PatsBlog: A Patriots Blog

I usually don’t pass along player comments, especially players from other teams, but this time it was different. I was looking forward to Chad Johnson trash talking, despite being a diehard Pats fan, because Chad is just a hilarious guy, who’s jokes are said with good intentions (cough, cough Ladainian cough Tomlinson cough). But when I saw Chad’s comments, I was surprised. Here is what he had to say regarding the team and the videotaping incident: “Tell Coach I said I love him, and that I’m looking forward to a great challenge. This is more than a football game. This is going to be a chess match. I don’t really think it’s between the players. This is a chess match for the coaches, who is going to make the right moves at the right time… That videotaping thing, it doesn’t matter. OK, say you do know the signals. You still have to go out and execute the defense. Forget that. Take the cameras away — you’re talking about a great football team that has great coaches. Throw that camera bull out the window. They’d be 3-0 right now regardless of that damn camera… They’re a great team offensively and defensively. They are a great team and there is a reason why they are where they are. It’s not because of no damn camera.” I think it just goes to show what type of guy Chad Johnson is. He is no Terrell Owens, he’s a classy guy with a sense of humor and a big ego. I like it. Could you imagine, a few years down the road, if the Patriots somehow got Chad, even if it is a monster contract?

Vince Wilfork was fined $12,000 by the league today after a late hit on J.P. Losman in Sunday’s game against Buffalo. Do I think it was fair? Of course. Although I think a majority of quarterback penalty calls are hurting the game, Wilfork’s hit was not cool. It looked like he purposely put his elbow into Losman’s lower leg.

Not too much to report. Interestingly, Tom Brady won the honors for AFC Offensive Player of the Week, after having above an 150 quarterback rating and throwing four touchdowns.

The team also released their initial injury report. The following players had limited participation in practice:
OLB Rosevelt Colvin (ankle)
CB Randall Gay (thigh)
RB Laurence Maroney (groin)
G Stephen Neal (shoulder)
WR Donte’ Stallworth (knee)
WR Kelley Washington (hamstring)
NT Vince Wilfork (shoulder)
S Eugene Wilson (ankle)
G Billy Yates (shoulder)

Lastly, the Patriots released Gemara Williamsfrom the practice squad, and signed Antwain Spann to fill that spot.

With nothing happening the past few days, I thought I’d give a perspective look at Patriots Runningback Laurence Maroney.

I was really rooting for the Patriots to draft Laurence Maroney on draft day 2006.  Every year, I pick a few players that I really want the Patriots to draft.  In 2003, it was Larry Johnson.  In 2004, it was Steven Jackson and Vince Wilfork.  In 2005, it was Mark Clayton.  Last year, it was Laurence Maroney and Stephen Gostkowski.  I never actually thought the Patriots would draft Maroney, but when they did, I gave estatic a new definition.  Shamefully, I admit that I was whooping and running around my living room, as most of New England gave a puzzled look, and asked themselves, “who is this guy?”  I remember watching PVN later that night, seeing the Patriots draft day party, and seeing everyone getting pissed off because they had never heard of the guy.

After Maroney was drafted, people started wondering what would happen between him and Corey Dillon.  Most NFL experts predicted that Maroney would get 5-10 carries a game off the bench.  But after a 15 carry, 125 yard performance against Cincinatti, it was clear that Maroney was the future.  The other question was, how would Corey Dillon take it?  It turned out, that he took it fine, as the two split carries the rest of the way.  But as Maroney’s workload went up, it seemed like his production went down.  He seemed to be getting caught in the backfield, doing too much shifting, and not enough north-south running.

In the offseason, it was learned that is cut-off in production was do to a nagging shoulder injury.  Before the 2007 draft, Maroney got surgery on his shoulder.  Going into training camp, there were big worries about his health and his ability to carry the entire offensive running game.

Maroney wore a red “non-contact” jersey for more than half of training camp, before suiting up on August 24th against the Panthers.  In the preseason contest, Maroney showed flashes, going 11 carries for 44 yards.  Still, that was only the preseason, and he still needed to prove himself once the regular season started.

In the season opener against the Jets, Maroney showed that he could be the feature back, carrying the ball over 20 times for the fisrt time in his career.  And in week this past sunday against the Bills, Maroney proved his worth, running over 100 yards for the second time in his career.  So far this year, LoMo, or Koolaid, has 252 yards on 54 carries, good for a 4.7 ypc average.

Although it is still too early to tell if his career wlill be great, through three weeks of the 2007 season, Maroney looks like he is the man at runningback. 

Another blowout for the Patriots.  Never have I seen a team this dominant.  It’s really fun to watch.

Despite leading 17-7 at half, I didn’t find the game very exciting up to that point.  But in the second half, the game was just fun to watch.

Who’s Stock is Up:

Tom Brady - Another four TD’s.  Completed over 80% again

Randy Moss - 5 rec, 115 yards, 2 tds.  That’s all I need to say.

Wes Welker - Great on punt returns and in the receiving game.

Junior Seau - Absolutely huge game.  He seemed like he was in the backfield every other play.

Mel Mitchell - Nice impact on special teams, making back to back tackles on special teams

Asante Samuel - Not only did he record an interception, he looked like he was making more solid tackles than at the beginning of the year.

Ellis Hobbs- Shut down coverage all day

Randall Gay - Also has shut down coverage all day

Jarvis Green - Was penetrating very well

Laurence Maroney - Strong performance, was also his first 100 yard game of the year

Who’s Stock is Down

Donte Stallworth - Once again was dissapointing, only making one catch that came right to him

James Sanders - One of my favorite players, but he didn’t have a great game, and I can’t only have one guy who was down

Stephen Gostkowski - He’s just looking a little shaky.  I’d like to see him take some longer field goals

Can the Patriots start 3-0?  That’s the big question heading into this week (0bviously).  Although this game seems like it should be a lock to win, I wouldn’t be too quick to put one in the W column.  Buffalo is a tough, underrated team.  They have a decent defense, and a youthful, exciting offense that is led by the most underrated quarterback in the league, J.P. Losman.

Keys to the Game

1. Pick Apart Inexperienced Linebackers - The Bills have a young and inexperienced linebacker core.  They are led at middle linebacker by star rookie Paul Posluszny, and on the outside by inexperienced players Angelo Crowell and Keith Ellison.  If we can tak Poslusnzy out, and run powers over the tackle, we should have success in the running game.  I would also expect Ben Watson to get involved in the passing game again, going out over the middle a lot.

2. Go Deep! - The Patriots have had unusual success going deep this year, and I expect that to continue this week.  I believe the Patriots will look deep towards Stallworth, picking on young safety Jim Leonhard (catching him one on one in deep zones).  Ashton Youboty is pretty solid on the outside (as well as McGee), but I think the Patriots will be able to pentetrate the passing game well.

3. Spy Losman - J.P. Losman is not only underrated, but versatile as well.  He is definately one of the faster quarterbacks in the league, and his speed can make him dangerous.  If the Pats can keep a guy like Adalius Thomas spying Losman, I think we can shut down the passing game, and force the Bills to turn to Marshawn Lynch and the Bill’s running game.

5 Players to Watch - Bills

1. JP Losman, QB

2. Paul Posluszny, MLB

3. Marshawn Lynch, RB

4. Lee Evans, WR

5. Aaron Schobel, DE

5 Players to Watch - Patriots

1. Laurence Maroney, RB

2. Donte Stallworth, WR

3. Ben Watson, TE

4. James Sanders, S

5. Randy Moss, WR

Greg’s Prediction: Patriots 38 Bills 14

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.  Wouldn’t it be funny if the Pats won 38-14 again?  And did you know the Patriots are 16 point favorites?  Crazy…

Mike Reiss’s blog says that the NFL higher ups are cool with what the Patriots have turned over and will destroy everything they surrendered. Looks like the threatened audio-espionage won’t accumulate into anything real. It’s about time we put this to bed. The penalty was too tough anyway, considering that it is just a technicality where the video camera is located. How hard would it be to put it somewhere in the stands? How many thousands of people pass through security and one camera couldn’t pass through?
But we have the Bills ahead of us this Sunday. Back to normalcy for the Patriots, 1:00 start against a lackluser opponent. An easy win it should be but that is why they play the games, no? Lets hope for no first play of the game fumbles by Brady, although with this offensive line I would bet against that. I would like to see Maroney rack up more yards but as long as the rest of the running game produces that doesn’t really matter.
Whatever happens I’ll be there as the Patsblog correspondent bringing back all useful info. 

It’s not too often you see a practice squad signing this big.  Greene, who played with the Georgia Bulldogs in college, and the Seahawks in the NFL, was a third round pick in 2005.  He was cut by the Seahawks a couple of days ago after he had a very dissapointing training camp.

I barely touched on this earlier, but reports are in that Belichick has signed an extension through 2013.  However, the date that the extension was unclear.  It could have easily been before the cheating incident, which it likely was (because I don’t think Kraft would hand Belichick more money after it).  But even if Belichick signed the extension, is he off the hook come offseason?

Found this video today.  I thought it was too funny not to post:

I hope that sends a message to those who doubted us.  To those who said that the only reason the Patriots were winning was because they were stealing signals.  What does a 38-14 win over one of the best teams in the NFL suggest?  That maybe Bill Belichick is a cheater, and a jerk, but he is one heck of a coach.  It shows that the cheating couldn’t have been doing a whole lot (but I am not supporting it).

Coming into this game, the Patriots knew they had something to play for, and they really showed that last night.  It was a game of complete dominance.  The Patriots marched all the way down the field for a touchdown in under three minutes.  Now that will set the tempo.

Some of the more dominating performences were by Adalius Thomas, who controlled the defense and also returned an interception to the house (and boy is he fast); Rosevelt Colvin, who had 5 tackles, 2 sacks, and an interception; Tom Brady, who went 25/31 and three touchdowns; Wes Welker, who had nearly 100 yards on 8 catches; and Randy Moss, who was great once again, making 8 grabs for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Overall, one of the most well played games I have ever seen.