How are we supposed to win Sunday without Martin?

[Hawg73]

...........just kidding. We haven't really had him all year. Is this year's crop of free agents a bunch of busts or what? Victor Green is the only guy doing anything at all.

For anyone who may have missed it O-T-I-S is O-U-T for the rest of the year with a shoulder injury (possibly turnstylitis) and Steve Martin was given his release and a one-way Greyhound bus ticket back home.

[Adam]

Just pretend his name is Terry Glenn.

[pookie]

I know that I won't sleep this weekend knowing that Martin won't be playing..... what with his 17 tackles on the season!

While Otis' loss hurts some, I like Buckley in there too. Neither one of them is terribly fast, so that's a wash. But in your opinion, what's the major difference between Otis and Buckley?

[Hawg73]

Originally posted by pookie
But in your opinion, what's the major difference between Otis and Buckley?

Ahhhh, A serious football question. While not pretending to be any kind of expert in DB play, IMO Buckley has better speed and coverage skills than Otis with a knack for big INTs but with a much more of a tendency to get burned (we are talking career here aren't we?)and questionable tackling skills. I read something the other day that stated that Buckley is currently 5th in the league amongst active DB's with 44 career picks (I'm going by memory but I think thats right). Not bad for a 5th DB.

Otis, for all the abuse he has caught this year, has had a pretty damn good career for himself. He has good size, is very smart and plays nice technique and is a tough hitter and sure tackler. But is pretty slow at his advanced age by NFL standards. He has nothing to apologize to anyone for what he has accomplished in the league going from a scrub to a leading candidate for MVP in the Super Bowl. I hope he retires after the season with his dignity still intact and none too soon because the sands of time wait for nobody. A consumate professional and a class guy, I hope he stays in the game as a coach or scout somewhere, but I think he is probably done as a player.

[pookie]

Buckley's not exactly a spring chicken either Hawg, but he is faster than Otis. I think that we only lose some run support having Buckley on the corner as opposed to Otis, but we do have slightly better coverage. My concern about this is..... Can we afford to lose one sidgeon of run defense with our already sometimes porous run D? I think not. Trouble? Maybe.

I think that in the post Super Bowl Stupor that we were all guilty of being in -- and some have yet to awaken from -- there is a tendency to heap praise on everything without first ascertaining how much of it was instrumental and how much was incidental.

Such was the case with the coaching staff. We all know football well enough to understand that it does not take genius to win a game. It takes good management, good training, preparation, talent certainly helps and so does circumstance. I am not rushing to judgment on the Pats coaching staff because I believe that it is sound.

The point is this: there was an enormous amount of praise given to the Belichick regime. So much so that they might have been guilty of believing it. I think a factor in the decision to let players such as Bledsoe, Mitchell, Buckley, et al test their market value and more was a certain sense that they had won with a "formula". They had established a new order in New England that enabled them to win with players cast off by other teams; through teamwork in place of talent. The sum was greater than the parts making the parts expendable.

Maybe the downfall was that others copied what the Pats had done and that is why the free agent market was not only more competitive but also more sparse -- the cast-offs were not to be had. Or maybe it really was a magical ride (like I felt I was a part of last year) that was far more difficult to duplicate than they perceived because too many factors had come into play.

Did they win because of Mitchell? What about the steadying influence of Bledsoe on the sideline relaying the plays. What about the absence of adversity: the Terry Glenn factor? Maybe part of that formula was missing -- the aftermath of 9-11 and the distraction of Bledsoe and Glenn.

What is it that they call it in Greek tragedy? Hubris -- a fall from grace brought on from excessive pride. Time will tell. If it is a formula we could still see it coming to theaters soon. If not this year maybe next. Maybe the difficulty in repeating is the same reason that I can remember to breath again long enough to watch the games.

When the Angels won the Series was it a formula or did it just seem right -- perhaps magical? The funny thing was that the Patriot players treated the "magic" reference like it was somehow a stigma; an asterisk in the history books. Would you rather be remembered as the most competent team that season or the team that captured the imagination and hearts of a nation?

I don't know, but I do know that I enjoyed last year enough to hold me over through some leaner times.

[Hawg73]

Originally posted by FallingAlice
I have particular disdain for Bledsoe. My personal feelings about Bledsoe are that he's a pretty media-savvy, teflon like guy who creates such a fine public image that none of the behind the scenes stuff about him comes out.

Wow, This really hit home for me because, though I couldn't prove a thing, my theory has always been that Drew isn't the Boy Scout the media makes him out to be.

Since he was a rookie, he always carefully crafted his replies to media questions in a distant, dispassionate way. It occured to me some years ago that your want to know your QB and we never really knew Drew. He was pretty slick and I have heard very few people mention that.

I'm not saying he was a bad guy, far from it. My point is that he was a regular guy with a dark side and we never got to see it because he was always playing poker with the public. I'm just saying we never really knew who he was even though he was around for 9 years. Brady is more open about his real thoughts than Drew ever was.

[Hawg73]

Originally posted by NoRespect
What is it that they call it in Greek tragedy? Hubris -- a fall from grace brought on from excessive pride. Time will tell. If it is a formula we could still see it coming to theaters soon. If not this year maybe next. Maybe the difficulty in repeating is the same reason that I can remember to breath again long enough to watch the games.
.

This whole reply was particularly well written and made some really good points. I picked this paragraph to quote but it was only one of a bunch that were worthy of quoting. Well done. Hubris, huh? I haven't heard that theory on sports talk radio yet, but it has some legs. I have voiced a similar thought but not elucidated as well. I never knew the definition of Hubris til I read this one. PatriotsPlanet can entertain .andilluminate.

[PatsLawFirm]

Martin was certainly a big flop...but I will be interested to see if Leonard Myers is given the opportunity here to do something. Why not? Young player, did alright I thought last year. Stick him out there and see if maybe he doesn't turn a big play or have a big game. He was on IR for half the season or so, its just a matter of the rust coming off and seeing what will happen, hopefully good things.