52-7
Soooooooooo. How about that game yesterday huh? Really turned out the way I was hoping. 52-7 and it wasn’t really even that close. Wow. I didnt even see the game live; I was on a flight home from Orlando and had my Dad tape it so I could watch it when I got home. After getting off the plane I made sure to not check my phone for text messages and kept the radio off the whole ride home so I could watch the game fresh. Shouldn’t have bothered.
I originally wrote a long, some what drawn out, piece talking about the game but you know what? Why? I’ll leave it for others (here, here, here for starters) to do a more in-depth analysis; really all I want to talk about is what assholes the Pats are. If you watched the game you know what I’m talking about: going for it on 4th and 1 with the score 38-0. I would like to quote (and agree with) one Jaime Mottram “Hey, Belichick, F— You for Running It Up“. I mean seriously, wtf?
All year I’ve been reading Bill Simmons’ columns and he keeps talking about the “Eff You” touchdown that Pats like to go for in games. Well going for it on 4th and 1 was definitely an “Eff you” play.
Anyone who has a problem with what Bill Belichick is doing, there’s a real simple solution. Just make him stop. Make him punt. Pick off a pass. Do something about it. In the ultimate ubber-macho sport Belichick is letting everyone know each and every week who the Alpha Dog is and how loud he can bark.
I love it. It’s clean and pure. There’s no guessing involved. Belichick won’t talk about. Doesn’t have to. He can utter all the useless jibberish he wants after games, the reality is so glaring he need verbalize it. He’s doing it to you every week.
You know exactly what to expect - going for it on 4th down, throwing TD passes to the linebacker - and you still find yourself beat down by fiddy. Look at it as him doing you favor. He’s going to expose any and all of your flaws on film every Sunday for all to see. He’s taking all the guess work out of it for you; you just have to rebuild your team’s psyche and correct all the mistakes (yikes!).
You don’t have to wonder, like, what the score would be if the Pats really kept pushing in the second half? You don’t have to imagine just how better they are then you. Belichick is telling you. Over 60 minutes you know where you stand. They are going for your throat on every single play and if you’re guard isn’t up you’ll come out looking silly.
I don’t blame him. The idea that he has to show some respect to Coach Joe, or any coach, befuddles me. That’s not how Belichick rolls. It’s missing the point. It’s irrelevant. He doesn’t care who is on the opposite sideline; these are equal opportunity beatdowns. This dude is going after Gibbs 1.0, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi. He’s slaying ghosts. He’s chasing history.
And it’s plain as day for all to see. He wants to end any debate about the greatest team in NFL history. He wants to go undefeated, score more points, have the biggest margin of victory and have his quarterback post the single most prolific season in league history. What’s to hate about that? Hell, I’d love to play for the guy.
I would have to say I agree with all of that…but that doesnt stop me from, as an opposing fan, hating them for it. Jason goes on to mention this worry later in his post but sometime soon somebody is going to take a cheap shot at Brady and it could get ugly. When Brady went for the QB sneak on that 4th and 1 I half-expected Sean Taylor to swoop in and remove his head from his body. It hasn’t happened yet but I’m betting something will happen soon and Belichick might live to regret leaving his guys in in a blowout.
Here’s ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio writing for The Sporting News:
This week, it’s even harder to make the case that the Pats didn’t run up the score against the Washington Redskins and Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs. Apart from yet another fake-spike play late in the first half, the Patriots amazingly eschewed a field-goal attempt while leading 38-0 with 11 minutes to play and went for it on fourth-and-short from the Redskins’ 7-yard line.
Let’s get this straight. Belichick would have been uncomfortable with a lead of only 41 with 11 minutes to go? Please. The Redskins hadn’t scored a point. Even if the Pats had pulled 11 guys out of the stands to play defense the rest of the way, the gap would not have been closed.
And then, leading 52-7 with less than a minute to play, New England still had numerous starters on the field. That’s simply inexcusable.
Belichick could be telling the rest of the NFL that if a big deal is going to be made out of the Pats breaking a signal-stealing rule that many other teams routinely violate, then Belichick will stay fully within the rules. And obliterate anyone who crosses his path while doing so.
The backlash is going to begin. As the buildup begins to the biggest regular-season game of the year — and possibly ever — the media are going to be probing the question of whether Belichick is bullying the rest of the league.
Again, I get it but I don’t like it. And Belichick is messing with Karma here.
j. I’m pretty sure I know what Joe Gibbs was thinking with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots up 38-0 driving aggressively for another touchdown. And he wasn’t very happy about it. If FOX was doing its job at the end of this game, some guy in the truck would have had all cameras focus on the interaction between Belichick and Gibbs at midfield. But we never saw it.
It almost makes me sad how pathetic Coach Gibbs looked yesterday. Doesnt make me feel good as a fan, let me tell you that. I hope Coach Gibbs is angry and I hope that inspires him to kick the Jets’ ass.
Notably Randall Godfrey wasn’t exactly pleased:
“I said something to (Belichick) after the game,” Godfrey said to NBCSports.com. “I told him, ‘You need to show some respect for the game.’ You just don’t do that. I don’t care how bad it is. You’re up 35 points and you’re still throwing deep? That’s no respect….
“You look at all the great head coaches … I’m just disappointed,” he said. “You gotta show some class, show some respect. Joe Gibbs? We wouldn’t have done that. Bill Walsh? You wouldn’t see those types of guys doing that stuff. I’ve never seen nothing like that. Most teams, you get up like that you sit on the ball and try to run the time out. They’re up 30-some points and they’re throwing deep. That was blatant disrespect. I hope we can see them again, definitely. You don’t see Joe Gibbs doing that. You can’t even imagine that kind of stuff coming from him. Joe Gibbs. Bill Walsh. Bill Parcells. This isn’t like college going for power rankings. This is the pros you show some respect, show some class.”
I think Godfrey should read why Jason wrote up above.
Oh and yes the Patriots absolutely only won because they were cheating by messing with the Skins’s headset receivers. If only it were so.
P.S. Why David Macklin why? (via TBL)
Washington’s David Macklin on the sideline, while surrounded by towel-hoisting helpers, relieved himself into a Gatorade cup as fans gawked
P.P.S. As is his wont Agent Steinz has much more on this, including player quotes!