Tag: Patriots

Ochocinco canned by the Pats

Today there has been a lot of buzz around the release of Chad Ochocinco. Honestly I am not really sure why. The guy had 15 catches for 276 yards and a TD. I am pretty sure Wes Welker did that in one game. He sure was right when he said he had no idea he was landing in heaven AKA getting paid to do nothing. The guy came to New England with a lot of hype and it didn’t work out. Turn the page. That’s all the Pats are doing, and I don’t get why everyone cares so much. The only value he added to the Pats last season was on Twitter, and Welker has one of those now too so win win. He’s a good person, he’s a nice guy, but he forgot how to play football so he is unemployed for now. There are plenty of nicer guys and better guys who get cut every year so I am not surprised Chad is gone. He didn’t fit the mold and will never fit the mold, that’s just how it is. But then again, Gronk definitely doesn’t fit the mold, unless Bill starts tweeting pictures of him with porn stars and starts going wild on the dance floor after they lose to Timmy Tebow and the Jets this year. Maybe Chad and Fat Albert Haynesworth can go on Dancing with the Stars together next season. Now that is something I would watch. Go Sixers.

Super Bowl Preview

Today is Media Day down in Indy, and that would be cool if it was any team but the Patriots at the Super Bowl. I can’t even imagine how many times reporters heard the phrase “we are just taking it one day at a time”. Gronk must be dying inside to let out another yo soy fiesta. Anyway, I don’t want to brag but I did go 8-2 in the playoffs with my picks the past few weeks which I think is pretty impressive. If you had any brains you would take my pick for the Super Bowl to the bank and cash in. So here goes nothing:

New York Giants @ New England Patriots (-3)

Last weeks games both came down to the wire. The Giants won in overtime thanks in part to a fumbled punt, and the Patriots won in the last seconds thanks to Ray Finkle Billy Cundiff missing a 32 yard field goal to send it into overtime. But that is why I picked the two teams to win last week was because they just somehow pull out games like that. The Patriots finally beat a team with a winning record, but it wasn’t pretty. Neither was the Giants and San Fran mudbowl. The only thing we should be thankful for was that the lights didn’t go out again at Candlestick after the game because I heard Sandusky was spotted in the 49ers locker room. These two teams matchup almost perfectly. The Patriots have a outsanding offense and a so-so defense I guess we can call them now since they played two decent games the last two weeks and the Giants have an outstanding defense and a good offense. I think the thing that sets these two teams apart is going to be the difference in the game. The Giants defensive line is any offenses nightmare. Pierre-Paul, Umenyiora, Tuck, and Canty are all defensive ends with speed and moves to get by any lineman. The catch here is that most of the time they all play together. The Pat’s lineman won’t have the normal 2 fat guys running into them to plug up holes, rather 4 athletic guys making swim moves and stunts to get to Brady.

The other advantage for the Giants is their 3 wide receivers. Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz and Mario Manningham are all capable of making big plays at any time. I am not sure the Patriots have ever faced a team this season with as many weapons at the wide receiver position (except when they played them in the regular season) and I am not sure the Pat’s corners and safeties can really matchup. Eli has shown time and time again this year that he is now an elite quarterback, and it shows in his ability now to read blitz’s and find the open guy. The Patriots have a pretty good quarterback on their side as well who can do everything Eli can do. However, the health of Gronk is very unknown right now and will be until kickoff on Sunday. High ankle sprains are nearly impossible to come back from 100% in just two weeks, and we all saw how it affected Big Ben this season over the course of 5 or so weeks. Gronk is a freak of nature so if anyone could come back from it it would be him, but I am skeptical to believe he will play and be effective this Sunday. The key to the Patriots success however lays solely on the offensive line. Time and time again this Patriots team has shown that if you let the defense get to Brady, you are in for a long day. They don’t need to worry about blitz’s with linebackers or corners because Brady can identify those and find the open man. They have to worry strictly on the 4 man rush that the Giants will bring, because coverage will most likely be tight 5-10 yards down field and Brady will have to start going through his options and might not have the time.

In the end, I think the Giants outwork and out-muscle the Patriots. I really like teams like the Giants who have been playing playoff games for 8 weeks now rather than teams like the Patriots who haven’t played a good team in a big game until last week. I think the Giants take the momentum and their defensive line goes off on Brady, getting to him often and disrupting his timing and accuracy. I also like Manningham to have a big game for the Giants as I think they will put an enormous amount of attention on Nicks and Cruz. My official pick will be the Giants with the spread, but if you want to make more money take the Giants money line which is at +115. I like the G-Men to win this one 23-17 unless Ray Finkle Billy Cundiff is signed by the Giants in the next few days. Tbow’s Pick- Giants +3

Also, since it’s the Super Bowl why not just go big or go home. I also like the under of 55. Some people think this will be a shootout, I think the opposite. Last week there weren’t many points scored and I think that continues as these teams know each other well and it will be a hard-fought battle for every yard. Hell, let’s even throw in a pick for MVP. I am going to go with the guy I talked about before, Mario Manningham. In his 3 games this postseason, he has a touchdown in each game which is nearly as many as he had the entire season while he was dealing with an injury. Let’s not forget, just last year this guy had 60 catches for nearly 1,000 yards and 9 TD’s and I like him to play a big factor in this game, big enough to get him the MVP.

P.S. I am not just picking the Giants in this game because I don’t like the Patriots. I picked the Pat’s to win last week I just am a realist and usually pick right.

Breaking my vow of silence

After almost 24 hours, I still am not sure what to say. I have to give credit where credit is due, Brady and the Patriots defense played a great game. I totally underestimated how little the Denver defense would care about this game and that most of them were happy to just be there. The Pats offense made them look like chickens with their heads cut off. I have to admit, I had a little bit of doubt going into the game seeing as the Patriots were a better team, but I still thought the Broncos could win. However, I have to say, after the coin toss, my entire feeling about the game changed. What in the world was John Fox thinking giving the ball to Tom Brady and the Patriots to start the game? The only way they were going to win was off of momentum and doubt. They knew they had no shot of winning coming from behind, and the Patriots had 2 weeks to figure out what plays they were going to run on an opening drive. That, in my opinion changed the whole complexion of the game. How demoralizing is it for your defense to come out after the kickoff and give up a touchdown in what was it, five plays? Down 7-0 before Tebow could even finish the first verse of “Our God is an awesome God”. Just idiotic. I know he deferred every toss he won the whole season but this is the playoffs and you have to do the smart thing and going down 7-0 is not smart. Either way the Patriots played like they all remembered last years loss to the Jets and would have beat the Broncos regardless of how the game went.

I heard a lot about how Tim Tebow blew the game for the Broncos and how he sucked again and once again his numbers don’t reflect what really happened in my opinion. He was something like 3 for 8 in the first half for 28 yards, and all but one of his incompletions were dropped passes and thrown away balls. Not to mention the play calling not just in this game but the entire year was just awful and set him up for failure. Regardless, he had a great season and I am looking forward to see what he has next year. He will get a full training camp, preseason and a year under his belt. If anything, this game should have shown everyone what a great job Tebow did getting this horrible, overrated defense to the second round of the playoffs. Hopefully the Broncos can build a little better of a team around him for next season. They need some serious help on defense and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to bring in a few good receivers to compliment Demaryius Thomas who has a bright future as well. So I will admit I was wrong this week. I truly thought the Broncos had a chance and thought I had some pretty good stats and reasons why they had a chance and the Broncos didn’t do any of it, plain and simple. Hats off to the Pats and lets go Sixers.

Comparison of the Year

Tomorrow is the big day, and I haven’t slept since Sunday. I’ve been drinking a lot of soda and eating a lot of sugar. Of course, I turn on the TV at 2 to listen to Felger and Mazz and as I am researching my statistics for this comparison I am about to give you, they bring up the same comparison. Always stealing my thunder, not that any of you listen or watch them anyways. So before I tell you this I just want to make it clear that I am in no way saying Tebow is going to be as good as Brady.

We all know the amount of scrutiny Tim Tebow has been under coming into the league, and everything he does has been analyzed over and over and over again. Tom Brady was an end of the draft pick who nobody knew. In Brady’s first 11 games in his 2nd season, which was 2001 when he led them to the Super Bowl, Brady threw and rushed for 2,278 yards, 16 total touchdowns and 9 interceptions while posting an 8-3 record. Tim Tebow in his first 11 games in his second season he threw and rushed for 2,317 yards, 16 total touchdowns, and 6 interceptions while posting a 7-4 record. Eerily similar? I think so. If you took these two players, put the stats in front of someone who didn’t know who they were, they would say they were about the same. The difference now is that Tim Tebow has been under a microscope since he came out of college. He had expectations the second he stepped on the field, and because of some of his flaws, people are quick to judge his ability when in reality, we all forget he is still a rookie for the most part. This is his first full season (if you want to call 11 games a full season) and his numbers are the same as Brady’s in his first full season. Now I won’t be ridiculous and claim Tim Tebow will be as good as Brady someday or that he’s better than him because it’s not true. Tom Brady and Tim Tebow have what Skip Bayless calls the “clutch gene” that many players don’t possess. Tom Brady told Robert Kraft after they had drafted him that he was going to be the best decision he ever made.

That season I was comparing Tebow to Brady was 2001, and that was the year Drew Bledsoe went down against the Jets in week 2. That year, the Patriots as a team were much better than the Broncos are as a team this year. The Patriots had a top 5 defense. The playoff games the Patriots won that year were won by defense, special teams, and of course the one referee in the entire world who knew what the tuck rule was. It is crazy to even think about what would have transpired the next few years had that ref been like the rest of the world and not known that new rule. The Patriots would have lost in that first round and I wonder if they would have been the same team going forward? I think it was Troy Brown who had the big touchdown against the Steelers in the AFC Championship on the punt return that won them the game in a game that everyone expected them to lose. Had Brady come out of college as a top prospect with high expectations, what would we have said about his numbers that season? Would he be thrown under the bus in games they lost and praised in games they won? Would his success have been written off because it’s what people expect he should do? If Tebow pulls off the unthinkable and wins the Super Bowl, would anyone give him credit? Probably not, but I just thought that was an interesting comparison I found which you all should look at and think about. Enjoy the Patriot’s last game of the year tomorrow, it’s going to be a long offseason. Make sure you guys tweet @Ochocinco for all his help this year.