Photo of the Day, November 20, 2009: Red Leaf
Bite Size News, November 20: Who Needs The Money? Edition
Boston Seventh Strangest City in U.S.
Friday Happenings
Well...forget 18-1. The Patriots were chewed up, spit out, massacred and other violent verbs last night in San Diego, as the Chargers finally figured out how to beat the Pats (play them in October, without Tom Brady) and romped to a 30-10 win that really didn't even seem that close.
San Diego got out to a 10-0 first-quarter lead, mostly because Philip Rivers carved up the D with a couple long passes. The Patriots alternated between getting no drives going at all, and having long drives end in failure, like the long long drive to start the second half that ended on downs at the San Diego 2. And America went to bed.
Matt Cassel wasn't awful - 20 for 38, but he got sacked four times. The running game was bad, the defense, as mentioned, very bad, and it all added up to a craptacular finish. And the Patriots are now 3-2, and 0-1 against teams that are any good (unless you count Miami, which we don't, however good they looked against New England). Amazingly, though, the Pats would still be a playoff team if the season ended today.
Remember, the Red Sox play an afternoon game today, which means you might be able to show the kids what the end of a playoff game looks like. Unless it goes six hours, which it won't, because we trust Jon Lester to dispatch the Rays with his usual sangfroid. The Dodgers got back on track and beat the Phillies 7-2 to tighten up the NLCS.
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I expected the Patriots to lose to the fired up Chargers yesterday, and I did not think that the offense would play well without a running game, but did anyone on the defensive team actually show up yesterday?
Cassel was bad. But, he had company, too.
I'm curious about why McDaniels was yelling at Belichick. I didn't get all of the plays called and I'm baffled by some of Cassel's decisions. Cassel seems to be slow to get rid of the ball when under pressure but appears mobile. Maybe they could roll him out on purpose to give him time to throw.
Oh, how about spreading out the defense in the red zone so when your athletic QB tries to run he has an actual hole to run through. Even Matt Schaub ran for a TD.
We know now why Cassel was a backup at USC.
Other issues: Ben Watson is a stiff, Laurence "I have issues" Maroney is a wimp, Bill needs Randy rules, lose Deltha O'Neal.