By Bill Barnwell, Football Outsiders – special to BSMW Patriots Game Day
Here are two seemingly-contradictory but usually-true statements about pro football:
1) Special teams are the most consistently underrated facet of the game.
2) 99% of kickers are fungible and shouldn’t be paid top dollar.
Somewhere at the point where these two statements meet is Adam Vinatieri. You [...]
Quick quiz:
After two weeks of pre-season football, which NFL offense leads the league in yards per game? Which offense leads the league in yards per play? Third in plays from scrimmage? Third in time of possession? Third in 3rd down percentage? Fourth in first downs?
Hint: the answer to all six questions is the same [...]
The New England Patriots scored 17 second half points behind backup quarterback Matt Cassel to easily defeat the Arizona Cardinals, 30-3, in tonight’s pre-season game in Foxboro.
Cassel finished with 14 completions in 20 attempts for 192 yards, most coming in the second half, including two touchdown passes (to Rich Muzinski and Heath Evans). He was [...]
Starters on both sides of the ball played the first 30 minutes as the Patriots took a 13-3 halftime lead over the Arizona Cardinals tonight at Gillette.
Tom Brady – though being replaced briefly by Matt Cassel in a planned, ‘game-situation’ drill – led the team on three scoring drives, the last a 15 play, [...]
Well, it’s like the Boston Globe’s Own Carrot Top likes to say – at least we have the Patriots.
Of course, he says that like he’s just survived a plane crash in the Andes, and he’s looking around thinking, “well, at least we can eat the ones who didn’t make it.”
It’s great to have your support, [...]
Just after we posted our weekly roundtable tonight, we learned that the Patriots seem on the verge of signing the recently retired Junior Seau to play middle linebacker for them in 2006. In a strange development, Mike Reiss has Seau’s old team, the San Diego Chargers, basically confirming the story.
It’s another one of those [...]
I used to like those episodes of M*A*S*H when Sherman Potter or somebody would announce they were “BUGGING OUT!” They’d have to throw the camp, operating room and all, into the back of a horse and a half dozen jeeps and move it further from the line. Hilarity would inevitably ensue. One time, I think [...]
Ah, being the new guy. My name’s Bill Barnwell, and welcome to the first in what will be a weekly series of pieces covering the Patriots through the critical lens of Football Outsiders. For those of you not familiar with the website, our aim is to bring objective analysis to football; to provide a cliche [...]
Considering the players out for the Patriots, a second look at the first exhibition game against Atlanta on tape proves encouraging, if not perfect, on the whole. Many of the younger players had very good or at the least flashes of good performances Saturday night. Lets take a look at the individual units to evaluate [...]
I’m about to go all Maureen McGovern on your asses with a few lingering thoughts, as the sun comes up across Maine’s western mountains….
The number of passes caught by Patriots wide receivers last night? Three. Before you get all excited about that, Erik Davis and Rich Musinski caught 66% of them.
Again, I maintain that [...]
Okay, so who is Patrick Cobbs? I don’t care if he ever does anything else, that 57 yard TD off a screen play was as enjoyable as a first pre-season game gets. I love how he accelerated out of the grasp of a trailing Atlanta defender who seemed sure to catch him from behind. This [...]
We’re bloggin’ live from the Bethel Inn and Country Club as we await my bride’s twentieth high school reunion tomorrow night. If you’re already laughing about how generally uncomfortable I’ll be twenty-four hours from now, two words: shut up.
This place is fantastic, though. We’re watching the Pats in a nice room warmed by an exquisite [...]
