Just give the Patriots the Lombardi Trophy now

With word coming out today that Dwight Freeney is going to miss the rest of the year because of a Lisfranc injury to his left foot, we might as well just end the season now. Because no one will be able to touch the Patriots from this point on, period. Why? Because Dwight Freeney was basically the key to beating the Patriots. Here's what I wrote after the Patriots beat the Colts:

Although the Colts didn't win on Sunday, they gave us a blueprint for how to slow down the Patriots offense. The key is a consistent pass rush with minimal blitzing. The Colts, for almost three and half quarters, consistently got pressure on Brady by only rushing 4 guys and not blitzing. This allowed there to frequently be as many as 7 guys in coverage for the Colts and it allowed their safeties to play deep so as not to give up big plays. Even better, because the Colts linemen were getting such pressure on Brady, they had to bring in Faulk to help block, since he's a better blocker than Maroney. That subsequently decreased the number of receivers Brady could throw too, since Faulk had to concentrate on blocking rather than dropping into the flat, and it left the Patriots with a less good running back in the game.

The Colts ultimately lost because they basically ran out of gas in the 4th and couldn't get pressure on Brady. And when you're not getting pressure on Brady, you could have 100 guys in the secondary and he'll still complete passes. Really the only way to beat the Patriots is to get consistent pressure on Brady while not blitzing. That means Brady has to make snap decisions and throw into a secondary with as many as 7 defenders. The Colts may have been the only team in the league that had the pass rush necessary to do this with Freeney and Mathis coming around the ends. Now that Freeney's out, forget it. Mathis will get double-teamed all day. And if the Colts face Brady and the Pats again they'll be forced to blitz and they'll get crushed.

The image of Belichick lifting the Lombardi Trophy yet again is more real than ever now. I'm sure Gregg Easterbrook isn't pleased, to say the least.

-WCK

Targeting the Patriots and Simmons

We wrote this post last Friday, but because Simmons ran his "Eff-You" touchdown column yesterday, this seemed like a good post to run again. By the way, we'd like to thank all you commenters who argued that the Pats didn't run up the score in any of their games. Might want to check out that Simmons column, because even Mr. Patriot seems to disagree with you.

A few weeks ago, Bill Simmons got an interesting email from a reader. Here was the question:

"I noticed Brady threw a TD bomb to Moss in the fourth quarter with a 24-point lead on the Bills. Was he running up the score or padding his stats? You were all about criticizing these moves by Peyton Manning in 2004 when he broke the TD record, so I am just wondering if we can expect these same comments now about Brady?"

Simmons gave what is becoming his all too typical homerism response.

Manning was running up the score to break the TD record; the Pats are running up the score because it's the most effective way to wave both middle fingers at the rest of the league and prove that they didn't need to cheat to win three Super Bowls.

Simmons said that he doesn't condone running up the score, but it was enjoyable watching the Patriots do it. So in other words, he actually does condone running up the score. Which is ok, but it can come with consequences.

Because despite Simmons' ridiculously stupid rationale about the difference between Manning and Brady, it doesn't matter at all to players on the field. All they care about is when people run up the score period, whether it's to get a TD record or to give the league the finger.

Big Daddy Drew at KSK has written a few times asking defenders to take out Brady's knees. And at the rate the Pats are going, that may actually happen.

The Jets season is currently going down the toilet. They meet the Pats again in Week 15. What's to stop Mangenius from telling his players to go at Brady extra hard? It's not the same as telling them to take him out, but it's basically the same message. And what would be sweeter for the Jets than knocking out Brady just before the playoffs? When you honestly think about it, probably nothing.

And you may not even have to wait that long. The Pats play the Bills in Week 11. There really wasn't any reason for the Pats to run up the score on the Bills in Week 3. The Bills never even went after the Pats about SpyGate. If you think the Bills defenders won't be thinking about Week 3, then you're crazy.

We've also got to remember that the Pats play the Dolphins twice. Here's guessing that gets out of hand as well. Which means rematch payback.

The simple truth is this. If you keep running up the score, and you keep taking cheap shots at opposing players like Vrabel did on Sunday (I don't care what anyone says, that was an absolute cheap shot) you're going to ultimately pay for it. Even though pro football players play primarily for money, they still have some pride in them. They don't like getting shown up.

So Simmons can believe whatever the hell he wants. But if the Pats keep running up the score and pissing people off, they're ultimately going to pay a price. And it's most likely to be delivered by a division opponent that got embarrassed during the last matchup.

So if I were the Patriots, I'd watch my back. Because all it takes is one big hit to officially end your season. And you're currently creating a line of people waiting to deliver it.

-WCK

The Patriots v. Lionel Hutz

I guess in our lawsuit happy nation this was bound to happen eventually. Yesterday a Jets fan, and lawyer, filed a class-action lawsuit against the New England Patriots and coach Bill Belichick for "deceiving customers."

Needless to say I'm not exactly surprised such an insane stunt came courtesy of a Jets fan.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England's 38-14 season-opening win September 9th.

Definitely a lawsuit worthy offense if I ever heard of one. Now comes the fun part. Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.

"They were deceiving customers," said Mayer. "You can't deceive customers."

That's one rock solid argument there if you ask me. Might as well just have the Patriots write the check now. But how'd we get to such a random number? Well, Mayer and his collegue Bruce Afran, also a lawyer, concluded that because Jets customers paid $61.6 million to watch eight "fraudulent" games between the Pats and Jets since 2000, they're entitled to triple that amount - or $184.8 million - in compensation under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

Naturally the Patriots aren't talking, I assume because they're quaking in their cleats.

I should say something here about how lawyers are awful and lawsuits like this are a scourge on our fair land, but I won't. I'll just say what every non-Pats fan - and everyone who hates Simmons - is thinking: Fight on my lawsuit happy brothers. Fight to the death.

-WCK

Hunting for sideburns and Estrella

I'm aware that SPORTSbyBROOKS did this first, but we decided to take about as detailed a look as possible at this, since some people don't believe there's any way Estrella could have actually been filming the Jets from the Jets own sideline. The Estrella pic comes from South Coast Today. As you may have noticed, one of the tell tale signs of Estrella is his thin sideburns.

The haircuts definitely look real similar and the skin tone is pretty consistent. The question is the sideburns. We can't really tell if the guy in the video clip photo has those annoyingly thin sideburns. Makes me wish Estrella had a giant beard, and of course he could have shaved the sideburns. Anyway, have fun with it, and here's the original pic if you want to break it down yourself.

I'm starting to believe it was indeed Estrella on the Jets sideline in that video photo.

-WCK

The Patriots are not good at subterfuge

The web site Touchdown.org claims to have photographic evidence of the Patriots employee who videotaped the Jets defensive coaches during Sunday's game, which is shown above. There's nothing written on the site, they just present the picture as proof. If this picture is indeed true, then I've got to say the Patriots are absolute idiots. If you click on the picture, you'll notice that the circled guy is the only cameraman or photographer on the sideline who is not aiming at the field of play. He seems to be aiming directly at the Jets defensive coaches, which is just what the AP article said:

The employee was accused of aiming his camera at the Jets’ defensive coaches, who were sending signals out to the players, sources said.

Now you might say, there's no way the guy could be that obvious. But remember, NFL cameramen and photographers are required to wear red NFL vests, like the guys in the right corner are doing. The circled guy has no red vest on - I presume because he's the Pats employee and therefore wouldn't be required to wear a red blazer.

I expected this guy to be like a Nam vet using a camcorder and be under a camo grass tarp. Not lugging a huge camera less than 30 feet from the coaches he was not so secretly taping. The guy might as well have had a sign around his neck that said "Suck it Jets, I'm videotaping you assholes."

Man, Belichick is getting sloppy.

-WCK