Just a few more random thoughts to get out on yesterday's Patriots / Colts game..
As Brady pointed out after the game: a win on the road against an undefeated team that has won 12 in a row, 13 at home. On those factors alone, to come out of Indy with a win is huge..
The Pats overcame a ridiculous number of penalties. Yes some of them were bogus calls, like the offensive pass interference on Moss and the defensive pass interference on Hobbs, the non-interference call on Faulk (I could go on and on with this..) The point is, legitimate calls or not, you have to deal with them. Usually a team that hurts itself with that many penalties is not going to come out of a game with a W, especially when playing a team like the Colts. The Pats were able to make plays and move the ball on offense and on the flip-side, prevent the Colts from moving the ball and scoring on defense, despite being continually backed up with penalties.
The refs gave the ball to the Colts inside the Patriots 10 yard line several times on pass interference penalties. In those situations, The Pats defense was huge, holding the Colts to field-goals and not TDs. If you look at the big-picture, those were the plays that saved the day for the Patriots. I don't need to tell you, if the Colts get 7 instead of 3 on any of those opportunities, we are all in a grouchy mood this morning. Richard Seymour gets a big nod for tipping an Adam Vinatieri field goal and keeping 3 points off the board.
The Colts scored 14 of their points off of turnovers. Again, the Colts are not a team that you can give the ball away to and expect to come out of the game happy. You could say that all of the Colts points came off of some type of mistake by the Pats, either a penalty to put The Colts inside the Pats red-zone, or a turnover to give them the ball back and kill a Patriots drive. Of course, all this 'what if', 'take away that' stuff is meaningless. Undoubtedly the Colts were going to score points in the game, it's just a matter of how. Even after the first Brady interception, it was not like The Colts got the ball at mid-field. They still had to drive from inside their 10 to score a TD.
Randy Moss is THE BALLS. That one-handed catch in the 1st quarter was nothing short of amazing, not to mention the 55 yard bomb that he caught to put The Pats in position to score in the 4th Q.
Wes Welker made the clutch plays at the end of the game with his kick returns to set the team up in good field position, the receptions that kept the chains moving and of course, sneaking in past the left pylon for the TD to bring the Pats back within 3 points.
Kevin Faulk: comes up huge again. With time running out, the shifty back took a pass from Brady and ran it in from about 15 yards out for the go ahead touchdown.
Jarvis Green: Once again, Jarvis comes in and makes a critical play, stopping the Colts chances at an end-of-the-game comeback. With 2:30 remaining, an eternity for Manning and The Colts, Green came in and sacked Peyton Manning, at the same time forcing a fumble which was recovered by The Patriots. At that point it felt like déjà vu for the Pats. Just as in the end of the AFC Championship game last season, all they needed was a first down to seal the game. This time, thanks to sure-handed receiver Wes Welker, The Pats got the first down and were able to then kneel on the ball for the win.
There are so many plays and players that I could point out as making an important contribution to this Patriots win. I guess that's why it all comes down to The Patriots mantra: play as a team, win as a team.
I think this win provides a huge confidence boost for the team going into the bye. There are still some tough road games on the schedule: at Buffalo, at Baltimore (Adalius Thomas hopefully got a reminder about providing bullitin board material to opposing teams), at The Giants.. Those are all going to be tough teams to play on the road, (yes, even The 4-4 Bills, they are always a challenge). This win helps the Pats go into these hostile environments knowing they can come in and play and win. Take away the mistakes, especially the unnecessary penalties, and there's a lot less swearing at the television during the game. There's nothing the team can do about bogus calls, but there were a few legit calls that gave the Colts big yardage: Matt Light's tripping call, as well as losing his composure for a personal foul at one point, the unsportsmanlike call on Willie Andrews on a punt return.. Yes it's emotion and the heat of the game, but those kind of penalties are what kills a team's chances to win. They are preventable and I'm sure that will be one of the topics that gets drilled in once the Pats get back to work following the bye.
I realize that there a lot of people, most of them in the press it seems, who dislike Bill Belichick's dead-pan (some call it grouchy) demeanor. I heard some negative comments about the tone of his post-game interview in that he was not all jumping up and down and excited with the win, gushing over the victory. Belichick was his usual business like self, calling it 'just one game'.
Personally I have no problem with Belichick's approach or his demeanor. In fact, I like it. Why should he buy into all the press generated hype about this game? Yes, it was a big game, but he's right, it wasn't the Superbowl, it was one, regular season game. The Pats have not won anything yet. There are seven games to go on the schedule and they are all just as important as this one was. I hate that Belichick gets demonized just because he does not come out all 'jacked and pumped' like some coaches do after a win.
Keep doing what you are doing Bill. As far as this Patriots fan is concerned, you are THE MAN.
GO PATS
