Sports Manic Monday
It has been quite the snowy December here in the Northeast US. Last year, we went into January before seeing any snow, but this year gave us snow early in December, which, even more surprisingly, has stuck around. And given the two solid snowstorms we've had over the past few days, there is over a foot of snow on the ground and with the temps in the 20s, it is frozen solid.
Which made for a very interesting New England Patriots game. As expected, the nor'easter made for a great equalizer, neutralizing the Pats passing attack. Also, Brady seemed to force things, trying to hit Moss for the big play when there were plenty of options underneath. At least one commentator talked about that prior to the game - even an offense as effective as the Patriots can't sustain long drives consistently, so you need to take away the big play. And also, the Patriots can get impatient when the big play is held at bay. Now, I don't think it was the Jets that contributed much to it. In prior games, it was a heavy pass rush that did it. But yesterday, it was more a pelting, freezing rain and high winds that kept the offense at bay.
But, like all great teams, they still found a way to win. An early pressure by Seymour forced the Jets QB into an ill-advise dying quail of a throw from his own end zone and forgotten man Eugene Wilson returned it for an early score. And special teams maven Kelley Washington blocked a punt, leading to the only offensive touchdown of the day by another man of mystery, Laurence Maroney, who had a solid game at running back. I still think he missed some opportunities to pop it outside, which he finally did in the fourth quarter.
But it is impossible to argue with 14-0, only the second team to ever start that way. And just think, the Patriots should have five more games, while the '72 Dolphins were finishing up their regular season after fourteen games. It has been a great season so far, and the future's so bright, we gotta wear shades!
On the fantasy front, my team somehow pulled out a win to move to the finals. We only scored 61 points, but my opponent just pulled down 42, probably the low score for both of us for the year. His QB is Tom Brady, so the season's worst performance by Brady couldn't have come at a better time for me. Of course, my team was continually mocked in the post game wrapup stories, as my main point getter, Brian Westbrook, was running untouched into the end zone at the end of the Dallas-Philadelphia game, when he sat down at the one, realizing that, without any timeouts, the Cowboys couldn't stop the clock and get the ball back if he didn't score. And all the post game shows chided Westbrook's fantasy owners for having conniptions at losing the 7 points. Glad it didn't decide the game for me!
Finally, to wrap up sports Monday, I wanted to show my picture of the 2007 World Series trophy, taken a couple of weeks ago at the local town hall Christmas celebration. It's a really poor picture, taken with a bad cell phone camera in terrible light, but still, I was within a couple of feet of it. Pretty neat!
