Livinginthe past
10-31-2005, 08:51 AM
If ever the reappearance of one player over shadowed a whole game...this was the game.
The fans were pumped to see Tedy B out on the field pre-match and again for the coin toss - Foxboro doesnt get much noisier than that.
I have to confess my doubts as to how many defensive plays Tedy would be able to take part in....he seemed a little out of puff when he got subbed for Beisel on the Bills 3rd drive.
Amazingly, he was on the field for 64 of the 77 defensive plays and participated in special teams all night aswell!
Doubts about his 'motor' skills and ability to diagnose plays can now be put to rest - the way he homed in on a reverse in the first quarter was awesome - the tackle was slightly mis-timed but enough to cancel the momentum of the runner until the rest of the D arrived.
As far as the game goes - it was a case of same old Patriots - not the Patriots of the last 4 years though....the Patriots of the first 6 weeks of this season was the one who reared its ugly malfunctioning head again.
The D couldnt get off the field in the first half - they done just about everything they could to prolong the Bills drives - mostly by gifting penalties at inopportune moments.
The offense had its momentum killed by penalties aswell - Patrick Pass's first big run of the night was pulled back for a holding call - I lost count of the holding calls given up by both sides on the night......
We also had another Patriot end up in the infirmary - Patrick Pass who was looking dominant in the early going - pulled up lame with a suspected hamstring tear in the first half (he dropped the ball for a fumble while clutching at his hamstring)
Duane Starks was a mess most of the night - it wasnt the fact that he was getting beat man-2-man that was troubling - it was the fact that he seems to lose all track of where he should be on alot of the defensive plays and he was certainly at fault for the Bills longest TD of the year.
The problem of course is that we have no-one left to come in for him - with 6 DB's injured maybe we will have to give 1st year rookie Ellis Hobbs some more snaps as starter.
The Patriots win and move to 4-3 - but we havent shown the degree of improvement I had hoped for after the bye week.
Cheers
NM
The fans were pumped to see Tedy B out on the field pre-match and again for the coin toss - Foxboro doesnt get much noisier than that.
I have to confess my doubts as to how many defensive plays Tedy would be able to take part in....he seemed a little out of puff when he got subbed for Beisel on the Bills 3rd drive.
Amazingly, he was on the field for 64 of the 77 defensive plays and participated in special teams all night aswell!
Doubts about his 'motor' skills and ability to diagnose plays can now be put to rest - the way he homed in on a reverse in the first quarter was awesome - the tackle was slightly mis-timed but enough to cancel the momentum of the runner until the rest of the D arrived.
As far as the game goes - it was a case of same old Patriots - not the Patriots of the last 4 years though....the Patriots of the first 6 weeks of this season was the one who reared its ugly malfunctioning head again.
The D couldnt get off the field in the first half - they done just about everything they could to prolong the Bills drives - mostly by gifting penalties at inopportune moments.
The offense had its momentum killed by penalties aswell - Patrick Pass's first big run of the night was pulled back for a holding call - I lost count of the holding calls given up by both sides on the night......
We also had another Patriot end up in the infirmary - Patrick Pass who was looking dominant in the early going - pulled up lame with a suspected hamstring tear in the first half (he dropped the ball for a fumble while clutching at his hamstring)
Duane Starks was a mess most of the night - it wasnt the fact that he was getting beat man-2-man that was troubling - it was the fact that he seems to lose all track of where he should be on alot of the defensive plays and he was certainly at fault for the Bills longest TD of the year.
The problem of course is that we have no-one left to come in for him - with 6 DB's injured maybe we will have to give 1st year rookie Ellis Hobbs some more snaps as starter.
The Patriots win and move to 4-3 - but we havent shown the degree of improvement I had hoped for after the bye week.
Cheers
NM