Pats / Falcons thoughts...

Just a few quick thoughts on the Pats / Falcons game, which the Pats lost in the closing seconds, 26-23. Yeah so the Pats lost. No biggie. The scores in these games mean nothing and do we really want to see the first pre-season game go into over-time? Ah, no. I think not. The most important outcome of this game: no injuries. Thank you.

Pre-Game:
I was so excited to get out of work yesterday afternoon and listen to some pre-game talk on the radio as I drove home. That is, until the pre-game hosts were introduced. Unfortunately Ron Borges is still a part of the Pats pre-game radio show and he did his best to take the fun out of the whole fucking thing.

I can't stand Borges and his hatred of Bill Belichick and the Patriots organization was on full display. His distain for the men that brought 3 Superbowls to New England practically dripped from every one of his statements during the show. I honestly don't know what they're thinking by having him as part of the Pats pre-game show.

As for the game itself, I missed a lot of the 1st quarter of the game. My kids were putting up a little bedtime battle, so I could not sit and watch the start of the game, but here are some totally worthless thoughts on what stuck out at me with the game overall.

Running Backs:
The running game looked sharp, with Dillion, Maroney and Faulk all showing signs of what will hopefully be a very effective ground game. Cobb, (or was it Cobbs? There were so many guys named Cobb(s) in this game I lost track) looked good in the 2nd half. I thought he looked better than Heath Evans. The screens were effective and the blocking looked good to me, (and let me just state once again that when I say, 'looked good to me', I realize that means absolutely nothing.)

Passing game:
Not much to say about the passing game. It was pretty much all about Matt Cassell getting lots of reps. I thought he looked ok. No issues, couple bad throws but, eh, it's pre-season and he's the backup..

Linebackers:
I was a little disappointed about the play of the linebackers. Poor tackling. Lots of missed tackles. Poor coverage in the passing game as well. Linebacker is a position that is a bit of a worry right now, but that's what these games are for, to expose weaknesses early so they can be fixed.

Kicking:
It was kind of hard to get a gauge on the kicking game. The rookie Gostkowski's kickoffs looked good. He's obviously got a big leg. It's still up in the air as far as who has the edge here, Gostkowski or Martin Gramatica.

It was nice to see some Patriots football again and to hear Gil Santos and Gino Cappilletti calling the game. I missed all those guys. I missed football.

Comments

[Ms. Brightside]

Thanks for the over view of the game. I didn't really catch much of the game myself. We haven't had a decent rain since early June. Well, of course, Friday night, the first pre-season game, we had some pretty bad storms here. The storms basically caused me to lose my satellite signal. I tried our local CBS station that was carrying the game, but they kept interrupting the game because there were tornado warnings and everything. Oh well, it's only pre-season... Regular season would have been a whole different story ;)

[Me]

No problem!

I know it's not the most in depth thing you'll probably read ;)

Sorry you missed the game. That is cool you can get the Pats games though. Like you said, it's just pre-season, but it's good to have football back!