It was good to see the Patriots shake off the cobwebs they had in the opening period against Buffalo. For a while there it looked like the team was sleep walking. Something woke them up and then the Bills had no answers for what is turning into a devastating offense.
Does anyone ever recall the Patriots challenging two plays in game before, much less a half or within 11 seconds of each other? The Patriots lost both challenges and two time outs. I guess if you’re going to lose time outs it’s better to lose them in the first half rather than the second half of a close game. But on the other side he was out of challeges for the rest of the game. Maybe he knew it was a matter of time before they blew Buffalo out of the building.
Here’s Bill Belichick’s take on challenging a call:
“First of all, it needs to be what you consider to be an important play in the game,” he began. “Obviously the more important the play is, the more likely I’d be to throw it, regardless of how convincing the evidence was. “And second of all, how good you feel about what evidence you have to work with. I would say the more important the play, the less certain I would be about the evidence or view of the play.”
“Sometimes,” he continued, “You’re just hoping you get a good view of it. The more sure you are of the replay, the more sure you are of the evidence that will overturn the play, then, I would say, the less important the play would need to be. I think those things, for me, work in inverse proportions.”
The Pats have thrown the red flag three times this year and have lost all the three challenges. This season there have been 47 challenges league wide and 12 have been over turned for a 25.5% sucess rate. Last season the success rate of reversals was 45.1% as 107 of 237 challenges were over turned.
Head coach Bill Belichick’s Monday press conference can be found here.
While fans and the media appear ecstatic over the Patriots roaring start to the season, the big guy doesn’t necessarily see the same things. Belichick wants to see the team stop someone in the red zone.
“We haven’t stopped anybody yet, so it starts with me,” Belichick said. “We can’t let them in the end zone every time they cross the 20-yard line. It’s just ridiculous.”
“I don’t think right now is really a good time to evaluate where any team is,” Belichick said. “We need to get better at the things that we’re not doing as well on and, if we don’t, I think it will hurt us in the long run.”
Six times prior to his year the Patriots have started 3-0. Four times they failed to make the playoffs.
As was noted in the game recap Randy Moss gave a young fan in the front row the ball after his second TD the leaping, stretching grab of the 45-yard bomb from Tom Brady.
You can read a great story about Moss giving the ball up by checking this link out. I want to say it was fantastic work by the ProJo to get the story. Nice shot by the photographer Glenn Osmundson and nice leg work by the reporter Shalise Manza Young to get the story and a interview with the family of Patriots fans from Rye, NY.
It’s safe to say Randy Moss has a few new fans for life.
