Catching Up On The Boston Sports Scene

The Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots are riding a collective twenty two game win streak. As Ned Martin would say, "Mercy".


The Red Sox:

I was impressed by how many people turned out for the World Series parade given the timing (twenty four hours notice for a Tuesday noon parade) and I was thrilled to be able to fly home and attend the parade with my Mom. We even stopped at Taco Bell for our free Tacos on the way home afterwards. Thanks, Jacoby!

There was a woman just in front of us in line who, after standing in line for about ten minutes, turned and asked me what a taco was. I explained the general concept to her - crunchy vs. soft, etc. My Mom and I stayed an extra couple minutes to witness this woman take a bite from her first before leaving. In case any Taco Bell executives are reading this blog (Are there actual readers?) the woman opted for the soft taco and seemed to enjoy it. It's safe to say Taco Bell now has some new loyal customers in the Boston area as a result of the marketing campaign. There was even a television crew that set up shop for a good thirty seconds to get footage of the people in line.

I love the Schilling signing, an obvious win-win for both the Red Sox and for Schilling.

I try to remember to trust in Theo, since he made the right call by not matching bad contract offers to Pedro or Damon, but I dread the thought of Cashman talking to Mike Lowell and his agent, quietly nodding his head and saying "Sounds great. In fact, we'll even give you an extra $1M per year. I won't keep you long. The offer's good for the next five minutes. Sure, I think I have a pen around here somewhere. What? Oh. Today's the 19th." I believe Lowell when he says he wants to stay with the Sox but if the Yankees guarantee a fourth year and offer more per year than the Sox (and if I were Cashman, that's exactly what I'd do) then for Lowell to re-sign with the Sox would involve leaving $15-$20M on the table. It's tough to imagine he'd turn that down. I don't believe the reports from New York where Cashman has said he assumes Lowell will re-sign with the Sox. In fact, I expect to keep checking ESPN's site on a semi-regular basis with some dread until Lowell eventually signs a contract with someone. If that surprises you, you don't understand Red Sox fans.


The Celtics:

I was able to catch the second half of the Celtics v. Nets game recently. It's fun to watch the Celtics moving the ball around. Plus it's amazing to watch Garnett's infectious intensity and passion for the game. He was one of my favorite players to watch when he was with the Timberwolves and I'm still amazed that he's playing for the Celtics.

The team is just so much more fun to watch now, and not just because they're winning. When the Celtics reached the Eastern Conference finals a few years ago, I paid attention but wasn't able to enjoy watching the team play. Jim O'Brien got the most out of that team and got them to fight hard, but watching the team on offense was generally painful with far too many isolations and ball hogging. I still have flashbacks of Antoine Walker, who was a great passer when he remembered to pass, deciding that he was going to score in a way that was obvious to everyone in the building, including the defense, eventually going one-on-four before coughing the ball up or putting up an ugly shot.

This team is a lot more fun to watch because they're taking pride in distributing the ball. I believe Paul Pierce is a great player and that winning is more important to him than points, but he's never struck me as being a vocal leader. He's more likely to lead by example. To have Garnett on the team wanting to win, constantly preaching "team", backing it up with his passion, his general approach and helping the team win makes an enormous difference. I'm excited to try to catch a game while I'm home for Christmas. In fact, I'm going to try to change my flight back to Seattle so I can get back in time to see the game in Seattle. I haven't seen a Celtics game in Seattle since the days of Dino Radja, back in that one season that the Sonics played in the fabulous Tacoma Dome.


The Patriots:

It's fun watching the Patriots these days. The Patriots' brass deserves a lot of credit for upgrading (egregious understatement) the wide receivers and rightly so, but I would have expected that it would take a while for the passing game to gel because of the complete turnover at the position. Granted, that's based on my vast experience playing Nerf football at recess, so there's a chance I'm off a bit here. However, it is nice to see that Brady is now getting credit for more than just being a quarterback who "operates well in the system". In the Patriots first Super Bowl run, Brady seemed better known for throwing screen passes and not making mistakes rather than being a "great quarterback". It's nice to see him get credit for more than just being the quarterback on a winning team.

The Patriots hate also fascinates me. Simply put, I think that football fans had already had enough of the Patriots winning before this year started. I think that we (collectively) get tired of anyone winning constantly. Toss in the Red Sox' recent success and the Celtics sudden re-entrance into the NBA elite and there are a lot of people tired of happy Boston sports fans. I was tired of watching Jordan win NBA titles and kept hoping someone else would beat the Bulls back when they were on top. Much as I appreciated Jordan, seeing him win was getting old. I wanted to see Barkley or Malone finally get a ring instead of seeing Jordan win his sixth. I'm assuming most people who aren't Patriots fans were happy to see Manning finally win a Super Bowl. The Colts were now the top dog in the AFC and the Patriots run was over.

Except that it wasn't. And not only was the Patriots run not over, they'd addressed one of their biggest weaknesses by picking up a player who has a bad image in a deal that felt like the Yankees overpaying for the most expensive free agent in a way that no other team could. Add to that the videotaping scandal and the odd way the NFL handled it by asking for more evidence after issuing the initial punishment and then destroying that evidence while being rather evasive about what they found. Add to that mix Harrison testing positive for HGH and Belichick's general pleasant nature and snappy dressing and penchant for running up the score and kicking puppies and... We have ourselves the first "villain" team since the "glory" days of Al Davis' Raiders.

Except that they're not. The Patriots could not go simply outspend small market teams like the Yankees, Knicks, New York Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, or (tough as it is to admit) Red Sox could to acquire a player Moss because of the NFL's hard salary cap. In fact, they underpaid for him since Moss restructured his contract and took a pay cut to get out of Oakland. Feel free to hate Moss if you think he wasn't playing his hardest in Oakland, but the Patriots aren't to "blame" for picking him up. Brett Favre lobbied hard for Green Bay to get Moss and if Brett Favre had his way, Moss would be a Packer right now. Had that happened, I think the Packers would be getting some "win one more for Favre before he retires" love instead of the reaction the Patriots have gotten for the signing.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the sideline camera videotaping the opposing defense's signals leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I don't want to think teams I support need to resort to shenanigans like that. But I think it's a little much to imply that the Patriots videotaping the Jets defensive signals in the first half of the first game gave them a competitive advantage in that or any other game this year. The Patriots were penalized a first round draft pick based on the actions in that game alone. The NFL asked for other material gained by videotaping after issuing that punishment and decided no additional punishment was necessary. So, according to the NFL, the Patriots did nothing outside of that game that warranted punishment.

Seeing a player on the Steelers (was it Hines Ward?) say that now that he thinks about it...it was a little odd that the Patriots seemed to know what the Steelers offense was going to do in a playoff game five years ago is silly when you consider that the Patriots were recording defensive signals. Hearing Shula say that the Patriots legacy is tainted because they were penalized for an act so serious that they're losing a first round pick is comical when you consider that Shula's Dolphins were forced to forfeit a first round draft pick by breaking NFL rules by negotiating to hire Shula while he was still under contract with the Colts. Classic.

Harrison tested positive for HGH and was suspended according to the league rules. No Patriots fan I know thinks it was OK for Harrison to take HGH, but you don't see constant backlash against the Chargers organization because of Shawn Merriman using HGH. Treat Harrison the same way all other offenders have been treated. Except, unlike Merriman, don't vote him to the Pro Bowl.

The real focus of hate for the Patriots, beyond people simply being tired of them winning, is Belichick. He's far from the only non-likable coach around. The videotaping scandal didn't help his general image, but I think the bigger issue people have with them is how the Patriots have closed out games this year. They're winning big, scoring a lot of points and may set some records along the way, but the bigger concern seems to be the Patriots running up the score when the game is already decided.

Thinking purely of the scores of the Patriots games this year, I'll been a little embarrassed, at least initially. In fact, while watching the Cowboys game, I wanted the Patriots to take a knee or settle for a field goal late in the game rather than trying to run for a touchdown. The intense hate the Patriots have gotten as a result, especially when voiced by a couple close friends, made me think about the situation more closely. I've read articles and blogs on both sides - some logical, some passionate. I wasn't surprised to read that there were a number of parallels to recent teams (including the classy Colts a couple years) that had blown out teams in stretches like the Patriots had, but without the intense hate, but that's beside the point. In my mind, the point is more Machiavellian. The more I see out of the Patriots, the more I feel I understand Belichick's motivation in those situations, and I don't mean that in the sense that his motivation is to tell the rest of the league "screw you" or to try to consistently beat the spread. Here's what I see better now in hindsight.

The Patriots have brought their backup QB into games early in the fourth quarter when the games looked well in hand. That could be a sign of respect (i.e. not further running up the score) a way to get Cassel some reps or simply a way to rest Brady. In the Miami game, the Pats defense struggled and Cassel gave up a pick returned for a touchdown and suddenly the game wasn't so much in hand with 10+ minutes to go, especially given the fact that the Patriots couldn't run the ball. Brady came back in, threw a quick touchdown and things were back "in control". I couldn't find a game log to confirm this, but I seem to remember Cassel coming back in to finish that game. I'm sure Belichick would like to get Cassel some more reps before next year's pre-season, but Cassel has proven he can get the other team back into the game in a flash, which may make Belichick think twice (or more) before inserting him into a game that early again.

The Patriots don't have the running game they had in previous years. Even before Morris got hurt, this team struggled to run the ball. In traditional running situations, the Patriots pass the ball out of necessity, not disdain. Last year the Patriots could grind out first downs late in the game by having Corey Dillon bowl people over, especially in situations where they needed a yard or two to keep the drive and the clock moving. Regardless of whether Maroney isn't that type of runner or the offensive line isn't as effective, the Patriots don't have the ability to overpower the defense and pick up the two or three yards they need. When they're faced with a third and two and they need a first down, you don't typically see them running the ball even if they're trying to close out a game.

I mentioned earlier that I was a little embarrassed to see the Patriots giving the ball to Eckel for the touchdown late in the Cowboys game. I expected the Pats to bring out the field goal unit on fourth down or just take a knee at that point to hand the ball back to the Cowboys. But now that Morris is done for the year, the Patriots are probably one running back injury away from having to rely on Eckel in a close game which is even more important when you remember that Maroney has had problems staying healthy. Maybe getting Eckel a couple touches in a safe situation is something that means he'll be more in synch with the offensive line when the Pats need him to pick up a couple yards in the red zone or on a key third down late in the game. Or maybe the Pats coaches have a better sense for what plays put Eckel in the best position to pick up those yards.

The Patriots defense is strong, but it may not be as strong as it has been in previous years. Given how Addai seemed to tear holes through the Patriots' defensive line in the first three quarters of the Colts game, I was shocked that the Colts didn't go to him more often in the fourth quarter, especially since I thought Addai's running was the biggest reason the Colts beat the Pats in the AFC title game last year. The Patriots' cornerbacks still make me nervous and I still think Asante Samuel is terribly overrated. When the Colts got the ball back after the Patriots took the lead, I had awful mental images of Manning torching the Patriots' secondary right up until he coughed up the ball to seal the game. As last year's AFC game showed, this defense can give up a big lead if they have to stay on the field for a prolonged period of time, which is more likely to happen when you can't run the ball effectively. That's especially true when the defense is missing key players like Harrison and Seymour, guys they were missing for the first six games of the year.

Prior to the Colts game, the Patriots had not had to play hard in the fourth quarter. We've all seen teams, usually at the college level, who are untested since they've played a creampuff schedule suddenly look out of sorts in their first close contest of the year. Is there a chance that the Patriots playing hard late in other games enabled them to be less winded in the fourth quarter of the Colts game when they needed a comeback?

So, you have a team with and minimal ability to pick up a first down on the ground in situations where that's what everyone expects them to do and a less-than-elite defense. Obvious solution: Throw the ball and score a lot of points.

The more I see who the Patriots are, the less of a problem I have with them throwing the ball or in getting a backup running back touches in the red zone when some might say they already have "enough points". Are there limits to this view? Of course. I don't want to see the Patriots going for an onside kick while up twenty-some-odd points like an NCAA team did recently. But if the Patriots are up seventeen with the ball at the start of the fourth quarter, I don't expect to see them effectively ensure a three and out by trying to run Maroney three straight times.

I don't blame other fans for seeing things differently, since I'm sure I would if the situations were reversed. I also don't blame other coaches for complaining, especially when coaches look for any "us against the world" motivational edge. In fact, I fully expect Belichick is using all the Patriots hate to further motivate the team.

But getting back to the whole running up the score issue... Maybe, just maybe, this is a situation where a coach who knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl (something you don't have the opportunity to do in most seasons) knows that playing hard in the fourth quarter in a game whose outcome already appears decided isn't about making a statement in that game but is more about making sure the team is prepared to win in games later in the season.

Or maybe as a Pats fan, that's just how I choose to perceive the situation.