MattM

All this talk of blaming his young/inexperience/crappy receivers for Brady's struggles also misses the point that Brady himself seems to be missing open guys that he normally should be hitting. Not all of it looks like "wrong routes" or "miscommunications" to me. He has just missed some of these guys, so in my view at least, shoulders a good bit of the blame for his slow start. Personally, I can't wait until they play a decent team and get hammered. If the news on Amendola this morning (torn abductor muscle, requiring surgery that will put him out several weeks at least) is correct, then that should happen the next few weeks against NO and Atlanta....

http://www.ehow.com/about_5166854_side-effects-abusing-hgh.html A link on side effects of HGH, long and short term. Remember, too, that by allowing its use, you're effectively forcing guys who don't want to take it to have to take it to "keep up with the Joneses" in order to to keep their jobs. Ask Eric Wood about that, for ex. He's spoken out against its use, as have other players. To me, it's too high a price to pay for our entertainment....

Just curious. Where'd you happen to get your MD? There are reasons a prescription is required for HGH. In addition, age, fatigue and injuries are part of the game. HGH is a PED. In addition to the health risks to those taking PEDs, their use taints the competition--it's no longer one man against another, but the guy with the best "juice" has an advantage....

Among other things it speeds the healing process, both for longer term injuries as well as from day-to-day exertion, hence why it would be pretty popular with aging and/or injured players. BTW, I forgot to add to my list above, the Pats* being found to by the NFL have an extra frequency in their QB helmets (I personally recall ESPN reporting that at the time) and Doug Flutie's comments that he once picked up one of those helmets during a game and heard the coaches talking to the QB well beyond the NFL-mandated cutoff time....

Really-- you mean like Jack Del Rio and Rod Marinelli each saying their headsets always malfunctioned at odd key times at Gillette? Or a team full of aging vets who seem to regain a step a la Rodney H, who got caught using HGH only because he got caught up in a sting of a pharmacy and was dumb enough to use his own name and address? Or how about the May, 2008 NYT article quoting members of the NFL Competition Committee saying it was the same one team, over and over, that they got cheating complaints about--your New England Pats*.? Keep telling yourself whatever it takes to sleep well at night, but the full truth will eventually come out. Before criticizing O'Leary's book, you should try reading it. Personally, I found some of the more circumstantial evidence (like the stat stuff and the lack of name coordinators/utter failure elsewhere of their coordinators) the most convincing....

I assumed the prizes were junk and didn't respond/log in. I was also traveling last week, which didn't help. Too bad, in that it sounds like some of the prizes were decent, although not sure if my wife would have approved of the Jills flying to NYC, nor would the Bills, I suspect,unless Ralph is no longer cheap....

Keep up the good work, boys and girls--I'm flying from SFO back East this afternoon, so have been "watching" online and love the comments. Gives some good color to go with ESPN.com's updates. Go Bills!!!! PS. I don't think the Boston bound passengers in our area like my "beat the Cheats" chant after the Woods TD

No Saint--you've given an explanation on the high value games point, but even so, they still seem to get way more "high value" games post-bye than we do even taking a first place schedule into account (that's about 3 more of such games a year). How often have we gotten a division opponent after our bye? These things should even out over time were they truly random, but they don't with the Pats*. How about how the Pats* play no one who has longer rest than they do this year while we play something like 5 or 7 team's with extra rest? Look at last year, too, for a similar disparity. Same point. Finally, I wouldn't expect too radical a departure above .500 post-bye simply because (a) the League strives for parity and (b) your baseline here by definition is .500. Ask any coach or player whether it's an advantage or not to get an extra 3 days or a week to rest up and plan for someone and let me know what they think....

I said it in my post above--for whatever reason, the Pats* seem to get an inordinate amount of "high value" games off the bye--I.e., division games or games against high quality opponents. Some years (like the two examples I quoted of the Fins and Ravens) it's almost like they got to pick their post-bye opponent. Combine this with things like Spygate, at least two opposing head coaches (Del Rio and Marinelli) calling shenanigans on their QB headsets going out at odd times at Gillette, the NYT article from May, 2007 quoting members of the NFL Competition Committee saying it was one team and one team only (the Pats*) being brought before them with accusations of cheating over and over, a haven for aging vets to resuscitate their careers where at least one of such vets was found to have used HGH (and only found because he was dumb enough to use his own name and address on the drugs), a drug the NFL doesn't test for, a history of one-way suspect officiating in their games, etc. Some of us suspect fire when we see smoke, while others seem to go out of their way to explain it away. Not sure if anyone else here read O'Leary's Spygate book. While a lot of it could have used an editor, I found his statistical evidence chapters the most interesting, including his chapter on how way out of the stat box their home record was--several standard deviations above what you should expect even a great team to be. His implication being they had other ways to cheat at home (like the extra frequency found on their headsets by the NFL and Doug Flutie's related story that he once picked up one of the miked up QB helmets and the coaches were still talking to the QB after the 15 second cutoff)..,,

Post of the day right there--that's something that helps separate winners from losers in the NFL right there....

We've had whole threads on this (the Pats*' amazing luck in bye week scheduling) in the past. Some soundbites: 1. They recently played the Bills after their bye 4 years in a row--odds of that happening by accident? Approx. 4,000 to 1 (8x8x8x8x8); 2. In other recent years they've quite often gotten other "high value" games against either divisional opponents (like the Fins the year after the Fins won the division) or tough out of division games (like the Ravens the year after the Ravens bounced them from the playoffs in rough style at Foxboro, or the Cowboys); and 3. Recently they play far fewer team's coming off a bye than the average team (none this year, for ex., vs. the Bills 5 or 6 vs. An expected 2). Make of this what you will, but some of us see enough smoke to suspect fire....

Must admit that it sounds to me like his strategy is to play as little as possible this year to make it tough to justify paying him $8+m next year on the tag, all while collecting this year's franchise tag $ and giving himself a good story to tell next year when he hits FA....

It's in the new Rolling Stone article on Hernandez. Makes it pretty clear the Cheats* knew a lot more about AH and his thug life lifestyle than they've led the public to believe to date. Worth a read..... Supposedly Belicheat* had had enough of AH's antics that he'd threatened to cut or trade him (after the 2013 season, of course) if he slipped up again. Oh, well, at least Belicheat* is a man of his word (kind of).....

Not necessarily--he may still be ready, but they just don't want to go into the season with no vet backup, which they'd be doing as of today absent signing Leinart and/or Lewis. May be a competition between those two this week for that job....

The NYT ran a big piece on this recently in which they discussed how ESPN at the 11th hour pulled out of co-producing this, even though it's based on the reporting of two of their reporters. As per anonymous ESPN employees in the documentary/news group, this was because of pressure from the NFL on ESPN to not participate in something critical of the League on this issue. Way to put player safety first, guys.....

I agree to a large extent. People forgot about him in the first two preseason games because he seemed invisible--but that's because he was blanketing his receiver and they were never throwing his way. I'm not sure I'd list him as our most important player, ex-Manuel--I think CJ, SJ and possibly Mario fill that role ahead of him, but he's darn close and we've really got no one behind him. I'll feel a whole lot better if someone can tell us soon that he won't miss any time....

Not tonight.....

Speaking of which--any more news on his step grandfather? Sounds horrible. On a human level, I feel very sorry for CJ and his family about that. On a football level, that may turn out to have a much larger impact on CJ and his performance this year than an injury (see Dareus, Marcel).....

After actually watching part of that game, the Pats* looked decent except for the turnovers. They didn't consistently suck on both sides of the ball....

Part of me is wondering if they've been reading their own press clippings

Against backups--big deal

They just blitzed and sacked the 'Skins 12th string QB

Why? Against the Pats* if history is any guide, it won't matter whether we play like choirboys or not, those hankies will still come raining down either way, especially if we jump out to a lead or mount a comeback....

I thought the same thing--this move shows that Russ is fully in charge now and doesn't care/worry about the Wilson family looking askance at this hiring of his brother. Thanks, too, for the link to Gregg's LI profile. I feel slightly better about the hire (other than my general on principal (earned by working at companies where it happened waaayyy too often to the company's detriment) distaste at hiring a relative) after reading that in that he does seem to have some more "general" corporate-type experience at his last job. That said, I still believe that if the job opening was subject to an open, transparent, "blind" (i.e., resumes with identifying characteristics scrubbed off) process, it's borderline whether Gregg would have even made the cut for an initial interview. Jobs like this are amazingly competitive to get and would in most cases go to someone like a law firm partner in one of the major disciplines (like labor or corporate here) or someone with direct, relevant experience in a franchise or League legal dept. Just my two cents. That said, I wish Gregg well in the new role and I hope he can add some value to the team.....

No, he was hired to be the general counsel.