Patriots Daily

Sunday in San Diego, the Patriots answered convincingly a lot of questions that have floated about them all season. Are they deep enough? You’d have to say yes after watching them advance to the AFC Championship Game. Are they still tough enough? Undoubtedly, yes. They took the hardest punches San Diego could throw and still came out on top. Does the management still know what its doing? Clearly, they do. So, despite all the doomsaying from many, despite all the supposed critical losses and holes, here they are among the NFL final four. Lets take a look at each unit.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady struggled for much of the day. He was under heavy pressure, especially in the first half, but didn’t play well even accounting for that. He missed some open receivers, seemed confused at times and got intercepted three times. But there he was at the end, making some critical throws to win the game. The 49 yarder to Reche Caldwell on the last drive, which set up the winning field goal, was an absolute thing of beauty. The drive at the end of the half you have to consider as well, for without those seven points, the Patriots are probably not even competitive in the second half. It was that one good drive in the first half the Patriots needed and Brady delivered on. Winners come through even when they aren’t at the top of their game. That is what Tom Brady did Sunday. He came through when it counted and that was enough.

RUNNING BACK: A very quiet day here, since the Patriots all but abandoned the run in the second half. When they did try, there was little there. It wasn’t the running backs fault. There was simply no room. All three did a good job in pass protection when called upon.

WIDE RECEIVER: A very good day from Troy Brown, Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney. Gaffney had ten catches and a touchdown. Caldwell had a touchdown and one of the plays of the game with his long catch late in the game which set up the winning field goal. And Troy Brown made one of the smartest, heads up football plays of this six year run when he stripped Marlon McCree of the ball following a possible game-clinching interception with six minutes left. With all the worrying about this position this season, you’d have to give this unit an A+ in the biggest game the team has played so far this year.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A very very solid job pass blocking. They were unable to create any room with the running game, though the Patriots really didn’t try much. You have to give both Matt Light and Nick Kaczur a ton of credit with how they handled the outside rush. The line did have trouble getting out on the couple screens the Patriots tried. But overall, a very nice job by this unit.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Richard Seymour had trouble this game and no one in the unit particularly showed up. The Chargers were able to run and the pass rush that was generated was mostly from blitzes. So this unit could have been better Sunday.

LINEBACKERS: Roosevelt Colvin had a very active day and if you watch the tape, you could see the Chargers had far less success running to his side and much of it was due to the inability of the Chargers to block Colvin. The other side with Tully Banta-Cain was not nearly as effective and the Chargers ran well that way. Both Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi were decent, but not great. A caveat is needed here because the Chargers really are an outstanding offensive team with the best running back in the NFL. Considering that, this unit did okay.

SECONDARY: Asante Samuel has just had an amazing year. And Sunday was no exception. He had several blanket coverage type plays and batted down a big 3rd and 4 pass late in the game with the score still tied. Over on the other side, Ellis Hobbs proved he wasn’t the sorriest corner in the league and is actually quite solid. He gave up some plays, but also made some. Overall, the Chargers passing game didn’t hurt the Patriots too badly and this unit deserves credit.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Good day here. Stephen Gostkowski hit all three of his kicks without incident, including a 50-yarder and the game winner. Todd Sauerbraun’s punts were good. And coverage was decent, including on the big last kickoff the game when they had to cover a kick up three with the dangerous Michael Turner returning. Good day.

Now on to Indianapolis. Its amazing this team is on the verge of what they are, yet another championship. They may not be as good as the 2003 or 2004 teams, but no one can claim they aren’t close any more. Until then.

Sunday’s impressive 37-16 win in the opening round of the NFL playoffs proved the Patriots are once again ready to take on all challengers when the postseason rolls around. Despite the final score, it was a tight, well-played, competitive game most of the way through. But the Patriots were clearly better and I never had a sense they’d lose. It was one of the better and sharper games they have played all year. And they’ll need to continue that trend as the competition is only going to get better. Lets take a look at each unit.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady has clearly played better the second half of the year, overall, than he did the first half. Chemistry with the receivers is probably one reason. Sunday, he was very good. He killed the Jets on critical third down after third down and at times made it look easy the precision he ran the offense with. He had a couple bad plays, a pass or two that could have been picked and a sack where he held the ball too long. But overall, he is approaching if not at his previous year’s level and that is good news for the Patriots.

RUNNING BACK: An outstanding day. Corey Dillon was very effective running the ball, though he did have one fumble. Laurence Maroney too ran hard, though he was unable to really shake loose on the Jets. Kevin Faulk contributed and caught a touchdown pass. The blocking was great, especially from fullback Heath Evans.

WIDE RECEIVER: A good day. Jabar Gaffney appears comfortable and made some good catches. His snare on the second Patriots first down of the game was actually a better catch than it appears on television. Live, you could see Brady was a bit inaccurate on it and Gaffney made a nice in flight adjustment to grab it and get the first down. He was good all day and had eight catches, though he did drop one potential touchdown. Troy Brown had one of his better games of the year, catching a couple big third downs and getting down field a bit. Reche Caldwell was his usual solid self and had five catches.

TIGHT ENDS: Good day here. Ben Watson had a drop, but blocked well. Daniel Graham was back to his old self blocking and was excellent. He caught a touchdown pass nicely at the end of the half as well in traffic.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Great day here. Matt Light held up well against the pass and the guards did an excellent job picking up the inside blitzes the Jets tried. They also got out well in space a number of time, especially Stephen Neal. Nick Kaczur at right tackle may have had his best game of the year.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Very good day here, though I don’t think it was as spectacular as I heard others say. That being said, Richard Seymour had his most disruptive and best day of the year. Nice to see him step up his game for the playoffs. He was all over the field including hustling numerous times to make plays on receivers way down field. Vince Wilfork was back from injury and was solid, but not spectacular and the Jets did gash him up the middle a couple times. He did have the heads up play of the year picking up a Jets lateral and running with it in the third quarter. That changed the game. Ty Warren was quiet for the first time in some time.

LINEBACKERS: A monster game here from Tully Banta-Cain, who seems to be getting better and better the more he plays. The rest of the crew was pretty solid. Mike Vrabel was active and had a nice game plugging the middle and dropping into coverage.

SECONDARY: What more can be said about Asante Samuel? The guy has just made plays all year. Before his fourth quarter interception return for a TD, he was solid all day and batted down a couple of big passes. Ray Mickens and Ellis Hobbs did a nice job at the corner spots. At safety, Artrell Hawkins let himself get out of position and took a bad angle on the Jets long touchdown pass and run. That was a major mistake. He had a bit of an off game, as did James Sanders, though neither was terrible. They’ll need to play better from here on out, however.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Nice game from Stephen Goskowski connecting on all three field goal attempts. His kickoffs were mostly long and high as well. The punting was decent and coverage good. Not a bad day here.

As well as the Patriots played, they’ll have to play even better in the next round against a better San Diego team. It won’t be easy at all. But if they can slow down Tomlinson some (I don’t think they need to stop him completely, just hold him down under 120) and take away Antonio Gates, throwing to receivers is not what San Diego really likes to do. On offense, the Patriots have a challenge against the tough San Diego pass rush. They’ll need to find a way to combat that similar to how they combated the tough Carolina pass rush in the Super Bowl a few years back. Do that and they may just advance to the AFC Championship Game.

Just some quick thoughts on the Tennessee game the Patriots won this past weekend 40-23. Since a lot of people have moved on to the Jets playoff game and the game didn’t have the significance it could have, we’ll just take a look at the positive things that came out of the game. There were a number of things to like.

First, at quarterback, Tom Brady was on. Like the Jets did last time they met the Patriots, the Titans came after Brady and Brady burnt them in a number of ways. With effective short, long and screen passes, he was able to take advantage all day. Sunday, if the Jets try the same approach, they will have to make the them pay as the Titans did Sunday, as opposed to how they were mostly unable to do that in that last game against the Jets.

Other positives from Sunday included the running backs again getting back into early season form. Corey Dillon has started looking more and more like the back he was early in the season, as opposed to a run-down, tired back he looked for a time a month or so ago. Maybe saving him carries all season has saved him from the wear and tear that is tough on backs in their thirties, as Dillon is, and he is getting his second wind for a strong playoffs.

The receivers and line also contributed Sunday and Reche Caldwell among the receivers was particularly impressive. He has gotten better and better as the season has gone on and he once again stretched the field, catching a long touchdown pass and drawing a long inteference call. Chad Jackson had maybe his best game of the year catching a ball he made a play on, as well as a few nice punt returns.

Other positives included Heath Evans having his best day as a blocker all year, helping to spring a number of long runs. On defense, Roosevelt Colvin stood out and Jarvis Green was very active as well. James Sanders continues his overall good play in the secondary and you have to be impressed with the steadiness of Artrell Hawkins all year.

So, now its on to the Jets the familiarest of foes. The Jets played conservative and relatively mistake free on a sloppy field to slip by the Patriots last time. That isn’t an insult, its how they need to play…penalty and turnover free, smart, patient, take what the defense gives them, a few plays here and there and maybe slip out with a win. The Patriots need to match that play better this time. They need to be just as disciplined and mistake free. Brady, who had a terrible game last time, has to be better in handling the Jets blitz. The running game and particularly offensive line has to be better. Remembering last game, they were great in the first half then pretty much disappeared in the second. They have to stop the run, obviously, on defense. And they have to force Pennington to be one dimensional. It may seem contrart to instincts since Pennington is not a running quarterback, but I have always felt the way you really get to Pennington is to keep him in the pocket and not let him slide a bit left or right, employing a defense similar to you would against a scrambling quarterback like Vick or Young. Keep him in the pockets, don’t give him the sideline stuff and short dumps and make him throw to the center of the field from the pocket downfield and he simply doesn’t have the arm to get it done. He’s actually incredibly effective throwing on the move and sliding from side to side, but when you make him use his arm as a drop back passer, he can’t do it very effectively. That is how the Patriots have beat him in the past. They didn’t do it last time.

It should be an interesting game. Until then.

For all the whining, second guessing by armchair experts and half-truths pointed at the Patriots by some media and some fans this season, alls they did in response was win at least 11 games, bettering last season’s record and win their fourth consecutive AFC East title. Some of the fans around here have been spoiled. Still others are just miserable in general and translate that over to all their interests. A lot in the media spend most of their time trying to boost their own profiles, so cherry picking real or imagined weaknesses in the hopes a blind squirell may actually find a nut and they look prescient. That has become pretty much the norm from the Boston sports media and lead to attempts to find negatives in almost everything that happened to an 11-4 team.

And for that miserable section of fans who actually are more negative about the Patriots than idiots like Glenn Ordway, who at least has a perverse incentive of ratings and, consequently, money to provide him motivation for his schtick, well, I think those fans are probably just pretty unhappy about most things, not just the Patriots. Because, really, this team is on an unprecedented run of success. Or at least rarely matched. You don’t always have to win championships to be well run, though they still just may well do that. And you don’t have to be unobjective to see what an excellent system and successful organization they have become that makes the right decision the vast majority of the time.

So lets take a look at how each unit played for the once and present (and probably future) AFC East champs in beating a good Jacksonville team at their home 24-21 Sunday.

QUARTERBACK: A great game by Tom Brady. With the Patriots game plan focused on the pass, he was able to hit a very high percentage of passes on mostly three step drops. He wasn’t perfect, as he missed several open receivers. But he was mostly on target and also found room to scramble for several first downs. Overall, Brady has been much better and consistent and more like himself the second half of the season and that is good news heading into the playoffs.

RUNNING BACK: As I said, the Patriots weren’t focused as much on the run. But Corey Dillon had a couple good, tough runs and a touchdown. And Laurence Maroney made an effective return to the lineup, including a pretty long touchdown run. He showed little rust or injury effects and ran hard and with power. The blitz pickup was good.

WIDE RECEIVER: A fairly effective day. Troy Brown got himself open a number of times and had a few catches, as well as being missed by Brady a couple times despite being open. Jabar Gaffney chipped in some catches and the downfield blocking was good all around.

TIGHTEND: Great day for Dave Thomas. Not only did he show up in the passing game, including a spectacular diving touchdown catch, he blocked extremely well and could be seen involved in some of the big runs the Patriots had as a blocker. Daniel Graham also had a big game as a blocker and with a couple catches. I feel Graham should be the number one priority to get re-signed in the offseason. He is the most complete tightend on the roster.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Very good day overall. The short drops helped in pass protection, but they generally held up well. They did a good job in run blocking in limited opportunities. Nick Kaczur easily had his best day of the year and showed a lot in both the passing and run games at right tackle, rarely getting beat and often times dominating the guys he matched up with. Overall, there were very few breakdowns on the line Sunday.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Good job here. Mike Wright held up well again at nose tackle filling in for the injured Vince Wilfork. Jarvis Green had a good game, including causing the game ending fumble. Ty Warren again was stout and effective.

LINEBACKER: Very encouraging day. Tully Banta-Cain was again outstanding in both the run game and generating some pressure in the pass game. He did have the one glitch where he let Maurice Jones-Drew out of his sights, leading to a 74 yard touchdown run. But that was a fluke play and clearly Banta-Cain just thought Jones-Drew was down. A mistake to be sure, but the rest of the day he was good, particularly against the run. Tedy Bruschi also had a very nice day and seems to have improved his level of play recently. The entire crew was pretty good Sunday and only had the one long run against it.

SECONDARY: Rodney Harrison was back and seemingly didn’t miss a beat. He was active and showed up a lot in run support. Another good day for Artrell Hawkins as well and he has shown himself to be a very good tackler and solid player all year. Ellis Hobbs had a bad moment when he let Jacksonville receiver Matt Jones slip away from him. But Jones is a big, physical, fast receiver and that was a bit of a mismatch to let Hobbs handle him alone on that play. Asante Samuel had one of those moments too, losing a Jacksonville receiver in coverage where it appears Samuel bit on a fake and that led to a long gain. Besides those two plays the coverage was fairly solid.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Good coverage and pretty good returns. Stephen Gostkowski was a little shaky working with new holder Matt Cassell. He missed a kick. And new punter Todd Sauerbraun did his best Ken Walter imitation and had a bad first game. Lets hope he gets into the flow of the things and kicks like he has in the past by the playoffs.

On to Tennessee. It’ll be interesting to see how the Patriots play this. But based on last year, its likely they will play a lot of backups and not see it as a critical difference trying to improve from the #4 seed to the #3 seed. We shall see. Tennessee is an up and coming opponent and it would be great to see these two teams play while both going all out to win. But I just am not sure you’ll see that from the Patriots this week and instead will see them rest a lot of players for most of the game. Until then.

Well, this was certainly a more pleasant game to watch over. A 40-7 victory tends to calm football fans down, no matter how inept the opponent. So, lets take a look individually and see if the Patriots really played well Sunday or it was just a function of a weak opponent.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady did what had to be done. It wasn’t the greatest day to be throwing the ball as, although the weather was fine, it was a bit windy. But he dumped off screens with precisions, hit a few big passes on third down and, although his stats weren’t impressive, he did throw a perfect pass on the Patriots first drive which was dropped well down field and he drew an inteference penalty with another long throw. He avoided mistakes. A pretty good day overall, all things considered.

RUNNING BACK: Corey Dillon ran hard, but without a ton of room. He just lacks that obvious burst he had back in 2004. He is still a powerful back and good contributor, but he just doesn’t have the elusiveness or speed he had in that great first season with the Patriots. Sunday, he had some good runs, particularly early, but appears to be better now in combination with someone else. Kevin Faulk had a great day running the ball, catching screen passes and even in blitz pickup. Probably his best game of the season. Heath Evans chipped in too and had some good runs.

WIDE RECEIVER: A somewhat quiet day. Reche Caldwell did have six catches, but not for a lot of yards. Still, he moved the chains on several occasions and drew a long inteference penalty. Jabaar Gaffney had a long drop which hurt, but he somewhat made up for it with a nice job creating some space on his six yard touchdown reception. Nobody else did much. Newcomer Kelvin Kight had a drop. Not a good first impression.

TIGHT END: Pretty solid day. Daniel Graham didn’t get involved in the passing game, but blocked well all day. David Thomas was the most active he’s been all year and he had three catches. He appears to move well in routes and could be a good weapon in that area with increases opportunities.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A solid day and much improved from the Miami game. They were pretty good in run blocking, did a nice job in protection and showed athleticism getting out in front of some screen passes. Stephen Neal in particular had a nice day and you have to love how he always searches out that extra block he can make, which he has the speed and athleticism to usually get to more than most linemen.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Pretty solid day. Ty Warren again was immense. Richard Seymour had a nice day and had an interception after he nicely batted a pass in the air. Mike Wright did a solid job holding his own at nose tackle while filling in for Vince Wilfork, though he’s not a long term solution versus better lines there.

LINEBACKER: Good day here, one of the better games all season. They chased and bothered Houston quarterback David Carr all day. Tully Banta-Cain again got better and this time the jump was by leaps and bounds. He was all over the field, had two sacks, was good against the run and appears to be coming into his own in his new role as a starter. Tedy Bruschi also had his best game of the year and was solid up the middle and appeared more active and moving around better than he has all year. Roosevelt Colvin also had an active, good day. Very encouraging performance from the ‘backers.

SECONDARY: Very good day. Chad Scott was back in form and had a very nice day in coverage and run support. Asante Samuel had another interception and was a blanket in coverage. James Sanders also was good and Ellis Hobbs had his best day in weeks. I also like what Ray Mickens has shown as a nickle back in the slot in his first two weeks and he has been solid coming in as a street free agent.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Great day here. The coverage was great, including some excellent jobs by Larry Izzo, Corey Mays and even newcomer Kelvin Kight. The returns were great, particularly the 97 yard return for a touchdown by Ellis Hobbs which featured great blocks from Mays, Pierre Woods and Willie Andrews, rookies all. Stephen Gostkowski kicked both kickoffs and field goals with confidence and is doing a nice job and even Ken Walter wasn’t too bad.

Jacksonville is up next, a team Houston has beaten twice this year. But expect a much tougher game against a pretty good opponent who is in the playoff race. Until then.

This was obviously an absolute abysmal performace by the Patriots on the whole. I will say the Patriots were decent for most of the game on defense, but their offense was so inept and punter so pathetic, it made little difference. I actually had to slog through the tape of this disaster again to write this article. I can watch a replay of a decent, close, competitive loss. But this was just torture. They were that bad. And to be fair, Miami was that good. It wasn’t as close as the final score.

QUARTERBACK: I have a hard time blaming Tom Brady too much for the horrendous offensive performance. Sure, he didn’t do much to lift the team’s performance. But he had little time. Hammered, harrassed and hurried all game, there was not much he could do. Surprisingly he avoided any interceptions, though he did lose one fumble. It was hard to even really evaluate his performance, he was that under badly under pressure all game.

RUNNING BACK: This was actually a pretty decent performance. Corey Dillon ran well and, had it been a closer game, probably would have piled up even more impressive stats. Kevin Faulk did a pretty good job in blitz pickup on a number of occasions. He’s gotten pretty good at that. And Patrick Pass filled in without any major errors. Probably the best unit amongst the offense were the backs on Sunday.

WIDE RECEIVER: Not good. Reche Caldwell had his worst day in weeks and could not get open. Admittedly, the Dolphins were doubling the outside receivers. This should have created chances for Troy Brown, but he only managed a bit of production. He did have one nice play where he barrelled into a Dolphin defender and showed nice attitude, as he always does. But overall, the unit was ineffective and it didn’t appear they were making adjustments to blitz calls nor getting open when they were one on one.

TIGHT ENDS: Another terrible performance. Daniel Graham had a big fumble that hurt. Ben Watson had a big drop on what could have been a big play over the middle. David Thomas did nothing. The blocking, with maybe a couple of exceptions from Graham, was non-descript. Bad job from this unit.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Now this was where we really saw some putrid play. The run blocking actually wasn’t bad. We’ll give them a thumbs up there. But the pass blocking was so bad, and inconsistent with what we know of the Patriots—confused looking, Brady never had a chance. As a consequence, neither did the Patriots. Matt Light is a pretty good player. He is tough. He has good technique. He works hard. He is a powerful run blocker. But he is simply not athletic enough to match up against top speed rushers. They kill him every time. Jason Taylor did it again Sunday. Aaron Schobel from Buffalo reguarly does it to him. John Abraham used to as well. They simply have to find a way to give Light more help against teams with speed rushers such as these and its been too often a problem for them not to any longer. The rest of the line was also horrendous, especially Nick Kaczur. Watching this unit stumble, bumble and get overpowered on tape nearly made me want to puke. Its just not what we’re used to seeing. Sure, guys get beat sometimes. But to watch them bump into each other trying to slide over to pick up a blitz and then miss the guy, getting Brady killed, well it was a particularly bad day at the office one might say.

DEFENSIVE LNE: Its a broken record, but Ty Warren is having an outstanding season. The line was pretty good Sunday, at least until Vince Wilfork got hurt and an out-of-position Mike Wright had to fill in. But overall, this wasn’t really the problem Sunday.

LINEBACKER: Again, a decent day here. Tully Banta-Cain was more active than the week before and showed progress. The new middle of Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrable seemed more comfortable. Only Roosevelt Colvin was a little disappointing as he has been off and on this year.

SECONDARY: Not bad, except Chad Scott. I had loved Scott’s play this year. He really was playing outstanding. But then he got hurt and has now been back a couple games and hasn’t been the same. Sunday, he was beat pretty consistently and it costs the Patriots on numerous occasions. He looks a step slower than earlier in the year. One wonders if he is still injured. James Sanders continued his improvement, however, and seems to be coming more confident and a factor in both coverage and run support. That’s encouraging.

SPECIAL TEAMS: We all know Bill Belichick is a great football coach. He has made few errors since he’s been here. But he isn’t perfect and makes them occasionally. One of the most Herm Edwards-esque things Belichick has done, and believe me its a rare day when he does anything as awful as to be put in Herm’s category, is his strange devotion to Ken Walter, a punter unqualified to punt for Foxboro High, nevermind in the NFL. Here’s the thing that gets me about Belichick’s infatuation with Walter, it goes against the grain of one of the core philosophies he believes in. And that is consistency. See, here is the thing with Water. He had a pretty good year in 2001. He had a unique ability to place the ball inside the opponents twenty and did a great job at that. In general, his punts were high and he didn’t give up many returns. We saw the first slight slippage of his performance late that year, but overall, a pretty good year. And a Super Bowl winning year at that. Thank you Mr. Walter.

But here is the rub. He has sucked since then. I mean monumentally. He was terrible in 2002. Even worse in 2003 and then finally the team cut ties with him in 2004. Only to see him reappear like a bad memory you just can’t shake. The man is a menace. I maintain it is some type of football miracle that should be studied by Franciscan Monks to see if some type of divine intervention occurred that they won the Super Bowl in 2003 with Ken Walter as their punter. I mean he repeatedly kicked the team into trouble and, somehow, the defense would bail him out time and time again. I remember the Houston regular season game in 2003 when Walter just kept shanking them off the side of his foot and the defense would actually gain yardage back when put into this awful field position caused by Walter.

And what leaves me scratching my head is this. I am not saying Walter never gets off a good kick. I’ll even acknowledge the strength he has that Belichick seems so enamored of and that is, when he kicks it how he wants, he gets nice height and avoids big returns. The guy has a BB gun of a leg compared to the bazookas other NFL punters have. But occasionally he gets one nice and high and forces fair catches. And, oh yeah, he’s a hell of a holder and a terrific guy as well. Great.

But he’s inconsistent. For every high punt you get, you’re just as likely to get some low liner that causes trouble or a straight up in the air 23 yarder or one of the side of his foot. He doesn’t give you straight line performance. And that is the thing that puzzles me about Belichick’s decision to keep him around. Usually he values consistency. You don’t have to be an All-Pro to be a Belichick player. You can just be a solid guy who does his job and he’ll find a place for you. But under any other circumstances, he at least demands some type of consistent result. You can’t grade out at a 9 one opportunity and 3 the next all the time. Yet that is exactly what you get from Walter. A crap shoot. Sure, he gets those nice high ones that seems to fascinate Belichick. But you get more 24 yarders than I see at half time of the pass, punt and kick competition, 12 year old division, as well. Its pathetic. And Sunday, Walter killed the Patriots kick after horrible kick. It was ridiculous. And its time to end the Walter era in Foxboro once and for all. Mr. Belichick and Mr. Pioli, do everyone a favor. Do Ken Walter a favor. End his football career. He couldn’t kick for King Philip Regional. Get him off the new sod at Gillette. Do it now. And don’t let him come back without a ticket. Because I’m sorry, its killing you. And it’ll continue to kill you because its all he’s displayed since 2002.

Next week Houston. They better play well for a change.

by Greg Doyle
greg@bostonsportsmedia.com

In 2001, the Patriots had to go into overtime in week 14 to beat Buffalo 12-9. Buffalo finished 3-13 that year. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl. In 2003, the Patriots had to go into overtime against Houston in week 12 before winning 23-20. Houston finished 5-11 that year. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl. In 2004, the Patriots played a very sloppy game, barely sneaking by 35-28, against a pre-playoff caliber Cincinnati team in week 14 and then went on to lose the following week against a bad Miami team that finished 4-12. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl.

The point is, Sunday’s game did not bother me too much. They played poor, got the win against a bad opponent, but were pretty much in control at the end. Had that game gone a bit longer, it wouldn’t have been close. Sure, you’d like to see a superior team like the Patriots blow out an inferior team like the Lions. Call it human nature, the way the NFL is, whatever. It just happens sometimes. It doesn’t mean the Patriots didn’t care. It doesn’t mean they’re doomed the rest of the year. They just did what they had to do, and no more, and got the W. On to Miami. Lets take a look at each unit.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady played his third top-notch game in a row. He seems to finally found his rhythm this year. There was one bad throw that Dre Bly intecepted. But Bly is one of the top corners in the NFL at jumping routes and he got Brady. Not a big deal. Otherwise, Brady was on top of his game, completing 14 of 15 in the fourth quarter when the game was in the balance and spreading the ball around like a magician. He seems to be getting better and better as the season progresses, after a slow start, and that could be very good news if that trend continues into the playoffs.

RUNNING BACK: A so-so day. Laurence Maroney got injured early after a somewhat promising start. Corey Dillon didn’t produce much yardage, but did display good, hard running in the red zone and racked up three touchdowns. Kevin Faulk had his best game of the year, doing yeoman’s work catching the ball out of the backfield. Patrick Pass got back involved, but had a costly fumble. He did make a nice play on a screen pass that went for sixteen yards.

WIDE RECEIVER: A great day for Reche Caldwell once again. This guy is getting better and better as well, almost in sync with Brady in their progression. It seems humorous at this point to look back at how this signing was ridiculed by some in the preseason when he has turned out to be one of the best signings of last off-season in the entire NFL. None of the other receiver did too much, though Jabar Gaffney chipped in a nice 28 yard reception and Troy Brown did good work on a reverse.

TIGHT END: A good day for Daniel Graham. Ben Watson had a lost fumble and holding onto the ball has become an issue with him. If he could only correct that, you’d have a top tight end in the NFL. But until he corrects that, you can’t consider him that way. It is important to remember this is really his second season in the NFL when one considers he lost his rookie year to injury, so he’ll continue to improve. But being sure handed is an issue he needs to work on.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Decent protection for most of the day from this group. Nick Kaczur did have a holding penalty which wiped out a nice gain. And the run game was stagnant against a defensive line missing their best run stuffer. This group hasn’t played quite as well recently as they did early in the year and you’d like to see them do a better job, particularly in run blocking, heading into the playoffs.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A great day once again for Ty Warren. I may have said this several times this year, but if he doesn’t make the Pro Bowl its a crime. He hasn’t just been one of the best Patriots players, he has been one of the best defensive linemen in the NFL this year as far as I can see. Richard Seymour also had a nice day and managed to tip a couple balls. Mike Wright came in and caused some disruption and also recovered a fumble.

LINEBACKER: Pretty solid, overall, with a few hiccups. Roosevelt Colvin was hit or miss. He caused some pressure rushing the passer, but got sucked inside several times on run plays and also missed some plays on screen passes. So his day overall wasn’t great. Mike Vrabel looked comfortable inside at linebacker and had two interceptions, but his replacement outside Tully Banta-Cain didn’t do much. We’ll chalk Banta-Cain’s invisible day to unfamiliarity with his now every-down role. Give it time. He’s got ability and should improve.

DEFENSIVE BACK: A good day once again for Asante Samuel. Chad Scott replaced Ellis Hobbs frequently and was back from injury, but looked rusty and had a bad day. Hobbs wasn’t great either when he came back in. Both of which may help explain the signing of Ray Mickens at corner this week. Artrell Hawkins had a nice day. And James Sanders was again active in run support and had a decent day. When Hawkins got banged up and Rashard Baker came in briefly for him at safety, it was a disaster and Baker was confused and out of position, allowing for a couple decent gains. Safety depth could be an issue until Rodney Harrison gets back.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Good day for the coverage teams and Ken Walter did not allow any return yardage himself.

Miami is up next. Should be a tough game even though Miami isn’t a great team. The Patriots have traditionally struggled there and Miami always gets up to play them and play them physically. Until then.

by Greg Doyle
greg@bostonsportsmedia.com

Yes, there were turnovers. Five of them. That’s not good. But does it correlate into otherwise bad play? No, not necessarily. Because the Patriots did play a good game Sunday and beat another good team. It was a tough, physical game and players did cough the ball up on both sides. But the Patriots did enough positive things to escape and that they played a pretty good game overall, other than coughing it up, is pretty encouraging going forward.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady played a terrific game, his second in a row. This is perhaps the best two game stretch he has had this season and that is reason for optimism in and of itself given the up and down nature of his year so far. But he was once again extremely accurate. And his legendary leadership was on display late in the game when it was in the balance. From the long, improvised pass to Ben Watson on the go-ahead touchdown drive, to his scrambling juke of Bears linebacker Brian Uhrlacher, Brady led the Patriots in every way he could and was the major reason the Patriots were able to pull the game out.

RUNNING BACK: Not a great day running the ball. Both Laurence Maroney and Corey Dillon dropped fumbles. Maroney did a nice job in the passing game, as did Kevin Faulk. But the running game has been somewhat sporadic lately and at least some of the blame has to go to the running backs. They need to turn up their level of play here late in the season and play more as they did earlier in the year.

WIDE RECEIVER: A quiet night here. Chad Jackson could have had a big night. But just barely missed a long bomb in which he got himself wide open. Perhaps a dive there would have been called for, though Jackson appeared to gamble a bit and try to catch it in stride so he’d have the touchdown. Rookie mistake. Make sure of the catch first. Later, he seemed to draw a pass inteference call that inexplicably wasn’t called (especially puzzling given the lesser ones thrown against the Patriots a short time later). Reche Caldwell made a few catches, but made a bad decision stepping out of bounds on one late in the game as the Patriots tried to kill the clock. I’m sure he’ll get an earful about that in films this week. Still, I like the way he has worked himself into the offense and is getting downfield more. Troy Brown had one big catch, but beyond that the receivers were quiet.

TIGHT ENDS: Good night from both Daniel Graham and Ben Watson. Graham made one outstanding catch early in the game, as good as you will see. And Watson had some good catches as well. Though the caveat to that is he dropped a couple and fumbled once. His first drop popped high in the air after a ferocious hit and allowed Chicago to intercept. Its hard to blame him too badly for that one, the hit was just perfect. But he let a few others drop as well. I don’t think this is really a major problem, but an occasional one for Watson. He’s had a very good year and is a tremendous weapon at tight end. He’s made big catches all year. If he could just become slighly more sure handed, he could become among the top 3 tight ends in football. He could be that good.

OFFENSIVE LINE: An outstanding day pass blocking. Stephen Neal was one of the few who did a nice job in the run game as well. Chicago has a tough front seven. The line didn’t do much in the run game, but credit Chicago for that. They’re tough. It wasn’t for a lack of trying and they did such a good job pass blocking, overall it was a good effort for the line.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A very good day. Ty Warren was again a force, particuarly early. Vince Wilfork had perhaps his best game, going against a Pro Bowl level center in Olin Kreutz. Richard Seymour had a sack, a fumble recovery and a blocked field goal on special teams. The backups were fairly quiet. Jarvis Green hasn’t done much for a few games, it would be nice to see him step up and he was very quiet Sunday.

LINEBACKER: The backers were playing very well until Junior Seau went down with injury. After that, you saw Chicago run the ball a bit more effectively. That is somewhat worrisome as the Patriots depth will be exceedingly thin now that Seau is lost for the year. Roosevelt Colvin has been better lately, though I disagree with assesments he’s had a great year. He’s was bad early in the season, good lately, but still not at the level he played at last year, in my opinion. He’s simply had too many missed tackles, quiet days rushing and dumb plays to call it a great year. Even Sunday, his offsides penalty in the second half was costly, stupid and helped the Bears continue a drive. He needs to play more focused and has been better lately, but pretty good isn’t good enough. They need him to step up his game down the stretch here and eliminate the missed tackles, over pursuit and dumb penalties.

SECONDARY: Great day here. What else can be said about Asante Samuel, other than he had a shut down day that included three interceptions and sound run defense? Samuel has been good all year, but Sunday was the highlight. Ellis Hobbs was solid on the other side though he drew a pass interference penalty and possibly could have had another. Artrell Hawkins was good again and the penalty thrown against him was completely bogus. You simply can’t play a receiver better than he did and I’m sure the coaches are confused what they could tell him to do better on that play. James Sanders appears to be getting more comfortable as well and had a very good day. Several times he came up in run support and made nice plays and he was good in coverage as well. He actually reminded me of Rodney Harrison in his style of play a couple times and that is as high a compliment as you can get for a Patriots safety. I like the direction his game is headed in. Troy Brown played well also and and its amazing to see how he’s taken to the defensive back role.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Ken Walter returned to the Patriots after being away for several years and his first punt was a thing of beauty. High and unreturnable and about 45 yards. But after that, his next two were a bit shaky, though unreturnable. Stephen Gostkowski booted a nice 52 yard field goal to end the first half and his kickoffs were good. Coverage was good all night as well on special teams. A good day. They’ve picked up their play.

The Patriots have what should be an easy win in Detroit next. It would be surprising if they didn’t handle them easily, but I suppose stranger things have happened. We shall see. Until then.

by Greg Doyle
Greg@bostonsportsmedia.com

Now that is more like it. It would be tempting, even valid, to somewhat dismiss the Patriots dominating 35-0 win over Green Bay this past Sunday. Afterall, Green Bay played a dreadful game and barely mustered any opposition at all. But that wouldn’t be fair to the Patriots. A close look at the tape of the game reveals excellent play all around. Very few poor individual efforts, let alone plays, could be found at all in taking a second look at this game. So lets take a look at each individual unit.

QUARTERBACK: This was Tom Brady’s best game of the year. Better than even the Minnesota game. In Minnesota, he made at least a few bad throws, including a poor interception. This Sunday, you would be hard pressed to find even one poor throw. Oh, maybe the slightly too high pass to Mike Vrabel in the endzone (maybe it was just a Michigan-Ohio State thing?). But besides that, Brady was in a zone. Accurate, good decisions, calm, in control. The touchdown throw to Ben Watson in the corner of the end zone was as good a throw as an NFL quarterback can make. All day long, he simply sliced and diced Green Bay so badly, they never really had a chance. He was just on. And for once, there wasn’t even small displays of being erratic. If he can stay focused like he was Sunday, we may just yet see a return of the old Tom Brady week in and week out. The key is to start stringing these performances together in a row, rather than being up one week, down the next. If he can regain consistency, it’ll make the Patriots very tough to beat.

RUNNING BACK: An okay performance. Laurence Maroney had his moments. His touchdown on a flats swing pass late in the game featured a memorable move that left Packers linebacker Nick Barnett falling helplessly to the ground. Heath Evans proved a good short yardage choice again, converting a big fourth down run. Kevin Faulk had a big early catch to help get the Patriots offense untracked. Only Corey Dillon had a bit of an off game. He fumbled once (although it wasn’t entirely his fault) and didn’t find much running room. He did have a touchdown, however.

WIDE RECEIVER: A pretty good day. Reche Caldwell again showed toughness and that he is getting more and more comfortable in this offense. He is also starting to get downfield more often. You’d have to say, much to probably everyone’s surprise, he has been one of the more consistent and solid players on offense this season. Chad Jackson, although he only had one catch, seemed to do a nice job and looks to be getting more comfortable. Look for his playing time and production to start increasing down the stretch here assuming he stays healthy. Jabar Gaffney took a step back, dropping a ball early and only contributing one catch. He also needs to find consistency. Troy Brown was his usual self, catching some good move-the-chains type passes in the slot once again.

TIGHT END: A very good day. Ben Watson had some big catches and also his blocking is noticeably improved this year. Although he only caught one pass (a touchdown), Daniel Graham looked more himself this week and did a better job blocking. He also drew a big penalty in one on one coverage to set up the Patriots second touchdown.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A very good day overall. The right side was much improved with Stephen Neal back in there. Neal is one of the Patriots more underrated players and his solid blocking created some good holes for the Patriots in the second half. Nick Kaczur start at right tackle and was good. Ryan O’Callaghan was back filling in there as well and did a good job, though he did have a couple penalties. Dan Koppen partially contributed to the Corey Dillon fumble that almost cost the Patriots points by getting unacceptably blown backwards into the play. He was solid otherwise though, as was the rest of the line.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Ty Warren was back and noticeably improved this unit. He is having a superb year and continued his fine play on Sunday, dominating the man on him. All along the line, there was no room to run for Green Bay and the defense as a whole held the Packers to 5 first downs. A lot of that started up front with the dominance of the line.

LINEBACKER: A good day here too. Mike Vrabel was active. Roosevelt Colvin was much improved in coverage and Tully Banta-Cain was disruptive in reserve. In the middle, Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau were good filling the holes all day long and giving Green Bay zero room to run.

SECONDARY: Nice job here for this shorthanded unit. The strategy was to take away Donald Driver and make the Packers throw to Greg Jennings. It worked to perfection. Driver was quiet and Ellis Hobbs and Chad Scott were able to shut down Jennings one on one. At safety Artrell Hawkins had a good day. James Sanders had one of his better days as a pro, though I did spot him out of position on one play that ended up being an incompletion. Still, a nice job filling in from him.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Poor job punting again from Josh Miller. The coverage was much better this week. Kevin Faulk ripped off one long punt return, but also dropped one just prior to the half which could have hurt, though Faulk managed to jump on the loose ball himself.

Now a bigger test comes Sunday versus the 9-1 Chicago Bears. It’ll also be the debut of the Patriots new field turf surface at home. Should be a very entertaining game. Until then.

Well, this was certainly an unpleasant, ugly game to look back at it. Having slogged through the tapes, not much positive can be found yet again this week. It was simply the second poor performance in a row for the Patriots and that has to be somewhat worrisome. Every team is entitled to a slump, I suppose. But in the Super Bowl years of the Patriots, a slump may have meant one off game that they usually pulled out anyways. Or one poor loss. But two is a cause for concern. Particularly at home. On to the individual units.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady has not been himself this year. There can not be any debating that. I suppose we do have mention the changes at receiver. Logically, that has to contribute. But clearly, it goes beyond that. Sunday, the bouts of inaccuracy we have seen this year was evident. The poor decisions. Some bad throws were actually rescued by his receivers and turned into catches. I really can’t say what is wrong with Brady. Its just inconsistency because at times he is fine and looks like the old quarterback we’ve grown to know around here. Technically, nothing really stands out. He has velocity, he makes some great throws at times. Its just not there all the time. I don’t think the patchwork offensive line helped much Sunday, but still Brady is not playing that well.

RUNNING BACK: Seriously, what is up with Corey Dillon. Don’t get me wrong, Dillon played well Sunday. When he played. He ripped off a nice 55 yard run Sunday which featured a “get offfff me” stiff arm and though he ran out of gas at the end, it was still a nice run. But after that, he disappeared until after halftime. Why? Why does he seem to leave the game so often these days? He came back in the second half and made some more good runs, but was out of the game again quickly afterwards. Its puzzling. Laurence Maroney didn’t do much with his chances, which was unfortunate considering he was in there most of the time for Dillon.

WIDE RECEIVER: A nice day, overall. Reche Caldwell had an outstanding day catching big passes all over the field. He was certainly the star of the day. Jabar Gaffney too had a nice day in his first extended playing time and showed an ability to get separation on numerous plays. Look for his playing time to increase. Doug Gabriel on the other hand fumbled on a first half play and was not seen or heard from again. Apparently the carelessness with the ball led to him being made an example of.

TIGHT END: Daniel Graham returned, but did not seem his usual self. His blocking was a bit below par for him. Ben Watson didn’t do much in the passing game but did have some nice blocks to help spring Dillon. David Thomas was quiet and did not show up in any aspect of the game tape positively that I saw.

OFFENSIVE LINE: A bad day. Billy Yates and Nick Kaczur were starting on the right side and that represents a change from the opening day lineup. Yates was ineffective before getting hurt. Kaczur was also ineffective and eventually Wesley Britt came in for him. This patchwork unit needs Stephen Neal back desperately. Too much pressure and inconsistency in the run game was at times the line’s fault. They are not playing up to their early season play at the moment.

DEFENSIVE LINE: An ineffective day. Whether it was injuries or whatever, Richard Seymour did not show up at all. Vince Wilfork was surprisingly handled easily by the center of the Jets line and they controlled the gaps and ran decently, particularly on their first touchdown drive. With the Patriots missing Ty Warren for the game, Jarvis Green did not pick up the slack. Marquise Hill made a rare appearance in the second quarter, promptly went offsides and was never seen or heard from again. He could be on thin ice with his roster spot. Mike Wright did not display his previous hustling, good play. Overall, the worst game of the year for this unit.

LINEBACKER: A quiet day. Roosevelt Colvin had a sack, but continued to miss tackles at times, as well as midjudge coverage out of the backfield. Junior Seau was good again and Tedy Bruschi was definitely improved this week. But neither was great. Mike Vrabel was quiet and had among his worst games as a Patriots, not showing up at all. A bad day here as well.

SECONDARY: I didn’t think this unit was that bad. Ellis Hobbs got beat for a touchdown and could have been beat for another one earlier in the game, but the unit was okay for the most part. I was not real impressed with Asante Samuel’s job on the last Jets, clock-killing drive in which he allowed his man to slip around him for a critical first down. Artrell Hawkins had a nice day at safety.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Bad coverage on kickoffs was on display again. They did pop a couple decent returns. Josh Miller had some terrible punts, punting it deep into the Jets end zone on one occasion when the Patriots were trying to pin the Jets deep. That is just horrible. He didn’t even come close to keeping it on the field and putting it inside the 20. A bad day overall yet again. Brad Seeley needs to get all these units playing up to par. Its killed them against the Colts and hurt them again Sunday.

On to Green Bay, a game that is looking a lot tougher. Much tougher than it did before. Until then.

by Greg Doyle
Greg@bostonsportsmedia.com

A look back at Sunday night’s 27-20 Patriots’ loss to Indianapolis was just as unpleasant as watching it live. Make no mistake about it, the Patriots played a very bad game all around. I suppose some solace can be found in the fact as bad as they played, there they were with a chance to tie the game in the final minute and a half deep in Indianapolis territory. Still, had they managed to do so, they still would have been significantly outplayed and that is disappointing in and of itself. Lets look at the units

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady has had a decidely up and down season. Sunday was a definite down point. Perhaps the most down of the season, even more so than the Denver game. Sure, three of the four interceptions he threw were tipped. It unclear to me exactly what Indianapolis did to throw off Brady, but it looks like mainly they just mixed things up. They bumped his receivers off the line on occasion. They doubled his favorite receiver, Ben Watson, on big downs. They threw blitzes at him from different spots. Their front four generated a decent pass rush all night. It was enough to throw off Brady’s accuracy and cause some turnovers. The first interception to hault a drive on the Patriots first drive was an incredibly bad decision unlike Brady to make over the years. He was off on a lot of other throws. He needs to pick up his game and play more consistently if the Patriots are to have a chance to go far this year. One has to think that the passing game, in general, took a step back this week and they’re still a work in progress bound to have ups and downs.

RUNNING BACKS: A decent night. Corey Dillon had two touchdowns. He’s had the habit of pulling himself out of the game since he’s gotten here after longer runs. But those runs seem to get shorter and shorter as the years go by. Its gotten to the point where any run over six yards Dillon seems to pull himself out of the game. With a runner like Dillon, sometimes his powerful style is most effective when it comes right in a row. Bull them over with a seven yard run? Hit them in the mouth again with a repeat dose of the hard-charging Dillon. But he’s out of the game a lot of the time before they can really pound it with him. And against a team like Indianapolis, who is most vulnerable to a power back, that hurts. Laurence Maroney had a good game and was seemingly inches away from breaking a couple runs. Kevin Faulk makes me nervous. And lo and behold, tipping the ball up in the air on the last Patriots drive ended their chances. Its getting to the point with Faulk, the risk-reward analysis is starting to tip towards the risk side. Its getting to the point where I’m not sure I’d use him in a one score game much, except perhaps on third down when you need a pass catcher.

WIDE RECEIVER: Quiet night for this group. Congratulations to Troy Brown for setting the all-time Patriots record for receptions. Doug Gabriel and Reche Caldwell both had one big catch, but were quiet otherwise. This group needs to improve its play more.

TIGHT END: A decent day for Ben Watson, who had four catches despite close coverage from the Colts. David Thomas got himself open a couple times but Brady couldn’t hit him.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Inconsistent here as well. They were dominant at times run blocking in the first half, but in limited opportunities in the second half weren’t quite as good. They did allow some pressure in the second half particularly in the passing game as well. Billy Yates, filling in at right guard for Stephen Neal, clearly is a downgrade at that spot as well and the Patriots miss Neal.

DEFENSIVE LINE: Pretty good night for this crew. Richard Seymour had one of his better games. He created consistent pressure. The rest of the line was good. This is one unit that more than held its own.

LINEBACKER: Its becoming a legitimate question to begin to ask if Tedy Bruschi has began a decline in his career as he is not nearly playing at his old level and hasn’t all year. He used to be a playmaker, but hasn’t made many this year. He seems to be unable to shed blocks on running plays as effectively as he used to. Hopefully for the Patriots its just a slump and he’ll turn it around the second half of the year. Junior Seau, on the other hand, continues to play well even at his advanced age. He had an excellent game Sunday. The outsiders backers, Mike Vrabel and Roosevelt Colvin were good as well.

SECONDARY: A good night for Chad Scott. Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs, though it wasn’t all their fault, weren’t spectacular at corner. They had some moments, but it wasn’t enough. Rodney Harrison failed to be in position on the Colts first drive on third and long and allowed a receiver to get open to continue the drive. Then he got hurt, which was a problem for the Patriots. No one else stood out.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The Patriots generated a couple decent returns, but were horrendous on kickoff coverage all night. It was a big factor in the Patriots never really forcing the Colts into bad field position all night and a battle they lost. The punting was mediocre. They did cause a turnover, but it was offset by bad coverage. Stephen Gostkowski missed one easy field goal.

Overall, a disappointing night for the Patriots. They simply played one of their worst games of the year and it cost them. They can beat the Colts, but have to be on the very top of their game to do so. They’ll have to be a much better team if they do get a chance again and whether they will be, with all the new parts, is still an open question. The Patriots are a good team. Even a very good team. But to beat the Colts, who are clearly still among the league’s best, they’ll have to be great. They have about a half a season to turn themselves from a very good team into a great team or their ultimate goal will not be reached this year.

The Jets come to Foxboro Sunday. Until then.

A very good performance by the Patriots last Sunday, overall, in their trip to Buffalo. A look back at the film reveals it wasn’t quite the blowout, at least in the first half, competitively as the score suggests. But, nevertheless, a fine win and one in which the Patriots became more and more in control as the game wore on. Buffalo was a game opponent for awhile, but the Patriots were too much for them and imposed their will on Buffalo to cruise to victory. Lets break it down by units.

QUARTERBACK: Tom Brady had a pretty good game. But I’m not sure I agree with some of the commentary I heard he was more on than any other game this year. I just didn’t see that. He was certainly more on than against Miami, a team he usually struggles with. But he missed some throws. For example, on the fourth play of the game on offense, he missed a wide open Reche Caldwell streaking down the right sideline. That’s a throw he should hit. Later, he could have made a better throw on another play which could have been a score to Caldwell, though it did hit Caldwell in the hands. Overall, however, it was a solid performance. We’re just still waiting for the vintage performance we know Brady has in him. I’m sure its coming.

RUNNING BACK: Not an overly productive day. Corey Dillon ran hard and had two touchdowns. Laurence Maroney struggled a bit with dancing in the hole, though admittedly he wasn’t presented with much. Heath Evans had a good day, including a great block on Corey Dillon’s first TD run. Kevin Faulk made a heads up play jumping on a loose ball in the second half.

WIDE RECEIVER: A pretty good day. Reche Caldwell made some effective catches, including a big one for first downs on each of the first two drives on third down. He was open and could have had some other big plays with just a little bit more precision in the timing with Tom Brady. Troy Brown chipped in a couple catches and Doug Gabriel had a decent day, including scoring a touchdown. Chad Jackson showed up too, with a nice thirty-five yard touchdown which was a well-run route, as well as a 14 yard gain on a reverse on the first drive.

TIGHT END: A good day for Ben Watson with five catches. Some nice blocking from David Thomas as well, including a very smart decision to bypass Aaron Schobel on Jackson’s reverse where he recognized Schobel didn’t have an angle and Thomas moved down field to block someone else instead, even though he had Schobel lined up in his sites and could have leveled him.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Not a great day, but some outstanding play at times. Dan Koppen got some good push in the middle, as usual, on a number of plays. Stephen Neal got out and made some good blocks in space. But Matt Light struggled with Schobel, as he has always done and the line gave up some pressure, particularly in the first half. Buffalo’s quick defensive line isn’t the ideal for the Patriots in the passing game. But overall, not a bad day.

DEFENSIVE LINE: A pretty good job here too. They created pressure on Bills quarterback J.P. Losman. Although he had his moments, Bills running back Willis Magahee was held pretty much in check. Vince Wilfork dominated in the middle, which was the key to the inability of the Bills to really get a ground attack established all day.

LINEBACKER: Roosevelt Colvin had his best day since early in the season, both against the run and creating some pressure in the passing game. Junior Seau was active in the middle and Mike Vrabel had one of his best games of the season, including causing a fumble on a sack. This group appears to be coming together better.

DEFENSIVE BACK: A great day for cornerback Asante Samuel, who had blanket coverage most of the day and another interception. Chad Scott continued his hard hitting good play and Rodney Harrison gets better and better every week as he returns from injury. Eugene Wilson made a nice touchdown saving play by running down Magahee on a shovel pass early in the game on a drive that ended up only resulting in a Buffalo field goal.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Stephen Gostkowski’s kickoffs again were outstanding, a feature of his game that has been overlooked and has been among the best in the league this year. Josh Miller again quietly had a nice day and the coverage was good, save one return, against a tough Bills special teams unit.

A tough game in Minnesota awaits on Monday night next week. Minnesota is a loud venue and tough to play in and the Vikings are playing conservative, smart football. Their defense is really turning into one of the better defenses in the NFL, so the Patriots will have their hands full. Until then.