Needa Pass Rush
01-14-2006, 11:05 AM
Regardless of your team there is something in here for you. lol :sunshine:
Patriots have what it takes — or do they?
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Sentinel sports writers Ken Murphy, a New England Patriots fan, and Mike Briddon, who tends to be realistic about Boston sports teams, trade barbs on the Patriots’ chances of winning tonight’s AFC Divisional game against the Broncos in Denver.
Ken Murphy: The New England Patriots are in the thick of the Super Bowl hunt for the fourth time in five years, and real fans understand that tonight’s game is a mere roadblock for the future glory that lies ahead. The Patriots are the undisputed one and only dynasty of the 21st century and, if they’ve proven anything since the 2001 season, they just don’t lose playoff games.
Mike Briddon: The problem is, Murph, they aren’t going to win tonight. The Broncos are a better team. It’s that simple.
Just look at the home-field advantage. The Broncos are 8-0 and have outscored their opponents 209-100 at Invesco. Eye those numbers for a second, pal. This one is over before it even starts.
KM: Did I just get interrupted by the most cynical sports writer in the Monadnock Region? The same person who picked the Colts to beat New England in the playoffs the last two seasons in this very newspaper?
By the way, those Colts teams, like this year, had your boy Peyton Manning at QB.
Denver has Jake Plummer. Plummer vs. Tom “10-0” Brady? I’ll take Brady any day of the week. Enough said.
MB: Look, I like the Patriots. I do. It’s just that they don’t have it this year. I’ve watched them play nearly every week and something is missing. Sure, they have Terrific Tommy and some pieces left over from perhaps the best coaching staff in football history.
But where’s the run game? Where’s the secondary?
This team has been duct-taped together for too long. Tonight, it’s going to come off with one, quick tug.
KM: I notice you didn’t include the rest of the defense when you threw the much-aligned — and much-improved — defensive backs under the bus. New England’s defensive line and linebackers — Willie McGinest, Rosevelt Colvin, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, et. al — are playing inspired football and are probably playing better as a unit than the front seven of any of the Super Bowl years. And, by the way, all without former defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, one of the “pieces” you mention in a lame attempt to discredit Bill Belichick who, by the way, is universally recognized as the best football coach working today.
Where’s the running game? The Pats won two Super Bowls without a running game.
Need I remind you that defense wins championships. New England will stop Denver’s two-headed running back tandem in Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell and force Plummer to make the mistakes he’s notorious for.
MB: Hey, say “by the way” again. It really helps the readers when they have to skip over your poor phrasing.
Anyway, let’s take a quick look at those three studs — Anderson, Bell and Plummer — that you just dismissed.
Anderson has only rushed for 1,014 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. Point for me.
Bell ran for 921 yards and eight touchdowns. He tallied 114 yards on only 13 carries against the sieve that Patriots call a defense. Two points for me.
And Plummer? He was 17 of 24 for 262 yards and two touchdowns in that 28-20 win over New England on Oct. 16. His passer rating was 134.4. That number, BY THE WAY, will probably match the total yards of the drop-kick loving Patriots tonight.
Three points for me.
KM: By the way, you’re an idiot.
In trying to make the same argument last season, you probably would have immersed yourself in stats from the Steelers’ 34-20 victory over New England on Halloween: Duce Staley’s 125 yards on the ground, Jerome Bettis’ 65 yards and a TD.
Now, what happened in the AFC Championship game against those very same Steelers? Oh yeah, Staley and Bettis ran for 26 and 45 yards, respectively, and the QB darling of the NFL, Ben Roethlisberger, threw three interceptions in New England’s 41-27 rout.
This wasn’t an anomaly. Need I remind you that Belichick is 15-1 when facing teams for the second time in a season? Plummer beating New England — and a much healthier New England — twice in a season? That’s a laughable proposition.
That’s four points for me. I would have gone with five points, but I wanted the number to match New England’s total Super Bowl victories come Feb. 5 in Detroit.
MB: Clever. Going with that four point thing. Seriously. Nice job.
Now go sit at the kiddie table and let the adults talk.
I would like to see the Patriots win that elusive fourth crown. Most folks in New England — from the tip of Maine to the bottom of Rhode Island — agree.
And, if the Patriots do make me look silly — doubtful — and somehow, someway squeeze by the Broncos by a point or two, there’s still the matter of the team from Indianapolis.
Against them, your beloved Pats have a turkey’s chance on Thanksgiving.
Cooked, baby, cooked.
KM: Yeah, same thing you said the last two seasons, a point I’ve already made. Final: New England 28, Denver 17.
MB: Here’s a point for you, you cleat-licking homer. Actually, make that two points. Final: Denver 35, New England 2. :~ohyah!:
To check out how Murphy and Briddon have done on their other picks this year, check out the Fearless Forecast on Page 10.
http://www.keenesentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=37&SubSectionID=115&ArticleID=94825
Patriots have what it takes — or do they?
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Sentinel sports writers Ken Murphy, a New England Patriots fan, and Mike Briddon, who tends to be realistic about Boston sports teams, trade barbs on the Patriots’ chances of winning tonight’s AFC Divisional game against the Broncos in Denver.
Ken Murphy: The New England Patriots are in the thick of the Super Bowl hunt for the fourth time in five years, and real fans understand that tonight’s game is a mere roadblock for the future glory that lies ahead. The Patriots are the undisputed one and only dynasty of the 21st century and, if they’ve proven anything since the 2001 season, they just don’t lose playoff games.
Mike Briddon: The problem is, Murph, they aren’t going to win tonight. The Broncos are a better team. It’s that simple.
Just look at the home-field advantage. The Broncos are 8-0 and have outscored their opponents 209-100 at Invesco. Eye those numbers for a second, pal. This one is over before it even starts.
KM: Did I just get interrupted by the most cynical sports writer in the Monadnock Region? The same person who picked the Colts to beat New England in the playoffs the last two seasons in this very newspaper?
By the way, those Colts teams, like this year, had your boy Peyton Manning at QB.
Denver has Jake Plummer. Plummer vs. Tom “10-0” Brady? I’ll take Brady any day of the week. Enough said.
MB: Look, I like the Patriots. I do. It’s just that they don’t have it this year. I’ve watched them play nearly every week and something is missing. Sure, they have Terrific Tommy and some pieces left over from perhaps the best coaching staff in football history.
But where’s the run game? Where’s the secondary?
This team has been duct-taped together for too long. Tonight, it’s going to come off with one, quick tug.
KM: I notice you didn’t include the rest of the defense when you threw the much-aligned — and much-improved — defensive backs under the bus. New England’s defensive line and linebackers — Willie McGinest, Rosevelt Colvin, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, et. al — are playing inspired football and are probably playing better as a unit than the front seven of any of the Super Bowl years. And, by the way, all without former defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, one of the “pieces” you mention in a lame attempt to discredit Bill Belichick who, by the way, is universally recognized as the best football coach working today.
Where’s the running game? The Pats won two Super Bowls without a running game.
Need I remind you that defense wins championships. New England will stop Denver’s two-headed running back tandem in Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell and force Plummer to make the mistakes he’s notorious for.
MB: Hey, say “by the way” again. It really helps the readers when they have to skip over your poor phrasing.
Anyway, let’s take a quick look at those three studs — Anderson, Bell and Plummer — that you just dismissed.
Anderson has only rushed for 1,014 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. Point for me.
Bell ran for 921 yards and eight touchdowns. He tallied 114 yards on only 13 carries against the sieve that Patriots call a defense. Two points for me.
And Plummer? He was 17 of 24 for 262 yards and two touchdowns in that 28-20 win over New England on Oct. 16. His passer rating was 134.4. That number, BY THE WAY, will probably match the total yards of the drop-kick loving Patriots tonight.
Three points for me.
KM: By the way, you’re an idiot.
In trying to make the same argument last season, you probably would have immersed yourself in stats from the Steelers’ 34-20 victory over New England on Halloween: Duce Staley’s 125 yards on the ground, Jerome Bettis’ 65 yards and a TD.
Now, what happened in the AFC Championship game against those very same Steelers? Oh yeah, Staley and Bettis ran for 26 and 45 yards, respectively, and the QB darling of the NFL, Ben Roethlisberger, threw three interceptions in New England’s 41-27 rout.
This wasn’t an anomaly. Need I remind you that Belichick is 15-1 when facing teams for the second time in a season? Plummer beating New England — and a much healthier New England — twice in a season? That’s a laughable proposition.
That’s four points for me. I would have gone with five points, but I wanted the number to match New England’s total Super Bowl victories come Feb. 5 in Detroit.
MB: Clever. Going with that four point thing. Seriously. Nice job.
Now go sit at the kiddie table and let the adults talk.
I would like to see the Patriots win that elusive fourth crown. Most folks in New England — from the tip of Maine to the bottom of Rhode Island — agree.
And, if the Patriots do make me look silly — doubtful — and somehow, someway squeeze by the Broncos by a point or two, there’s still the matter of the team from Indianapolis.
Against them, your beloved Pats have a turkey’s chance on Thanksgiving.
Cooked, baby, cooked.
KM: Yeah, same thing you said the last two seasons, a point I’ve already made. Final: New England 28, Denver 17.
MB: Here’s a point for you, you cleat-licking homer. Actually, make that two points. Final: Denver 35, New England 2. :~ohyah!:
To check out how Murphy and Briddon have done on their other picks this year, check out the Fearless Forecast on Page 10.
http://www.keenesentinel.com/main.asp?SectionID=37&SubSectionID=115&ArticleID=94825