot paraphernalia, so I'm doing my part as the 12th Man.
GO PATS
The Pats could have won that game yesterday, but playing in Denver, I can't really say I'm all that surprised that they found a way to not win. It's an away game in Denver after all where the Patriots are now 9 - 18. To be honest when I looked it up I was surprised to see that we had actually won that many games in Mile High, The Patriots Personal House of Horrors.
Ug.
I don't want to sound like I'm ragging the team, because that is not my intention. I'm just flummoxed about The Patriots and their continuous difficulties playing in that city. What is it about Denver?? There is no other place in the league where The Patriots seem to consistently perform so badly. What is it about that place??
Whatever it is about this jinx, I don't like it. So there.
And I know this is not a popular view, but I hate those throwback uniforms. Ok maybe 'hate' is too strong of a description… I don't hate the old uniforms I just hate seeing this current Patriots team wearing them. Keep Pat Patriot in the past where he belongs and let us enjoy him as a nostalgic reminder of the team we rooted for through thick and thin. I like Nautical Blue and Flying Elvis, thankyouverymuch. I don't see Pat Patriot on any Superbowl rings. How many throw-back games are left anyway?
Next up, Tennessee, where the Pats will hope to keep one of those streaks going. I won't say what it is. Superstition.
GO PATS
I've never ever had any love for the Denver Broncos, and Shannon 'Send in the National Guard' Sharpe only helped to vault them right into the upper echelon of the hate list. And there they have remained, right up there with The Raiders and Miami.
But then something weird took place in 2009..
I find that Josh McDaniels' grey hoodied presence as Denver's head coach makes hating the Broncos a lot harder for me.
As a rookie head coach he jumped into a pretty difficult situation, taking over for a legendary head coach, Mike Shanahan, dealing with a tool of a quarterback and a fan base that appeared to be ready to run him out of town at the first sign of the slightest difficulty.
McDaniels then donned a grey hoodie in unapologetic tribute to Bill Belichick and took his team out of the gate at 4-0, giving nothing but credit to what he learned as a Belichick understudy along the way. As a Patriots fan, how can you not like the guy?
Of course, today at 4PM it's a different story. Disliking Josh McDaniels will not be a problem.. The game's outcome will determine how I feel about him going forward (A Patriots victory would help keep him on the not-so-bad list).
On the flip side, look at the Cleveland Browns, a team that I have always rooted for on the side. Now with Fredo Mangini down there running the show, I have to say, I can no longer root for that team and can't really say that I'm all that sorry for them at 0-4.
When it comes to football, I can really carry a grudge.
In the meantime, big game for The Patriots today. Potential playoff seeding is for sure on the line. With RB Fred Taylor out with an ankle injury, I'm hoping to see my man BenJarvus out there on the field bashing out Patriots first downs.
GO PATS
Update: Patriots lose in OT, 20-17. Arg.
