My thoughts on the hit...it was an illegal pick and should have been called by the referee. As far as Belichick's words...well obviously there have been thousands of worse hits in the NFL but, and these are my thoughts not Bill's, I believe that Welker never threw a block in his entire stay with the Pats and THAT'S what Belichick was thinking of when he said it. It was a "heat-of-the-moment" thing and nobody, let alone the best head coach in the NFL, should be held accountable for that, let alone for such an extended period of time. "Nuf said!!
As for the playing of the game. Yes, Brady had one of the worst games of his career but the play selection left me totally befuddled. The Pats have had one of the best running attacks I've seen in years in the last few games. Blount is like a freight train, running straight ahead, but too slow for an attack that tries to run wide as they did at the beginning of the game. When they finally started to run straight, off tackle plays (in the 4th quarter) they did fine but it was too late. Also, Brady has only a 21% completion rate on long passes so what the heck was McDaniels thinking of when he called for three of them in the first quarter, (all incomplete, two overthrown) instead of pounding away with their new-found power running game? Talk shows knocked Danny Amendola for lack of production but he can't catch passes that are not thrown to him. critics say he dropped a pass thrown right at him and Brady lost confidence in him. I blame the play selections which are still a mystery to me.
I, and all the guys I know, expected to see some misdirection plays, screen passes and draw plays to keep Denver's defense off balance. Their was only one. (a fake reverse short pass for about 4 yards) I'd still like to see Edelman, a college quarterback and fastest man on the team, on a run-pass/option play. I'd also like to see a stop-and-go pass play to keep defensive backs from playing our receivers too close on the line and bumping them off their pass routes.
Now that I've gotten all that off my mind let's get back to the title of this column...Bill Belichick should be voted coach of the year. I don't know anyone in football who can figure out how he got the team this far after losing five all-pro players, two (maybe three) future hall-of-famers and seven other very valuable players a few of them starters. That doesn't even address the guys who played hurt like Logan Mankins, Talib and a couple more.
The answer is quite simple...a superlative head coaching job. Keeping everyone motivated every week and believing that they still can win even though the odds are against them. After having the Jets game stolen from them by the referee. (If the refs don't blow that the Pats play Denver AT HOME instead of in Denver) he still kept them up. And I won't even harp on the pass interference play in the end zone against the Panthers when the ref picked up his flag and said the pass was uncatchable. Of course it was...Gronkowski was being held from getting to it IN THE END ZONE!!. Think about how those calls changed the Pats season. And Belichick STILL got them to the AFC Championship game.
Well that's my case for Belichick being named coach of the year. Any opposition votes?...
Just to end this story, and football season on a high note...Next year's team will have all those guys (forementioned) back from the injury list. Any draft that gives us a Gronkowski is a huge success. Or how about a Vince Wilfork?? Or how about a Jerod Mayo and Sebastian Vollmer? Or how about a totally healthy, mean (and looking for revenge) Logan Mankins? And don't forget we have the college draft coming up. Things are looking up already for all Patriot's fans.....Stay tuned
Some more sports trivia questions to help sharpen your sports history knowledge
1)---Who was the Patriots very first starting quarterback ?(1960)
2)---Who was the Red Sox manager when Ted Williams played his only world series? what year?
3)---Who did Red Auerbach trade to get Bill Walton?
4)---When Bobby Orr's Bruins won their first (of two) Stanley cups they finished with a flourish
of how many consecutive wins? (It was more than four)
Answers will come by the end of the month.....keep watching this site.