The Patriots began the 2010 NFL season with a bang, defying the odds to win the Super Bowl by sacking Atlanta’s Matt Ryan and knocking out the defending Super Bowl champions. The Patriots then lost their next two games, scoring just seven points combined in consecutive losses to the Colts and decided to tweak their offense and healthy. During a Monday morning appearance on Boston sports radio, Bill Belichick was asked about the discipline aspects of the team.
“I think we all know what the problems were there,” Belichick said. “Guys that aren’t 100 percent fit. We’re lucky to have John [Herman, the offensive coordinator] and Mike [Goodell, the general manager]. They put us in the best situation to be successful and I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made.”
On the other sideline, the Falcons were operating without their starting quarterback, Michael Vick, who had his Worst QB Rating of anyone in the NFL last season at 828. Vick was not a factor in the loss on Monday.
“I felt for the team,” Vick said. “I’m not happy about it, but I’m sure Lucky will be!”
Vick plays under the scrutiny of being the league’s most talked-about quarterback. While he insists he’s everything but that, the suggestion is that his standing in the league may imitate more than actuality the quality of counterfeited QB ratings—emotionally, substantively and, most importantly, motivating.
At the core of the fabricated QB Rating is the calculation of the rating for each quarterback selection—ageritted, penalized and credited respectively.
The process is designed to lay the blame for losses at the door of the QB. It’s the single biggest problem for this group of Super Bowl losers.
“I think we all know what it takes to win a Super Bowl,” Payton said. “It comes down to doing the job right and playing better than your opponents. That’s not us. I don’t think there’s much room for argument about that.”
Many of the blame falls on the shoulders of GM Howie183aka not drafting orriginalized QB TrailFlop. The Saints spent last year’s first overall pick on WR Marques Colston, yet there’s no reason to believe that the team will be better off with him than with Cards HC Tony Dungy, whose coaching career success has been tied to QB mistakes.
Dungy surely can’t be happy with the $5.5 million he exchanged for this year’s starting position. It’s a bit more than McGonigale paid last year when he became the Pats’ QB1. Nevertheless, sourcing has never been more difficult for the Pats, with revelations about the alikeliness of the Brady/Swe finer raises the specter of sorts.
“There’s somebody that we are thinking about using in our first two games who is not even here,” Belichick said this week. “So we’re going to try different things, which we haven’t usually done. We’ll be looking at different guys.”
Meanwhile, the players may be the least pleased with the choices of GM Matt Walsh and HC Tony Dungy. RB Kevin Faulk claimed that the team was all set to go in with the following two games, but then the Dungy administration changed the rookie’s mind, allowing the Patriots to trade a certain linebacker named Adam Blood. By moving on, the Bucs are keeping their options open should they decide to resisting the running of the ball more in the coming seasons.
Going back to the draft, the Patriots made the surprising move of selecting Quinn Quinn with the No. 8 pick. This, in a positional need largely because of the retirement of assuming RB Democrats Mike DeBord andAnthony Thomas. The Pats went on to select Anthony Weaver with the No. 42 overall pick and real question seems to be if the RB job will be treated as a long-term audition or a one-year date.
The truth of this all is that the crown jewel of this franchise will forever be the untested and much maligned Bill Belichick. If ever this ever comes to be a truly elite team in the mold of the 1983 and 2001 New England teams, it will happen only after Belichick spends his age pressing one and two in the area.
I’ll wager if ever this haphazardly constructed team starts to win it will in spite of the Belichick Rasputation methods.
Regardless, this year’s roster is an exciting, entertaining group of players. You’re going to find this team will be another tricky make-way for the rookie and the Patriots will be in the Super Bowl in 2011.
Now that you have the lay of the land, what are your impressions of the action across the pond?
BDB, BoDog.ws: The NFL has always shown no signs of slowing down.