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Brady, Defense Lead Patriots Over Cowboys

October 17, 2011 By

Tom Brady executed his 32nd fourth-quarter comeback, and the New England defense was stout, especially when it needed to be, as the Patriots rallied from a 13-16 fourth quarter deficit to a 20-16 win yesterday at Gillette Stadium.

Get all the coverage at PatriotsLinks.com.

Ten Things We Learned Sunday: Ten years later, Tom Brady still majoring in drama - Christopher Price runs down what we can take from this win. Mark Farinella says that the Patriots are fortunate to be 5-1. Bill Burt says that the Patriots are back. Tim Weisberg says that the offense finally looked human, but the defense made a statement. Michael Hurley says that this was a Super Bowl-era performance from Brady and the Patriots.

Defense comes up with big plays - Mike Reiss says that the collective confidence of the defense is rising, and that was on display yesterday. Karen Guregian has more on the defense stating its case yesterday. Rich Garven says that the defense’s work on Jason Whitten was especially impressive. Monique Walker has more on some big plays by the defense. Hector Longo thinks that we saw the birth of a defense at 7:04 of the third quarter.

Another Ryan, another Brady win - Greg A Bedard says that after beating the Ryan boys on back-to-back weeks, Tom Brady can spend the bye week in Brazil, or screaming like a little girl down a water slide if he wants. Ron Borges has more on Brady closing out the Cowboys. Jim Donaldson has Brady proving once again why he is the best. Chris Forsberg says that the Patriots expected – and received – the happy ending in this one. Tom E. Curran notes that it has been a while since Tom Brady struggled in a game, but made the adjustments to come out on top in the end. Jackie MacMullan and Bob Ryan have Brady coming through yet again.

Spikes reads, reacts - Dan Ventura looks at some big plays from the second-year linebacker. Julian Benbow has second-year tight end Aaron Hernandez putting his fumble behind him and making the winning TD catch. Forsberg looks at the Quincy jump.

They catch a break before the break - The Patriots Journal has the team going into the bye week on a good note. The Herald notebook from Ian R. Rapoport  has the Cowboys containing Wes Welker. The Globe notebook from Shalise Manza Young has Chad Ochocinco barely seeing the field. The Enterprise notebook from Glen Farley says that it will be a good bye for the Patriots.

John Henry showed he’s a team player - Tony Massarotti gives his thoughts on John Henry’s surprise appearance on his radio show Friday afternoon.

Things-to-do list awaits Ben Cherington - Scott Lauber looks at the things the GM-in-waiting will have to get done.

Filed Under: Morning Links
  • MrEdRomero

    Welker had only 45 yards and not once was it mentioned which cornerback was shutting him down. Was Revis still covering him?

    • Winning_

      I don't think it was Terrence Newman because I seem to recall him matching up on Branch. It could've been Jenkins or Scandrick and they are smaller and quicker. They were giving alot of help on Welker too.

      • latetodinner

        It was Scandrick. Chased Welker all over the field. I am not sure Welkers production was due to Scandrick or the fact that Hernandez and Gronkowski were wide open over the middle all game.

        • Winning_

          I agree, I think it had nothing to do with Scandrick, more with the overall scheme of the Boys DEF and the Pats offensive scheme. I believe Rob Ryan modeled after BB, in deciding to take away the Pats best weapon Welker ( because you will rarely take Brady out of the Game). This left other options Like Gronk and Herdandez open much more. I also think BB changed his scheme slightly knowing the blitzing nature of the Boys. He lined some receivers wide controling the CB' and Safeties. With the ends and edge rushers blitzing, this left the middle of the field open with limited middle linebacker coverage. With the two tight end sets, the Pats were able to counter the heavy pressure.

        • MrEdRomero

          Thanks, but my point was to ridicule the idea of Revis shutting down Welker when yesterday's game showed it has more to do with the Ryans' defenses affecting Brady effectiveness and decision making.

        • tl;dr

          RE: The Ryans…Why can't we get coordinators like that?

        • Classless

          Romero is right. Why was yesterday the Cowboys scheme shutting down Welker, but last week it was Revis (despite the fact that he was lit up for over 100 yards)?

          By the way, nice objective telecast with Aikman as the color guy.

  • latetodinner

    Some sportsmedia thoughts this fine Monday morning…

    - Read through Tony Mazz's piece on the Henry interview. I think this type of work is some of his better stuff. I am not saying I agree with his conclusions…some I do (sox ownership and their credibility problem) some I don't (John Henry showed he cared about the team..I think he only cares about how people perceive him). I think that Mazz when he has time to think things through is quite good at what he does baseball. I have said ore than a few times that his work on the Baseball Reporters show is infinitely better than his work on F&M. He loves baseball… with a passion similar to Sean McAdam and Peter Gammons. When he is forced to do other things…like football or hockey he comes off like a toady or someone who is just plain angry.

    - Seems that the shackles were taken off D&C this AM. I thought Jerry Calahan was absolutely on point when he started listing out John Henry's "truthiness" or lack there of in the Felger and Mazz interview. All that venom coming in front of the NESN backdrop cannot be going over well in Henry's office. But he brought all this on himself and his organization. Calahan's most direct attack on Henry's veracity came when he quoted Henry saying he wanted to keep Tito and did not fire him…Gerry said…he had two more option years if he wanted to keep him he could have. Then Henry says he wanted to keep Theo…he had him under contract for another year and did not have to give the cubs permission to talk to him. John Dennis then chime in with the news that the Sox offered Theo 3 more years and wanted him to commit to them long term if he was going to stay next year. Gerry said that should make no difference if they really truly wanted to keep Theo. Furthermore…who leaked that nugget and why?

    - If the full on assault of Henry keeps up all day today on WEEI…I wonder if it will damage the relationship with the Sox…or WEEI's quasi partnership with NESN? Not that NESN can go anywhere else at this point.

    - One football note with no media relation…could someone please tell Tom Brady that when the Patriots play the Cowboys he does not have to try and imitate Tony Romo. That int where on the run he tried to force the ball into triple covered Aaron Hernandez was totally Romoesque. Luckily Tom went back to being Tom on the last drive. Otherwise I would have been way too angry to sleep last night.

    • Winning_

      On your last note, I said to my father when Brady threw that INT, that he was doing his best Brett Farve impersonation.

    • bostonsportsmediafan

      l2d,

      Listened to that segment on D+C where he also called Henry a "clown" and they couldn't even garner the strength and energy to call them SportsHub — it was "that station down the street". Some of the points were valid and it looks like they were rationalizing the interview instead of going on what JD started with by "trashing" F+M for trashing Henry and getting him in there.

      Now, on the "3 year extension", where is all this coming from and why is it only one place leaking? I know some sources only trust one person but it seems almost odd that WEEI is now breaking stuff? Just makes me wonder about the "veracity" of this "source".

      Overall, some of the callers seemed to reflect comments from people here with the really helped/really hurt. The only agreement seemed to be on the Crawford comments that Henry did not help the team or himself. D+C seemed to take it personally that Henry didn't say any of this in their studio, which part of it they "blamed" for him not bringing Luccino.

      Flipped on T+R after this and they were replaying splices of the interview and doing the same breakdown and analysis that the weekend shows on SportsHub did. I assume the radio stations have a fair-use agreement where they can play interviews from other stations, providing they give proper attribution? I didn't hear D+C play any of it, instead referring to the summary that the Herald gave and also commenting about CHB on CSNNE's SportsSunday with Felger.

  • Angry Old Bastard

    Nice to see Pats D step up and play well (relatively speaking) especially after watching ESPN pregame show and seeing Tom Jackson and Chris Carter yucking it up over how "HORRIBLE" Patriots defense is…….Listen, I know they haven't been great (and bad at times) but these CLOWNS were acting like they were worst defense in NFL History. Really going overboard…..(I don't know why I watched, guess I like torture)

    • latetodinner

      I am not sure how closely people watched…but Mike Reiss commented this morning on something i noticed as well…Albert Haynesworth was pretty disruptive in the middle of that line yesterday when he played. Twice he bull rushed the Dallas center and threw him back into Romo forcing a hurried pass. I don't think it is a coincidence that the Patriots defense seems to be getting better as Haynesworth has been rounding into better shape and playing better/more. Of course expecting morons like Jackson and Carter to see or even understand a point like that is a pipe dream.

      • Angry Old Bastard

        yes, I noticed it. Haynesworth had nice hit on Romo that caused "flutterpass" which could have been picked and a few other good bull rushes. Not saying they'll be 85' Bears. However, slowly but surely I see improvement. That's my problem with Media hacks. They always act like what they see after 3 weeks is what it will be all year, not necessarily true…..

        .Other falsehood spoken yesterday was Aikman (who I usually like) saying Pats D in Redzone has "STRUGGLED all year" in actuality despite D's problems they have been pretty GOOD in Redzone all year. Am I wrong to expect these guys who GET PAID and DO THIS FOR A LIVING to know what the hell they are talking about??……..jeeze

  • tl;dr

    I wouldn't call two horrible INT's and general ineffectiveness except for the last drive, "leading".

    • Angry Old Bastard

      sorry, but when QB LEADS team down the field 80 YARDS in GAME WINNING LAST MINUTE drive, YES that's called LEADING. Also I agree 2nd pick was "horrible", first one was tipped at line of scrimmage that happens sometimes. I guess that's the level Brady is on, if he's not PICTURE PERFECT for the entire game,EVERY game, some people will nit-pick.

  • Winning_

    I don't know if anyone heard coming into work this morning on WEEI around 8:45, but Callahan was at his condescending best. He was making references to John Henry and how foolish he was to address the claims especially on the "sports radio station" down the street. Normally this wouldn't be worth mentioning but everthing I needed to hear was in his tone. The arrogance that this man continues to display is sickening. Does he not realize that they (eei) are now the other station in most peoples minds? There is nothing wrong with acknoledging another sports operation exists in town. No-one will think less of them for saying it. As brash as ESPN is, you would often hear them mention NBA games shown on TNT or TBS even though its rival Ted Turner owned programming. The childish behavior of pretending they don't exist led to me immediately changing the dial. I have to admit, recently D&C have been better than T&R in my mind. But as soon as they break out the soapbox and pamphlets of negative propaganda, I'm gone.

    • Rick

      Agreed that D&C have actually been better at talking sports lately than T&R. I never thought I'd be saying that but T&R have strayed from sports talk recently and I hear more lame joking around about their wives and families than anything else. That gets old real fast. First time in two years I ventured back to D&C.

  • Classless

    One observation I had yesterday: If I wasn't a football fan and was watching Cowboys/Pats, I would have come away thinking Rob Ryan was the Head Coach. Is there a meeker head coach than Jason Garrett? Not a good look, bro.

  • NutCracker

    I wouldn't expect anything less from this ignoramus (Callahan). Now that Lester has come out today and admitted to drinking beer in the clubhouse during games and opining that the team needs a new manager because Francona wasn't tough enough, I wonder if guys like D&C and F&M will admit that the owners were correct to not extend Tito's contract? D&C and Felger and Mazz have been trumpeting the "poor Tito was run out of town by the owners' hyperbole but in fact it appears Tito was neutered and the owners assessed it correctly. Naaah, they'd never admit they were wrong.

    • Curtis

      What are you talking about? Felger has said since the second day after Tito was gone that he deserved to be fired. He has said repeatedly that Tito needed to go because he lost the team, finished 3rd two years in a row and that his dismissal was totally justified, just wished the owners would admit those reasons rather than the mutual parting BS. You can hammer Felger for a lof things but he never shed a tear for Tito…which means neither did Mazz because he just agrees.

    • Winning_

      Well to expand on what you said: "Tito was neutered." Not to be funny, but who performed the neutering? Wouldn't this be attrived to the owners for not backing/supporting him like he said when he left. The statement you made could/is correct, but wouldn't we also have to believe that he is smart enough to seek help from Management. You always have to answer to ownership/GM. We saw it here with Jimmy Williams. Lest we forget when he went to Duquette about carl Everett and Danny boy basically threw him under the bus and supported Everett. I agree Francona does get some blame but not all of it.

  • http://www.myautocars.com/ Lucy Andy

    Great review at all! Brady, Defense Lead Patriots Over Cowboys what I was
    looking for a long time./ Really interesting to watch this. Thanks!!! :)
     

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