MattM
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Posts posted by MattM
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http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/08/10/...ng-to-san-fran/
TKO to join Willis with the Niners.....
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Fixed.
So you think the Peters hold out will continue? I'm not quite sure that Jason wants to lose $3 million he'd get for playing this year, but we'll see. Showing up real ate (i.e., Week 1) and out of shape, now that's a real possibility in my mind.....
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I agree on the Turk Schonert and Perry Fewell statements that you made, but I don't agree with the fact that you are judging our 2008 season on one preseason game when it was only our first game, of course there was going to be some sort of sloppyness, but still, come on.
Especially considering (a) our opponent had already played one pre-season game, (b) I believe Washington played most, if not all, of its starters in the 1st Q, especially on O, unlike the Bills, who were missing Peters, Reed, McGee, Crowell and Whitner (and it also looked to me like Stroud didn't play all of the first two series even), I don't think this game was as bad as some of you think. For ex., the two penalties on O in the 1st Q were by Kirk Chambers (shouldn't be on the field) and Walker (playing out of his natural position). Edwards did look rusty, but even there, one of his passes was dropped by Schouman and another incomplete looked like the result of a rookie non-starter not recognizing the play (which Hardy seemed to acknowledge in his sideline interview). I'd have like to see them play better, but I'm not panicking yet.....
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reggie corner hasn't really been impressive tonight. mcmullen just caught that first down on him, and he was wide open.
Other than that play just now when he sat on the route and forced Collins to throw it away.....
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From the discussion on the Pats' fan boards, it sounds serious (some of them are talking IR already). Too bad for Aiken. Sounds like Tank Williams, their back up safety, was also hurt.
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http://www.esquire.com/features/the-game/t...dy-0908?src=rss
Check out this quote:
"We've seen you, Tom Brady. You have fun. You're a sandlot player. You win like no one else. You win big. Sticking the knife in the back of the reeling Redskins last season (52--7, remember), breaking off the blade? That's gotta be fun. Doesn't that make you happy?
"Always," he says. "Always. It does." Tom Brady smiles, and it's a winning affect, an undeniable dominion over the space around him. When the guy looks happy, the room is happy. "The Redskins, they're not easing up on us. They're trying to hit us as hard as they can. So we're not just going to stand there and take their shots. We're trying to execute. I think for us, as a team, in that game, we were very precise and efficient. I mean, you practice really hard, and you always hope you get games that turn out like that. That one was like, sh-- . . . ," he says, trailing off, smirking, holding his palms up. "All of it worked. That doesn't happen often."
It's fun. Just throwing the ball. "We were playing the Bills last year and I got a call in from the sidelines," Tom Brady says, regaling now. "And Josh, the coordinator, he says, 'Second and one, get the first down.' We're up 17? A lot, I don't remember. We're on the 48-yard line, and Moss was wide, so I just said, 'Randy, go deep.' And I just laid it up there. I just threw it. I ran off and Josh shouted, 'Just get the first down!' And I said, 'How was that?' They pulled me out of the game. That's exactly what I was trying to do.""
I really hope we cram this down his throat this year (twice), G-Men style......
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ER Fireman's Carnival is likely the reason. I'm heading up to Roch tonight myself just for such event (and to visit TC as well!).....
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I personally never understood the accolades given to Dr. Z. Quite frankly, the guy is a little wierd and even scars me.
Wow--that's quite a feat from his computer....
Seriously, I like the guy a lot--he seems to have a deeper feel for the game than most other flash in the pan type journalists. He deserves kudos as well for being pretty much alone among major writers in going out on a limb and picking the G-men to beat the Pats in the SB. He took some heat for it, too, at the time I recall.....
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For a good basic burger/fries-type fare, there's also a Bill Wahl's I believe down Fairport Rd. heading towards Fairport. If you cross the Canal Bridge into Fairport, you've gone too far.
On the East Rochester part (orginally being a native myself), I think that Prince George's on Main Street (all the way to the end) still serves food on Fridays that's pretty good as well, and will give you a bit of local ER flavor. Northside Inn will require reservations on a Friday, but is great food.
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I don't doubt that he got off lightly due to his status and what he gave up on the dealer, but the oxys were definitely personal use. He's not selling them...why would a millionaire athlete take such a risk to flip pills for a few more thousand?
Ask Mercury Morris or Nate Newton, both of whom were arrested for selling drugs.
I really don't know about that--if you add up his habit (the initial articles said he bought about $4000 worth every few days) that comes to about $400k a year, which seems a bit high for personal use.
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I think we all know when we really are honest with ourselves that Edwards' didn't get sacked all that much because he was in a system, which admittedly according to Schonert if you read that article on him, he wasn't thrown to the wolves last year and it was designed first and foremost to keep hiim from getting too much pressure.
IMO the team had made up its mind that it didn't want JP in there (Donahoe's guy) and wanted their own, probably because Marv was buddies with Walsh and Walsh said this or that because that's the kind of guy Marv is, that they arranged it so that Losman wouldn't succeed and it would give them the perfect opportunity to put Edwards in, allow him to get his feet wet, prepare himself for this season which is supposed to be his grand coming out.
Otherwise how can we explain the fact that the team changed everything around for Losman who came off of a 17TD/9INT season. If they really wanted JP to succeed, or the team to succeed under him, they would have run a similar offense than they did. Instead, they ran one not suited to his strengths and when he failed put in Edwards.
I admit, I will be pleasantly surprised if we finish this year under Edwards ranked in the top half for sacks allowed. I'm expecting 30+ sacks again. But you know what, if it's accompanied by 24 TDs/18INTs, so what, it was worth it rather than 10 sacks and no damn ball movement or scoring.
Actually, it was only 26 last year, 11th fewest in the League, and most of those were JP (14, I believe) in less playing time than TE....
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1. Excuse
2. Excuse
3. They changed the offense up on him and clearly wanted Edwards in there as their man. There were already rumblings prior to the season starting. It wasn't a big shock.
Still, you laud Edwards implicitly, but still, no one addresses the fact that under Edwards the team produced significantly fewer 1st downs, fewer points/game although not by anything significant, and converted significantly fewer 3rd downs raising questions indeed as to how much Edwards actually contributed to wins with hardly any offensive point production.
I mean can I say that it was because of Brad Butler that we won all of our games last year?
Regardless, I fail to see how less production means greater contributions. No matter how you slice it, it was worse under Edwards. Except for the "poise" of course.
Actually, dude, 1 (TE being a rookie and getting little to no first team work during TC) and 2 (2 of his starts being in hurricane or blizzard conditions in which he stat-wise equaled or bettered Pro Bowl QBs) are both facts, not excuses. Using semantics to twist what are facts shows nothing but the weakness of your argument....
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Other things to consider in this comparison:
1. Trent was a rookie who was 2nd/3rd string all camp long last year and had little pre-season time working with the first team;
2. Trent also played two games in abominable elements (Cleveland and NYG games) and still had a nearly equivalent (Cleveland--Anderson) or better (NYG--Manning) QB rating in those games as the Pro Bowl-level QBs he faced (and who each got to face our depleted D, no less, versus in the NYG case at least, facing a much tougher D).
3. JP clearly took a big step backwards last season, stat-wise, confidence-wise, winning-wise. He just looks lost out there sometimes. Look, I rooted very hard for the guy and wanted him to succeed in the worst way, but he had his chance last year and didn't take it. That Jags game was, by his own admission, "do or die" and he just played putridly. He has no one but himself to blame for his situation. If TE's not the answer, I don't think JP is either, unfortunately. I wish him the best wherever he ends up, as I think he's generally handled himself well here on a personal level, but as my father has always said about him, he just doesn't seem to have "it."
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I'm also not quite sure karzykat is correct about whether we scored more on average with JP or TE--I thought I saw somewhere recently where we averaged 19 ppg with TE and only 14 or so with JP. Can anyone confirm that either way?
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I have to concur with my buddy Mark here, the Raiders game @ the Oakland Colisseum a couple years back was freakin' awesome. And we survived...
I went to both of the last two away games there as well (my brother-in-law is a Raiders season tix holder)--it helped that we got our arses kicked both games--the home team's fans don't get too in your face when they've kicked your arse I've found.....
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Looking into the KC game with my dad this year. Always wanted to see a game at Arrowhead, so this year's the year. Timing kind of sucks considering it's also the week before Thanksgiving, but what can you do? Also trying to head up for the opener and maybe the Browns game. Man, I can't wait for the season to arrive.....
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Speaking just for me, welcome to the Board, Bill. Your post was well thought out and appreciated. I don't have a problem with Pats fans per se, but mainly the arrogant homer types who believe their team does no wrong and will be winning forever (most of those folks, as you point out, may not have lived through the lean years in Boston). You're welcome here to discuss the Bills and football in general, including the Pats.
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What New England sports fans need is a healthy dose of "suck." They have it so good now with three of their teams winning titles that they just expect it now. If a Boston teams doesn't win a title (Bruins excepted) than the whole season is a failure. Red Sox fans used to to be lovable when their team kept falling short, Now they are insufferable. It actually makes me wish the Yankees would rise up and humiliate them like they used to.
PTR
Me, too, and I hate the Yankees....
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I'm a member of PatsFans.com....sort of. I joined following their Super Bowl loss to congratulate them on their 18-1* record and was immediately banned.
Thankfully, I still get their update emails. Here's a classic from last night:
"PatsFans.com Back Up. Just a quick note to let you know the forum is back up and running. We attempted to due a software upgrade around 2am ET and ended up having to shut the server down while we ran a back-up, followed by a restore which required some additional settings. Technical support has corrected the issue and we're back up, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact me at Ian@Patsfans.com if you need to reach me, as the e-mail address this was sent from doesn't accept responses."
Talk about a butchering of the English language. Specifically, I enjoyed the attempt to "due a software upgrade."
I'm still a member there--as you'd expect, there are some real pieces of work there, but there are also some decent sorts. Let's just say I annoyed the h*ll out of them all on Spygate, which was worth the price of admission. They really are blind as to how the rest of the League views them and their team. Many of them just don't care--as long as they're winning it doesn't matter how they're doing it. Blind faith in Belicheat and Kraft are the order of the day. Anyone who sings even a slightly different tune is tarred and feathered (I was twice banned myself, but that doesn't stop one from just re-signing up). I've never seen such a fascistic jackbooted bunch of mods in that regard.
It was pretty funny over there in the run up to the SB--my favorite was a thread titled "Who Else Smells a Blowout?". Talk about arrogance. Karma's a beatch, as they say, but even I left them alone after that game and only bring it up when they get a little out of hand or uppity. Like I said, there are some decent sorts there, even if you have to look hard to find them......
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I am not counting them out either, and I figure they will win the division again. If I were betting, I would go that way. But, there is a part of me that could see them just collapsing this season too. The Super Bowl loser collapse trend is pretty strong, and that team certainly has had a lot of distractions this off-season. I know, it is only the off-season, but this whole thing will likely heat up again once training camp breaks.
In the little he has talked about it, Brady already seems a little uptight and defensive, he almost looks a little "burned out" IMO...Bellichek seems to be getting more defiant...people are whispering...just saying, I am not sure that their recon operation didn't help them (especially 6th round draft pick Tom Brady) just a little bit over the years. You hear guys like Dan Marino, Phil Simms, Boomer Esiason and Jim Kelly explain that knowing defensive play calls would be a "huge" advantage for a QB, you just can't help but wonder...
Actually, on HBO's Inside Sports interview with Matt Walsh HBO quoted "a former offensive star" on those Pats teams as saying that they knew what was coming most of the time due to the signal stealing and that yes indeed it was a very large advantage. To this day, I wonder why no major news outlet latched onto that quote--it really does make one wonder sometime.....
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Another example of how faulty this is (number of starters) as a measuring stick for the quality of a team's drafts. Gee, the Bills draft lots of starters and the Patriots don't - I wonder why? Maybe because the current Patriots' current on-the-field product is superior to that of the Bills? Wouldn't you agree that over the last 5 years, if you were a draftee for the Bills your chances of starting right away would be much higher than if you were drafted by the Pats?
I agree to some extent with your post, but look at the quality of players they've picked the last two years and you'll see that they flat out stunk--only two from last year even made the team. While I understand that to some extent that is because the Pats are stacked talent-wise, more than two players out of a draft class should at least make the team don't you think?
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When your offense is better than 90% of the NFL, you'll have that.
That's really only been this past season--their team was a bit more balanced in prior years. Last season's O did an awful lot to mask the D's weaknesses--I do think that their D's high ranking statistically had more to do with things like time of possession being way in their favor and playing against teams made one-dimensional by playing from behind all the time. Take some of that away through other D's catching onto their O, subtract some key personnel they've lost this offseason (Samuel, Colvin and Gay come to mind) and add a year in age to some of their Sr. Citizens Brigade and this team ain't as unbeatable as some folks (chief among them, Pats fans) like to think, even this year.....
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Found this information while looking up our FAs for these years, but if you follow the story below, it looks like the Pats really have about a two year window here with their current group. Between the hordes hitting FA (especially after 2009 below and combine that with Brady, Moss, Maroney and Light following after the 2010 season) and the age of some of their core (Bruschi, Seau, Harrison, new addition 31 year old CB Bryant and Vrabel come to mind, but so do Moss and even Brady and Adalius Thomas (both 31) to some extent), Pioli has his work cut out for him between now and then, especially since I understand that they're not exactly awash in cap money, some of which will probably become dead cap when guys like Harrison retire in the next year or two as well. Even better news is look at their 2006 and 2007 drafts and you'll see they've had one starter (Maroney) out of those two entire drafts--for ex., last year's draft netted Brandon "I'm Looking More and More Like a Bust Each Day" Merriweather and no one else who contributed at all (1 guy actually made the team--that's it, I believe).
Our FO looks pretty smart to me, actually, in terms of extending our guys now--NE may do the same with some of these folks, but that's a long list, including a lot of their starters (especially lineman on both sides of the ball).
The other lesson to me in all of this is that despite the lip service he pays it, no way in H-E-double hockey sticks does Kraft not want an uncapped league. That's what this says to me--that's the only way he'll keep this group together after 2009, IMHO is for 2010 to be uncapped, restrictions or no on that (and looking at this list makes me wonder if all of those new rules like "6 years experience before FA eligibility" were written with protecting his team in mind). If his drafts keep crapping out, he can always buy a chance at another ring.....
Here's the list of players per KFFL who will be FAs after the 2009 season:
Pos Player Name FA Status Previous Team Current Team
RB Kevin Faulk UFA New England Patriots
WR Sam Aiken UFA New England Patriots
WR Chad Jackson UFA New England Patriots
TE David Thomas UFA New England Patriots
TE Benjamin Watson UFA New England Patriots
PK Stephen Gostkowski UFA New England Patriots
OG Logan Mankins UFA New England Patriots
OG Stephen Neal UFA New England Patriots
OG Billy Yates UFA New England Patriots
OT Ryan O'Callaghan UFA New England Patriots
OL Nick Kaczur UFA New England Patriots
DL Jarvis Green UFA New England Patriots
DL Richard Seymour UFA New England Patriots
DL Le Kevin Smith UFA New England Patriots
DL Vince Wilfork UFA New England Patriots
LB Mike Vrabel UFA New England Patriots
CB Ellis Hobbs UFA New England Patriots
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