New England Patriots News and Notes (new thread)

[jaypaw]

http://therxforum.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=100090022&f=366092022&m=93010594&r=20210955#20210955

Click this link if you want to read about the injuries and news from the first few games of the season. I started a new thread because all the injury talk was making me sick.

 

[jaypaw]

Their satisfaction guaranteed
Brady, mates feel good about latest victory
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/9/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots won three of their nine games against teams with winning records last season, a figure of which Tom Brady is well aware. That's what was especially satisfying about last Sunday's thrilling 38-30 victory, that it came at the expense of a 3-1 Tennessee team that had beaten Pittsburgh on the road a week earlier.

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"It was a good win," Brady said yesterday. "Because I think it gives the team a lot of confidence that we can go out against the good teams and beat 'em.

"We played better, we ran the ball better, and I think throwing it, guys were in better places. I really think the best football for this team is ahead of us. We're just starting to figure out what we do well, and we're going to try to do those things more often."

New England improved to 1-1 this year against teams above .500. Sunday's opponents, the New York Giants, are 2-2 but as talented as anyone offensively and defensively. The latter is of primary concern to Brady.

"They're a very solid defense," said Brady, ignoring their No. 29 league ranking, including 32d against the pass. "They don't make many mistakes. They're coached very well. They've got solid, tough players, very intense, very hard-hitting. There's no missed assignments. You really have to earn those yards. They don't give you anything out there."

The Giants are coming off a 23-10 home loss to Miami -- New England's opponent next week. After their opening win over St. Louis, the Giants looked as if they could represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. They've lost two of three, however, and folks in New York are losing patience.

"The one thing that [the Giants have] proven is that they play under pressure," Brady said. "A lot of the things that have come out of there haven't been as positive as Giants teams in the past. Whenever that's happened, they seem to turn it around. I think we're going to get their best shot."

Pain in the neck

The Patriots listed 14 players on their injury report. The most alarming, especially in light of Tampa Bay's Mike Alstott going on injured reserve, is Willie McGinest, who also has a neck injury. The linebacker jammed it two weeks ago against Washington, missed the Titans game, and is questionable for the second straight week. Most important, the injury isn't believed to be serious. Ted Johnson (broken left foot) and Ted Washington (broken left leg) will be out for a few more weeks. Mike Vrabel (broken right arm) is doubtful, as is Adrian Klemm (sprained right ankle). Deion Branch (right ankle) is questionable but should play. Daniel Graham is again questionable with an injured right shoulder -- the same one he had surgery on in the offseason. Kevin Faulk (left hamstring), David Givens (chest), David Patten (right knee), Fred McCrary (left knee), and Antowain Smith (left shoulder) are also questionable. Ty Law is listed as questionable with his ailing right ankle, but everyone knows he's more like "definite." Brady is probable with right elbow/shoulder woes. The Giants listed rookie defensive tackle William Joseph (foot) as questionable . . . Belichick said he expects right tackle Kenyatta Jones, on the physically-unable-to-perform list rehabbing from double knee surgery, to begin practicing next week. Guard Stephen Neal (shoulder surgery) has a ways to go before coming off the PUP list, Belichick said.

Time well spent

Belichick and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel spent more time in the Giants organization -- 12 years -- than all but five coaches in the team's 79-year history: Ken Kavanaugh, Ed Kolman, Steve Owen, Mike Pope, and Allie Sherman. "Twelve good years," Belichick said . . . Belichick called David Tyree, the Giants' leader in special teams tackles with six, "probably the best cover player we've faced this year." . . . Giants coach Jim Fassel said he was invited to stay in the Boston area for Sunday night's Sox-Yankees game. "I said, `Naw, I think I gotta come back with the team." . . . Fassel pointed out that the playoff teams from last season are a combined 26-30, while three of the remaining unbeaten teams did not make the postseason a year ago.

 

[jaypaw]

Strahan a giant pain for Patriots
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/9/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- There are compliments, and then there is the compliment Patriots coach Bill Belichick paid Giants left defensive end Michael Strahan yesterday. (Speaking of paid, Strahan reportedly pulled in about $20.6 million last year in salary and bonuses. Hey Mike, can a brother get a loan?)

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Asked whether Strahan, fourth among active players with 97 1/2 career sacks, could have started for the 1986 Giants, Belichick, coordinator of that famed defense, didn't take a moment to consider it. He didn't even repeat the question, which he tends to do before answering the difficult ones.

"Oh, hell yeah," Belichick said. "You kidding me? We didn't have any defensive linemen in his class. Not even close."

"He said that?" Strahan said. "Wow. Now that's the ultimate compliment. Wow. Man. I can't even imagine. That is a huge compliment. Hopefully I can live up to that on Sunday."

Wow is right. The '86 Giants had George Martin at left end. He amassed 96 sacks from 1975 to 1988 (sacks didn't become an official NFL statistic until 1982). Jim Burt was the starting nose tackle, a Pro Bowler that year, and a pretty decent player in his own right. The right end was Leonard Marshall, who ranks fifth in team history with 79 1/2 sacks. And let's not even talk about the linebackers.

Guess this Strahan cat must really be legit.

"He's a load," Belichick said. "He's a load."

(FYI: You can always tell whether Belichick is really sincere by whether or not he repeats himself.)

"He's a smart football player. He's a smart football player," Belichick added. See. "He's one of those guys where you think you can get this on him or that, you think you can run inside, and then you try to run the trap, and then he comes down there and blows the trap up. Then the next play, you think, `He's going to close and we're going to be able to get inside of him,' and he's up the field and he's got you cut off. However, he knows -- whether it's the formation, the recognition of the play, or whatever it is -- he's really a good football player."

What Strahan is is a really big looming headache for New England's right tackle, who as of yesterday was a mystery man. Tom Ashworth, a converted collegiate tight end in his second season, has started the past two games in place of starter Adrian Klemm. Klemm was listed on the injury report as doubtful (25 percent chance of playing) with what was described by a team source as a severe "high-low" right ankle sprain, though there's a decent chance he'll return this week. What timing.

Ashworth already has familiarized himself with Strahan's resume. "All-time single-season sack leader [22 1/2 two years ago]. All-Pro I don't know how many times [a Pro Bowler five of the last six seasons]. He's as good as it gets."

For Tom Brady, Strahan is Patriots' enemy No. 1. "He can terrorize a game," the quarterback said. "He's everything you'd ask for in a player. He's tough. He's strong. He's quick. Rushes the passer. Plays the run great. He's going to be a guy that we have to account for on every play."

At 31 and in his 11th season, Strahan can tell when someone's trying to play him and doesn't get caught up in his own hype. "[The Patriots] are trying to sucker me," he said. "My wife does the same thing when she wants something expensive. That doesn't work. It's not working." Asked about the Rush Limbaugh-Donovan McNabb controversy, Strahan joked, "I think I'm overrated."

He says he doesn't underestimate. Though blessed with speed, power, and instincts -- "He's made a couple of plays instinctively that are some of the best plays I've seen in my career," Belichick said -- Strahan works as diligently during the week scouting opponents as they do analyzing him. He keeps detailed notes on each lineman he faces. He doesn't have any info on Ashworth or Klemm, and though unproven compared with this heavyweight, he says he isn't taking either lightly.

"I don't know if I'm getting Ashworth or Klemm," said Strahan, who has two sacks this season and says he feels no lingering effects from his preseason toe injury. "The difficult part is I have to study for two guys. Whenever you're not familiar with a guy and you haven't played him, you have to study film, you have to trust in what you see and what you know you can do . . . It's like kissing a girl for the first time. You're nervous and you hope it goes well. You never know how the date's going to go."

With proper preparation, Strahan knows he may leave Gillette Stadium with his seventh career three-sack game. "Those are always the guys who do their best against you," he said of the Ashworth/Klemm types. "Those are the guys who a lot of guys fall asleep on, don't study for, don't expect to play well. Whenever you fall into that trap, you're going to get beat. I operate under the fear that this is the game where this guy's going to play lights out. This guy could possibly be an All-Pro. Who knows? Just give him some time. I don't want to make a guy look like an All-Pro against me."

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

[jaypaw]

Patriots vs New York Giants
8 Oct 03 / by New England Patriots
The Patriots will look to continue their strong run of play this week when they welcome the New York Giants to Gillette Stadium. After dropping the season opener, the Patriots have won three of their last four games, including a 38-30 win in a slugfest with the Tennessee Titans last Sunday in Foxborough. New England will try to keep its momentum going this week against a Giants club embarking on a string of five road games in a seven-week span.

The Patriots offense is coming off of its most productive running game (6.0 yards per carry) since the 1998 regular-season finale. The Patriots have run for over 100 yards as a team in four of their five games and last week used three rushing touchdowns to help take out Tennessee. But, the New England ground game will face a hefty challenge in a Giants defense that just last week held Miami's Ricky Williams to just 39 yards on 22 carries (1.8 yards per carry).

On the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots will have to contend with a triple passing threat from the Giants, whose aerial attack ranks sixth in the NFL. Co-leading tacklers Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison (36 stops apiece) will lead the Patriots defense against an offense that features tight end Jeremy Shockey and wideouts Ike Hilliard and Amani Toomer. The Patriots defense has been effective in allowing just two passing touchdowns all season, but it will face a challenging matchup considering the targets quarterback Kerry Collins has at his disposal.

The Patriots and Giants are squaring off in the regular season for just the third time since 1990, and the last three games in the series between the regional rivals have been decided by an average of two points. But the past aside, this game promises to be a tough battle as each team tries to improve their early-season record.

TELEVISION:
This week's game will be televised by FOX. The game can be seen locally on WFXT-TV Channel 25 in Boston. Kenny Albert will handle the play-by-play duties and NFL All-Pro Daryl Johnston will provide analysis. Following the game, the Fifth Quarter postgame show can be seen on WSBK-TV Channel 38 in Boston.

RADIO:
WBCN 104.1 FM is the flagship station for the Patriots Rock Radio Network. Play-by-play broadcaster Gil Santos is in his 27th season as the voice of the Patriots, and calls the action along with Patriots Hall of Famer Gino Cappelletti. In 2003, Santos and Cappelletti celebrate their 20th season as a broadcast tandem.

PATRIOTS VS. NFC
New England is 7-2 in its last nine games against NFC opposition, dating back to the 2001 season. The streak includes the Patriots' Super Bowl XXXVI win over St. Louis. The Patriots have won four of their last five against the NFC, including a 31-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week Two. New England posted identical 3-1 records against the NFC in 2001 and 2002. This season, the Patriots are 1-1 against the NFC, defeating Philadelphia and dropping a nail-biter at Washington in Week Four, 20-17.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Patriots are 7-3 at Gillette Stadium since their new home opened in 2002, including a 2-0 record this season. Including preseason games, the Patriots are 11-3 (.786) all-time at Gillette. The Patriots have won five of their last six home games and are 13-5 (.722) at home since 2001. Foxborough has proven to be a very hospitable place for the Patriots since Robert Kraft purchased the team in 1994. Since that time, the Patriots hold a 65-33 (.663) record at home, including preseason, regular season and postseason games.

SERIES HISTORY
The New England Patriots and New York Giants meet for the seventh time this week. The regular-season series is deadlocked at three games apiece, with the Patriots owning a two-game winning streak, including wins in 1996 and 1999. The series with New York dates back to 1970, the year of the AFL-NFL merger, when the Patriots fell to New York by a 16-0 score at Harvard Stadium. The last two games between the teams have been decided by a total of three points. The Patriots escaped with a 16-14 win in their last meeting in 1999. Before that, New England stole a 23-22 win late in the 1996 season as it rebounded from a 22-3 fourth-quarter deficit at Giants Stadium to clinch a playoff berth. The teams have a deeper history in preseason play, where they have met 14 times, including in a 26-6 Patriots win to open the 2003 preseason on Aug. 7, 2003. Including this year, the teams have met in the preseason opener for three straight seasons.

PATRIOTS 3, GIANTS 3

Date Result +/- Stadium
10/18/70 Giants 16, at Patriots 0 -16 Harvard
09/22/74 Patriots 28, at Giants 20 +8 Yale Bowl
11/08/87 at Giants 17, Patriots 10 -7 Giants Stadium
12/30/90 Giants 13, at Patriots 10 -3 Foxboro
12/21/96 Patriots 23, at Giants 22 +1 Giants Stadium
09/26/99 at Patriots 16, Giants 14 +2 Foxboro


MEMORABLE MATCHUPS
Aug. 15, 1971— The Patriots defeated the Giants 20-14 in the opening preseason game at the old Foxboro Stadium.

Dec. 21, 1996— The Patriots rallied from a 22-3 fourth-quarter deficit to clinch a playoff spot with a 23-22 win at Giants Stadium.

Aug. 10, 2001— New England began its Super Bowl championship season with a 14-0 preseason shutout of the NFC champion Giants.

THE LAST TIME
Patriots 16, Giants 14 – September 26, 1999

New England held off a late Giants charge and held on for a 16-14 win to improve to 3-0 on the 1999 season. The Giants took a quick 7-0 lead in the first quarter, but the Patriots scored 16 unanswered points to take a 16-7 lead with 3:12 left in the game. New York scored a late touchdown on a 1-yard pass from Kent Graham to Tiki Barber, but the Patriots recovered the onside kick and closed out the win.

Drew Bledsoe completed 20-of-28 passes for 233 yards, and running back Terry Allen got the Patriots on the board with a 1-yard touchdown run. Adam Vinatieri was a perfect 3-for-3 on field goal tries, and Terry Glenn was the Patriots' leading receiver with five catches for 95 yards.

TALE OF THE TAPE
2003 Regular Season New England New York
Record 3-2 2-2
Divisional Standings T-2nd T-3rd
Total Yards Gained 1,583 1,394
Total Offense (Rank) 316.6 (18) 348.5 (7)
Rush Offense 116.2 (14) 102.0 (20)
Pass Offense 200.4 (22) 246.5 (6)
Points Per Game 21.8 22.3
Total Yards Allowed 1,614 1,499
Total Defense 322.8 (18) 374.8 (29)
Rush Defense 92.2 (7) 101.3 (13)
Pass Defense 230.6 (24) 273.5 (32)
Points Allowed/Game 21.4 23.0
Possession Avg. 31:25 28:01
Sacks Allowed/Yards Lost 13/96 6/33
Sacks Made/Yards 14/90 15/95
Interceptions By 5 3
Penalties Against/Yards 46/411 37/320
Punts/Avg. 25/40.4 23/43.0
Takeaway/Giveaway Ratio +1 -3


PATRIOTS – GIANTS QUICK HITS
- The Patriots are hosting an NFC East team at Gillette Stadium for the first time.

- In the decades leading up to the founding of the American Football League in 1960, many football fans in New England followed the Giants. New England teams such as the Providence Steam Roller (1925-31), the Boston Redskins (1932-36) and the Boston Yanks (1944-48) folded or moved away, leaving the Giants as the closest NFL team to New England.

- The Patriots have only played the Giants six times before this week. It is the fewest number of meetings the Patriots have had with any non-expansion team. The only NFL teams the Patriots have played fewer times than the Giants are Tampa Bay (5 meetings), Jacksonville (4), Carolina (2), Baltimore (2) and Houston (0).

CONNECTIONS
- Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was on the Giants coaching staff for 12 seasons (1979-90) and was New York's defensive coordinator for its 1986 and 1990 Super Bowl victories.

- Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel (1981-92) and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis (1990-92) each spent time on the Giants coaching staff.

- Patriots inside linebackers coach Pepper Johnson played for the Giants from 1986-92 and was a member of two of the organization's Super Bowl champion teams, 1986 and 1990.

- Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli was born in Washingtonville, N.Y., which is about 60 miles north of New York City.

- Patriots wide receiver David Patten was originally signed as a rookie free agent by the Giants in 1997. He spent three seasons with the Giants (1997-99) and returned 84 kickoffs for 1,724 yards (20.5 avg) and one touchdown.

- Patriots tackle Tom Ashworth and tight end Daniel Graham were one year ahead of Giants rookie center Wayne Lucier at Colorado. Patriots tight end Christian Fauria and linebacker Ted Johnson also played at Colorado.

- Patriots quarterback Tom Brady played in the same class at Michigan as Giants linebacker Dhani Jones. Patriots cornerback Ty Law and Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer also played one year apart at Michigan.

- Patriots safety Je'Rod Cherry's senior year at California was Giants cornerback Kato Serwanga's freshman year.

- Giants cornerback Kato Serwanga was signed as a rookie free agent by the Patriots in 1998, and participated on the practice squad and the active roster that season.

- Patriots quarterback Rohan Davey and defensive lineman Jarvis Green played four years of college football at Louisiana State with Giants safety Ryan Clark.

- Patriots wide receiver David Givens played three years behind Giants tackle Luke Petitgout at Notre Dame.

- Patriots defensive back Antwan Harris' freshman year at the University of Virginia was Giant running back Tiki Barber's senior year.

- Patriots guard Russ Hochstein was one class behind Giants cornerback Ralph Brown.

- Patriots fullback Fred McCrary and Giants safety Johnnie Harris played football together at Mississippi State.

- Patriots rookie cornerback Eugene Wilson played four years of college football with Giants rookie guard David Diehl at Illinois.

- Giants defensive backs coach DeWayne Walker was a Patriots defensive assistant for three seasons (1998-00).

- Giants punter Jeff Feagles was signed as a rookie free agent by the Patriots in 1988 (May 1, 1988).

- Patriots Guard Joe Andruzzi is from Staten Island, N.Y., where he was an offensive and defensive tackle at Tottenville High School.

- Patriots tight end Christian Fauria attended the same high school as New York Giants safety Shaun Williams, Crespi High School in Encino, Calif.

THIS WEEK IN PATRIOTS HISTORY
The Patriots have a 12-13 record in Week Six since the NFL went to the 16-game schedule in 1978. Below are some memorable moments in Patriots history from the week of Oct. 6 – Oct. 12.

Oct. 6, 1996— The Patriots held off a comeback from the Baltimore Ravens to win 46-38 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The teams' 84 combined points that day are the second most in Patriots history and the victory raised the Patriots' record to 3-2 en route to a berth in Super Bowl XXXI.

Oct. 6, 1974— New England crushed the Baltimore Colts 42-3, marking the fourth biggest margin of victory in franchise history. The victory was the fourth in a run of five straight wins to start the 1974 season, the best start in franchise history.

Oct. 8, 1967— In a game moved to San Diego due to the 1967 World Series at Fenway Park, the Boston Patriots and San Diego Chargers fought to a 31-31 tie. It was the ninth tie in franchise history, and the Patriots have not tied a game since. New England is currently working on a 546-game streak without a tie.

Oct. 10, 1993— The Patriots beat the Phoenix Cardinals 23-21 at Sun Devil Stadium to give Bill Parcells his first win as head coach of the Patriots. Ben Coates caught a 2-yard touchdown pass from Scott Secules with 3:56 left in the game to give New England the victory, and Andre Tippett led the Patriots defense with six solo tackles and a pair of sacks.

Oct. 12, 1980— The Patriots rolled to a 34-0 shutout over the Miami Dolphins at Schaefer Stadium. It is New England's widest margin of victory over Miami and one of two shutouts the Patriots own over the Dolphins (the other coming by a 3-0 margin in the “Snow Plow Game” in 1982).

QUICK HITS
- Anthony Pleasant dropped Steve McNair for a 12-yard loss with a sack in the first quarter. It was the 58th sack of Pleasant's career and his first tackle of the season. The 12-yard loss was the greatest loss of yardage on a Patriots sack in 12 games, dating back to when Willie McGinest and Ted Johnson teamed up to tackle Buffalo's Drew Bledsoe for a 14-yard loss on Nov. 3, 2002.

- Steve McNair threw for 391 yards in the losing effort. The Patriots are now 15-2 since 1996 when an opposing quarterback throws for 300 yards or more. McNair was the first quarterback to pass for more than 300 yards against the Patriots since Drew Bledsoe (328) on Dec. 8, 2002.

- The Patriots put up 161 yards rushing against a Tennessee defense which ranked third in the NFL and had given up just 63.3 yards rushing per game entering the game.

- The 161 yards rushing were the most since the Patriots racked up 163 at the New York Jets in a 44-7 win on Sept. 15, 2002.

- Michael Cloud's two rushing touchdowns were the most for the Patriots since Antowain Smith ran for two against Cleveland at Foxboro Stadium on Dec. 9, 2001.

- The Patriots forced their opponents to settle for a field goal on their opening drive for the third straight game.

- Tom Brady completed passes of more than 10 yards to six different receivers.


WHAT A RUSH
1,859

The Patriots projected season rushing yardage total for the 2003 season if they keep up their pace of 116 yards per game.

1995

The last season in which the Patriots ran for over 1,859 yards as a team. That year, New England totaled 1,866 yards in Curtis Martin's rookie season.

6.0

The Patriots' yards-per-carry figure from last week's game against Tennessee.

72

The number of games the Patriots have played since they last averaged 6.0 yards per carry or more, dating back to December 27, 1998.

MOVING ON UP
825

The number of career receptions made by fullback Larry Centers.

7

Centers' rank on the NFL's all-time receptions list.

27

The number of receptions Centers needs to pass Irving Fryar (851) and move into sixth place on the NFL's all-time receptions list.

0

The number of running backs who have caught more passes in their career than Centers.

SEVEN YEARS AND COUNTING
93-63

The Patriots' record in preseason, regular-season and postseason games since 1996 (.596 win pct.).

66-51

The Patriots' regular-season record since 1996 (.564 win pct).

6-3

The Patriots' postseason record since 1996 (.667 win pct.).

21-9

The Patriots' preseason record since 1996 (.700 win pct).

NOT HALF BAD
14

The number of consecutive games the Patriots have won when leading at halftime.

17-1

The Patriots record in their last 18 games in which they have led at halftime.

19

The number of consecutive games the Patriots have won when leading after three quarters.

THE KRAFT ERA
96

The number of consecutive Patriots preseason, regular-season and postseason home games that have been sold out since Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994.

201

The number of consecutive Patriots games that have been televised locally.

65-33

The Patriots record at home since 1994, including preseason, regular-season and postseason games.

11-3

The Patriots record at Gillette Stadium, including preseason and regular-season games (.786 winning percentage).

THIRD DOWN DOMINANCE


3

The number of times the Patriots have held their opponents under 30 percent on third downs this season.

3

The number of times the Patriots held their opponents under 30 percent on third downs all of last season.

9-1

The Patriots record in their last 10 games when holding their opponents under 30 percent on third downs.

TOMMY GUN
33-13

Tom Brady's record as a starting quarterback in the NFL, including preseason, regular-season and postseason games.

.717

Brady's winning percentage as a starter (including all games).

3-0

Brady's career postseason record.

5-0

Brady's career overtime record (including postseason).

MILESTONES


208

The number of punt returns Troy Brown has made in his career.

1

Brown's rank on the Patriots' all-time leading punt returners list. He passed Irving Fryar with his 207th punt return last week against the Titans.

436

The number of receptions Brown has made in his career.

55

The number of receptions Brown needs to move ahead of Ben Coates (490) into second place on the Patriots all-time reception list.

5,053

The number of receiving yards Brown has chalked up in his career.

4

Brown's rank on the Patriots all-time receiving yardage list. He passed Jim Colclough (5,001 yards) last week against the Titans.

62

The number of consecutive games, including the playoffs, that Troy Brown has appeared in which he has at least one reception.

2

Ty Law's rank on the Patriots' all-time interceptions list. He passed the trio of Ron Hall, Roland James and Fred Marion to take sole possession of second place on the all-time list with his 30th career pick against the Titans last week.

2

The number of Patriots in franchise history to record 30 career interceptions (Ty Law and Raymond Clayborn).

7

The number of interceptions Law needs to move ahead of Clayborn (36) to claim the franchise record.

1

Adam Vinatieri's rank on the franchise's all-time field goals list, having kicked 193 successful field goals.

1

Kevin Faulk's rank on the franchise's all-time kickoff returners' list, with 144 returns for 3,309 yards and two touchdowns.

 

[jaypaw]

Pats search for consistency

The Patriots are coming off one of their most satisfying regular season performances in quite some time. Since winning the Super Bowl, their results against top-notch competition haven't been all that impressive. But Sunday's 38-30 win over Tennessee certainly was.

Now the team's challenge switches from proving it can compete with its depleted roster to doing so consistently. That was the challenge laid out by Bill Belichick during his Wednesday press conference when he spoke at length about the need to duplicate the many things that went right against the Titans once again on Sunday when the New York Giants invade Foxborough.

“I think we've shown that we can do some things well at one point or another but it's doing them well on a competitive basis and being consistent,” Belichick said. “It starts with taking advantage of every opportunity you get. It starts on the practice field.

“Instead of having two good days of practice on the field, let's have three. Let's walk off the field where we're having good, consistent practices where we're not dropping balls, we're not missing assignments and we're not in the wrong gaps defensively. Let's have more concentration and focus and communicate better as a unit and eliminate each of those little mistakes so that each time we go out there we play a little better.”

That will be no easy task against the Giants, who boast some of the best skilled position players and a defensive front every bit as physically imposing as Tennessee's. With All-Pro Michael Strahan and Kenny Holmes on the outside and Keith Hamilton and Cornelius Griffin at the tackles, the Giants will pose problems.

But it's also a great place to establish a trend of competing against quality opponents, and despite New York's mediocre 2-2 record, the Giants qualify.

“What we did against Tennessee really doesn't matter now,” left tackle Matt Light said. “The Giants are coming here and if we don't approach this game the same way we won't be able to compete. We have to make sure we focus on our assignments and do what we have to do to be successful.”

The Patriots success against the tough Titans was predicated on strong line play, particularly on offense. They used the Titans aggressiveness against them and opted to run the ball right at the onrushing defensive line. The results were outstanding as the Patriots rushed for the most yards in a game since Week Two of last season.

Despite that success, and the similarities between the Titans and Giants fronts, Belichick indicated the game plan wouldn't necessarily be the same. Matchups and styles are key factors when formulating a plan of attack, and the Giants are different in philosophy.

“We try to do what we need to do to win,” Belichick said. “Obviously we want to be balanced to some degree but depending on how the game goes and a little bit defensively on what we're seeing, that could alter our strategy a little bit. We certainly have plenty of runs and plenty of passes ready to go in the game; how those go and fit once we start running them and the Giants start playing them will be a little bit of a game adjustment situation.”

One reason the Giants front presents some different challenges is Strahan. The three-time All-Pro and former NFL Defensive Player of the Year is one of the most disruptive players in the game. He set the all-time single season sack record in 2001 with 22.5.

But Belichick pointed to his intelligence as his strongest asset. Strahan's ability to read and recognize situations sets him apart from other equally talented defensive linemen, and he'll give young Tom Ashworth plenty to worry about on Sunday.

“He's made plays instinctively that are some of the best plays that I've seen in my career,” Belichick said. “He had one against Washington where the Giants had a blitz on and he was rushing up field and the back didn't take the proper footwork to pick up the blitz and set up too wide. Strahan just made an unbelievable play where he reached past [tackle Jon] Jansen and grabbed [running back Rock] Cartwright to cut [the blitzer Ralph] Brown loose right up the middle to make the sack.

“It was a very unselfish and instinctive play that was almost what you think a coach would do. He's a very smart football player. He's one of those guys where you think he's up the field and you can run inside and trap him and then he comes down and blows the trap up. Then you think he's going close so we'll be able to get outside of him and then he's upfield and has you cut off. However he knows – whether it's the formation, recognition of the play or whatever – he's a good football player.”

Patriots notes

The Patriots injury report remained lengthy, adding two to the list while subtracting one. The newcomers are Antowain Smith and Deion Branch while Damien Woody was removed. That leaves 14 players on the list, nine of which are questionable. The latter group includes Smith (shoulder), Branch (ankle), Kevin Faulk (leg), David Givens (chest), Daniel Graham (shoulder), Ty Law (ankle), Fred McCrary (knee), Willie McGinest (neck) and David Patten (knee). In addition, Adrian Klemm (ankle) and Mike Vrabel (arm) are listed as doubtful while Tom Brady (arm) is probable. Ted Johnson (foot) and Ted Washington remain out. …

Belichick indicated tackle Kenyatta Jones, who is on the physically unable to perform list after undergoing double knee surgery in the offseason, should be ready to practice when he becomes eligible on Monday. Players on PUP are forced to sit out the first six weeks and then are eligible to practice between Weeks Six and Nine. Once they begin practicing, the team then has a 21-day window in order to decide whether or not to activate him.

Despite the strong play of the offensive line in recent weeks, Jones believes he's ready to help. “I feel good, much better than last year. Everything is falling into place and next week we'll be able to find out. Hopefully, I'll be pain-free and I'll be able to focus on what I need to focus on. My knees are not totally fixed all the way; they're going to take a little time for me to keep on rehabbing to make them better so there's a process. It will be better than last year.”

Belichick added that Stephen Neal, who is also on PUP with a shoulder injury, is behind Jones at the moment. …

Johnson was in the locker room during the media period, making his way around with crutches as he joked with teammates. His broken left foot had no cast on it but he clearly was still unable to put much weight on it and is still several weeks away from a return. … Vrabel also was on hand and appeared to have a smaller cast on his broken arm. Initially he expressed a desire to return sooner rather than later, and he's still listed as doubtful, but he'll likely need another week or so before any makeshift protective device can be used to allow him to play.

 

[jaypaw]

They were Branching out
WRs complement the running game
By Joe Burris, Globe Staff, 10/6/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots' 219 passing yards against the Tennessee Titans yesterday were just 16.7 above their average. What made the output exceptional is how well it complemented the running game in New England's 38-30 triumph. Take the efforts of wide receiver Deion Branch, for example.

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The second-year player did not catch a pass in the first half. In the second half, however, three of his five receptions immediately preceded a Patriots rushing touchdown. He finished with a team-high 68 receiving yards on a day when New England's offense outpointed a physical Tennessee defense with several short and midrange passes and one long ball.

That bolstered a Patriot rushing attack that finished with 161 yards.

"We did what we were looking forward to doing, taking shots [downfield], and running the ball," said Branch. "It worked out for us.

"A lot of what we do is more about the game plan. Some games, Coach [Bill Belichick] wants to take shots downfield. There are maybe other games where Coach wants to run something shorter. We can hit them with shorter routes and with the guys we have I'm sure we can get extra yards after the catch."

Branch's second reception of the day went for 18 yards to the Tennessee 1. On the next play, running back Antowain Smith ran the ball in for a touchdown to give the Patriots a 14-13 lead with 9:25 left in the third quarter. His fourth reception was a 7-yarder that took the Patriots to the 1-yard line. Running back Mike Cloud scored on the next play to make it 21-16, New England, with 58 seconds left in the third.

Branch's last reception of the day, his longest, came on third and 18 from the Titans 38. He caught a short pass but avoided cornerback Tony Beckham and turned it into a 23-yard gain. On the next play, Cloud scored on a 15-yard run to make the score 31-27, Patriots.

"When we see that our defense is tired and they've been out on the field all day, and then a guy goes and kicks a field goal or scores, then our thing is, `Look, man, we can't let them do our teammates like that,' " said Branch. "We say, `We have to go down and do the same thing.' That's our motive."

The first touchdown that immediately followed a Branch catch came on the first drive of the second half; the next two followed a Tennessee field goal and a touchdown.

Then there was the team's big pass play of the day: a 58-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Troy Brown that gave the team a 7-6 lead. It was the second longest of Brady's career and tied for the third-longest completion of Brown's career. It was also the longest pass play for the Patriots since wide receiver David Patten threw a 60-yard touchdown to Brown at Indianapolis Oct. 21, 2001.

"The safety just came down and squatted, I happened to run by him, and the same thing I saw, Tom saw, and he just put it up," said Brown. "Right down the seam, Tom laid it out there perfect. That was big, it gave us confidence. We played our game. We ran the ball well and we made plays when we had to make them."

Brown finished with two catches for 64 yards and the touchdown. Though he has had some exceptional games in the past, Branch admitted that as a second-year player, there is still much he's learning about the game. But, he said, "working with Troy and David and Tom, those leaders, they force me to develop a lot faster."

 

[jaypaw]

Cloud nine
Patriots take great joy in belting Tennessee
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/6/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- While the Red Sox were "cowboying up" at Fenway Park yesterday, the Patriots were "knuckling up" at Gillette Stadium. That was their unofficial rallying cry last week. That is to say New England wasn't going to back down against one of the league's hardest-hitting teams. The Patriots came looking for a fight with the intention of taking it to Tennessee the way the Titans took it to them last December.

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Truth is, the Patriots took personally all the chatter about how physical Tennessee is. They didn't enjoy having folks come into their 'hood and remind them of how badly they'd been beaten (24-7) in Nashville. It's no wonder, then, the Patriots couldn't wait to catch the Titans on the block.

"They beat the [expletive] out of us last year," guard Damien Woody said. "The only way to put that away was to go out and return the favor."

The Patriots' 38-30 win was not pretty. Entertaining, perhaps, but not pretty. New England's offensive linemen were supposed to get overpowered. Instead, boosted by Woody's return, they handled Tennessee's talented defensive front to the tune of 161 rushing yards. Meanwhile, the Patriots' wounded defense shut down Eddie George and chased Steve McNair as if he had stolen something. And safety Rodney Harrison knocked guys around as though he had been involved in last year's loss.

Don't get it twisted. The Titans didn't just sit there and take it. The game featured seven lead changes. But in the end, after a fast and furious fourth quarter in which the teams combined to score 31 points, the Patriots were the last ones standing, improving to 3-2.

"All week, that's all we heard was how physical they were," said Harrison, who made a team-high 11 tackles, including a third-quarter hit that left Titans tight end Shad Meier with a concussion. "It was up to us to go out there and match their intensity. Going out there, one-on-one, and just knuckling up with those guys. They have a good team, a very tough team, but our guys played with a lot of heart and a lot of passion."

Perhaps no Patriot displayed more heart than Ty Law. Playing for the second week in a row with a severely sprained right ankle, Law was on the sideline for much of the second half but talked his way back in time to jack McNair's pass intended for Tyrone Calico and limp 65 yards with it for a touchdown that put New England ahead, 38-27, with 1 minute 49 seconds to go.

The Titans added a 41-yard field goal by Gary Anderson, but Christian Fauria recovered the ensuing onside kick.

"I looked at [Law] and I told him, `I know why you're the best,' " Harrison said. "To hurt his ankle and make a play like that to seal the victory, that was huge. And that just shows what type of player Ty Law is."

No one had a clue what type of runner Mike Cloud would be in his first game since last season. But Cloud, suspended for the first four games of this season for violating the league's substance abuse policy, came off the bench late in the third quarter in relief of Antowain Smith (16 carries, 80 yards, 1 touchdown before leaving with a stinger) and contributed 73 yards on seven attempts, including a 1-yard plunge in the third that put New England ahead, 21-16, a 42-yard jaunt early in the fourth that set up Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal (24-19, Patriots), and a 15-yard touchdown (set up by rookie Bethel Johnson's 71-yard kickoff return) that gave the Patriots the lead for good, 31-27, with a little over three minutes to go.

Cloud, a former standout at Portsmouth (R.I.) High and Boston College whom the Patriots added to the active roster Saturday afternoon, underwent calf surgery in August and started running "two and a half, three weeks ago." Unable to practice while on suspension, he was restricted to agility work "in a little closed room in Boston . . . I think the farthest I ran was maybe 20 yards the whole time."

The Patriots ran for 161 yards, their most in 19 games, against a run defense that came in ranked third in the league. Tennessee had yielded an average of 3 yards per carry in its first four games. The Patriots gained 6 a pop. "They ran us out of here," Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck said.

New England's defense, short no fewer than five regulars, held Tennessee to 70 rushing yards on 27 attempts. Last December at The Coliseum in Nashville, Tennessee ran through, around, and over the Patriots for 238 yards.

"That was the challenge that was put before us," Smith said. "All week we heard about how physical Tennessee is up front. [The coaches] challenged the offensive linemen and the running backs to go out there and play hard. The offensive line established that from the first play from scrimmage and they kept that edge on all game long."

New England still has its ongoing battle with the injury bug, and in the coming weeks, the Giants, Dolphins, Browns, and Broncos will try to get a few licks in while the Patriots are vulnerable.

That they are, but they're anything but pushovers.

"We have heart in here," linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. "We're going to play tough. No matter who's in there, they're going to get the job done. That's what I've been saying the last few weeks. To you guys, I'm sure it's just something where I'm trying to keep the faith. But it's what I believe. We're a tough team."

 

[jaypaw]

Brady pleased to pass out praise
Line, receivers get the accolades
By Joe Burris, Globe Staff, 10/6/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Normally, it's the running backs who offer unyielding praise to the offensive line. Following the Patriots' 38-30 triumph over Tennessee yesterday, New England quarterback Tom Brady made it a point to get his accolades in.

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"I think the offensive line doesn't get as much credit as they deserve, ever, but I think they're doing a great job," said Brady, who completed 17 of 31 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown yesterday. He engineered an offense that averaged 6 yards per rush -- its most productive output since a game against the New York Jets at the Meadowlands Dec. 27, 1998.

The Patriots also had 10 passing first downs and converted on six of 12 third-down attempts.

Yet Brady insisted the credit shouldn't start with him. Rather, he said, it should begin with a line that has done well improvising because of injury.

"They're shuffling from place to place," said Brady. "Damien Woody, he has gone from center to guard and made a transition. Dan Koppen [starting at center] is playing great. He's doing an unbelievable job. [Left tackle Matt] Light is steady and [left guard] Joe Andruzzi is probably the toughest guy on the team.

"You can't say enough about those guys," Brady added. "They really make this team go and this offense go, and when they play well it seems we play well. They are doing awesome."

Brady's longest completion of the day -- and the season -- was a 58-yard touchdown pass to Troy Brown that gave New England a 7-6 lead with a minute left in the first quarter. It marked the first time the Patriots had scored an offensive touchdown in the first quarter since doing so twice against Buffalo at Gillette Stadium Dec. 8, 2002. It also marked the first time Tennessee had allowed a touchdown in the first quarter in 10 games.

"Troy did a great job," said Brady. "He had a safety on him. He kind of shook him inside and then got to the right side. I just laid it up there and Troy ran it down and made a great catch and a great run."

Though it was his only touchdown, Brady's passing set up the team's three rushing touchdowns.

The game was a far cry from last season's between the teams, when the Titans beat New England, 24-7, in Nashville. In that game, Brady scored his first rushing touchdown of the season but had a third-quarter interception returned for a 24-yard touchdown. He completed 14 of 29 passes for 134 yards.

"I think we really looked at that game, and going into [last] week, we cut back on a lot of things we do just because we wanted to do the plays that we run best and do them more often," said Brady. "And, like Charlie [Weis, offensive coordinator] said earlier in the week, `This is a physical team and a team we have to be decisive with and run quick routes and make quick reads and good throws and make run-after-the-catch plays.' "

Brady had more kind words for others yesterday. He lauded running back Mike Cloud, whom he called "quick as a cat," and praised his two-touchdown effort after having been out for four weeks. He pointed out wide receiver Deion Branch's great catch on a Titans blitz that set up Cloud's second score.

He also gave kudos to quarterbacks coach John Hufnagel, who Brady said has helped the signal-callers understand "where we can miss, and where we can't miss."

Last week, Brady said he was upset with his decision-making in the team's 20-17 loss to the Washington Redskins. He said yesterday that throughout practice he had a sense the offense's decision-making was better and that it would carry over into yesterday's game.

"The players felt good," said Brady. "We went into this game really feeling that we knew what we were going to do. We were confident in the scheme, we were confident in the approach, and it turned out that we went out there and executed. It wasn't all perfect, but to beat a good Tennessee team like that . . . is a good win."

 

[jaypaw]

He pounded home a point
Smith set tone on the ground
By Michael Vega, Globe Staff, 10/6/2003

When he was tabbed to start at running back for the injured Kevin Faulk, Antowain Smith was prepared to duke it out in a back-alley brawl against the Tennessee Titans. After all, Patriots coach Bill Belichick had drilled his players all week that the Titans would be the most physical team New England likely would face this season.

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And so, Smith spent all week polishing his game and his knuckles.

It was precisely the kind of rugged game he relished.

"Oh yeah, that's my cup of tea, man," Smith said, smiling as he dressed in the Patriots' locker room following yesterday's 38-30 triumph before a Gillette Stadium crowd of 68,436. "For me, that's the way I want to play, anyway. You know, running downhill, smashmouth. Our offensive line and myself and Mike [Cloud] came out and set the tempo a little bit."

Smith established that workmanlike ethic on the Patriots' first play from scrimmage, ripping off a bruising 19-yard run to the Tennessee 24. Entering the game, Smith had carried 45 times for 143 yards (3.2 yards per carry) to rank as the team's second-leading rusher behind Faulk (44 carries, 176 yards, 4.0 average). Smith's previous long gain had been a carry of 14 yards, but he bettered it by 5 yards the first time he touched the ball.

"From there," Smith said, "once we got into the groove, it seemed like everything we were running was working for us."

And while New England's rushing attack had done nothing this season to inspire fear and loathing from the opposition, averaging 105.0 yards in the first four games, Smith yesterday provided the Patriots' running attack with all the punch it needed to soften up the Titans, whose rushing defense (63.3 yards per game) ranked third in the league.

Smith, who sat out the last 20 minutes of the game after reportedly getting the wind knocked out of him in the third quarter, rushed 16 times for a team-high 80 yards (5.0 average) and scored his first TD of the season on a 1-yard plunge that enabled the Patriots to rally from a 13-7 halftime deficit to a 14-13 lead in the third quarter.

Combined with Cloud's impressive debut (seven carries, 73 yards, two TDs), Smith helped the Patriots record their most productive rushing effort (27 carries, 161 yards, 6.0 yards per carry) since averaging 6.0 yards per carry in a 130-yard effort five years ago against the New York Jets in the Meadowlands.

"Like I said, the guys up front, they were doing a good job," Smith said. "Any time they got me at least to the line of scrimmage, the rest was on me to make up the other yards."

Smith effectively pounded the Titans, running hard between the tackles, before Tennessee gained its revenge when Rocky Calmus and Keith Bulluck -- two of the Titans' hardest hitters -- knocked Smith out of the game after a 2-yard gain with about 4:50 left in the third. Although it was reported he had had the wind knocked out of him, Smith was spotted on the bench working his left shoulder.

Afterward, Smith said he was fine, winding up his left arm in windmill fashion for effect. However, Smith's 16th carry of the day proved to be his last. He gave way to Cloud, the former Boston College standout who made the most of his debut in a Patriots uniform after serving a four-game NFL suspension.

"Oh, he was very, very impressive," Smith said of Cloud. "We needed Mike Cloud out there today. When his number was called, he stepped up, he was well prepared, and he went out there and made plays for us. And that's what we're going to continue to have to have."

Asked if he tried to lobby his coaches to let him back in the game, Smith said, "I was trying to go back in, but Mike was in there doing such a good job, you couldn't take him out. I'm just glad that it happened that way; that he had an opportunity to get in there his first game back and make such a good impression."

Smith, though, seemed to delight in the impressions he made at the outset on Tennessee's defense.

"All week, we had been hearing how physical Tennessee was, and they truly are after watching them on film," Smith said. "But we came out and were up for the challenge and just had to meet force with force and make good things happen."

Suffice it to say, the challenge was met.

 

[jaypaw]

Runner bursts onto the scene
By Ron Borges, Globe Columnist, 10/6/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Boston College football coach Tom O'Brien was watching The Weather Channel yesterday when a reporter he was talking with suggested he might want to switch stations. When he did, everything he saw was partly Cloudy. "I just saw him score," O'Brien said an instant after his former running back, Mike Cloud, faked Tennessee Titans safety Lance Schulters out of his shoes by making a sharp inside cut on his way to his second touchdown of the day, a 15-yard run that gave the Patriots the lead to stay in a gutsy 38-30 victory at Gillette Stadium.

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"He just made some guy miss like he used to do here," O'Brien said, and indeed he had. It was an unusual run on a most unusual afternoon in New England, one in which the crowd of 68,436 cheered when the Titans took the lead back late in the game because it happened to coincide with the Red Sox getting the lead back from the Oakland A's in the American League Division Series. As unexpected as it was to hear cheering at such a moment, it was no less surprising than the day Cloud put together, because when it began he wasn't expected to do much more for the Patriots than he'd been doing since August -- sitting around watching them play.

The former BC All-American has felt like he was under a dark cloud ever since he signed a free agent contract June 23. Since then, he has injured a calf so badly it had to be surgically repaired and served a league-imposed four-game suspension after testing positive for the banned steroid, Nandrolone. According to Cloud, the substance was, unknown to him, in a food supplement he was taking last season. But the NFL makes no exceptions. You are responsible for what is inside your body, it says, and because of that, Cloud has been responsible for little more than himself since mid-August.

That was the way it was until five days ago, at least, when he finally was activated because of a hamstring injury to running back Kevin Faulk. With only four days of practice in two months, little was expected of him but to provide insurance until Antowain Smith left the game with a slight shoulder injury in the third quarter. Not long after that, coach Bill Belichick cashed in that policy and Cloud broke off a 17-yard gain on his first official carry as a Patriot. It was a run like many he'd made at BC, where he is the school's all-time leading rusher and piled up 1,726 yards as a senior in 1998.

Yet few of his teammates knew what to expect of him when the day began. Few knew, but at least one had a pretty good idea.

"I knew what he was capable of," said Cloud's former BC teammate, guard Damien Woody. "He rushed for almost 2,000 yards in college. He can make some things happen."

Yesterday, Cloud made a lot of things happen, rushing for 73 yards and two scores on just seven carries, an average of 10.4 yards per touch. He was not the only back with running room, however. Smith piled up 80 yards on 16 rushes before a pinched nerve sent him to the sideline in the third quarter and freed Cloud to break into the sunlight.

The Patriots put together their best rushing game of the season and most productive one since the second game last year, piling up 161 yards on the ground to make the point they most wanted to make to the Titans from the opening snap to the final one.

"That's what the plan was from Wednesday," Woody said. "Coach said, `We're going to run the ball.' OK, then we're going to run the ball. That makes an offensive lineman smile. It's like being at a buffet looking at the menu. What can I have next?"

What Woody had much of the time was a diet of Cloud cutback runs, the best of which was a 42-yard burst behind a Woody block on his first carry of the fourth quarter. About eight minutes later, Cloud cut past Schulters and into the end zone, from where he leapt into Woody's arms just like they were back at Boston College.

"It was a basic trap play," Cloud said. "I saw the left side open up. I saw the end zone and the safety was there. I just had to make him miss and then I beat him. It was just a reaction thing."

That was what made his day most remarkable. That he could react at all after not having been on a football field for two months was utterly unexpected because while his teammates had been working on fine-tuning their timing, he had been in a room in Boston trying to fine-tune his calf. Judging by the results, running backs around America soon will be locked up in tiny rooms far from their teammates doing agility drills in silence.

"Nothing, really," Cloud said when asked what he had done to simulate game situations during his long absence from the practice field. "I did a bunch of rehab and just a bunch of agility work, footwork and stuff, in a little closed room up in Boston. There was no real football activity at all, really. I think the farthest I ran was 20 yards the whole time."

Cloud more than doubled that on one run and gained more yardage in half a game than he'd gained in an entire season in Kansas City two years ago. Whether this is a sign of things to come or merely a one-day excursion at the expense of injured teammates, no one can say. But there is one thing Cloud was sure of. He was sure this day had gone the way he dreamed it might.

"I had some ambitions," Cloud said. "As I go to bed at night, I think of myself doing some great things. You know, going into the game I felt confident that if I got the opportunity to run, with all that I did, I would do well."

In the end, Cloud did better than expected. Better than his team could have expected. Better than Woody could have expected. Better even, frankly, than he could have expected.

"It feels like old times," Cloud said. "This is the first time I've been in front of a podium since I was at Boston College. It feels real good."

It felt good to a lot of people, most notably quarterback Tom Brady, who for once did not have to see the passing game alone move New England's offense downfield. For one of the few times in the past several years, the Patriots were balanced, passing 31 times for 219 yards and rushing 27 times for 161. It was the kind of joint effort that allowed a team with eight starters in street clothes to more than match up with one of the AFC's most physical teams and, frankly, run over it.

"This isn't something we'll get over quick because other teams will see the same film and think they can stick any guy out there and run on us," said downcast Titans defensive end Jevon Kearse. "It doesn't matter if it's Mike Cloud or Mike Scow. It doesn't matter. You have to do a good job tackling."

The Titans didn't do that yesterday and the main reason was a Cloud who stepped out of the shadows and ran to daylight at their expense.

"They ran us out of there," said Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck. "Mike Cloud did a great job for them. He hit some holes and made some plays."

Just like the old days, when Tom O'Brien would be watching him the whole game instead of watching The Weather Channel.

 

[jaypaw]

Shifting positions is a boom
Patriots value versatility of players such as Wilson
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/8/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Going into April's draft, the Patriots needed a nose tackle. And they got one. Sort of.

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Looking back on April's draft, one wonders where New England's defense would be today without the safety it selected. Sort of.

New England picked Eugene "Gino" Wilson, a cornerback out of Illinois, with the fourth selection of the second round and the 36th overall. It took a lot of maneuvering and more luck to make him a Patriot. The Patriots, who claim they had Wilson next on their draft board when it came time to make the 19th overall pick, traded the choice to Baltimore for a first-rounder next year and the ninth pick of the second round. They then traded that second-round pick, along with a third-rounder they got from Washington, to Houston for the 36th pick and a fourth-rounder, some defensive lineman/linebacker/fullback named Dan Klecko. That's value.

The Patriots also found it in center Dan Koppen, the fifth-rounder from Boston College whose steady play allowed the Patriots to move Damien Woody to guard and withstand the loss of left guard Mike Compton. Asante Samuel, drafted three spots after Klecko, has been a pleasant surprise. Second-round receiver Bethel Johnson has had his moments. The aforementioned pseudo nose tackle, top choice Ty Warren, drew his first start Sunday against the Titans at tackle in the 4-3. (He lined up over the center.)

But through five games, Wilson clearly has been the class of the Patriots' '03 draft class. He turned heads as a corner during training camp, but after the opening-day loss to Buffalo, the Patriots turned him into a safety. Four starts and three wins later, they haven't turned back.

While Wilson isn't an All-Pro and might not even be All-Rookie, the kid's all right. He's holding his own and holding the opposition down. Sunday, he made seven tackles (all solo stops) for the second consecutive week and made two deflections of Steve McNair passes in the first quarter, one of which saved a touchdown. The other was an over-the-top knockdown that showed those "ball skills" Bill Belichick spoke about on draft day.

When he was drafted, the plan was for Wilson some day soon to step in for a relatively aging, expensive veteran. That veteran turned out to be Lawyer Milloy. Wilson might not be Milloy, but he is OK. And OK for a rookie playing out of position isn't bad.

The freedom of the position isn't half bad, either, Wilson said.

"You're able to roam around, kind of freely, read the quarterback," said Wilson, who intercepted his first pass against the Bills. "You're pretty free back there. Guess that's why they call it free safety."

Belichick said: "I think Gino's made solid progress as a safety. He still has a long way to go; it's only four games. He's defended the deep part of the field pretty well, he's done a pretty good job of tackling, hasn't had a lot of mental errors, communications breakdowns back there. That being said, there's still room for improvement. Overall, I think it's been a very consistent performance, and he's worked well with Rodney [Harrison]."

Wilson and Harrison worked together in a different capacity over the summer, before Wilson's promotion. Harrison and Milloy used to give Wilson the secondary calls. Now Wilson is giving orders, which requires him to give more of his time to his weekly preparation.

Wilson, who stands 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 192 pounds, wasn't exactly prepared for the switch; he never had played safety. But in the week leading up to the Jets game, the Patriots decided to replace Antwan Harris with Wilson to combat New York's three-receiver package. They saw enough to start him again the next week, and the next week, and the next week . . .

So is Wilson a safety now? Permanently?

"We drafted him as a corner," Belichick said. "I think he can definitely play corner. But I think right now he's doing a good job for us at safety, and we need that."

Toward the end of Sunday's game, the Patriots needed Wilson to return to his roots when Ty Law's ailing ankle started to act up. One of the advantages of the move was that if teams go to multiple-wide formations, Wilson could come down and cover man to man if necessary.

"From time to time I have to go to corner, so I have to keep that mind-set," Wilson said.

It blew Titans coach Jeff Fisher's mind to see film of Wilson manning half the field in New England's Cover 2 scheme.

"I would not have thought that Eugene Wilson would play free safety in this league after watching him play corner at Illinois," Fisher said. "I was very impressed with his corner skills. It kind of shows you what they are able to do with players with ability. He's come in and he's done a nice job for them."

There's no doubt Wilson is instinctive and can cover. The true test comes when he has to make open-field tackles against the likes of Ricky Williams without the aid of a sideline.

"For the most part, I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job tackling," said Wilson, who has 18 stops, 15 solo. "I missed a big one [Sunday], and [Derrick] Mason kind of ran upfield with it. Besides that, I feel like I've been doing a pretty good job tackling."

Guess you could say he's a hit. . . .

The Patriots re-signed fullback Fred McCrary, who had been released Saturday to make room for Michael Cloud on the active roster, and released safety/special teamer Aric Morris, likely after reaching an injury settlement. Morris, who Belichick said hurt a foot against Tennessee, was leading the team in special teams tackles with eight and had an interception against the Eagles. McCrary hasn't played since the Philadelphia game (knee) and should be active Sunday when the Patriots play the Giants at Gillette Stadium. . . . The Patriots also worked out running back Deon Dyer of the University of North Carolina . . . Former Patriots running back Robert Edwards had a tryout with the Panthers.

 

[jaypaw]

There's a catch with Brown
Receiver wants a bigger role
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/7/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Troy Brown isn't going to go and get himself on the news by throwing tantrums on the sideline. Nor is he likely to publicly berate his quarterback. And, as far as we know, he isn't an aspiring author, so he probably isn't working on his version of "Get Me The Damn Ball."

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But Brown is still a receiver. And they all grow unhappy at some point. For Brown, that point is now. The cocaptain and longest tenured Patriot leads the team in receptions with 18 (one more than Deion Branch and Larry Centers) but isn't satisfied with his role in the offense. At his current pace, he would finish with 58 catches for 618 yards, which would be his lowest totals since 1999 (36 for 471).

Brown caught seven passes against both the Redskins and Eagles but just one against both the Bills and Jets and only a pair Sunday against the Titans, one of which was a 58-yard touchdown. His other reception, for 6 yards, came with about eight minutes to go in the first half. He was the target of two Tom Brady passes in the third quarter and that was it. On the other hand, Branch, last year's second-round pick whom some in the organization view as a future Pro Bowler, caught five passes for 68 yards in the second half, also known as crunch time and known around here as Brown time.

The rest of the league is hip, thus the frequent double teams on Brown. It's unclear whether he is miffed at offensive coordinator Charlie Weis for his play-calling or Brady for his reads, which have led him away from Brown.

"I only do what I'm allowed to do," Brown told the Providence Journal after the game. "They call it, I catch it. They don't call it, I can't catch it. I can only catch what they throw. I can only catch what they call and only run what they call."

Yesterday Brown would only add: "We won the game, so I'm happy. But any skill player that doesn't want the ball has problems."

Brown, for years thought to have lacked the size and speed to be a No. 1 receiver, has been just that for the Patriots since 2000. He caught 83 passes that year, set a team record with 101 grabs in 2001, and had 97 last year despite a knee injury that kept him out of the fourth and fifth games and slowed him the rest of the season. He turned 32 last summer. New England clearly has an eye toward the future, having drafted receivers in the second round the past two springs.

"I'm looking at it as bottom-line production," coach Bill Belichick said. "I understand every skill player wants the ball. Every receiver wants to catch 10 passes, every running back wants 25 carries, and all that. What I'm concerned about is how we're moving the ball, how effective, and whether we score enough points to win. As much as I'd like to see everybody lead the league in all the statistical categories, it's never going to be possible. I don't think we'd go into a game saying, `This guy's got to catch eight for 90,' and go out there and get beat. I just can't see it that way."

Kicking himself

Adam Vinatieri attempted to explain the unexplainable: his missing twice Sunday from inside 40 yards (34 and 39). "The first one I just didn't hit very good. I mis-hit and it was ugly," said the kicker, who connected from 48 yards in the fourth quarter. "The second one I was playing a little more of the wind and it just didn't move a whole lot. I pushed it just a hair farther right than I wanted to, but I wasn't as disappointed in that one because I hit it pretty good. Unfortunately it didn't go where I wanted it to. Ultimately a miss is a miss is a miss." . . . Belichick reported that reserve safety/ special teamer Aric Morris injured a foot. "We're looking at that," the coach said. "Everybody else is in the normal after-the-game-soreness category." . . . This afternoon, from 4 to 6, Brown, Rohan Davey, Richard Seymour, Willie McGinest, Daniel Graham, Antowain Smith, Je'Rod Cherry, Ty Warren, Damien Woody, and the Patriots cheerleaders are scheduled to participate with 80 members of the Mattapan Pop Warner team in the United Way "Hometown Huddle" football clinic at Almont Park in Mattapan.

 

[jaypaw]

Ignoring pain is Law's game
Cornerback's grit a credit to his sport
By Ron Borges, 10/7/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- As the Patriots' Ty Law ran down the sideline Sunday with a pilfered pigskin under his arm, he was a powerful symbol of the difference between football players and baseball players.

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Baseball players, and their many defenders in this town, spend a lot of time talking about what they can't do because of their various infirmities. A blister and they can't perform the functions of the game, they say. Sometimes that is true. Sometimes one has to wonder.

Ask most pitchers to go to work on three days of rest and you'd think you were asking them to unload 10 tons of sheetrock on an August afternoon. Love to but can't do it. Too sweaty.

To a baseball player, playing hurt is having to leave the air-conditioned clubhouse to go out into the afternoon sun and take batting practice.

There is a clear exception to this mind-set in these parts, by the way, and his name is Trot Nixon. It's probably no coincidence that the Red Sox' right fielder was a heavily recruited high school quarterback who could have gone to any ACC or SEC school if he was willing to give up baseball in favor of college football. He chose baseball, but he hasn't lost the football mentality, which is why Nixon gimped his way out to bat Saturday night with a bad calf and golfed a home run to beat the Oakland A's in dramatic fashion.

That brings us back to Law. He is one of the best cornerbacks in football. He is a man who makes his living with his hands, his head, and most of all his legs. He plays a position where the most basic need is the ability to move and change direction. Not even the most die-hard baseball fanatic could argue that the ability to run isn't essential to perform the job Law is assigned each Sunday.

Yet he nearly broke his ankle three weeks ago against the New York Jets when a goodly sized human being rolled over his leg. Since that time his ankle has been nowhere near normal. It has been heavily taped and he has swallowed Ibuprofen tablets big enough for Secretariat to have gotten some relief from.

Yet he came back into the game against the Jets and ran stride for stride with Santana Moss, New York's fastest wide receiver, late in the game when the Patriots needed their best cover man on the field. A week ago, with so many of his teammates down with the kind of injuries that require crutches, casts, or surgery, Law knew his team was shorthanded so he never even considered not playing against the Washington Redskins.

He was hurt, to be sure. But he was not injured. And so he played. He did not go to Florida for eight weeks of rehab for a broken finger. He didn't take a month off to stretch his obliques. He didn't go on the disabled list because of an ear infection. He played football.

Anyone who wants to try and make a case that a broken finger is a more serious injury to a batter than a torn up ankle that is now multi-colored and twice its normal size is to a cornerback need read no further. Such a person simply has accepted the baseball way -- which is to refuse to accept what Law long ago agreed with.

"You can play hurt," Law said. "You can't play when you're injured but you can play when you're hurt. The difference is when you're hurt you've just got to deal with the pain. It's the kind of injury where it's not going to get worse. It's just going to hurt. I've always been able to deal with pain."

If anyone thought otherwise they need only to have watched Law Sunday after he talked his way back into the Tennessee game as the Titans were driving toward a go-ahead touchdown. Law had been pulled for much of the second half at the insistence of the Patriots' medical staff. They told coach Bill Belichick Law was no longer available because of his ankle.

Law told Belichick he could play, however, and insisted he be put back in the game. Belichick asked for assurances that he could perform. He demanded to know if he could run and cut well enough to play Cover 2 pass defense.

Law said his ankle didn't feel any worse than it had when the game started or when he covered Redskins receiver Laveranues Coles all over the field the previous Sunday or when he was running with Moss.

So Law went back into the game and in an instant jumped an out route by Titans rookie wide receiver Tyrone Calico and picked off Steve McNair's pass. For Law to do that he had to react immediately and then break on the ball, meaning he had to put tremendous force on that sore ankle when he pushed off.

Law made the play and returned the interception 65 yards for a touchdown. As he pounded down the sideline, there was no hint of a limp -- not at first. Law refused to acknowledge what his body had to be feeling until he was sure no one could catch him. Only then, around the 15-yard line, did a limp suddenly appear. If you think his ankle only started hurting then you must really believe it takes eight weeks to recover from a broken finger or that pitching on three days of rest is no easier than playing four quarters on a broken ankle, like Rush Limbaugh's favorite quarterback, Donovan McNabb, did a year ago.

Think McNabb's ankle is at all involved in the performing of the functions of his game? Think Law's was as he was covering some of the fastest men on the planet the last three weekends? Somehow those guys got through it. Why could they do what baseball players seem collectively unable to do? Because that is the culture of their sport.

Injury is not an acceptable reason for defeat, as the Patriots proved when they beat a very good Tennessee team despite having eight starters out. Being hurt is not an acceptable reason not to play, not in pro football at least. In the NFL, pain is part of the job. One tolerates it rather than gives in to it because one's peers do not accept anything less. Sure the requirements of the sports are different. Most certainly a pitcher will find it near impossible to throw the ball with a bloody blister on his hand.

But there is more than a difference in the games that separates football players from baseball players. There is also a difference in what teammates are willing to accept and what players are willing to do. Football players play with pain and in pain. At times, they even play injured as well as hurt, the difference being with the former they risk further injury to stay in the game.

One of baseball's most historic plays involves the merging of the two mind-sets. It is stoic Kirk Gibson coming to pinch hit for the Dodgers in the 1988 World Series and stroking a walkoff home run despite standing on a leg so painful it could barely hold him upright. No matter how many times you watch the replay of Gibson limping from base to base, pumping his fist into the air and then toward the ground, you have the same reaction.

There is the essence of the challenge of sport. To rise above yourself and do what others cannot.

It is no accident that the player who did that for the Dodgers was an All-American football player. Gibson did what Law has done for three straight Sundays. He did what most baseball players seldom do today because no one expects them to. He ignored pain and even injury and played on.

Sunday what it means to be a pro football player was on full display when Law ran down the sideline with an insurance touchdown. He was not 100 percent when he made that play. Not anywhere close. Yet he ran without a limp on a blown-out ankle until he was sure no one would catch him. Then, and only then, did he let the pain take over. Then, and only then, Ty Law limped.

At a time when we hear much about coddled athletes unwilling to pay the price or to do all they should to earn their pay, he was living, limping proof that such criticism doesn't apply to everybody.

 

[jaypaw]

Took a week off cause I had to have a baby and buy a house


Patriots beat odds, foes
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/21/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Because they must, they believe in one another when none of us will. Because they're human, excuse them if they, too, are in a state of disbelief. Mild disbelief.

Miami's Olindo Mare is the second-most-accurate placekicker in NFL history. Only twice in 201 career attempts prior to his 35-yard try with two minutes to go in Sunday's game at Pro Player Stadium had the Dolphins kicker had a field goal blocked. But the Patriots' Richard Seymour defied the odds and knocked down Mare's attempt. And prior to his second attempt from 35 yards, 2:46 into overtime, Mare had missed only nine of 129 career kicks from inside 40 yards. Make that 10. Wide right.

"What are the chances?" Seymour said yesterday, not even 24 hours after the depleted Patriots had upset the Dolphins, 19-13, on Tom Brady's 82-yard touchdown connection with Troy Brown.

Indeed, what are the chances?

Not great that a rookie cornerback, Asante Samuel, taken in the fourth round out of that college football powerhouse known as Central Florida would make a juggling interception and return it for a touchdown that would ultimately provide the margin of victory over a Jets team that had won five straight at New England.

Minimal that a savvy veteran cornerback, Ty Law, hobbled by a sprained ligament in his right ankle, could ignore the pain and push off it enough to jump an out route, pick off a pass, and take it 65 yards to the crib for an insurance touchdown in an upset of the Titans, AFC finalists a year ago.

Slim to none that a defense missing four opening-day starters would force five turnovers -- enough to spark a New England triumph over the Giants despite its offense converting 1 of 11 third downs and scoring one touchdown.

And a snowball's chance in South Florida that this Patriots team, absent as many as eight starters and dressing eight rookies, would end a five-game losing streak in Miami and a 13-game skid there in September and October.

"It's been tremendous," Seymour said of his team's 5-2 start. "It's been a fun and enjoyable ride so far."

There should be nothing fun about professional football in Foxborough today. Bill Belichick was not supposed to look forward to coming to work yesterday nor telling his players they didn't have to the day after the first meeting with Miami, which, recently, had been a miserable affair. Belichick was supposed to have thrown his headset down at the end of the game, not toward the sky with glee. ("I can't remember ever doing that," he said, "I just wanted to make sure it didn't come down on me. That would have been a good ending.")

This team is supposed to be on a losing streak, not leading the AFC East by a half-game, and certainly not looking at a chance to go into the bye week 7-2 (the way New England is playing, are you really that concerned about the Browns, who just presented the Chargers with their first victory, and a trip to Denver to face what could be Danny Kanell's Broncos?)

But here's the kicker: The Patriots believe they should be 6-1, that they should not have lost by 3 at Washington four games ago, and that the only game they didn't deserve to win was the opener at Buffalo.

"The confidence is real high right now," Seymour said.

We're supposed to know better. Somebody should have expected the healthy Patriots to respond to the Attack of the Mutant Injury Bug exactly the way they have: by heightening their awareness of the little things and raising their intensity.

"When you have a lot of guys that you know can get the job done, you really don't have that edge of everybody getting to the ball," said Seymour, who ranked Sunday's win the second-most significant of his career, behind Super Bowl XXXVI. "You don't really have guys doing the little things as much because maybe you have a Rosevelt Colvin coming off the edge, or a Ted Washington, a Ted Johnson behind you, Ty Law. What we do have is older guys that are really pulling together and some young guys that want to follow that lead. We're just at a point where we have to work at it each and every week."

Can you see it? Less than a month from now, on a chilly Sunday night at Gillette Stadium. Belichick's streaking Patriots, riding a five-game winning streak, versus Bill Parcells's surging Cowboys, leading the NFC East.

The Patriots can't. Belichick, party-pooper that he is, won't even let them peek that far ahead. It ain't broke, so . . .

"I give the team all the credit in the world," Belichick said. "They've worked hard, they've played hard, and they've beaten some good football teams. That being said, we've got a long way to go. We haven't won anything yet; 5-2, that doesn't mean anything. There's nine games left, so we'll see where we are at the end.

"Right now it's on to Cleveland. We're not going to sit here and have a parade and celebrate because we won five games. We just haven't done anything yet. We have got to keep going."

 

[jaypaw]

Resilient Patriots built to last
By Ron Borges, 10/21/2003

The Patriots are 5-2 and leading the AFC East despite playing without about a third of their expected starters. What does this say about how the rest of this year is likely to go? Not much, but it says a lot about the makeup of their team and what its approach likely will be.

The NFL schedule is four distinct chapters, plus an epilogue if you stay healthy enough or get hot enough to make the playoffs. What happens in the first month very often says little about how the last month will go because teams' natures change radically during the season. How the first half of a season plays out seems to give few hints about how the second half will unfold because this is a painful marathon being run by large men whose bodies are already less than they were when it began in July.

This is true not only for the Patriots but for everyone in their tightly bunched division and throughout the league. After the opening game of the season the Buffalo Bills looked unbeatable and the Patriots were in disarray. Six weeks later, the Bills trail New England by a game and had to search madly for nearly a month to locate their offense before it reappeared Sunday against the same Washington team that beat New England. So it goes. The past is prologue, but to what exactly?

"I don't think you ever look at a team after six games and say, `This is a team going to the Super Bowl,' " Dolphins running back Ricky Williams cautioned after Miami's 19-13 loss to the Patriots at Pro Player Stadium Sunday. "The way we look at it is we're going to be a different team come December. Hopefully a lot better team. We just have to keep getting better."

That's a noble thought for Williams, but that has not been the Dolphins' history. When the wind picks up and the temperature drops in a lot of NFL cities, the Dolphins invariably start slip-sliding away.

The opposite has been true for the Patriots, so a fast start would seem to bode well, especially as they slowly get back some of the players lost to injury. Considering those injuries, it has been a remarkable season that appeared to be heading toward disaster after the debacle in Buffalo. Even the perpetually upbeat Tom Brady conceded that to be 5-2 today is beyond his expectations.

"No, we didn't [expect to be 5-2] with what happened in Week 1," Brady said. "We're just taking advantage of some opportunities and doing a better job of taking care of the ball. We're doing a better job on third down, doing an excellent job on defense, protecting the running backs and protecting me back there.

"It's a cumulative thing and I think it has to do with everyone on the team. This was a big win [in Miami] because we haven't beaten them down here in a while, but at the same time it's only one win. Just like when you lose it's only one loss."

While what Brady said is true, the fact that New England has been able to survive the loss of so many players counts for something. It means they are a resilient and resourceful group that has survived much and will benefit from the experience.

They know they can count on themselves from top to bottom now. This does not mean they can be successful long term if they can't run the football, as they could not against Miami, or that they can rely week after week on winning without their offense putting up more points than it has in the first seven games. Some things have to improve or further problems will surface, yet that is where the words of Williams echo positively.

In December the Patriots will be a different team, as will the Jets, the Bills, and the Dolphins. What kind of team they become remains unclear, but what their early success has been based on does not go away with the passage of time. It has not been a matter of overwhelming offense or withering defense, although there have been moments of both. They have won for other reasons, ones that speak well of them.

They are 5-2 because they have refused to give in to self-pity, self-abuse, or selfishness. They are 5-2 not because they have been without problems; they are 5-2 despite their problems.

Those are signs of a team that is not going to go quietly into the night when the weather turns cold and the skies are black before dinner time. Such success is not based on the legs of one back or the arm of one passer or the speed and tackling ability of one linebacker or the pass rush of one defensive lineman.

Individual skills are essential for team success but they do not last long in a league where 50 or 60 car wrecks occur each Sunday in every stadium. What does survive is faith in each other and the knowledge that no matter who is limping, someone else is not. What lasts is the conviction that if you just fight for one more round, you never know what might happen but you fully understand what will happen if you don't.

The Patriots may not be the best or most well-balanced team in the NFL, but they are not unlike the Red Sox. Although they may be beaten at times, they have repeatedly declined to accept defeat as the logical conclusion to a string of bad breaks or bad luck, and that is a mind-set that has lasting value.

In a league where everything is even or nearly so, attitude and effort win as often as talent. Few teams can save themselves from themselves because this has become a league where no one is great, which means everyone is good. Or at least good enough.

In such a league, the thin line between victory and defeat is often as simple as faith in yourself and an unwavering willingness to fight for a few more plays and see what happens. The Patriots have become such a team in the face of their early-season adversities. That may not mean this season goes the way they hope, but it does mean that if you are one of their opponents, getting them out of your face will not be an easy task.

Those are traits to be admired in life and in pro football because unlike speed, athleticism, or simple good fortune, they don't disappear when the wind blows or someone's ankle is swollen or someone else's shoulder is aching.

They are traits that last. So will the Patriots, as long as they don't forget that.

 

[jaypaw]

1 more gutsy victory into the team's sack
By Ron Borges, 10/27/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- There is a simple explanation for how the New England Patriots got to be 6-2 this morning. The broken parts of their team are playing well.

Yesterday's gritty 9-3 victory over the Cleveland Browns at Razor Blade Field was a picture of what the broken but unbowed Patriots are about. With eight starters either out with injury or playing with some body part dented or cracked enough that they would be on disability leave if medical ethics didn't apply differently to football players than it does to the rest of the world, the Patriots have marched on because they are not about flash. They are about dogged determination and an extremely high tolerance for pain, an example of which was clear in the play of the two defensive stars of the beating they administered to the Browns.

Mike Vrabel sacked Cleveland's quarterbacks three times and nearly had a fourth despite playing with a broken arm. Ty Law made a leaping interception of a Kelly Holcomb pass at the Patriot 25 with 51 seconds left to play, pushing off an ankle that was in a hard cast last week until he sawed it off because, frankly, he'd rather limp in pain than be on crutches.

They are not the only semi-healed Patriots playing as if they are blind to ache and agony, but in a game that was all about defense they stood out. They stood out because defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel put them in position to and they stood out because once in those positions they did what they had been sent to do. They destroyed both the mind of the Browns' quarterbacks and the plan of their offense.

"I got confused a couple of times," admitted Holcomb, who was sacked three times and threw that fatal interception to Law. "We just didn't make the plays when we needed to."

For the most part, the Browns didn't make plays at all. Only once did Cleveland's offense cross midfield. Only three times in 14 attempts did it convert on third down, a percentage so woeful to call it inept would be to overrate it. That offense was outgained by 144 yards.

Vrabel was a major reason for this. With Crennel knowing he could only use him in nickel situations, where he could be positioned as an edge rusher to protect his broken arm, Vrabel was a disruptive force all afternoon, producing the three sacks and a fumble recovery and nearly having a fourth except that the infamous tuck rule that saved the Patriots' Super Bowl season three years ago worked against New England this time after Vrabel stripped quarterback Tim Couch of the ball as he was about to pass.

For much of the afternoon, the Patriots played an odd front on passing downs, allowing Vrabel to come in as an edge rusher who often ended up having only to beat the block of a running back to get to the quarterback. Unable to rush from the inside, where there was likely to be heavy contact his fractured arm could not take, Vrabel blew into the Browns' backfield on a half-dozen occasions, ignoring anyone trying to block him and the screaming ache in his arm whenever he grabbed the object of his distemper.

"This happened to be a day for me to take advantage of situations," said Vrabel, who grew up cheering for the Browns as a kid in Akron before going on to set a school record for sacks at Ohio State with 36. At that time Vrabel was an All-American and the Big 10's Defensive Player of the Year but once he got to the Pittsburgh Steelers he never quite got the opportunity he was looking for.

Switched between linebacker and defensive end, Vrabel admits he made a slow transiton to what the Steelers were seeking and by the time he did they had decided he was a part-time player. That's how he ended up in New England, where Belichick promised to give him a chance to play linebacker fulltime.

Because of his arm's condition, that's not what he was doing yesterday, but he got the maximum from the minimum while being aided by a change in the Patriots' alignment on passing downs.

"We haven't shown a hell of a lot of odd fronts this season," Crennel said. "Mike's arm is still broken so we want to try and protect him as much as we can. We were sticking him where he was needed, bringing him off the edge."

While Vrabel was making plays, defensive lineman Richard Seymour was sacrificing himself and his statistics for the good of a unit that this week allowed Vrabel to shine. After it was over, Seymour could joke about it all because while he had taken a beating on his way to making three tackles, someone else had gotten to the quarterback. In the end, it didn't matter because the focus of their defense is not for anyone specifically to flatten opposing passers as long as somebody does.

"He may have been rushing on a back sometimes," Seymour joked, "but I know I wasn't. I'll tell you that. We all sacrifice sometimes so others can make plays. That's what's working for us. Wherever [plays] come from, we'll take it."

Yesterday they came from a man with a broken bone in his arm and another with a ligament in his ankle stretched as if it was a Slinky. Law has been hurting since his ankle was rolled over in a victory over the Jets but the only game he has not dressed for was a week ago in Miami. This so irked him that, although he knew it was the wise choice, he refused to allow it to be repeated against Cleveland.

For a time he was removed from the game because he re-injured that ankle for about the 30th time in a month, but even when he did it was announced it was expected he would return. Indeed he did, and he was in on the most critical play of the day, running with the Browns' speedy Kevin Johnson before outleaping him for Holcomb's throw.

As Law fell to the ground with the game in his hands, Johnson tried to wrestle the ball free. It was wasted effort because that is not what these Patriots allow to happen. You may beat them, as two teams have done, but they will do little to help you. Instead they will fly around on sore knees and swollen ankles and hit you with broken bones as well as intact ones. They will do whatever it takes to shut you down. Yesterday that meant sticking to a gameplan designed to create confusion and critical mistakes when the Browns could least afford them.

"Defensively, you just can't say enough about that group," Belichick said. "Anytime you hold a team to 3 points in this league that's more than one guy doing it. I think this team prepares pretty well. I think they try to know what the other team's tendencies are and what are the things we have to take away on a week-to-week basis.

"Today we had a couple of guys step in and give us a little bit of a lift. Vrabel looked like he had a pretty good day. Ty came back. It looked like we had some pressure inside from the tackles, [Ty] Warren, Seymour, and [Dan] Klecko. The linebackers looked pretty active. It was a good team effort."

It was, but it was Vrabel who made the biggest plays. Often he broke clean into the backfield. Other times he disrupted pass routes of Cleveland's running backs before he did. Either way, he was making the kind of plays that save a team on a day when the offense is bogged down with its own problems.

"Mike had a little bit of freedom in the pass rush," Belichick said. "We used him some coming off different edges and a little bit up the middle. We kind of tried to move him around a little bit. I thought he took advantage of his quickness, getting off the ball. Mike stepped up and had a lot of big plays."

He did, but holding the Browns to a field goal while forcing them to punt on eight of their first nine possessions was more than a matter of Vrabel and Law making plays. It was the kind of effort that involved all of this team's parts, both the broken ones and the ones that are still whole.

Tackling, unlike an interception or a sack, is most often a group act. An offense often can be successful by virtue of the heroics of a few, but good defense is more than that. It involves a swarming beehive approach, a group effort at a time in sports when individual achievement and the notoriety that comes with it too often overtake such thinking.

"We put a big emphasis on running to the ball," Law said. "When you look at all the best defenses, those guys run to the ball. The ones with six, seven, eight hats around the ball are the great defenses."

With half a season to go it is too early to say that about these Patriots, but yesterday was the kind of game that will be noticed. A game in which the broken parts played well and the whole ones made it possible.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

[jaypaw]

Brown baggers
It's hardly exciting, but Patriots eat up win over Cleveland
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/27/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- Halfway through the regular season, the time had come for the bruised and battered Patriots to finally catch a break.

They got it in the form of a Cleveland team whose preferred quarterback, Kelly Holcomb, has a broken right fibula -- a bleeding broken right fibula, actually -- so painful he could not start yesterday's game at Gillette Stadium, though he was pressed into action when starter Tim Couch sprained his right thumb near the end of the first half. A team without its stud running back, former Boston College star William Green, who sat with an injured right shoulder. A team without three of its opening-day starters on the offensive line. "Join the club, buddy," Tedy Bruschi said. "It's not a matter of who's down but who's in there and are they getting the job done."

That, in a nutshell, is the story of New England's season, one that at the midpoint has them 6-2 for the fifth time in franchise history and leading the AFC East heading into Denver a week from tonight. Getting the job done in yesterday's 9-3 win was Kevin Faulk, who contributed 154 yards from scrimmage, a career-high 96 rushing. Putting in work was second-year tight end Daniel Graham with seven catches for 110 yards, easily the best game of his career. Owed time and a half is a New England defense that allowed Cleveland to reach midfield twice and has allowed one touchdown in its last three games. Earning his check was Mike Vrabel with a career-high three sacks and a forced fumble against the team he grew up supporting. Employee of the day: Special teams coach Brad Seely, whose unit accounted for all the Patriots' points and downed four Ken Walter punts inside the 20.

There are some concerns on this week's evaluation, namely the offense's struggles in the red zone (0 for 3) and on third down (4 for 14). But the crew won its fourth in a row and sixth in seven. Boss Belichick is pleased.

"That was really about the way we expected that game to go," Bill Belichick said of his second win in three tries against his former team, this one not a done deal until Ty Law intercepted Holcomb with less than a minute to go. "Cleveland is a team that has been in a lot of close games. That's usually what it comes down to and that's certainly what it came down to today -- last possession of the game."

Only because the Patriots made the same mistake the Dolphins did last week. They let the visitors hang around too long.

Tom Brady and Bethel Johnson collaborated on a 45-yard pass to Cleveland's 6 on the Patriots' first play from scrimmage. But Brady threw to the back of the end zone to nobody on the next play, and he did it while still in the pocket. That 10-yard penalty for intentional grounding put New England in second-and-long and it eventually settled for Adam Vinatieri's 27-yard field goal.

That was Blown Opportunity No. 1.

Second possession, second quarter. Brady took a sack on third and 8 from Cleveland's 19, Vinatieri booted a 43-yard field goal and the Patriots led . . . wait. Dan Koppen committed a false start on the play. No play. Vinatieri's 48-yard attempt was wide left.

That was blown opportunity No. 2. And it allowed the Browns, on former practice-squad Patriot Phil Dawson's 29-yard field goal, to go into halftime tied at 3.

New England's third chance at closing up shop came in the third quarter, when a 70-yard drive stalled at the Browns' 10, wasting a 38-yard completion from Brady to Graham and runs of 5, 14, and 7 yards by Faulk. Vinatieri was good from 28. Patriots 6, Cleveland 3, and why -- despite the Browns crossing the 50 once to this point -- was this still a game?

"Some of these weeks we're going to need to score a lot more points than we did," acknowledged Brady, who got the offense to the doorstep of the red zone (the 20) before looking to Vinatieri to salvage 3 from 38. "We had some opportunities, but we really just didn't take advantage. At some point, that's going to bite you in the butt."

The defense, sparked by the return of Law and Willie McGinest and a career game by Akron, Ohio, native and former Ohio State standout Vrabel, saved the Patriots' rears by forcing punts on eight of Cleveland's 10 possessions and allowing only three of 14 third downs to be converted. The Browns employed a lot of three-receiver sets yet managed only 119 passing yards. The Patriots sacked Couch once and Holcomb thrice, and made the poor guy run around on those bad legs more than he would have liked.

"We put a lot into this game," Vrabel said. "We knew how important it was and what time in the season we were at where you could start to go one way or another. We knew it was important, with the schedule we had coming up. We needed to win this football game."

"We played a tough game, a physical game and just were able to keep the edge," Matt Light said. "It's not always going to be pretty out there. Those guys get paid to play, too."

But it was New England's guys who really earned their money yesterday. So much so that Boss Belichick gave them today off.

 

[jaypaw]

Jones is released by team
Ties are cut after recent incident
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 10/27/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots yesterday released right tackle Kenyatta Jones from the reserve/ physically-unable-to-perform list.

Last Wednesday, Jones, 24, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault to maim, and mayhem after allegedly dousing his house guest and administrative assistant, Mark Paul, with scalding water. Paul suffered second- and third-degree burns to his back, shoulder, and forehead. Jones is due back in Wrentham District Court for a pretrial conference Dec. 9.

Jones feared his tenure as a Patriot had ended Wednesday night, but later in the week, after speaking with team brass, expressed optimism that he'd be given another chance. The Patriots, though, historically have shown little tolerance for distractions and are especially conscious of their community image. Thus, rather than be associated with a criminal or civil suit, the organization cut ties with the player projected before the season to start at right tackle.

"I can't control their decisions," said Jones, reached last night. "I don't have any bitter feeling toward them. I've just gotta move on." "The guy had so much potential," said guard Damien Woody, Jones's teammate the past two-plus years. "He was this close to coming back from double knee surgery, and for something like that to basically put an end to his Patriots career is really unfortunate."

Jones had not played this season after undergoing surgery to repair fractured kneecaps. Coach Bill Belichick said a week ago -- and before Jones's Tuesday night arrest -- that Jones would begin practicing last Wednesday. Jones never practiced and, in fact, the team ordered him to stay away from Gillette Stadium. New England had until the 12th week of the season to either activate Jones, place him on injured reserve, or release him.

"Basically it came down to the fact that he was on PUP," Belichick said after yesterday's game. "We didn't think that we could activate him this year, and therefore he wouldn't be playing at all. I know he wanted to play this year, and now he will have that opportunity to do that. We just couldn't provide that."

Jones, who has yet to publicly offer his version of the events, was to earn $375,000 this season and $418,000 next year as part of the four-year contract he signed in 2001, when he was the team's fourth-round pick out of South Florida. New England will absorb a minimal cap hit next year of about $90,000, or the remainder of his prorated signing bonus, but is off the hook for the remainder of his '03 salary.

Jones did not receive an injury settlement, though he may ask for one should he fail to catch on with another team (he's available on the waiver wire until 4 p.m. today).

"We just looked at the situation and did what we thought was best," Belichick said. "I think it was best for us and best for him."

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

 

[jaypaw]

Graham freed them from tight spots
By Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff, 10/27/2003

FOXBOROUGH -- In weeks past, Globe football writers have been flooded with e-mails inquiring whether Daniel Graham is a bust. Many questioned the Patriots' decision to move up 11 spots in the first round two years ago to select the Colorado tight end.

After a year and a half, it seemed many Patriot fans had grown impatient waiting for Graham to develop into a top-flight tight end. There had been flashes of brilliance from Graham. Some of those flashes even bright enough to remind some of former standout Patriots tight end Ben Coates.

Always a decent blocker, Graham yesterday had breakout game, collecting a career-high seven passes for a career high 110 yards.

Graham was everything as advertised -- strong, fast, and elusive. It's hard to fathom why the Browns didn't make some adjustments in their coverage in the second half on Graham, who went one on one with linebacker Ben Taylor for most of the game.

Patriots tight ends coach Jeff Davidson told Graham before the game that he thought Graham was going to have a big day.

"When I woke up this morning, I thought I was going to have a big game, too. It was a feeling, I guess. I beat man coverage on my linebacker all day," Graham said. "I knew one of these days I was going to have a big game . . . I had a good game and I was really happy with my performance."

In some ways, it's not hard to understand why Cleveland chose to use linebackers to cover Graham. After all, he hadn't really proven to be among Tom Brady's primary targets. Christian Fauria had certainly been the red zone target since the start of last season, but yesterday it was Graham's long catches of 18, 27, and 38 yards that got the Patriots headed toward the red zone.

Before yesterday, Graham's best performance was three receptions for 68 yards last Nov. 3 at Buffalo.

Fauria, who has been espousing Graham's virtues as early as training camp, said, "He hasn't played a lot of football. There isn't a lot of tape on him. Now there is. He's a human bulldozer. It's like he has high performance tires on those feet."

Fauria, who injured his right knee in the second quarter, was surprised to see so many balls thrown to Graham in a low-scoring game, but Fauria marveled at the yards Graham was able to accumulate after the catch.

"The more reps and looks he gets, [the] sky's the limit for him," said Fauria.

Though he had a 38-yarder in the third quarter -- the longest reception of his career -- the real eye-opener was a second-quarter 18-yard reception in which he fought off several tacklers and dragged three defenders for extra yardage in Browns territory.

"When you see that, those things remind you of Ben," said Patriots receiver Troy Brown. "They're about the same size, can get yards after the catch and they can shed tacklers. I'm not ready to say Daniel is Ben because Ben was one of the best I ever saw, but he does some things like Ben, no doubt about it."

It is why Graham studied film of Coates during the offseason. Coates had the uncanny ability to get open, even when defenses were designed to stop him. It's why Coates became Drew Bledsoe's favorite target for many seasons.

Could this be the start of a Brady-Graham connection like Bledsoe-Coates?

"I think everybody is waiting for Daniel to step up and do these types of things," Brady said. "He had some good opportunities today."

Toward the end of Coates's career, his blocking fell off. Graham thinks "that's one thing that's been overlooked. I've been blocking real good. The passes are coming my way now and people think I had a breakout game."

He did. He blocked, he caught passes, and he was difficult to tackle. He played the way he did in college when he won the John Mackey Award, given annually to the top tight end in the country.

"That's my game," Graham said. "Don't let one player tackle you. When I catch the ball, I feel nobody can tackle me. We knew [Cleveland] wasn't good tackling."

He said he speaks to his dad, Tom, a member of the Broncos from 1972-74, before and after every game. He looks forward to those conversations.

After yesterday, Graham said, "I think he's going to look forward to talking to me."

 

[jaypaw]

Defense paves way to 9-3 win
26 Oct 03 / by Fred Kirsch
Despite some offensive superlatives from Daniel Graham (7 catches, 110 yards), Kevin Faulk (23 rushes, 96 yards, 6 catches for 58 yards) and Tom Brady (20 of 33 for 259), the Patriots could not manage a single touchdown against a stout Cleveland defense.

Turns out they didn't need one as the defense took care of things, led by Mike Vrabel's three sacks, Rodney Harrison's 10 tackles and a game-ending interception by Ty Law.

Linebacker Tedy Bruschi joked after the win, New England's fourth in a row, that the defense doesn't necessarily come into games thinking that it has to win the contest for the team, but sometimes it just turns out that way.

“When we get up by 21 points we don't think that, but sometimes we have to have that mentality,” Bruschi said. “We were talking on the sideline, 'We have to do more.' We were doing well but we had to do more. We had to get a turnover or something like that. That didn't happen, but we were able to keep Cleveland on the other side of the field which made them go the long length of the field a lot of times today.”

On the day, the Browns managed only 155 yards through the air and 84 on the ground.

So it came down to field position and field goals with the Patriots winning in both categories to the tune of 9-3.

New England once again entered the game with a long injury list but Cleveland also had its share, mainly on its offensive line, running back and quarterback positions. Starting back William Green was a late scratch and Tim Couch got the nod at quarterback but left the game with a sprained thumb, giving way to a banged-up Kelly Holcomb.

The Patriots couldn't have asked for a better beginning to this one. With Couch being sacked for a 13 yard loss by Mike Vrabel on the Browns first possession, Cleveland punted from its own 15. Troy Brown's return gave New England the ball first and 10 at the 49.

Bethel Johnson started the game and lined up wide to the left and Brady hit him for a 45-yard pick-up on the first play of the game for the offense. But after an intentional grounding call on Brady, not much else ensued and Vinatieri came on for a 27-yard field goal to make the early score Patriots 3, Browns 0.

Vrabel had another sack a little later in the game. The play was ruled a fumble on the field but replay clearly showed it was almost an exact reenactment of the now-famous tuck rule in the Patriots Snow Bowl win of 2001, and the call was overturned, forcing a Browns punt.

“I think first and foremost we put a lot into this game,” Vrabel said after his impressive performance coming back from a broken arm. “We knew how important it was and at what time in the season we were at. You could start to go one way or the other and we knew it was important with the schedule that we had coming up that we needed to win this football game.”

Offensively, the game bogged down for both sides as the first half progressed until Brady found Daniel Graham for completions of 27 and 18 on New England's fifth possession of the game. On third and 8 from the Browns 19, Brady was sacked for the second time in the game and Vinatieri came on for a 43 yard attempt. The kick was good but negated by a holding call on Dan Koppen. That moved the attempt back 5 yards and this time, Vinatieri missed wide left.

As time in the first half ticked away, Cleveland finally began to move the ball with short, underneath passes mostly over the middle. At this point, Couch had left the game with a sprained thumb and Kelly Holcomb replaced him.

Down at the Patriots 12, the New England defense had the answer to three straight pass plays, one batted down by Vrabel, and Cleveland's Phil Dawson kicked a 29-yard field goal to tie the game at 3.

Graham continued his big day in the second half with a 22-yard catch to start off New England's second possession. Brady's pass turned the tight end around but Graham made a nice catch to put his yardage numbers over 100 for the day, the first time in his career. From there, it was mostly Kevin Faulk, including a 14-yard run, but once inside the Browns red zone, the Patriots could get no closer than the 9-yard line and Vinatieri hit his second field goal of the game.

Despite the close score, New England was winning the game of field position. That tilted even more in the Patriots favor when Ken Walter booted a 53-yard punt that Bethel Johnson downed at the Cleveland 1 midway through the fourth quarter. The Browns did well to get some breathing room up to the 25 but Vrabel's third sack of the game on third and 12 knocked Holcomb and his offense back to the 10.

“I am just proud to be a member of this team,” Bruschi said of the team win. “Sometimes you just have to play tight, you have to play clean. You have to trust your special teams to punt the ball and punt return to get some better field positions, play the field position battles sometimes. We got backed up a little bit, we make a couple of first downs, a nice punt and all of a sudden the field position is back switched the other way. We hold them and all of the sudden our offense is receiving the punt at mid field. So That's the way we have to play sometimes, cohesively as a unit offensive, defensive and special teams units.”

After the Chris Gardocki punt, the Patriots took over on their own 40. Six Faulk carries netted 26 yards with Troy Brown actually taking a direct snap under center for a 3-yard first down conversion. But once again, New England could not find the end zone against the tough Browns defense and Vinatieri was brought on for his third field goal, this one a 38-yarder.

Patriots guard Damien Woody acknowledged that the New England defense played a key role in the win, but was also proud of what the offense did in its share of the win.

“We scored some points as far as field goals,” Woody said. “And we wore them down a little bit on defense. That's really the type of ball we play around here. I think it was a good win for us today.”

Down 9-3, Cleveland took over from its own 33 with 1:59 left in the game. With the Patriot defense's ears pinned back, it looked like it would be a quick series for the Browns. Good pressure caused Holcomb's first pass to miss its mark and Dan Klecko followed that up with a second down sack for a 9-yard loss. After a 4-yard pick-up, Holcomb was faced with a fourth and 15 from his own 28 but found Kevin Johnson for 16 yards and the first down.

Now working from their 45, Cleveland decided to take a shot to Johnson down the right sideline. Not a good idea with Ty Law in coverage. The Patriots cornerback managed to get good position on Johnson and made the interception to essentially end the game.

To a man, the player in the Patriots locker room were happy to walk away with the win, regardless of how ugly or low scoring it might have been.

“That's the NFL,” Woody said. “You never know what can happen in this league. We are grateful to be 6-2. We've worked really hard to this point, but there is nothing to being 6-2. There is no championship or trophies or anything like that. We still have another half a season to play and we just have to get ready for Denver in a critical game this upcoming Monday night.

“Winning four consecutive games you start to build confidence. Once you start building confidence, that's really key. What we want to do is keep putting the heat on the other guys in the division. Now the other guys are looking, 'Hey the Patriots won today. We have to keep up.' So that's what winning does.”

“I think for the most part if we can just stay together and stay consistent and continue to play smart, tough aggressive football we'll be fine,” defensive lineman Richard Seymour said.

With the win, New England improves to 6-2 and stays atop the AFC East. They will face the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football next week.