The Result Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I’ve just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story.  The San Diego Chargers came out firing from the very first play which was a 48 yard pass completion right through out the game as they routed the New England Patriots 30-10 Sunday Night at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, CA. It was if San Diego said we’re gonna straight-up murder your ass and they did it.  It was a straight shot.  Right to the baby maker. The Chargers were just dominant all night in all three phases of the game and were clearly the better team. Offensive San Diego just took it to New England they had pass completions of 48 yards, 10 yards, 14 yards, 49 yards (TD to Malcom Floyd), 14 yards, 18 yards, 59 yards and a 32 yard pass interference penalty that gave them 1^st and goal at the Patriots 1. Plus shorter TD catches of 4 yards to Vincent Jackson and 1 yard to Antonio Gates.  Nate Kaeding also had 3 field goals of 25, 35 and 23 yards.  It escalated quickly and got outta hand really fast and before you knew it the game was out of reach. Defensively the Chargers played very aggressively getting after Matt Cassel with blitzes which forced him to hurry or resulted in sacks. They also forced Cassel into fumbling once which New England recovered and one bad interception in deep in his own territory that led to a Chargers field goal. On special teams New England was only average not generating good kick off returns and giving up too many yards on punt returns to Darren Sproles and then adding to one return with a 15 yard face masking penalty. Maybe the Patriots were distracted by the Charger Girls pointing to their boobies.  Anyway, In the end the Chargers were the ones who went to Pleasure Town. Scoring Plays

1^st Quarter

• SD – Kaeding 25 yard FG
• SD – Rivers 49 yard pass to Floyd – Kaeding PAT

2^nd Quarter

• NE – Gostkowski 47 yard FG
• SD – RIvers 4 yard pass to Jackson – Kaeding PAT

3^rd Quarter

• SD – Rivers 1 yard pass to Gates – Kaeding PAT
• SD – Kaeding 35 yard FG

4^th Quarter

• SD – Kaeding 23 yard FG
• NE – Morris 2 yard run – Gostkowski PAT

Offensive Player of the Game Chargers QB Philip Rivers was 18 for 27 for 306 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs Defensive Player of the Game Patriots CB Deltha O’Neal who was burned for pass plays of 48, 49 (TD) and 18 yards as well as an illegal contact penalty that gave San Diego another first down. (/sarcasm) Turning Point(s) of the Game There were several key plays but the biggest was the series that saw San Diego stop New England on 4 tries at the end zone from the one yard line and then went 98 yards the other way and scored and turned what could have been a one possesion game into a blow out. Continue reading →

The New England Patriots have released their inactives for tonights game against the San Diego Chargers and both RB Laurence Maroney and RB LaMont Jordan are out with injuries and will not dress.

The Patriots are back in San Diego for the first time since they crushed the Chargers playoff hopes in the 2006 playoffs with a late come from behind win in the AFC Divisional Playoff game.  It will forever be remembered for Troy Brown stripping the ball after an interception that would have pretty much sealed the game for the Bolts.  But in the end Tom Brady & Co. stuck it to them, a few guys mimicked steriod tester Shawne Merriman’s “Light’s Out Dance” on the lightning bolt at centerfield and we got to hear LaDainian Tomlinson whine and cry.  By the way what’s sweeter for Patriots fans?  The Peyton Manning face or  Tomlinson sitting on the bench watching instead of playing?

Kick off is at 8:15 p.m. on NBC for the nationally televised game and in case you missed it don’t forget to check out the official Sox & Dawgs Week 6 Patriots-Chargers game preview.  It has everything you need to prepare for the game including the rosters for both teams, the line on the game, series history, news and notes and the radio and tv broadcast information for the matchup.

Patriots RB Laurence Maroney has “issues” but he isn’t saying what they are.

The Oakland Raiders got a warning letter from the NFL regarding Crazy Al’s charges of the Patriots tampering with Randy Moss.

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels spoke to media this week.

New England could be thin in the backfield on Sunday night with LaMont Jordan listed as doubtful with a calf injury and Maroney listed as questionable with a shoulder injury. So with that in mind the Patriots promoted rookie RB BenJarvus Green-Ellis from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. To make room for him they released WR Maurice Price.

Patriots S Rodney Harrison and Tampa Bay Rays OF/DH Cliff Floyd were friends growing up in Chicago.

Getting to know…Rookie LB Gary Guyton, who signed as a rookie free agent and improves each and everyday.

San Diego Chargers RB LaDainian Tomlinson says he doesn’t think the Patriots are a rivalry team for the Chargers because San Diego hasn’t beaten them in a while. Make sure you read some of the comments from the Chargers fans. It seems Tomlinson is wearing on them.

It took until Wednesday to do it but the Chargers sold enough tickets to lift to local blackout of the game. You’d think with all the success and the great players they have selling out, especially against New England, wouldn’t be an issue.

When it comes down to it the San Diego offense just isn’t on the field enough.

San Diego based Pony Footwear will be passing out posters Sunday at Qualcomm Stadium to tailgating Chargers fans…of Patriots WR Randy Moss.

This Week

The New England Patriots visit the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego CA on Sunday at 8:15 p .m.

The Patriots are 2-0 at the road and 2-1 against the AFC. The Chargers are 1-1 at home and 2-2 against the AFC.

Here are the rosters for the Patriots and the Chargers.

Here are the projected starting lineups for the game.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo! Sports is Patriots +5. The over/under is 44.5.

My prediction is Chargers 24, Patriots, 20. Take the points and take the under. I am 1-3 against the spread and 2 for 4 on calling the over/under in 2008.

Tickets

Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased several ways. You can check the availability here.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game at Qualcomm make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from The Weather Channel.

Click for stadium directions and parking information, public transportation information, stadium policies and code of conduct, fan guide and a Qualcomm Stadium seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages. With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks. You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or by theme.

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or someone’s house moderation is always the key to a great time. Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver. Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

NBC is televising the game to the entire country as the Sunday Night Football Game and Al Michaels will do the play-by-play while John Madden will handle the game analysis. You can look for your local NBC Station.

Being a nationally broadcast OTA game, there is no Direct TV Feed.

For those of you overseas here is some general information on NFL Broadcasts for the 2008 season.

Patriots All-Access airs tonight at 7 p.m. on WCVB TV 5 in Boston. It will also be simulcast on the team website at the same time. Make sure you check out the Patriots Football Network for information on when you can see Patriots All-Access in your market.

Radio

The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.

It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresh and the pregame show at 5 p.m. along the network.

The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.

If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots Rock Radio Network call is available on Channel 126, the Chargers Radio Network has Josh Lewin calling the game while Hank Bauer provides the game analysis and Jim Laslavic patrols the sideline. Their call is available on Channel 127.

The game will also be heard nationally along the Westwood One Radio Network with Dave Simms on play-by-play and Jim Fassel providing analysis.

Continue reading →

According to a NFL source New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had the surgery performed on his injured left knee Monday at the Kerland-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. They are reporting the procedure went well.

The surgery was 29 days after Brady was injured in the Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs and repaired the ACL and the MCL.

He is expected to be ready by training camp next season.

With back-to-back west coast games the Patriots are staying the week in California, practicing all week at San Jose State University until they travel to San Diego on Saturday. Belichick said the staff and players will treat it like a regular week as if they were at home. It is the first time other than a Super Bowl Week that the team under Belichick has stayed on the road for an entire week. In fact Tedy Bruschi remarked this was the first time he has been away from his family for more than four days. 

We start where we always do with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick’s Patriots Monday chat on WEEI.

Reiss’ Pieces has the “Bits from Belichick” after a Week 5 win on the road.

The Herald’s Karen Guregian has Randy Moss and Matt Cassel getting together during the week to help improve the offense.

Some media and fans have been wondering if Moss would check out this season without Tom Brady but when you get him involved like they did Sunday and he is on the field for 78 of the 81 offensive plays it just isn’t going to happen.

The media claims the NFL is a copycat league, meaning if one team does something that’s successful, others will follow. Now they’re all over the Dolphins and the single wing offense with the direct snap to Ronnie Brown and how teams are going to copy it. They even went as far as to say the Patriots took some of it this week against the Niners but they just weren’t paying attention when it comes to who is copying who.

John Tomase of the Herald has the Week 5 Ups and Downs.

Are you wondering what I am wondering? Will the Chargers be able to keep their mouths shut the whole week?

Don’t forget to look for the official Sox & Dawgs Week 6 Patriots-Chargers game preview on Friday morning at your local computer.

After a great start by the Buffalo Bills the Patriots find themselves 0.5 games out of first in the AFC East heading into Week 6 and with a win in San Diego Sunday night will be tied for first place with Buffalo.

• Buffalo 4-1
• New England 3-1
• New York 2-2
• Miami 2-2

AFC East Week 6 games are:

• Patriots visit the Chargers
• Dolphins travel to play the Texans
• Bills have the bye week
• Jets entertain the Bengals

The Result
Last year I told you in the second week that the team was something special.  This year the team is going to be harder to pin down on exactly who and what they are.  Basically in a nutshell they won a game on the road they should have won, which is a good thing.  Big picture wise I still can’t make any type of declaration on this squad.  Some weeks they do certain things well and other things not so well, the next week things they did well they don’t do well and they improve on their weaknesses.

Two weeks ago they were awful on both sides of the ball.  This week there was improvement but this isn’t the Tom Brady Patriots that’s for sure.  They gave up a slew of sacks, five in all, some you can pin on the offensive line, some you can pin on Matt Cassel’s inexperience.  At times they ran the ball well, most of the game they seemed to do well in the passing game, that is when Cassel wasn’t on his back or running for his life.  On defense their pass coverage was porous at best as twice Isaac Bruce had TD’s with little or no opposing coverage.  They also gave up wide open pass plays out over the middle of the field much like they did against Miami only not to that extent.  But yet they picked off J.T. O’Sullivan three times but sacked him only once and this was against a team that had yielded 19 sacks in the first four weeks.

Special teams didn’t have their best performance especially in the punting department.  I’d really like to see a different punter as they just fail to execute when they need to.

But don’t get me wrong it wasn’t all gloom and doom and it shouldn’t be as Cassel did open up a bit throwing a long 66-yard TD pass to Randy Moss and tried to go long another time to Moss but got picked when  he underthrew the ball.  Wes Welker as well as Kevin Faulk and Sammy Morris all had good games as well and you can even throw Jabar Gaffney in that category.

They also dominated the time of possession just shy of 2:1 by having the ball a whopping 39:52 of the 60:00 minutes.  They had more than twice as many first downs (25 to 12) and nearly twice as many total yards (377 to 199).

I saw some good things today and now they need to build on that, also a win is a win so they’re 3-1 and off to San Diego to face the Chargers next Sunday.

Scoring Plays

1^st Quarter

• SF – O’Sullivan 15 yard TD pass to Gore – Nedney PAT
• NE – Cassel 66 yard TD pass to Moss – Gostkowski PAT
• SF – O’Sullivan 7 yard TD pass to Bruce – Nedney PAT

2^nd Quarter

• NE – Gostkowski 35 yard FG
• NE – Faulk 2 yard run – Gostkowski PAT

3^rd Quarter

• NE – Faulk 2 yard run – Gostkowski PAT

4^th Quarter

• NE – Gostkowski 40 yard FG
• SF – O’Sullivan 5 yard TD pass to Bruce – Nedney PAT
• NE – Gostkowski 49 yard FG

Offensive Player of the Game

New England WR Randy Moss had 5 catches for 111 yards and 1 TD.

Defensive Player of the Game

San Francisco LB Patrick Willis had 18 tackles (14 of them solo) and 1 sack.

Turning Point(s) of the Game

1. Bill Belichick challenging the spot of the ball for a better measurement that resulted in a first down late in the game instead of 3rd and inches.
2. Matt Cassel throws to Jabar Gaffney for 14 yards on 3rd and 20 to get Stephen Gostkowski in range for 49 yard FGA.
3. Deltha O’Neal’s interception in final minutes off of Rodney Harrison deflection of a J.T. O’Sullivan pass.

Continue reading →

With kickoff only being a short time away it’s time to get ready for some football for another week.  I am so glad the team had an early bye this year as I’d rather miss a game while baseball is still going on than late in the season like last year and end up lost with nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon like you do in February and March.

In case you missed it here is the official Sox & Dawgs Week 5 Patriots-49ers Game Preview.  It has all your game information, including the rosters for both teams, injury report, odds, a look at the past history between the clubs and all the broadcast information for radio and television.

New England WR Randy Moss met with the media on Wednesday in front of his locker.  It’s not something Moss has done a lot of in his time in Foxboro so when he does speak he draws a crowd.  He touched on being a team captain, going back to the Bay Area, Matt Cassel and was even asked what he thought of Al Davis’ comments about the Patriots tampering with him. 

Did you know the Patriots are 8-0 since 2003 after suffering a loss of 10 points or more?

And that in the same period they have only lost back-to-back games once and that was in Week 9 and Week 10 of the 2006 season when they lost consecutive home games to Indianpolis and the New York Jets.

The Patriots are undefeated in their last nine road games dating back to the 2006 AFC Championship Game loss to Indianapolis.  They are 12-1 on the road (including playoffs) since their last regular season road loss to Miami in Week 14 of 2006.

WR Wes Welker practiced Friday before the team left for San Francisco after being limited on Thursday with a groin injury.

Continue reading →

This Week

The New England Patriots visit the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park in San Fransisco CA on Sunday at 4:15 p .m.

The Patriots are 1-0 at the road and 0-0 against the NFC.   The Niners are 1-1 at home and 0-0 against the AFC.

Here are the rosters for the Patriots and the 49ers.

Here are the projected starting lineups for the game.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo! Sports is Patriots -3. The over/under is 41.

My prediction is Patriots 24, 49ers, 17.  Give the points and take the over.  I am 0-3 against the spread and 1-2 on calling the over/under in 2008.

Tickets

Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased several ways. You can check the availability here.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game at The ‘Stick make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from The Weather Channel.

Click for stadium directions and parking information, public transportation information, stadium policies and code of conduct and a Candlestick Park seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages. With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks. You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or by theme.

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or someone’s house moderation is always the key to a great time. Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver. Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Television

CBS is televising the game regionally and Dick Enberg will do the play-by-play while Randy Cross and Dan Fouts will handle the game analysis. You can see if you are getting the game and look for your local CBS Station.

Direct TV NFL Sunday Ticket has the game on Channel 714.

For those of you overseas here is some general information on NFL Broadcasts for the 2008 season.

Patriots All-Access airs tonight at 7 p.m. on WCVB TV 5 in Boston. It will also be simulcast on the team website at the same time. Make sure you check out the Patriots Football Network for information on when you can see Patriots All-Access in your market.

Radio

The Patriots Rock Radio Network broadcasts the game from flagship station WBCN-FM 104.1 in Boston. Gil Santos handles the play-by-play and former Patriot Gino Cappelletti does the color.

It all starts with Gary Tanguay, Scott Zolak and Andy Gresh and the pregame show at 1 p.m. along the network.

The post game starts after the final gun and continues for three hours.

If you are outside of the broadcast area of the stations on the Patriots Rock Radio Network you can purchase NFL Field Pass which allows you to listen to any NFL game live. You can also pick which teams broadcasters you want to listen to.

All NFL games are also available on Sirius Satellite Radio. The Patriots Rock Radio Network call is available on Channel 125, the 49ers Radio Network has Joe Starkey calling the game while former Niners linebacker Gary Plummer provides the analysis and Rod Brooks patrols the sideline. Their call is available on Channel 127.

The game will also air nationally on Sports USA Radio with Howard David and Gary Barnett calling the game and Troy West providing sideline updates.

Continue reading →