And then there were 4. After an impressive performance by Matty Ice and the Falcons, an ugly but decisive win for our Pats, a brilliant outing for Rodgers and the Pack, and a road W in a hostile environment for the Steelers, the semi-final participants have been set. But before we get into Sunday Night’s showdown, let’s rewind to last Saturday and some (as expected) anti-Patriots ‘rhetoric’. Phil Perry (CSN) breaks down the nights of Earl Thomas and Ray Lewis on social media during Pats vs. Texans. For example, this is straight from the twitter account of the aforementioned Thomas:
Earl Thomas ✔@Earl_Thomas:
“Tom Brady has the easiest route… put his ass in our division and see what he does!!! #salty!!”Earl Thomas ✔@Earl_Thomas
“Did you watch the game this year I owned Tom Brady!! That BS you showing I was hurt trying to help my team.”
Just more fuel to the fire. As you’d expect, when asked, Brady said he loved Earl and wished him well in recovery. Straight class, through and through. Brady is too focused and too determined to comment on Earl Thomas’ temper tantrums after two beers and a Percocet. I honestly thought he was retired.
We’ve all seen Pittsburgh star wide out Antonio Brown’s Facebook live video of the locker room after their win at KC. Not all of us have read Jerry Thornton’s (Barstool) run down of it on his piece earlier this week:
I did radio yesterday morning with two different Patriots beat writers, both of whom said the Pats locker room was like a wake after they won a playoff game by 18 points. They were serious, businesslike, and determined to clean up their mistakes and play better next week. The Steelers can’t get in the end zone, barely squeak by Kansas City and their wideout is posting 15 minutes of “That’s it! Uh-huh!” and mugging into his phone.I mean, imagine for one hot second Chris Hogan posting a video of Belichick calling his next opponent assholes, whining about the schedule and saying they’ll be ready for their ass?
I certainly can’t. I know Roethlisberger took offense to Edelman’s “that’s just how they do things there” comment, but is it not? By the way, is it just me or does every time Mike Tomlin opens his mouth some sort of excuse just happens to dribble out? I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again: for a “no-nonsense, hard-nosed” coach, I’d expect him to worry more about what happens on the field, and not the schedule, or (NFL issued…) headphones.
Let’s move onto some good news. Josh McDaniels removed himself from San Francisco’s coaching consideration, meaning that both he and his counterpart on the other side of the ball, Matt Patricia, will return as coordinators under Belichick next year. Tom Curran (CSN) writes:
Between McDaniels, Caserio and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, the people closest to Belichick on the coaching flow chart all had chances to go somewhere else and all passed on the chance. It’s another example of not why the Patriots are good but why they remain good. Stability.
Same coaching staff. Same QB. Same story. Don’t be “that guy” that picks the Dolphins to win the AFC East next year.
Speaking of Belichick, Chad Finn (Boston globe) wrote about how he’s now indisputably the greatest head football coach of all time. Not sure where Chad has been, but hey, better late than never.
When he turned 9, his father began taking him on an annual scouting trip, and he learned to break down game film while he was still in grade school. Says former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison: “This is how I describe Coach Belichick — he’s the smartest kid in the classroom, and he outworks everybody.”
Biggest mismatch on Sunday isn’t even between the lines. It’s on the sidelines, where Willy boy will be looking to have the aforementioned Tomlin’s brain in a pretzel by halftime. There will be a lot of star power on the field tomorrow night, and BB has his work cut out for him as he game plans. Bell, Brown, Ben. That offense doesn’t have many weaknesses-if any. They’re playing at a far higher level than earlier in the year defensively as well. Time for Bill to draw up a classic…
Lastly, let’s talk about old friend Rog, who, to the surprise of no one on the planet, is avoiding Foxboro again this weekend. Dan Wetzel (Yahoo Sports), whose coverage of Deflategate was by the best nationally, roasted Goodell on a spit and rendered him a coward in his column this week:
So Goodell simply invented – or ignored – Brady’s testimony in order to find guilt. He claimed Brady said the opposite of what Brady actually said only to get busted when a document he never thought would become public did, indeed, become public. Because this occurred more than six months after deflate-gate began it received a fraction of the initial attention and is rarely cited to this day. It remains the single most galling NFL action in the case … the champion of many strong contenders. It might also explain why Roger Goodell no longer appears confident enough to show up in Foxborough.
I’m not going to go on and on about Deflategate, that’s obviously over and done with. But Pats fans should feel totally, 100% vindicated. Big one this weekend, Tommy Boy. Let’s go get it.
Bonus links:
- Kevin Duffy (MassLive) with another winner about what makes O-line coach Dante Scarnecchia so great. Scar deserves everything that’s been written about him this season and more. With all due respect to Bennett, Hogan, etc. he was the biggest offseason acquisition.
- Tim Layden (Sports Illustrated) writes an excellent column on Brady’s connection with his receivers, with examples from current guys like Hogan and Edelman, but also past teammates of #12 including Donte’ Stallworth and Michigan teammate David Terrell.
