Wonder what this azzwipe will have to say tomorrow

[NJ]

Too bad we can't roll this up with a nice steaming piece of dog sh1t and offer it back to Shaughnessy for lunch on Monday.

The time for bluster is over

Now (please!) let the game begin

By Dan Shaughnessy

Globe Columnist / January 16, 2011

Finally.

Welcome to Red Sox vs. Yankees in shoulder pads. Winner gets showered in Haterade.

The Patriots play host to the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium this afternoon, and if you feel like you have been hearing about this game for a long time, you are correct.

Unlike the other major sports, football is played once a week. If you are as good as the Patriots, who earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs with their 14-2 record, you have a two-week break between games. Given that New England’s supremacy rendered the final two contests of the regular season meaningless, one can make a case that the Patriots have not played a game of significance in almost a month.

So much talk, so little action. And it has been talk fit for Jerry Springer and Maury Povich.

Measured by hype, NFL playoff games sometimes resemble championship prizefights, and the noise advancing this joust sparks memories of the early days of Cassius Clay, before he took his Muslim name, Muhammad Ali.

The upstart Jets, NFL buffoons for most of the last four decades, are tugging on the capes of supermen Belichick and Brady, eager to recapture the glory days when a kid quarterback named Joe Namath predicted Super Bowl victory and backed it up with the greatest upset in the history of the Roman Numeral Game.

Fast-forward 42 years and we have the 2010 Jets, blown out in Foxborough, 45-3, just six weeks ago, taunting the much-decorated masters of the football universe.

The Patriots have Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, who have won three Super Bowls. They have the highest-powered offense in the NFL. They outscored opponents, 212-47, over their last 5 1/2 games. They are prohibitive favorite to play in Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas, three weeks from today.

The Jets are talented, inexperienced blowhards who have spent the past five months telling everyone how good they are (see: HBO’s “Hard Knocks’’), while demonstrating flaws characteristic of wannabes. They walk and talk in the image of their bombastic coach, Rex Ryan, a tons-of-fun gridiron guru who says this game is “personal,’’ a steel cage match between himself and the Auerbachian Belichick.

In the minutes after the Patriots thrashed the Jets at Gillette Stadium Dec. 6, Ryan stood at the podium and said, “I’ll play them right now if they’ll go out and do it again.’’

Ryan’s Jets took trash-talking to a new level this past week. New York cornerback Antonio Cromartie called Brady an obscenity and said he hated him. Numerous Jets spoke of the Patriots running up the score in the December rout, and we all remember Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson saying Belichick had no class after the Patriots beat LT’s Chargers in 2007. Jets center Nick Mangold referenced “Spygate’’ in a Friday tweet. It’s all mildly reminiscent of Curt Schilling joining the championship-starved Red Sox in November of 2003 and announcing, “I guess I hate the Yankees now.’’

Nothing has been off limits, not even Coach Ryan’s purported infatuation with his wife’s feet. Mild-mannered Patriots receiver Wes Welker peppered his press conference with “foot’’ and “toe’’ references. When Jets linebacker Bart Scott responded with a threat aimed at Welker, and an NFL vice president asked all playoff participants to respect the game and knock off the trash talk.

The cacophony deflects attention from Mark Sanchez, New York’s 24-year-old sophomore quarterback who is unlikely to fill the white shoes of Broadway Joe. Just two years out of Southern Cal, Sanchez has won three road playoff games in two seasons, but has yet to prove he can win in Foxborough. A warm-weather guy since birth, Sanchez has been intercepted a whopping seven times in two losses at Gillette.

On the other sideline we have the redoubtable Brady, soon to be named MVP of the 2010 NFL regular season. Brady threw 50 touchdown passes in 2007 when he had Randy Moss as a target, but it’s quite possible Brady was even better this season. The longer his hair grew, the better Brady got. He finished the regular season with 36 touchdown passes and only four interceptions and he comes into this game with an NFL-record streak of 335 passes without a pick.

Brady has won 28 consecutive regular-season games at Gillette, but his Foxborough playoff perfection was punctured last year when the Baltimore Ravens came to town and routed the Patriots, 33-14. He is 14-4 lifetime in the playoffs, but since winning his last Super Bowl in January of 2005, Brady is a rather ordinary 5-4 in the playoffs. In his last eight playoff games, he has thrown 14 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.

Only a fool worries about Brady’s ability to win at home in the playoffs. New England’s potential weak spot is a depleted defensive line. Overall, the Patriots feature a young defense, short on playoff experience. The Patriots defense has given up a lot of yards this year, but has been able to make big plays when necessary. Look for the Jets to attempt to establish a running game from the start. Look for trouble if the Jets succeed.

The New York Post billed today’s game as “The Roar vs. The Bore.’’ I prefer to think of it as the Belly vs. the Bully. Or perhaps the Footie vs. the Hoodie.

This much is certain: If the Jets beat the Patriots today, it qualifies as the franchise’s greatest moment since Joe Willie Namath beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III back in 1969. It would make this the best rivalry in the NFL and it would forever change the dynamic between the two franchises, much like the 2004 American League Championship Series changed the Red Sox and Yankees.

My Note ....

Changed Bitches!

[kelticwizard]

Believe it or not, for a Boston sportswriter that counts as a fairly unbiased article. This guy at least acknowledges the Jets could win.

You ought to see the stuff the other sportswriters are putting out about Brady and the Pats.

[lancemehl]

Too bad we can't roll this up with a nice steaming piece of dog sh1t and offer it back to Shaughnessy for lunch on Monday.

The time for bluster is over

Now (please!) let the game begin

By Dan Shaughnessy

Globe Columnist / January 16, 2011

Finally.

Welcome to Red Sox vs. Yankees in shoulder pads. Winner gets showered in Haterade.

The Patriots play host to the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium this afternoon, and if you feel like you have been hearing about this game for a long time, you are correct.

Unlike the other major sports, football is played once a week. If you are as good as the Patriots, who earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs with their 14-2 record, you have a two-week break between games. Given that New England’s supremacy rendered the final two contests of the regular season meaningless, one can make a case that the Patriots have not played a game of significance in almost a month.

So much talk, so little action. And it has been talk fit for Jerry Springer and Maury Povich.

Measured by hype, NFL playoff games sometimes resemble championship prizefights, and the noise advancing this joust sparks memories of the early days of Cassius Clay, before he took his Muslim name, Muhammad Ali.

The upstart Jets, NFL buffoons for most of the last four decades, are tugging on the capes of supermen Belichick and Brady, eager to recapture the glory days when a kid quarterback named Joe Namath predicted Super Bowl victory and backed it up with the greatest upset in the history of the Roman Numeral Game.

Fast-forward 42 years and we have the 2010 Jets, blown out in Foxborough, 45-3, just six weeks ago, taunting the much-decorated masters of the football universe.

The Patriots have Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, who have won three Super Bowls. They have the highest-powered offense in the NFL. They outscored opponents, 212-47, over their last 5 1/2 games. They are prohibitive favorite to play in Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas, three weeks from today.

The Jets are talented, inexperienced blowhards who have spent the past five months telling everyone how good they are (see: HBO’s “Hard Knocks’’), while demonstrating flaws characteristic of wannabes. They walk and talk in the image of their bombastic coach, Rex Ryan, a tons-of-fun gridiron guru who says this game is “personal,’’ a steel cage match between himself and the Auerbachian Belichick.

In the minutes after the Patriots thrashed the Jets at Gillette Stadium Dec. 6, Ryan stood at the podium and said, “I’ll play them right now if they’ll go out and do it again.’’

Ryan’s Jets took trash-talking to a new level this past week. New York cornerback Antonio Cromartie called Brady an obscenity and said he hated him. Numerous Jets spoke of the Patriots running up the score in the December rout, and we all remember Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson saying Belichick had no class after the Patriots beat LT’s Chargers in 2007. Jets center Nick Mangold referenced “Spygate’’ in a Friday tweet. It’s all mildly reminiscent of Curt Schilling joining the championship-starved Red Sox in November of 2003 and announcing, “I guess I hate the Yankees now.’’

Nothing has been off limits, not even Coach Ryan’s purported infatuation with his wife’s feet. Mild-mannered Patriots receiver Wes Welker peppered his press conference with “foot’’ and “toe’’ references. When Jets linebacker Bart Scott responded with a threat aimed at Welker, and an NFL vice president asked all playoff participants to respect the game and knock off the trash talk.

The cacophony deflects attention from Mark Sanchez, New York’s 24-year-old sophomore quarterback who is unlikely to fill the white shoes of Broadway Joe. Just two years out of Southern Cal, Sanchez has won three road playoff games in two seasons, but has yet to prove he can win in Foxborough. A warm-weather guy since birth, Sanchez has been intercepted a whopping seven times in two losses at Gillette.

On the other sideline we have the redoubtable Brady, soon to be named MVP of the 2010 NFL regular season. Brady threw 50 touchdown passes in 2007 when he had Randy Moss as a target, but it’s quite possible Brady was even better this season. The longer his hair grew, the better Brady got. He finished the regular season with 36 touchdown passes and only four interceptions and he comes into this game with an NFL-record streak of 335 passes without a pick.

Brady has won 28 consecutive regular-season games at Gillette, but his Foxborough playoff perfection was punctured last year when the Baltimore Ravens came to town and routed the Patriots, 33-14. He is 14-4 lifetime in the playoffs, but since winning his last Super Bowl in January of 2005, Brady is a rather ordinary 5-4 in the playoffs. In his last eight playoff games, he has thrown 14 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.

Only a fool worries about Brady’s ability to win at home in the playoffs. New England’s potential weak spot is a depleted defensive line. Overall, the Patriots feature a young defense, short on playoff experience. The Patriots defense has given up a lot of yards this year, but has been able to make big plays when necessary. Look for the Jets to attempt to establish a running game from the start. Look for trouble if the Jets succeed.

The New York Post billed today’s game as “The Roar vs. The Bore.’’ I prefer to think of it as the Belly vs. the Bully. Or perhaps the Footie vs. the Hoodie.

This much is certain: If the Jets beat the Patriots today, it qualifies as the franchise’s greatest moment since Joe Willie Namath beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III back in 1969. It would make this the best rivalry in the NFL and it would forever change the dynamic between the two franchises, much like the 2004 American League Championship Series changed the Red Sox and Yankees.

My Note ....

Changed Bitches!

I can't believe these Globe writers. Holy s---! What a bunch of f---in hacks, homers, dicriders....

[NJ]

Todays is almost humble ... considering the source

By Dan Shaughnessy

Globe Columnist / January 17, 2011

FOXBOROUGH — The champagne toasts and Duck Boat parades are fun and memorable, but we are Bostonians and sometimes we fixate on the losses more than we celebrate the wins.

This one ranks way up there in the pantheon of pain — somewhere on the medal platform alongside Glendale, Ariz., in 2008 and Yankee Stadium in 2003.

The Patriots were shocked by the hated New York Jets, 28-21, in the divisional round of the playoffs at Gillette Stadium yesterday. Less than six weeks after humiliating the Jets, 45-3, on “Monday Night Football,’’ the Patriots saw the curtain fall on their 14-2 season. The much-hyped coaching duel morphed into Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. Grady Belichick.

There will be no Super Bowl for Messrs. Belichick and Brady this year. The braggarts and buffoons from the Meadowlands took it all away with four quarters of smashmouth football, sending the frontrunner Patriots home for the summer. If it makes anyone feel better, Red Sox pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to Fort Myers, Fla., Feb. 13.

“It’s a one-game season,’’ said Belichick. “If you don’t play well, you’re done. We all know that.’’

This was not your garden variety postseason elimination. Losing to the Jets is worse than losing to the Lakers. It might even be worse than losing to the Yankees and that is because of the lack of class demonstrated by the Jets in the days and months leading up to yesterday’s epic showdown. The Jets are all about smack talk. They hurled insults at New England for a week. Then they came to Foxborough and backed it up. This game was not as close as the score would lead you to believe. It was 28-14 before the Patriots scored a hollow touchdown in an empty stadium with 24 seconds left.

We love to poke fun at John Candyesque Rex Ryan, but the Footie outcoached the Hoodie when it mattered. The Patriots made a bad gamble on a fake punt that backfired badly before intermission and New England’s clock management in the fourth quarter had fans wondering who let Clive Rush back on the Patriots sideline.

The day got off to a bad start when it was learned that Belichick was benching the wildly-popular Wes Welker because of comments Welker made during the week. Most of us were amused when the Patriots slot receiver used 11 “foot’’ and “toe’’ references during his Thursday press session. Welker was obviously poking fun at Ryan’s well-documented infatuation with his wife’s feet. Belichick did not think it was funny and sat Welker for the Patriots’ first series.

The Patriots scored only 3 points in the first half, which says a lot about New York’s defense. New England had the most potent offense in the NFL, but the Jets pressured Brady and covered the Patriots corps of short receivers. The game was never the same after the Patriots failed on their fake punt. Patrick Chung fumbled the direct snap and New England turned the ball over on its 37.“We just made a bad mistake on the play,’’ acknowledged Belichick.

After the gaffe, New York’s much-maligned sophomore quarterback Mark Sanchez connected with Braylon Edwards on a 15-yard TD strike to make it 14-3 at halftime.

Sanchez was skittish in his first two career games at Gillette (seven interceptions), but yesterday he was 16 for 25 for 194 yards and three touchdowns. He effectively clinched the game with a Super Bowl memory lane touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes, which made it 21-11 with 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

What happened next was curious. The Patriots needed two scores, but played as if they still had three quarters of football left. There was no urgency, no clock management. The Jets gave New England runs up the middle and the Patriots complied. The Patriots ate eight minutes of clock, and still did not score. It was ridiculous. Sometimes the Patriots are too smart for their own good. This looked like pure arrogance. And it worked out about as well as Grady Little leaving Pedro Martinez on the mound in the Bronx.

“They were playing a lot of DB pass coverages and all of that and we thought we had some good opportunities to run it,’’ said Belichick. “Some worked out and some we could have handled better.’’

Too bad. This was an admirable group. Not much was expected when the season started, but the Patriots made themselves Super Bowl favorites with a tremendous second half. It was a team with 22 undrafted players and 11 rookies. It looked like Belichick’s Sistine Chapel.

It turned out to be fool’s gold. A house of cards.

There is no fan group more sensitive than Patriots patrons and those folks now have to live with the fact that New England has lost its last three playoff games. Since becoming a head coach in the NFL, Ryan has made it to two consecutive AFC Championship games, winning four playoff games while Belichick has won zero.

Brady has won 28 straight regular-season games at Gillette, but is 0-2 in his last two playoff games at the Razor. Brady is going to win the MVP award this year, but yesterday he was a pedestrian 29 of 45 with two touchdowns and an interception.

The Patriots wind up looking like regular-season warriors who fold in the playoffs. They went 8-0 at home this year, 0-1 at home in the playoffs. Brady threw 335 consecutive passes without a pick, then threw an interception on his fifth pass of the first playoff game. The Patriots won their last eight games of the regular season by an average margin of 21.8 points. It didn’t do them any good when it mattered.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.