Pats beat Broncos 41-7

For one night in 2008, it looked like the 2007 Patriots were back.  The Patriots were able to take advantage of five Broncos turnovers and an early injury that limited the effectiveness of Jay Cutler to romp the Broncos at The Razor last night.  Last night’s game was a war of attrition as both teams suffered injuries, Cutler hurt his finger on the first drive, Denver also had cornerbacks Champ Bailey and Dre Bly suffer injuries which allowed Randy Moss to unleash for two touchdowns.  The Pats also suffered injuries, hours after Laurence Maroney was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury, Sammy Morris, who in the first half ran for 138 yards and a score, missed the second half with an undisclosed injury, and Pats safety Rodney Harrison suffered a torn quad, which will have him miss the rest of the season, if not be a career ending injury with Harrison at 35 years of age, he might not want to rehab this injury, as it is his second season ending injury in the last few years.

The Pats will face the red hot St. Louis Rams Sunday afternoon.  The Rams are coming off a dismantling of Dallas on Sunday.

Preview-Monday Night Football vs the Broncos.

The Patriots return home after spending a week and a half in California after having a split beating San Francisco and getting embarassed by the Chargers.  This week the Denver Broncos come to town, a nemesis of the Pats and a team that the Patriots have historically struggled to beat, even with Tom Brady under center.  A lot of people when they talk about the Broncos talk about their explosive offense, centering around young quarterback Jay Cutler and young wideouts Brandon Marshall and rookie Eddie Royal, who might miss this game with an injury.  But what people don’t mention is the Broncos are a bottom 5 defense that has given up almost as many points as they have scored, and can very easily be gashed on the ground or the air.

The Patriots on offense will have to stick with the game plan they established vs the 49ers two weeks ago, which was grind the clock, run the ball, keep the opposing offense off the field and don’t make Matt Cassel have to put the ball up in a comeback mode.  Cassel has shown little in improvement since week one and taking over for the injured Tom Brady, and is not the type of quarterback in which you want to get involved in a shootout with, and with Laurence Maroney and Lamont Jordan listed as doubtful, Sammy Morris will get a bulk of the carries with Kevin Faulk continuing to play his role as a change of pace.

The Pats on defense have been getting torched in the air.  Issac Bruce had a multiple TD game two weeks ago and Vincent Jackson had a career game last week, and the Broncos have an offense that is more high powered than both of these teams, even though they could be without Tony Scheffler, Eddie Royal and Brandon Stokley.  Brandon Marshall provides a match-up nightmare with the Pats’ smaller corners, as Marshall as been compared a lot to Terrell Ownes in the way he can not only attack the ball in the air, but how tough he is to drag down once he has it.  The Broncos run game has been tough to put a finger on since Terrell Davis got hurt earlier this decade.  Micheal Pittman rushed for a 100 yards last week with Selvin Young and Andre Hall out, and now rookie Ryan Torian is back, so maybe not this week but soon Denver might have a four headed running back approach.  While Denver to start the season were putting up huge point numbers, the last few weeks going against tough defenses thay have had some tougher sledding, not scoring more than 20 points since week 3, so they have slowed down.  They key is containing Marshall, something that is easier said than done.

This week is a tough match-up for a team that got gashed last week in the air by the Chargers.  The Pats will have to turn this into a ground and pound type game and not get into a shoot out.  If the Pats can control the clock, they will win, but I don’t think they will, and the Broncos will continue to own the Patriots, as the Pats have no answer to Marshall and the Broncos defense will find a way to stop the Pats offense by forcing Matt Cassel to beat them, something he isn’t capable of doing.  Denver wins big, 31-10.

Bolts fry Pats 30-10

Last night in San Diego, the New England Patriots were beaten by the Chargers 30-10.  The game started off rough as Vincent Jackson opened play by catching a deep ball over Deltha O’Neal which became the story of the night, the Chargers bombing the Pats on both sides of the ball.

While the defense was bad last night, allowing the Chargers to drive the field at will all game long, either through the air or on the ground, the offense was just as lethargic.  No Lamont Jordan or Laurence Maroney last night, and Matt Cassel having to play in catch up mode looked bad, getting pressured while completeing 22 out of 38 passes for a hair over 200 yards, and not scoring a touchdown until the 4th quarter on a one yard plunge by Morris.

It was an awful performance from the Pats, and this could be the start of a long stretch with Denver and the Colts coming up and the Pats defense looking awful against the pass and generating now rush at all.  I shudder to think how Brandon Marshall will be stopped next Monday night if Vincent Jackson had this type of game, with 5 catches for 134 yards.

Preview, Patriots at Chargers

I would like to apologize for the lack of updates, I have had some stuff in real life which has taken away from my writing.

Anyway, this weekend on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, there is a rematch of the last AFC Championship as the Patriots travel to San Diego.  Now some of the luster that might have been in this game before the season might be lost, as each team is dealing with injuries to their star players, the Pats missing Tom Brady and possibly Lamont Jordan, the Chargers look like they will not only be without Shawne Merriman, whois on IR, but Chris Chambers might miss this game along with Antonio Gates and LaDanian Tomlinson not playing up to their standard of play.

The Pats on offense last week looked like the opened up the playbook a little bit more, with Cassel attempting the deep pass and Randy Moss catching a huge bomb which helped jump start the Pats offense at San Francisco last week.  The Chargers will be the toughest defense the Pats have faced to date.  The Chargers have one of the best corner tandems in the league with Cromartie and Jammer, and still have a decent front seven against the run even without Merriman.  The Pats running game will be tested for sure Sunday night.

The Chargers come into the game with a 2-3 record, with two of those losses coming in the last thirty seconds of the game, including the infamous Ed Hoculi blown call week two.  The Chargers started last year 2-3 and still won the AFC West.  The Chargers offense for so long featured Tomlinson and his ability to score from almost anywhere on the field either from a run or a pass.  But Tomlinson is suffering from turf toe and looks like a shell of himself.  Darren Sproles has looked good in spelling Tomlinson.  Philip Rivers continue to mature into a good NFL quarterback, but with two of his targets dinged up, he will be looking a lot towards Vincent Jackson and “Buster” Davis.

These teams have a history the last few years.  The Patriots have eliminted the Chargers the last few years from the playoffs and the Chargers have attacked the Pats in the media many times the last few years after their losses.  While this game is lacking the start power of some of their match-ups the last few years, both teams need this win, San Diego needs it more but they won’t get it, as I think the Pats have enough to win on the road in a squeaker.