Two fourth quarter interceptions by Patriots QB Tom Brady helped pave the way toward a 22-21 loss to the Dolphins.
Ron Borges of the Boston Globe Herald believes years of bad personnel moves have left the Patriots without enough talent.
Patriots WR Sam Aiken made a nifty catch that turned into an 81-yard touchdown, but he was also flagged for offensive pass interference to negate a fourth-down conversion.
A non-existent Patriots pass rush left their cornerbacks exposed on several key Dolphins drives.
Said Patriots WR Wes Welker, “To have the
opportunities we had and not finish is pretty disappointing. We all
need to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure things out. We need
to make sure we’re doing our jobs the way they need to be done.”
Said Dolphins QB Chad Henne after completing 29 of 52 passes for 335 yards, “If you want to, we can throw all day. I love it. Put
it in my hands. Put the pressure situations upon me. I really thrive on
that.”
Dolphins CB Vontae Davis predicted the Patriots would throw a fade to WR Randy Moss near the goal line and then intercepted Brady when that’s what they did.
Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald writes that Dolphins coach Tony Sparano’s faith in perceived weaknesses paid off on Sunday.
Dolphins WR Davone Bess had 10 catches for 117 yards, both career highs, and a
touchdown.
The Dolphins replaced LB Jason Taylor with Cameron Wake on the final Patriots drive, and Wake’s pressure led to the game-clinching interception by LB Channing Crowder.
Ron Borges of The Boston Globe said: “Five years ago, the Patriots draft garnered two starters, both on the first round. Not another player drafted in April of 2004 is still in uniform. That fallowness continued in 2005 when they again picked only two current starters. In 2006, they got only one, running back Laurence Maroney [stats], plus kicker Stephen Gostkowski. Then came the disaster of 2007, when only first-round pick Brandon Meriweather was good enough to still be in pro football.
It is a bit early to know about 2008 but other than linebacker Jerod Mayo it again appears to be a sad lot. Second- and third-round picks Terrence Wheatley and Shawn Crable seldom see the field (Crable never has) and it is becoming increasingly more disastrous that cornerback Jonathan Wilhite sees so much of it. In those five years, the Patriots drafted 41 players and got eight starters, six on the first round. Otherwise they got what Bill Belichick kept saying was “value.” Yesterday, it didn’t look that way.
Free agency has produced similarly skimpy results. Early hits were made on Rodney Harrison [stats] and Mike Vrabel, but after that the cupboard has been bare. They paid $30 million to Adalius Thomas and promised he could cover Ocho Cinco and sack Peyton Manning. He’s done neither. Shawn Springs signed a three-year, $10.5 million deal last spring and hasn’t played a snap in a month, while poor Wilhite struggles out of position because he’s a nickel back asked to play corner and rookie Darius Butler goes out and proves that while he has potential he never saw receivers at UConn like the ones catching balls behind and in front of him now, as Greg Camarillo did on fourth-and-6 on the game’s most critical play yesterday.”
Where are all you Belichick ball washers now? Sending hate mail to Ron Borges I presume? LOL.
Just wait until you blow the Seymour 1st round pick next year…
Non existent pass rush, and piss poor, unimaginative play calling on offense. Combine that with a Dolphin team that always plays the Pats tough at home, regardless of where each team is in the standings, and you’ve got yesterdays result. One team had a whole lot more heart than the other. Should be an interesting finish. Or not.
Ron Borges works for the Boston Herald now. He was fired from the Boston Globe years ago for plagiarism.
Borges is a Belichick hater, but he makes good points in that Belichick can only coach what he has, and what he has – with some notable exceptions – isn’t good enough.
Who knows? If the Patriots level off for a couple of years, maybe their coaches and scouts won’t be raided with as much zeal and frequency as they have been. There might be some consistency for a change.
Hey Asswipe (pronounced Ass-Wipe);
This is an article from plagiarizer extraordinaire Ron Borges. I have more football knowledge in my left testicle than this hack.
And you can see the future as to what this 1st round pick will be??
If you think Borges is objective, you’re screen name is appropiate.
To Asswipe Johnson (Pronounced Az-Wee-Pay) :
“Just wait until you blow the Seymour 1st round pick next year…”
Actually the pick for Seymour is in 2011. They have a whole ‘nother year to waste that pick. lol
That Aiken TD was total BS. He pushed the DB’s shoulders down and reached over him to grab the ball. If that isn’t PI, then I don’t know what is.
norm690 says:
“Hey Asswipe (pronounced Ass-Wipe);
This is an article from plagiarizer extraordinaire Ron Borges. I have more football knowledge in my left testicle than this hack.
And you can see the future as to what this 1st round pick will be??
If you think Borges is objective, you’re screen name is appropiate.”
Well norm690, then it should be very easy for you to point out the missing Patriots players from the five year time period Borges submitted.
Oh you can’t? Well then it appears Borges submission is completely accurate…no matter what his past history may be.
Borges forgot one thing: the Patriots were also successful because they stole defensive signal calls from other teams. You now see what the Patriots are when they’re on equal footing with everyone else. In other words, they are who we thought they were.
DolFan Dan says:
To Asswipe Johnson (Pronounced Az-Wee-Pay) :
“Just wait until you blow the Seymour 1st round pick next year…”
Actually the pick for Seymour is in 2011. They have a whole ‘nother year to waste that pick. lol”
LOL. Nice DolFan Dan. Then Belichick managed to get nothing in return (Seymour) for a couple years while he watches his Brady-Moss-Welker time period slipping away.
Oh well anyway by next year Miami will be very close to completely set and ready to make their Super Bowl run. The Phins are only an impact WR (Boldin-VJackson?) and impact defensive player (Dockett, Dansby, Seymour, Peppers?) away from dominating the AFC East. One guy from each of those lists would do it…
To Asswipe,
“Oh well anyway by next year Miami will be very close to completely set and ready to make their Super Bowl run.”
You pretty much lost all credibility with that statement, buddy.
who dat?!?
It’s hard to be an elite*** QB when you aren’t given the opposing teams’ defensive plays.
AWESOME game by Henne, and major props to the OC Dan Henning for finally cutting this QB LOOSE! Excellent use of Ted “Please Don’t Throw it to Me Across the Middle” Ginn, and the D picked an outstanding game to decide to finish.
Bess is a quiet beast, and it’s nice to see that the coaching staff is finally starting to pick up on the potential of Brian Hartline.
Go Fins!! If only we had beat the Bills…
Now we just need NE to stumble one more time.
Here’s to a second consecutive season where the suspense lasts down to the wire!!
@ norm690:
Actually, your blatant lack of knowledge of how a championship team is built destroys your credibility. Since your apparent team has to use HGH and video cameras to dig their way out of the 30 year basement they built, I can understand how you would have absolutely no clue how real teams build a winner, so it’s ok. Keep spreading your brainless hate, we don’t care…CAUSE WE WON!
I see we have some Jets-like class in some of our NE fans out there…
I am surprised to read that first post by ass-wipe… Even though Borges is not liked by the Patriot fans, I think the information in that post/article is statistically accurate – but that opens my eyes a bit. I had always thought the Patriots had the best scouting & talent evaluators in the business. Perhaps these last few years have pilfered enough talent from the Patriots FO that they’re no longer invincible.
I won’t say they suck, because clearly they don’t – but I think we can say that their reign of dominance over the AFCE is finally over. They used to be a team stacked with talent that wasn’t necessarily top of the league, but all worked well together. Routinely they would find gems late in the draft that would work in a system where you could insert anyone and get the job done. Now it seems that players like Brady, Welker, and Moss are forced to pick up the slack for other areas.
I’d say the Patriots defense needs a lot of attention. I’m surprised our (basically) rookie QB and crop of undrafted WR’s (and Ted Ginn, but does he count?) were able to gash the Patriots for that many yards. I’m just as surprised as the Patriots defense, honestly. Looks like losing Pioli will hurt even more….. suddenly the playing field in the AFCE just evened out a little more.
texasPHINSfan says:
“I am surprised to read that first post by ass-wipe… Even though Borges is not liked by the Patriot fans, I think the information in that post/article is statistically accurate – but that opens my eyes a bit. I had always thought the Patriots had the best scouting & talent evaluators in the business.”
Nope, not even close. Bill Parcells and Kevin Colbert (Steelers) have been the best talent evaluators in the NFL during the last decade.
In fact if you look at New England’s first two Super Bowl winning teams (’01-’03)…the best of those teams are dominated by Parcells drafted players in Pro Bowlers like McGinest, Bruschi, Law, Brown, Vinatieri. Where these players were key in shutting down the greatest show on turf (17 points) and Peyton’s Colts (3 points) in the playoffs as their key victories.
Lets say the reporter is bias against Bill, Its hard to argue with what he says. I’m sure even Pat fans who hate the guy would like to have seen better production from those drafts. I hate fans who are too critical of their team and show no support but you can be a fan and still be objective. The guy made some hell of a good points. I had no idea the pats didn’t have more contributions from their drafts.
Even if Borges brings up a good point here or there, everything he writes about the Patriots is so overshadowed by his unprofessional, personal-agenda-driven antipathy towards Bill Belichick that he simply cannot be considered a credible source for unbiased, reliable information.
If this was Mike Reiss writing this, I’d say take it to the bank.
Gonna try this again since PFT censored my first try:
Just for the record, Ron Borges:
1.) stated Adalius Thomas was the # 1 free agent on the market when the Pats signed him.
“Best values
1. Adalius Thomas, LB: He wants a $18 million signing bonus and will probably get it, likely from the 49ers. Wherever he goes, the 270-pound Thomas appears headed toward making an impact.”"
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/17392462/page/2/
Borges also:
2.) Claimed Bill Belichick would be leaving New England to go to Houston following the 2006 season
3.) Predicted with a straight face that the Patriots would lose to the Rams 73-0 in Super Bowl 36 (google it)
4.) Claimed he would have stolen Bill Belichick’s lunch money had he gone to school with Belichick..no…seriously
5.) in (arguably) his most despicable tactic to date, used the death of Steve Belichick (Bill’s father) to discredit the “Belichick is a genious” theory.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/10187749/
Reprehensible, no?