Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Eve Links

Check out this hilarious column from Sportsline's Mike Freeman. This reeks of a journalist who flew to Foxborough to write a glowing piece about New England at all costs. It didn't matter that the actual game was unimpressive and that the 22-point underdog Dolphins moved the ball on New England and probably should have had one or two more touchdowns. How was Lemon's ball not over the pylon? It didn't matter that Tom Brady looked like a one note passer winging the ball 50 yards downfield hoping to set an NFL record for the most Hail Marys in a season. It didn't matter that Brady threw two picks and could easily have had one or two more. It didn't matter that Brady most likely choked away the record for best passer rating in a season against the 1-13 Dolphins. None of that mattered.

Don Banks breaks down each team's odds of beating the Pats.

CHFF has to admit that Brady's season, while great, isn't really the best of all time. Well they don't go quite that far, but they ought to.

FO asks many of the same questions about Tommy's season that we have been.

We'll try to add more links later (maybe some of them will actually be about the Colts), but let me leave you with a question: Some experts are saying that Coughlin and the Giants should rest players against the Pats next week, and I have to agree. But is it a good thing to head into the playoffs knowing you just allowed two of the most famous NFL records to be broken in your own stadium? Just asking.

DZ Comments: 18 Plays is up. It's a bit shorter this week, and doesn't actually cover 18 Plays, because well, that game didn't really mean much. It will be our last offering of the regular season.

My announcing highlight of the day last night was Nantz talking about the Patriots run at the most points ever by a team. He comments, "Randy Moss was on that Vikings team that set the record too", as if it was a fun fact only coincidentally related to the record. Um, he's the reason, Jimmy. It's ALL about him.

30 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike Freeman? I don't need to read the column. I've heard lots of complaints about this writer or that writer being a Pats homer, but this guy is the biggest national media Pats homer out there besides Bill Simmons (who at least admits what he is). I'm not going to waste my time reading his crap.

Unknown said...

Oh, and one more thing. Mike Freeman predicted that the Bears would BLOW OUT the Colts in Super Bowl XLI. Not just win, but BLOW OUT. ENOUGH SAID ABOUT THIS IDIOT.

brobert said...

At least we got mentioned:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80566fb4&template=with-video&confirm=true&campaign=ec0005

Anonymous said...

Mr. A-hole Colts fan. I really hope your team gets "rested" and "healthy". Because the Pats are gonna kick the crap out of the Colts, who will acuse us of running up the score for no good reason when the BEST QB ever Tom B, shows who is the Bitch and who is the MAN. That said, your chances of getting to that game are 50:50 best. Keep praying Colts fans, you need it.

Deshawn Zombie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deshawn Zombie said...

The previous post was meant to be to a different thread. The idea still holds, though...

This is going to be fun.

The Pats collapse is going to go down in history as one of the most obviously predictable debacles in history. That team doesn't have a prayer.

Anonymous said...

DZ:

Ball was not conclusively over the pilon.

And teams move the ball on us. They always have.

Bend but don't break is the Parcellian defensive concept and we've pretty much lived by it since the mid 90's.

Give up yards between the 20's, but make them settle for three.

Sound familiar?

Deshawn Zombie said...

That was Demond who wrote that post, btw. We know the ball wasn't over the pylon; it was more of a metaphysical 'how' than a question of the judgement of the officals.

Anonymous said...

FOXBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 24 (UPI) -- A 20-year-old man was listed in critical condition Monday after jumping 17 feet head first onto concrete at the New England Patriots game in Foxborough, Mass.

The unidentified man was on an elevated pedestrian walkway at Gillette Stadium before Sunday's New England Patriots game around 3:15 p.m. Sunday when he dived over the side, WCVB-TV, Boston, reported.

Witnesses told the broadcaster it appeared the man thought he would land in a snow bank but there wasn't any snow and he hit the ground head first and bounced after screaming on the way down.

"He was unconscious and unresponsive," said Scott Rogers of Foxborough Fire and Rescue.

Monday, the man was in the intensive care unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the Boston Globe said.

Several witnesses told police alcohol was involved in the stunt.



Gee, ya think?

Andy said...

Hasn't Kravitz taken down Freeman before?

Demond Sanders said...

I think the ball was over the pylon and so did the announcers, hence Simms saying "I believe this will be overturned."

Deshawn Zombie said...

Really? I thought it was pretty clear it didn't go over. Simms also thought there wasn't PI when the receiver clearly got hit in the back before the ball arrived. He sees what he wants to see.

Anonymous said...

Brady could care less if he's having a better season than Peyton, Marion and/or Montana. I could care less being a Pats fan.

That said, there's absolutely NO argument that the Pats, as a 53 man TEAM, are having the greatest football season ever in the history of professional football.

Can't argue with that Colts fans.

-Mosi

Deshawn Zombie said...

Um, actually it's easy to argue with. They are going to go down in history as having one of the most embarassing seasons in history. It started with a major cheating scandle and ends with a humiliating collapse on their home field. How does that qualify as 'the greatest season in history'? Sounds hilarious to me.

Prepare yourselves now for what is coming, Pats fans. Don't say you weren't warned.

Anonymous said...

Does the Colts/Pats rivalry remind anyone else of the 90s Pacers/Knicks rivalry? Other than the fact that the Colts got over the hump.

Anonymous said...

Deshawn:

Even if we do go down, we've still won three bowls this decade and The Olde Towne Team won the series two months ago.

And the Celtics are loaded.

Hate away, you deserve to.

Merry Christmas to all.

Bob M. said...

Wow, wish I read Dan's comments before wasting my time on the Freeman article. I thought it was typical media suck-up until--in an article ostensibly about the Pats--this hanging piece of genitalia (watching my language as we're 10 minutes into Christmas here in Seattle) drops a gratuitous Manning swipe about having as many TDs as TV commercials. As if the quantity of TV spots has anything to do with Manning's football, or Brady's football, which the article was supposed to be about.

I can see Freeman proposing to his girlfriend with similar logic: I love you. Will you marry me? And I keyed your ex-boyfriend's new Bentley last year! No, I'm not jealous! So, about that marriage thing.... (Actually, the whole article was far less coherent, but you get the idea.)

JC, they have dictionaries in the Bay State? Pylon with a "y."

Mr. Home of the Champions, oy, why even bother responding, since your kindergarten teacher is probably on break this week and you won't have anyone to read it to you until the new year. Just have a cookie and some nice warm milk and enjoy 16-0.

Mosi, pretty much the entire second half of the Pats/Fins game disputes what you said about Brady and records. 4-15, 52 yards, and many incomplete deep balls to Moss. Looks to me that he wants to be Peyton so badly that his next step, should he fall short of 49, is to shave his forehead an inch higher and start listening to country music. It's about as close as he'll get. He's already played 5 quarters MORE than Manning did in '04, and thrown 39 more times. And still he's come up short. I repeat for the comprehension-challenged: 39 more throws + 1.25 MORE games = 1 fewer TD. And that's superior... how exactly?

A glance at the tabloids tells us that clearly he has no problems in the Darwinian sense, but I think the next step is a red Ferrari to compensate.

Anonymous said...

Bob:

I'm from the Ocean State. What's Indiana?

I know you're a Yankee fan but that's not geographically congruent.

You a Laker fan too?

Nobody cares about records unless they end with a trophy.

Take your 1.24689 plus PI TD's per game and add them to the #2 seed and tell me what that comes to.

If you were to ask DZ, or his brotha, it would be the game that we're destined to lose. Or be humiliated in for that matter.

Like your boys say over and over, we'll see in three weeks.

Anonymous said...

Merry Christmas to the proprietors, and Bob, coltsgirl, and the rest of you.

Stan

Anonymous said...

BobM, you're awesome.

Reread my previous post - I DON'T CARE if Brady is having a better stats based individual season or not having a better stats based individual season than 2004 version Payton Manning. Who cares. Really, who cares.

For all of Manning's individual heroics in '04 (how many perfect weather dome games did he play, 10, hmmm..), he dropped a stinker in his pants against the Pats when it mattered.

Oh, and Brady then led the Pats to two straight victories and yet another ring. All while Peyton was on the tee box or shooting another commercial.

It kills you so to admit the 2007 Pats are the greatest NFL team ever.

-Mosi

Anonymous said...

It often kills me to admit things that aren't true. If they win the Super Bowl (which they won't), sure I'll admit it. But this team will get wacked by any of three AFC teams on the way. I simply think they are going to get exposed as massive frauds. I think they are the third or fourth scariest team in the playoffs.

Manning did not 'drop a stinker' after the 2004 season. He played fine in that game. Repeated fumbles by WRs and a gutless move to punt on fourth and short sunk that team. Not everything is the QBs fault. But NE fans still haven't learned that yet.

Anonymous said...

As a Pats fan, I don't care about individual records. The Super Bowl is the thing.
But as long as we're on the topic, Manning stacked up those great numbers because he plays in a dome half of the time. Can you imagine what kind of numbers Brady would be putting up if he didn't have to play outdoors more than half of the time, often in windy, snowy conditions?

Anonymous said...

I love these debates. I'm not big into the numbers game or records and whatnot, and the F-Pats are having a good year (thanks in great part to Moss, who makes Brady seem like a better QB than he is) if you can get the whole Spygate thing out of your head (which NE fans clearly are able to do; I guess cheating isn't that big of a deal to them) and you can look past the near-defeats by substandard teams (hey, I know it's the win that matters in the end, but you can't tell me that close games don't reveal weaknesses, and the F-Pats have several).

We're still not afraid of the F-Pats. Nope. Sorry.

JC-you make interesting (though flawed, in my opinion) arguments. I still find it kind of strange that you hang out here, on a Colts fan site, though.

Mosi-you're great to have around--you aren't a royal jackbag, and you can defend your team without becoming one. I love a civilized difference of opinion.

home of champions-you ARE a royal jackbag. Go home.

Anonymous said...

Colts Girl:

I'm here as part of my crusade against haters and hypocrites who pretend to run an objective - not really - informative blog and then fire off something to the tune of:

"The Pats collapse is going to go down in history as one of the most obviously predictable debacles in history. That team doesn't have a prayer."

Or this fact-filled observation:

"They are going to go down in history as having one of the most embarassing seasons in history. It started with a major cheating scandle and ends with a humiliating collapse on their home field."

I mean that's riveting sutff from DZ the gypsy fortune teller. And that's just from this thread! How can I resist responding to garbage like that? Especially when it's in reference to my team, the one that's 15-0 and beat Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Indy and what looks like three other playoff teams.

In addition to that, I get to banter back and forth with Bob, the spell-checking cabinet-blogging internet Superhero. Although I respect Bob's opinions, I'm to the point of scrolling right through his excess of parenthetical humor (that's not funny). You know, with the little roller button on the mouse?

In case you haven't heard, we go for a perfect season on NFL Network Saturday night.

Do you guys have NFL Network? If you do, would you watch? Of course you would.

Anonymous said...

What do you want, JC? I've given dozens of times all the facts and reasons why I think NE is going down. I'm not going to waste time delineating them again as a response comment for a day old post.

aaaaah, what the heck:
I think your team is old and one dimensional. I think your defense is vulnerable and your offense is petering out. I don't think the Pats can run against good defenses (and no the Jets and Dolphins don't count). I think that Belichick is making a huge mistake playing his winded old vets hard to the end when they have shown signs of slippage in recent weeks and need to rest.

I think NE's whole offense is deep balls to Randy Moss and will stall out against good D's in bad weather.

I think Indy is a better team than NE. I think NE won largely because Indy was down 5 starters in November, and they'll get those guys back. Those are my reasons. I've stated them lots of times before.

I'm sorry. It's going to happen. You'd best prepare yourself now. We'll miss you when it does, and you have to stop hanging out here for the shame of it.

Anonymous said...

I love the Patriots. They are winners and do things the right way. And I find it easy to identify with Tom Brady because we both like dudes.

There, I finally said it.

Anonymous said...

Who's old? Seau, Bruschi and Rodney.

Who else?

Forget it don't answer that. I have work to do today.

Anonymous said...

Haha that was not me.

Deshawn Zombie said...

Who else is old? Izzo and Vrabel. Actually, just about everyone is at least older than the Colts D. The oldest regular starter on Indy's D is Raheem Brock who hasn't turned 30 yet. Maybe it's just age by comparison.

Anonymous said...

jc-

What gives you the idea that this is going to be an entirely objective blog? Dude, it's got "18 to 88" in the name. We're obviously Colts fans, and we're obviously going to back the Colts. Yeah, we dislike the F-Pats. Passionately, even. But these guys haven't said anything that isn't fan-based, fact-based support and faith in the Colts. They aren't just making stuff up. You may disagree, but it's the truth of opinion. In my opinion, Moss has made Brady look like a better QB than he really is. I've got all sorts of evidence to back that "theory" up, just like you have all sorts of "evidence" to back up whatever your theory-of-the-day is. It's what fans do and what makes fans (and sports) great. I just question why you want to do it here, when your rants and observations aren't going to change the minds of any self-respecting Colts fan. Seems like a waste of your time and energy. I'm here because I love the Colts. You just seem to like hanging out with Colts fans an awful lot for a guy who spews so much Brady-love.