“It smells like…victory.”
Early on it wasn’t pretty, but at the end of the day, Brady’s home debut ended how we thought it would: with a W. Staying in the AFC North on a road date with the Big Ben less Steelers this weekend, let’s throwback to the fallout after last season before we get into this weeks’ links.
I don’t know about you, but the thought of Mike Tomlin on the sideline hemorrhaging while Gronk is spiking a touchdown and ‘Zo is screaming with whatever voice he has left God knows what in his ear will absolutely never get old. For a “no-nonsense” team that prides themselves on not making excuses, all Pittsburgh seems to do is just that. Last season, it was league prepped headphones that cost them the game. This season? Well, Pittsburgh’s defensive coordinator Keith Butler has built in reasoning for the imminent embarrassment his unit very well could put forth tomorrow. In Kevin Duffy’s (Masslive) piece, the coach was quoted as saying:
“I don’t think they’re doing anything special. I think they do things outside the box sometimes, you know, that might be on the edge of being legal or not legal. They’ve done a couple of things in the past — putting an offensive tackle out as ineligible but he’s not really. Sometimes the emphasis by the NFL in terms of what they call and what they don’t call, (the Patriots) use that a little bit. They’ve been accused of doing a lot of things. But the thing we’ve got to do is ignore that and play.”
One, Kevin Duffy is a rising star in the local media. He’s had a handful of really impressive columns in this young season and should only get better as the year progresses. Two, the eligibility plays were perfectly 100% legal. No edge, no pushing any lines. And three, are you going to ignore it like you said, or bring it to the media and make a story out of it? No excuses, right?
Chris Price (WEEI) gave a quick preview of the matchup this week with his “5 Things to Know” column where he highlighted Pitt’s best playmakers Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, and, in my opinion the best in the game at their respective positions.
In six games, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Brown has 41 catches (tied for second in the league) on 64 targets for 486 yards (11th in the league) and five touchdowns (tied for best in the NFL). The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Bell, the fastest player in league history to reach 3,000 yards rushing and 1,500 yards receiving, is a multidimensional threat who can beat you on the ground or in the air. In just three games, he has 48 carries for 263 yards an an impressive 5.5 yards per carry average, and is second on the team in catches with 20 receptions on 24 targets for 177 yards.
It just doesn’t get any better than these two. No matter who’s tossing it or handing it off, whenever one of these guys touches the rock, they’re a threat to take it to the house. Malcolm Butler is going to have his hands full on with AB, and I could see (hopefully?) Jamie Collins returning from injury and getting a good dose of the work on Bell. Either way, keep your eye on numbers 84 and 26 when the Steelers have possession.
Let’s take a further peek into the host’s locker this week, where now starting QB Landry Jones had a message for his team.
“Don’t panic.”
Panic: a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behavior, and that often spreads quickly through a group of persons or animals.
Maybe it’s just me, but when someone says not to panic, typically the situation is pretty dire. I don’t know much about Landry Jones, but I feel at least incrementally better that the best he could scrounge up was telling his teammates not to panic.
Moving onto the Pats, Tom Brady is under scrutiny again. This time for not commenting on his political preferences when asked about Donald Trump and his sexist rhetoric. Really? Brady has zero obligation to give an answer on who he’s voting for and certainly can’t control what comes out of his golf buddy’s mouth. He has every right to keep two separate and focus on what he’s paid to do: win games. Do you care who President Obama has in his “Final Four”? Neither do I. Find something else to stomp your feet about.
Devin McCourty has had another solid season for the Pats’ D, and Mike Reiss (ESPN) had a very cool piece highlighting some of McCourty’s impact that doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet: his football acumen/IQ. McCourty, a Belichick favorite, drew some kind words from the coach following an adjustment he recommended during the Cincinnati game last Sunday:
“Some of the comments and observations that he made affected some of the things we were thinking about doing. I think, as usual, he was right on the money with his observations, especially when you go back and take a look at the film a little more closely. You see what he saw. Then a couple of the things we tried to do after that, he was very helpful in kind of recognizing that and helping us steer some of those things in the right direction.”
Things like this are what makes Devin one of the most reliable/productive safeties in the league, and one of the best players on the Patriots defense. I’m happy he’s not going anywhere for a very long time.
Last but not least, the biggest, ugliest, most damning story of the week: New York Giant kicker Josh Brown, owner John Mara, and the NFL. Mara, one of the owners with a pitchfork outside of the Brady household during Deflategate, admitted he knew about Brown’s serial acts of domestic violence (including having been separated from her during the Pro Bowl) before dishing out a couple million to him this season to hit field goals. It was also leaked the NFL (read: Roger Goodell) had all the information as well, which apparently was enough for Brown to be suspended all of one whole football game. My goodness. Talk about no semblance of a moral compass. Here’s a piece from NY Daily News writer Jack Becker, who was able to gather some insight from Giants CB Eli Apple’s mom, Annie Apple, a survivor of domestic abuse. Apple writes on her twitter account:
“As a domestic violence survivor, reading these Mara comments makes me sad, angry and completely baffled. He just doesn’t get it. This is sad.”
It is sad. Sad that Mara turned a blind eye. Sad that the NFL pretends to care even the slightest bit about DV. But mostly, it’s sad for Josh’s Ex-wife, Molly (had to look up her name) who’s just another pawn in the long list of them, getting run over by the machine that is the National Football League.