Sometimes it stinks being right.
I took a little heat from some readers last week for emphatically stating that there was no way that the Jets or Jaguars would win yesterday. I didn’t think I was being too bold in making that statement, considering the teams and coaches involved. It seemed pretty obvious, in fact.
Back in August when the Jets traded for Brett Favre, Patriots fans smirked, knowing that the Jets season would now end with Favre throwing some bonehead, killer interceptions in the biggest moment of the biggest game of the season. Little did Patriots fans know that their playoff fate would also be tied to those interceptions.
The Patriots made their own bed this season. The losses to the Colts and at home to the Jets are the reason they’re cleaning out their lockers today instead of preparing for the postseason. Since the league was so uneven this season with so many really poor teams (and conversely teams with good records from beating up on the poor teams) that the Patriots 11-5 record just wasn’t good enough.
Boston fans can take solace in the fact that we two first place teams playing this winter in the Celtics and Bruins to bridge the gap to the summer.
Yesterday was a busy day in Boston sports, with the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics all playing, and the Red Sox making a couple of moves as well.
Tom E. Curran on NBCSports.com reported yesterday that Tom Brady is behind in his rehab and that his 2009 season would be in doubt if a second procedure became necessary. Peter King disputed that account on the NBC Football Night in America pregame show, and Shira Springer (Shira Springer!?) also disputes the account in the Globe this morning. Because there are apparently two different camps of sources out there on this topic, Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com of course immediately jumps in and asserts that this MUST mean there is a rift between Brady and the Patriots. The Curran report also conflicts with what Charlie Casserly had reported on the CBS Pregame show last Sunday.
Chris Warner on PatriotsDaily.com reviews the frustrating end to the season for New England. Chris Price chimes in with the final 10 Things We Learned Yesterday column of the season for the Patriots. Michael Felger says that you shouldn’t be at all surprised at what Brett Favre did yesterday. (We weren’t.)
Check the rest of the coverage at PatriotsLinks.com – again with a new streamlined look and article previews.
Thus begins what is sure to be a fascinating offseason for the Patriots. Eric McHugh has a look at a few of the issues needing to be dealt with. Hector Longo says that the Patriots have to keep Matt Cassell with Brady’s situation unclear.
Bruins
The Bruins won their eight straight game last night, 2-1 over the Atlanta Thrashers. Steve Conroy has Manny Fernandez turning in a “brilliant” performance in net for the B’s. Fluto Shinzawa has Cam Neely offering congratulations to Fernandez following the game.
Conroy’s notebook has Michael Ryder getting his groove back with the Bruins. Shinzawa’s notebook uses the same term to describe Chuck Kobasew.
Celtics
The Celtics got back to their winning ways with a 108-63 thumping of the Kings in Sacramento. The 45 point win by the Celtics was the largest defeat at home in franchise history for Sacramento. Marc J. Spears has the Celtics getting back to business in the win. Steve Bulpett says that four quarters of the Kings was just what the Celtics needed.
Tim Weisberg says that the Celtics two losses last week aren’t about to derail their season. Bill Doyle says that the Celtics might need some bench help. Jeff Goodman looks at what the Lakers loss means to the Celtics. Bulpett looks at the strides made by Ray Allen in his second season with the Celtics.
Spears’ notebook has Kendrick Perkins returning to action for the Celtics, and has an update on Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens from the D-League. Bulpett’s notebook has more on Perkins’ return to the lineup.
Red Sox
Sean McAdam has the Sox reaching an agreement with former Marlins and Dodgers ace Brad Penny and bringing back former backup catcher Josh Bard. Amalie Benjamin also reports on the developments. Rob Bradford has Penny confirming the deal.
Robert Preer says that 3-D sportscasts might be the wave of the future.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Full Credit to the Miami Dolphins from this address. They went in and made enough plays to win. Peter King also mentioned on SNF that the Curran story was simply the Pats trying to enhance their leverage on Cassell’s value because opposing teams will think they don’t have to trade him.
This was Curran’s negative view of everything Patriots that he shares with Felger. Anything bad to put the spotlight on the Patriots is what this idiot is all about.
Tough ending, but I am thrilled that we pulled off a 11-5 record without Brady. I would have taken 8-8 to be honest. The job Bill and Co. did with preparing Matt Cassel to be a NFL starter and to fill the holes caused by 14 IR’d players (including the top QB in the league, several of the team’s top defensive players, etc.) has got to be one of the best coaching jobs in history.
Wherever Cassel ends up, he will get his payday and earns every cent of it.
Mangini is gone. So there’s a means to an end here.
Yes, I meant to mention that we can also take comfort in knowing that the Jets are once again in shambles and will likely need to undergo yet another rebuilding process.
Bruce was/is absolutely right. Still, this team showed a lot of heart and has a bright future. Great job by the coaches this year.
You could just smell interceptions in the air yesterday when Favre was out there. The only good part about yesterday was seeing the Cowboys self-destruct. Why oh why didn’t Belichick go after T.O. when he had the chance…
And yeah Belichick should have also traded up to get Ghoulston in the draft – he’s going to be the beast of the east for many years… Good thing we have WEEI to tell us things like that.
Spygate this Mangina! I hear Walpole is looking for a coach! Perfect on Gholston. Draft gurus like Ordway, Felger & LJ spouting the wisdom of Kiper, who’s wrong way more times than he’s right.
Tom Curran is the new John Tomase. What a tool: His article is based around a single ‘unnamed source’ and now everyone is in a tizzy. And there’s muckraking Curran hoping against hope that Brady has another surgery so that he can be proven ‘right.’ God, these sports media hacks are just the lowest form of life.
Eric “Mancini” and Romeo “Cornell” are no longer employed.
And some tool named Tony Mazz with a blog at boston.com asks “what are Cassell’s wants and rights?”. Mazz, I’m sure Matty C will be well taken care of, either by the pats or another team.
Glob sports is becoming unreadable, between Silva and “Mazz”.
Curran is Felger or Tomase? Hilarious.
Tom Curran is probably closer to Bill Belichick than any reporter this side of Mike Reiss. Peter King is right when he says this was put out there by the team.
So if Curran is hot stuff, why was King’s take on it different? Why didn’t Curran also say that it was a Trojan Horse story? King has way more ’street cred’ than Curran, who was nothing more than a Boston sports media hack before he ‘rose’ to the ‘National’ level.
As far as the New England Patriots and Tom Brady are concerned, Tom E Curran is a much sturdier source of info.
King’s info is different because it didn’t come from the team but more likely from Brady’s camp.
Brady has no need to worry about Cassel’s trade value or the possibility of the Players Association filing a grievance on Matt Cassel’s behalf if and when the team franchises him in February. The Pats need to worry about both those things and having this story out there benefits them on both those accounts.
I’m, pretty amazed how many people think what the pats did this year was so good or even great. This was a year when two teams (Balt & Atl) with losing records from last year, hired rookie coaches and had rookie QB’s, and won the same amount of games as the Pats did.
The Pats coming off a 16-0 season, with a very experienced head coach, a QB that had been in the system for 4 years, and the luxury of playing the 2 worst divisions in the NFL (AFC west & NFC west) lost 5 MORE games than they did last year.
The Pats had to overcome obstacles, but considering that they were so far ahead compared to the two other aforementioned teams coming into this year, did what they do, really seem impressive?
Losing their starting qb/league mvp, the best linebacker, the qb of the defense in Rodney Harrison, numerous injuries along the d-line, and you’re not impressed. What a f&%$ing tool. Any other team would have curled up and finished 4-12 you donkey.
Correct.
Remember the 2006 Steelers, who were coming off a Super Bowl win yet slumped back to 8-8 after Roethlisberger was unable to completely come back from the offseason motorcycle accident.
They had a veteran coach, a veteran defense and a veteran back-up QB, yet they still pretty much quit that season and made all kinds of excuses on their way out the door in December.
Finally someone speaking the truth. The Pats should have cruised to a division title even without Brady. Belichick now has 6 seasons without Brady and only once has he made the playoffs. Overrated fraud.
Nice try attempting to obfuscate the issue by bringing up the stay in Cleveland. In any other year 11-5 gets you in the playoffs. If the league sucked as bad as Gleek implies that it does, 11-5 should get you in…
Joe:
You are a clown.
I’m thrilled with the intelligent responses to my post.
You attract a great crowd Bruce! (Please note heavy sarcasm)
The Pats had one of the easiest schedules I ever seen.
Of the 8 teams the Pats played between the AFC West and NFC west, only ONE of them ended up with a winning record….and that was the stellar 9-7 Cardinals.
The Pats basically picked on the cellar dwellers of the NFL for 63% of their wins this year.
I can see how impressive that feat was! /sarcasm
Oh Gleek, thank you for providing me with the laugh of the day! The Pats played the same NFC West squad as the rest of the AFC East. There goes half of your argument.
The second half dies with the absolutely insane amount of injuries this team had to endure. Yeah, they had 11 wins… most of which were earned by back ups in critical positions!
The Pats and Dolphins had the same amount of wins and split the head to head series. It’s not like the Lampreys won by a game or two. They WERE TIED.
How many people have you really heard today touting how “impressive” the season was?
People I’ve heard or read – including Bruce above – have all said the same thing. They could have gotten in the playoffs, even with all the injuries, if they hadn’t lost key games to other playoff contenders like Indy and Pitt, not to mention the Jets loss here. Its a fair assessment.
So I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea that people are going on about a “great” or “impressive” season. I haven’t heard that.
Don’t even bother: Hatriot nation is too busy gloating about the Pats aren’t in the playoffs. As if 11-5 is an awful record with the horrendous luck this team had from the Brady injury on…
I hope they all get ACL tears, without the benefit of hanging with Giselle to make the pain go away.