YOUR New England Iceburgs

All that could be said of the Red Sox 2009 season has been said (literally… everything has been said) and it is time to shift our main focus over to football, hockey, and basketball.  Granted the football game that occurred on Sunday did nothing to help to mend the broken hearts of New Englanders everywhere following the devastating loss at Fenway, we will look ahead to next week when the 0-5 Tennessee Titans come into Foxboro.

Coming into the Week 4 matchup visiting the Denver Broncos in 30 degree temps, the main story was the Patriots coming in to face their old Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels, now Head Coach in Denver. There are also some familiar faces on the field in Denver such as LaMont Jordan, Daniel Graham, and Jabar Gaffney.

In front of a packed house of 76,011 fans, something that we have seen happen in the past on a few occassions occurred once again, the student returned triumphant against his teacher. Another story of a successful coach emerging from the ranks under Belichick and having his own success story, now 5-0 with his team in Denver. There was a great article by Seth Wickersham in ESPN Magazine (September 7 issue) that covered the “Belichick Network” and the thing that stood out most was that as of today, ”eight of his protégés are college or NFL head coaches and five are GMs”. Insane.

I don’t think anyone will ever forget seeing McDaniels pumping his fist in Tiger-like fashion when the final whistel blew on Sunday, it was tough to watch but you kinda watched like a proud parent in a way. The even funnier part was Belichick literally searching for McDaniels in the meantime.

Alllllllmost done with the McDaniels love… You DO have to notice that this team has not been able to recreate the amazing offensive abilities of the past. Is it a matter of getting Brady back to form? Is Moss under-running patterns? Or is the offensive staff really missing the abilities that McDaniels brought to this club and his ability to play the role of “bestest buddy” to Tom Brady? That is for you to decide and the Patriots to play out.

Ok, done.

We saw a lot of good things in this game and we saw some bad. Much like most games that didn’t happen in a year that rhymes with “Two-thousand heaven”.

The offense looked sharp in the first half going into halftime with a 17-7 lead. Welker was getting the ball fed to him so much his back was crumbling with each hit, coming up with 8 catches for 86 yards on the day including the first TD of the game. Gostkowski kicked a 53 yard field goal (a personal best) later in the first quarter to put the good guys up 10-0 at the end of 1.

Both teams rocked a TD in the 2Q with Brandon Marshall catching an 11 yard toss from Orton and then Tommy hit Benjamin Watson at the end of the half to cap off a 74 yard drive that put the Pats up 17-7 at halftime. Things are going great!

Then the second half.

The offense diffused over halftime and came out of the locker room apparently with blinders on. They went 0 for 6 on 3rd down in the second half and let numerous penalties that helped them out greatly prove to be useless.

Not putting up a single point in the second half, the Broncos scored on another Marshall reception and a pair of FGs from Matt Prater and went on to win the game in OT 20-17.

Tied atop the AFC East with the NYJ (of course at this time the Jets own the tie breaker but will be back in town on 11/22), the real issue on this team is the offense. Joey Galloway has been completely useless as the 3rd receiver option and his recent lack of playing time proves it. Edelman provides a solid 3rd option but two things hurt him, 1 being that he is a rookie and 2 being that he plays the exact same way Welker does but not quite as well so it still doesn’t add up.

The RB situtation is very much up in the air with the loss of Fred Taylor but I expect Sammy Morris to really breakout now as he has in past seasons when given the chance. Hopefully he doesn’t get beaten into submission like he did which shut him down on those other chances. L-Mo seemed to take my advice from last week’s podcast and finally stop his dance first-run later routine. He had a slightly better week but should be looking forward to more hand offs in the coming weeks… I will keep my jersey beside me waiting for the go-ahead to put it on!

I cannot blame the defense for this mess. They have allowed 91 points through 5 games while the offense has scored 104. The 91 points allowed by the defense ranks them 14th in the NFL and 5th in the AFC while the 104 put up by the offense ranks them tied for 14th with the Packers and 6th in the AFC.

This team is AVERAGE?!

I don’t even know if I would call them that. Most teams in the NFL have either a very good offense and a so-so defense, vice versa, or are named the Lions. This team has a points differential of +13… The highest in the NFL is the Giants with a +80. Granted the average differential in the NFL is -5.59 (-2.09 if you don’t include the Rams), I guess it’s not THAAAAAT bad. But this is New England. We have been spoiled for almost a decade and now we are staring at a team that is 3-2 with all 3 wins coming at home and both losses on the road… what the hell are they going to do when they have to play in London on 10/25? Thankfully they have a bye week after that because those kinda of trips can be killer to any team.

Luckily, this team seemed to be headed in the right direction in the first half of the game in Denver and maybe the second half was just a hiccup and we can look forward to this coming week with the Titans on their way into town.

As I said before, the Pats are 3-0 at home, the Titans are 0-5 on the season and coming off of a 31-9 thrashing AT HOME. Their losses have been @ Pittsburgh (10-13 in OT), Houston (31-34), @ NYJ (17-24), @JAX (17-37), and then the Colts.

Tennessee has a points differential of -55 having scored 84 points in 5 weeks and allowing 139. Chris Johnson has been on of the NFL’s suprise leading rushers on the season with 468 yards and 2 TDs seeing roughly 17 touches per game. He is averaging 6 yards per carry which is some serious work for a RB and this defensive line better be ready to stand tall against Johnson and fellow RB LenDale White.

Kerry Collins has been the ongoing story in this franchise. Taking over for Vince Young who seemed to be a little green when it came to readiness, he surprised many last year leading the Titans to a 13-3 season including “W”s in their first 10 games. Interestingly enough, their 3 losses last year came at the hands of the Texans, Colts, and Jets, 3 of the 5 teams that they have lost to this season. Turning 37 this year, Collins has 1,078 yards on 106 completions, 5 TDs, 7 INTs, and been sacked 6 times. Many people have speculated about his starting this week with Vince Young having taken over for him in the 4th Quarter of their game against Indy this past week but Coach Jeff Fisher is planning on sticking with Collins.

Tennessee’s receiving core is led by Kenny Britt (19 rec., 289 yards,  0 TD), Nate Washington (17 rec., 172 yards, 3 TD), and Justin Gage (15 rec., 164 yards, 1 TD). TE’s Alge Crumpler (16 rec., 127 yards, 0 TD) and Bo Scaife (12 rec., 118 yards, 0 TD) lead the way in the short hauls.

The defense of this Titans team has been the main difference between this year and last. Losing the $100M man Albert Haynesworth may have impacted this club now led by Stephen Tulloch, Keith Bulluck, Nick Harper, and Kyle Vanden Bosch. This defense has had 9 sacks, 4 INT, and 0 defensive TD.

All in all, this Patriots offense should be able to continue their resurgence in the right direction against this defense. Hopefully Brady can get Moss the ball more than once in this game and can finally dazzle us with some of those big yardage plays we all love. The Pats defense should only get better from here. With the return of Mayo and Seau, this bunch once again has leadership to add to their talent and speed and that always makes for a great combo.

I expect a big game on Sunday from the hometown boysas they play the iceburg to their Titanic before they head off to the foggy city for jolly old time with Big Ben.

Come back and check for our post Sunday morning where the 4SB staff makes their picks on the week’s Boston happenings.