It’s hard to win a game in the NFL. Last year’s Detroit Lions did their best to prove this. It’s even harder to win in the NFL on the road. This year’s New England Patriots are doing their best to prove this. The Pats are 1-5 on the road and you can essentially throw out their one win for two reasons. The game was in London, meaning there wasn’t really a “home” team, and the Buccaneers would struggle to win the ACC. The easy answer is that teams are more comfortable at home and therefore play better, which is certainly true, but it goes a bit deeper than that. Let me paint a few pictures to illustrate.
Peyton Manning and the 2003 Colts went for it on 4th and 1 from the 2-yard line and Willie McGinest stuffed Edgerrin James for a loss, sealing a Patriots’ 38-34 victory.
In the 2004 AFC Championship game at Heinz Field, Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers drove inside the Patriots’ 20-yard line until Rodney Harrison intercepted Big Ben and returned it 87-yards for a TD.
The Patriots went to San Diego in the 2006 Divisional Playoffs and won by a slim 24-21 margin. A win only possible because of a 4th quarter Roosevelt Colvin interception of Phillip Rivers with the Chargers marching into field-goal territory.
All defensive stops in big situations on the road by, wait for it, veteran defensive players. And let’s not confuse veteran for simply meaning years of NFL service. I mean players that have gone through the pressure cooker and come out diamonds, not coal. Willie McGinest, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Richard Seymour. See any of those names on the 2009 Patriots’ roster? Players like them?
Ty Warren, Jarvis Green, Tully Banta-Cain, and Vince Wilfork are the only defensive players left from the run of Patriot Super Bowls in the first part of the decade. None of which are particularly game changers. Other than that? Shawn Springs, Adalius Thomas, Derrick Burgess, and Leigh Bodden are the other defensive players who have played more than a few years in the league. Not exactly players known for rising to a challenge. Adalius Thomas certainly had his chance in the the Super Bowl against the Giants but I guess Eli Manning was just too agile for the supposed physical specimen. On top of that Springs is a healthy scratch in most games, Leigh Bodden is very good when Mark Sanchez throws the ball right to him, Thomas nearly lost his job to Rob Ninkovich, and the Pats may as well play with 10 guys when Derrick Burgess is on the field.
There are certainly upsides to having young players such as Jarod Mayo, Gary Guyton, Darius Butler, and Pat Chung taking their share of snaps, but most are future upsides. Great if you are the Chiefs not so good if you are a supposed dynasty.
So how could Bill Belichick and the Pats have prevented this? They had four key losses on the defensive side of the ball going into the year in Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, and Richard Seymour. Rodney Harrison has been injury riddled in recent years and not much could have been done to prevent his departure. But Bruschi was forced into retirement after a limited role in the preseason and Vrabel and Seymour were traded. Seymour has eleven tackles and four more sacks than Jarvis Green and Vrabel has more than twice as many tackles as Derrick Burgess. We all know stats aren’t everything so what else is missing? The ability to overcome adversity that has been so characteristic of past New England teams is nowhere to be found. I don’t care if Tedy Bruschi runs a 6.0 40-yard dash Bill Belichick wouldn’t have hesitated to put last month’s Colts game in his hands and he would have been right in doing so.
The gold-paned window of the Brady era is closing and a knee-injury post age thirty certainly didn’t help matters. So what now? We do what the Patriots defense has done all season. Sit around and wait for someone to make a play.
Comments