Saturday, January 12, 2008

Jags-Pats game blog

Mainly due to the fact that both Demond and I have somewhere to be tomorrow at 1 pm, we'll be blogging our thoughts on tonight's clash. As we said before, we both fully expect the Pats to win handily and hate them for forcing us to root for the Jaguars. On the bright side, someone we despise will be very unhappy at the end of tonight's contest.

One sad note on the Packers game: That was probably the end of the line for Marcus Pollard. Tough night buddy; I was pulling for you. If he should retire at the end of the year, we have a spot all warmed up in the Classic Colts. We're glad to have you.

Q1-
Jholes must go for this. They are. Great throw. Crazy play call, but a huge play. The Pats might be in trouble tonight.
-Wow, what a throw by Garrard. They are stunned in NE. It's close to a sack, but it was a great throw while going down.
-Screw it. We are all in. Ok Jags. We're with you tonight. Demond said, "I don't care if they win the Super Bowl". Ok. I'm not sure I want them to win that bad.
-The worst part of a Jags upset would be Jeremy Green being right about something. The universe might implode under the sheer weight of the improbability.
-NE gets a huge screen. Terrible coverage by 56 who seemed to recognize the screen but got over too late and was blocked.
-Pats fail to run effectively on 3rd and 2. They'll go for it. I bet that's the last key 3rd down they try and run on.
-Not sure how you fail to cover Moss on 4th down. I guess it was just too long to cover him.
-Jags have the worst 'great' defense in football. They get little pressure AND have a terrible secondary.
-Nice job Jags. My temporary love for them lasted about 2 minutes. I'm back to hating their teal guts. I can't believe I was suckered in by one good drive. That just tells you how much I hate the Pats. The Jags just don't have the D to win this game.
-Yes, the rest of the blog will pretty much sound just like this.
-Fred Taylor seems to have more runs for losses than any 'good back' in history. He is easily the worst player to rush for 10,000 yards. At least Garrard is throwing well.
-That was the single dumbest fumble I've seen this year that didn't involve Kellen Lewis.
-3rd and short. If they run, it'll be a sneak.
-wow, I'm stunned they ran. Maroney almost got tripped up for a loss, but ran through the 'hand tackle'
-Is it too early to declare a game 'over' when it's 7-7 at the end of 1 quarter?
Q2
-Nope.
-Demond is IMing me cursing Charlie Johnson.
-I see nothing to convince me that the Pats D is actually any good.
-Demond writes: ok, this is how dumb jeremy green is: on the radio today he was trying to argue that isaiah thomas's main problem is he keeps taking over programs that were bad to begin with...
really? because he kind of ruined the pacers...
-I think Joe Addai kills these guys next week. The Colts Pats game could be 49-48.
-Jags jump off. NE was probably barking or something.
-Is there a second worse 'great D' than New England's?
-Demond wants me to make sure and say, "Ooh. Kitty's got claws!". Hecho.
-NE's line is BLOWING the Jags off the line. The Pats are going to run down this clock, score to start the second half, and it'll be over.
-A big penalty might, MIGHT keep this to a three point game at the half.
-Jack Del Rio takes a good timeout on defense and just went a whole half without challenging a play. I'm stunned.
-WIIIIIIDE RIGHT! THE CAT LIVES!
-Demond notes that that kick looked like AV's in SD
-Mad Jack goes conservative. Brady gets to throw Hail Mary's to Moss. In other words, just like a normal Pats/AFC East game. That was an oddly conservative call on 3rd down considering that making the Pats use a timeout didn't make any difference. Throwing was the right call.

Half-Time Comments:
Every play makes me both happy and makes me want to poke out my eye. Mad Jack is trying to out-dress Belichick by wearing the classy T-shirt, leather jacket with team logo combo. Stylish, Jack.
-Demond hopes the Pats lose because of a drive stalling with a classy chop-block.
-Boomer says, "If I'm the NE defense I'm worried." If I'M the NE defense, I'm not worried...I'm just freaking old.

Q3-
-What the crap is Simms talking about? The Kitties don't look any close to shutting down NE.
-The Jags defenders are slow to break out of their zones to cover backs and screens.
-Brady panicked a bit at the blitz and almost threw a pick. Brady is playing great, but keep in mind that this Jags secondary is horrible.
-This game is exactly why we said the Jags would struggle without bad weather. They aren't a very good defensive team, especially in the secondary.
-Here's a huge third down for the Jags. If they don't convert, they should go for it. Yes, I'm serious.
-WOW. Passing to Matt Jones is...ballsy I guess.
-Jax needs to keep running it to shorten this game up. Matt Jones for a big gain again. Matt Jones is killing the Pats. I just can't see them winning it all with this D.
-This is the reincarnation of Indy Vs KC in the playoffs. Great QB has a huge day to hide his gasping defense. But a reckoning awaits...
-Garrard gets lucky his pass is batted down at the line. Had pick written all over it. A big drop on 3rd down kills the Jags.
-It's a 4 point game as Scobee nails the figgie, but I still don't know that the Jags are physically capable of stopping the Pats even once.
-Demond informs me that he just wrote something in his notebook. I laugh. I fear he's correct, but then again, I was calling it over when it was 7-7.
-Simms embarrasses himself by asking, "Can the Jags still stay patient on defense?" Patient how? By letting the Pats score in 10 plays instead of 4? Patient like that, Phil?
-Even if the Jags take the lead, I'm still waiting for Mad Jack to do something stupid. What? I don't know, but I can feel it coming.
-Tough personal foul, but whatever. Those happen every game.
-Maroney is now getting chunks of yards after not looking good early in the game. The Jags D is ready to keel over.
-Simms changes his tune and now says the Jags have to change up. Really? Was it the first three TDs you saw that make you say that or this one that's coming now?
-The Jags are going to lose to the Pats for the same reason they lost to the Colts. Their defense isn't up to the level of their offense. Their O is good, but can't be perfect. Their D? Just not there. They've given up 22 or more points in 5 of their last 7 games. They aren't a championship defense.

Q4
-A big catch and a personal foul keeps the Jags on life support. I can't see them getting a stop though. Gotta love Rodney Harrison. Garrard is a gamer that's for sure. It won't be his fault if they lose this game.
-I suppose the Jags can kick on 4th down, but they really need the TD.
-Garrard and Mo-Jo are huge again, and the life support keeps on beeping.
-The Matt Jones well runs dry. Talk about tempting fate. How did he not get a better effort on catching that ball?
-I see no reason to expect the Jags to get a stop. Brady would have to suffer an anyuresim or something.
-I sort of hoped for an onside kick there. Instead the booted it away. TOUCH DOWN PATS. Ok, so maybe not yet, but it's coming soon enough.
-I'm sensing a deep ball to Moss coming. Just for the hell of it. I think they start screwing with the Jags' heads now and playing for next week.
-Nope it was a deep ball to Stallworth. Nice job, Mathis (he's their GOOD corner!).
-Wow, Welker drops the ball, and the Jags sort of get their stop. Still the FG all but seals the deal.
-This game gets more like the Colts at KC all the time. The parallels are amazing.
-Mad Jack takes the ball out of the hands of his best return threat. Nice. Still, other than failing to have his D show up, he's been alright tonight.
-Demond calls TD, onside kick, TD. Demond has been drinking heavily.
-Well, the nice thing about the Jags taking a timeout is that the end of this game will fly by.
-What a catch and conversion to keep the game alive. Harrison picks up another penalty.
-Garrard has played a great game. We became believers after the Indy game, he's really spectacular. He's keeping his team alive.
-Two plays really did the Jags in tonight: Garrard's stupid fumble early and Northcutt's drop on 3rd down. Meanwhile, Rodney Harrsion makes the play. Not bad for a classless ahole cheater who only had two personal fouls tonight.
-The Pats should throw on this third down and put the hammer down.
-They do, and the Jags prove they still can't tackle even when they cover.

This game went pretty much how we thought it would. Brady was great, and shreded the sieve that the Jags call a secondary. This team just didn't matchup well with the Pats. I think the Jags played better than I thought, but could only get FGs instead of TDs in the second half. If the Colts play D as well as they did in the earlier meeting, I think they win. The Pats put up 31 on the Jags, but more imporantly were never really stopped once. Fortunately, the Colts are much better on D, especially passing D than the Jags are. Let's go take care of business tomorrow, and get on with what this season has really been about for months.

Most importantly, I suppose, the Jags beat the spread. JC and many others are no doubt homeless now. That makes me happy. Gambling is for fools.

As for the Jags? It's another wasted season for them at the hands of the Pats. Suck it, Vic.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This game might be interesting but the Patriots should keep scoring on this sorry Jags D.

As for Charlie Johnson, there should be an anti-"Classic Colts" (Classic Clots?) featuring the very worst the Colts have to offer. Johnson, Vanderjagt, Jason David.

Deshawn Zombie said...

lol niiice. Sucky Colts we could call it. David Macklin would be in for sure.

Anonymous said...

Brady was great (HATE saying that), but you have to wonder if Cato Juno was brought in to teach the Jags how to tackle this week. I haven't seen that poor job of tackling in a playoff game in a very long time. If Garrard can throw for 278 against this great NE D, how many more freaking yards will Peyton throw for against it? Colts could easily put up 450 yards on this sorry D.

Anonymous said...

Its not going to be about the yards we put up on them...I don't think anyone thinks we can't move the ball on these guys...we just HAVE to score TDs in the red zone. Settling for FGs will leave us about 3-4 points short in the end.

Bob M. said...

I agree Zac, it's TDs and not FGs or yards. Even in Week 9, when we were up early I was nervous about the FGs....

Well, we've seen that Moss can be shut down by an adequate D and 122 by Maroney is not the kiss of death so long as your O doesn't drop TDs and settle for FGs.... I would not be surprised by a 48-47 game next week. I bet CBS would be pretty happy as well.

As for the Sucky Colts, I'd have a problem with the concept. Vandy also gave us a lot of good, some of which has been memorialized here--he just sucked when it was most important and those games tend to be most remembered. Jason David was a pint-sized 4th rounder who actually beat out other guys to start (much to everyone's surprise); so he was not great, was not really expected to be a world-beater, but he gave good effort and he was the best we could field! Hard to blame him for that. Blame management for putting that on the field. As for Macklin... meh!

Call me a softie. As a fan, I really DO think of them as my family--win or lose, move out of town, trade/fire guys I like, I am still stuck with them. And if I will end up seeing them at a wedding or grannie's funeral some day, I don't want to have pissed them off too much by saying something hurtful (like "hey, you're in my hall of suck.") I can get angry, but I can never brand an individual with "sucky" forever. All is forgiven eventually in print. Jeff George? Great talent and pretty tough, held back by what I'll call personality/mental obstacles. Like an old girlfriend who was almost but not quite Miss Right. Hard to hate her for that. It just wasn't meant to be.

Art Schlicher? Okay, if you centrifuge the Kleenex in the flu ward, he's the residue left over. Gilbert "so this is how you tackle?" Garndner? Yup. I almost with Mark Chmura was a former Colt so I could nominate him.

The most damning I would go is maybe called "The Hall Of We're Glad They're No Longer Here." Feel free to include coaches--Lots of them. Basically everyone since 1975 not named Dungy or Marchibroda. And I have no problem including Jason David on THAT list. It somehow seems less damning than saying you suck. And the implied flip-side of guys "we were sorry to see go" or "guys we like even though they are no longer in uniform for us" inlcudes a stellar list of guys like Chris Hinton, Pollard, Dilger, Edge, Thornton, Stokley, posisbly even Mike Pete, Marcus Washington, etc. It's a business, despite our irrational affection for a more or less random collective of guys in the same silly suits--and we understand that guys moving on and cashing big checks elsewhere, or being not invited back, does not constitute a delcataration of war or betrayal...

But for ex-Colts, even Unitas went to SD for one final, abysmal, embarrassing year. (yes, I am dating my fandom with that one--if he had had a better season in the sun, I might be a SD fan to this day! Glad I am not and had some "family loyalty" when I was 6 or 7.) But despite Johnny U's hatred of the move to Indianapolis, I'd still welcome... ah, maybe I should just stop right there. That's a way-too-complicated bit of work for this forum. Having not lived in Balto or Indy, there are depths of emotion that go way too deep for me there.

Anonymous said...

I was just kidding about the terrible classic Colts. I can only hate players when they're here and I complain about them constantly. But I talk about the good times with Vandy (the FG streak) and Jason David (those wacky huge gloves that made him look like Mickey Mouse) and Cato June (some fantastic interceptions). I'm sure in five years I'll be laughing about how Charlie Johnson's terrible play almost cost us back to back championships.

Anonymous said...

Josh, I gotta agree...Brady was phenomenal in this game (that fake direct snap was a thing of absolute beauty), but the Jags D got exposed as completely mediocre. Who's the playmaker on the defense? The guy that you really fear will take over and shut you down? They don't have a Seymour, an Urlacher, a Tatupu, a Merriman, and especially not a Zombie.

On the other hand, it's hard not to root for David Garrard. Classy guy, great game, just didn't have the team around him to pull it off.

I was begrudgingly rooting for the Jags, but in my heart of hearts I really wanted the Pats to win. I want US to be the team that slays the giant.

Anonymous said...

After the season, I think we will create the Gardner List. It will contain the worst Colts players we can remember. Early nominees will be:
Gilber Gardner,
David Macklin,
Vandy (no, he gets NO credit for the good stuff. I hate him),
Erick Mahlum (HE WAS HORRIBLE),
Corey Simon
Jerome Pathon
Trev Alberts
Jack Trudeau

HeatherRadish said...

"Not bad for a classless ahole cheater who only had two personal fouls tonight."

...that they called. And I was mildly surprised that anyone dared to blow a whistle.

Anonymous said...

I forgot Gilbert Gardner! I think I've repressed all Gardner-related memories. Maybe I went to the place from "Eternal Sunshine" and had them wipe everything about Gardner from my mind.

Anonymous said...

DZ:

I don't bet on football, only dog fighting.

My dad, however, took the points with his guy, Chico.

If our punk ass kicker hits a chippy we cover.

And I'm pretty sure Rodney had three or four personal fouls last night but who knows....I was blackout drunk.

Like.....Leyritz style.

See you guys next week. I'm in East Side Club Section 9 if anyone wants a Sam Winter Lager.

I will, of course, have roofied it.

Deshawn Zombie said...

Last post removed per our rules. All Pats posts must be signed in, or left with ID