October 15, 2007

What About Us??

See, I was just gonna let this whole "Duel in Dallas" shit ride, but damn they are crucifying us on ESPN and other sports outlets. I mean yeah we lost, I can take that, but they are making it seem like the Patriots just steamrolled us. If anything, we lost more so than they won because we just continued to beat ourselves. The final score was 48-27 which looks bad on paper, but take away that touchdown in garbage time, our 98 yards lost on 12 penalties, and then what do you have?? Possibly the Dallas Cowboys being 6-0 instead of 5-1!

Seriously, they're act like New England forced us into those penalties or something. Most of the penalties were our fault, BUT a few were courtesy of bad refereeing, including a TERRIBLE pass interference call where Randy Moss runs into bulldozes free safety Pat Watkins on 3rd down, while we were winning, that gave them a 1st down on the 1 instead of a game tying field goal. Imagine if it was 24-24 when we got the ball back instead of 28-24? Even if we still beat ourselves on the next drive, and the Pats still score a field goal on their next drive, its now only 27-24 going into the 4th oppose to 31-24. Now, that's not to say we still wouldn't have gotten that holding call and been forced to punt after Marion Barber's called back 4th down conversion, but it would've looked a little better if the score was 34-24 (a touchdown and field goal) after Donte' Stallworth's TD catch than 38-24 (2 touchdowns). Besides, they are completely disregarding the fact that Tom Brady doesn't have a chance to score if he doesn't have the ball, which we GAVE him over and over (sometimes with little to do with how their defense was playing).

They're also getting all over T.O. for his note last week which they are calling "trash talking" and praising Randy Moss when they had pretty similar games statistically. Both had 6 receptions and one touchdown, but they make it seem like T.O. was shut down and Moss was running wild. Keep in mind, these are the same people who were saying Randy Moss would disrupt the Patriots locker room, be a bust there, and that his career is over. How quickly do things change huh?

I'm not trying to take anything away from the Pats, they did exactly what everyone expected them to do, which was win the game, but lets not get ahead of ourselves like they can't be beat when they nearly took the L yesterday. The "Duel In Dallas" was the first time the Pats had been losing in the 2nd half this season (which speaks volumes about they're opposition before Dallas). Tom Brady had been sacked 3 times this season and was sacked 3 times against Dallas alone. Their running game was basically non-existent even before Sammy Morris (who just came off two 100+ yard rushing games) left in the 3rd quarter. Like I said, give the Patriots their credit for winning, but it definitely wasn't the definitive cakewalk "analyst" are trying to portray.