A Left Turn to a Loss
Every morning on may way into work (yes, despite popular belief I DO have a day job), I take an offramp off of the highway, like most people I assume.
But this is no ordinary offramp. It is the offramp of doom. Backed all the way up to the road where cars are flying by you at 85 MPH, this ramp is the morning test for every person who takes it and on a Monday morning, it could be enough to make you write about it at length in your blog.
Many of the vehicles using this offramp take a right to get to one of the local Industrial Parks, this is what causes the backup. While waiting in this line every day for the 5-10 minutes it takes me to get from the death defying highway breakdown lane to the location where I decide it’s time to dart in front of another car rushing to make work on time, I watch some of the most pompous people I have never met piss me off to no belief. The “Left Turn – Right Turners” or “LTRT” for short.
These LTRT people, for some reason in their brain, seem to think that they are more important than me and the other 23 cars waiting to turn. THESE PEOPLE think it’s fine with me if they fly past all these cars sitting in the “Right Turn” aisle via the “Left Turn” aisle and then take a right turn as if everyone wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t morally irresponsible. I actually consider swerving my car in front of them sometimes, maybe tomorrow…
Anyways, as I sit in this debacle this morning, stewing over the mess that was yesterday’s Pats / Jets game, I came to one conclusion. The Jets ARE Left Turn – Right Turners.
These SOBsspent the week making stupid decisions. Their coach CALLED fans to try to rally them to a NFL home opener vs. New England… seriously?! Their defenders spoke up and said they wanted to “embarrass” the Patriots. This game played itself out like my morning does from 7:50am-8:03am every single morning.
These jerks made a decision that pissed off the opposing team and its fans (the right turn cars) and in the end, they STILL GOT THE WIN (took the left lane to a right turn and got to work on time as I sit in the long line angry that I am 3 minutes late even though I am one of the first people in the office).
Ok, we will step off the metaphors for now, but know that the Jets are LTRT all the way and I expect some very mean signs on November 22nd when the Jets visit Foxboro including the term “LTRT”. THAT’LL SHOW ‘EM!
Anywho, that sham of a competition yesterday was disheartening to say the least. Another Rex Ryan defense made Boy Wonder and the Foxboro helmet-heads look extremely silly on the offensive end of the ball. Even with the absence of Wes Welker, this team has Mr. T at QB, Randy freakin’ Moss as the #1 receiver, we brought in Fred Taylor who is one of the best running backs in the history of the game… what went wrong?
Not a single touchdown the entire game Tommy, REALLY?! (This is where we break off into the SNL skit of “REALLY?! With 4 Sport Boston.com”) Really Belichick? You couldn’t figure out this Jets defense?! When Taylor starting running well, we should take the ball out of his hands and throw it? REALLY?!
Phew, that’s tougher than it looks on tv.
Everything on offense seems to be taking longer than expected to get back to normal. Even without Wes Welker, his football twin (Julian Edelman) took over his role nicely and the team should have been able to pull it out. Randy Moss made a crucial mistake on a long bomb from Brady and seemed to try to throw off his defender, Revis (who quickly became a hero in the Meadowlands within seconds of this run) off but halted too much and was 2 steps behind the bomb and Revis was right there to make the interception.
“If he went to the bathroom, I went too.” Revis stated in a Boston.com article. Moss was held to 4 catches and 24 yards, much to the dismay of his Fantasy owners.
Brady went 23 of 47 for 216 yards with ZERO touchdowns and ONE interception… GAH! When was the last time Tom Brady hit less than half of his attempts and was held to more interceptions than touchdowns (and by that I mean NO TOUCHDOWNS)?! The Pats have GOT to come up with a better plan than to make Brady throw 50 times a game or he won’t be playing 10 more years like he wants, and that means no more babies for Gisele which makes us all unhappy… I think.
The defense wasn’t stellar but I think they held their own in this game. In a game that easily calls for the Pats defense to be overlooked by the ferocity the Jets brought, they held the Jets to one touchdown and only 254 NET yards, 45 less than the Pats. They held the Jets to 3-11 on 3rd down, 2 sacks for 26 yards, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery. Not shabby for a defense whose credibility was questioned against the Buffalo Bills offense.
The main points that hurt the Patriots and are completely uncharacteristic
(besides the obvious and previously mentioned) are three things:
1. Red zone efficiency: The Patriots were 0-3 in the Red Zone.
2. Time of possession: As we all know, the main thing the Pats do is control the ball and the clock. Keeping the opposing team’s defense on the field for 2/3 of the game is usual but yesterday they split time evenly with 30:50 and the Jets controlling the ball for 29:10 (for you math majors).
3. PENALTIES: The Pats had 11 penalties for 89 yards to the Jets 8 penalties for 55 yards. Probably the most stunning of those were the back-to-back delay of game penalties. The second of which was caused by an inadvertant failure to reset the clock but still…
So, we have one game where the Patriots defense was put to the test and made look vulnerable and now the offense looks very vulnerable. I am very interested to see where Belichick and Brady go from here but with former BC Eagle Matty Ryan coming in on Sunday with the 2-0 Atlanta Falcons, they better figure it out soon or they will be sitting the right turn lane forever.
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3 Responses to “A Left Turn to a Loss”
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you should throw a stick out in front of the LTRT’s
It is very upsetting to suffer a loss to the Jets, being a division opponent, but I’d rather it happen in week 2 rather than week 11. No one makes the proper adjustments better than the Patriots after a loss and I’m confident they can get it figured out, although I am slightly fearful with Matty Ice on the back burner. I’ll remain optimistic and extremely anxious until Sunday.
Glad that I had class and couldn’t make it to this game. It would’ve been a big disappointment!