2008 Patriots Game Thread

[Cocos Disciples]

Tie Game! 8:22 left.

[Cocos Disciples]

s***, wacky play by Hall. Also, is there really a guy named Incognito on the Rams?

 

I think I can hear an echo in here.

[Cocos Disciples]

Word, 5-2.

[Sox Fan on Cape]

s***, wacky play by Hall. Also, is there really a guy named Incognito on the Rams?

 

I think I can hear an echo in here.

 

Yea, he works undercover for NFL investigations.

[Dojji]

So that Cassel guy might work out after all. He had his ugly patch with the 2 picks, but with Faulk and an undrafted rookie to hand the ball to by way of a running game, you were going to get picked because you're relying on an inexperienced guy to make big plays. He still made enough of them to beat a team the Patriots should beat. With Morris, Maroney, and Jordan all out, that was a job well done by Cassel and BB.

 

I noticed he seems to be making decisions a little quicker, which is nice. He still tried to break a triple-team tackle rather than get rid of the football, but all the guys who said that Cassel would become a useful QB with experience should feel a bit of vindication

[Cocos Disciples]

Yeah he got sacked a lot less, and it seemed like he was running out of the pocket more.

[YanksHater213]

So that Cassel guy might work out after all. He had his ugly patch with the 2 picks, but with Faulk and an undrafted rookie to hand the ball to by way of a running game, you were going to get picked because you're relying on an inexperienced guy to make big plays. He still made enough of them to beat a team the Patriots should beat. With Morris, Maroney, and Jordan all out, that was a job well done by Cassel and BB.

 

I noticed he seems to be making decisions a little quicker, which is nice. He still tried to break a triple-team tackle rather than get rid of the football, but all the guys who said that Cassel would become a useful QB with experience should feel a bit of vindication

 

I disagree with the picks. One was off a deflection, and the other was off of Welker tripping, so they weren't totally his fault.

 

That being said, I give the guy a B+/A- on the day.

 

He took much less sacks, read through most of his progressions and didn't just eye one guy the whole time, and really stepped up into the pocket when pressure came. I thought he looked GREAT out there today.

[mtbykr]

This was def Cassel's best day so far. The int's weren't really his fault with the one hitting Randy's chest and going up in the air and the other one Welker falling down. In addition there were quite a few drops out there, one being an easy TD for Moss. Cassel still got into that pressure/pull it down and run mode several times and a better D could have exploited that more. Overall it was a good day all around, and our D played well. They gave up some big plays on young guys in the secondary making mistakes that can be corrected, they were not getting beat today in the backfield.

[mtbykr]

Excellent read on Mr Kraft and how the pats are still here:

 

http://www.projo.com/patriots/content/sp_fbn_jim_donaldson26_10-26-08_0EC2CDS_v7.366c066.html

 

 

FOXBORO — The Rams play this afternoon in New England.

 

Which makes this a particularly appropriate time to recall how close the Patriots came to playing in St. Louis — permanently.

 

That’s where the Pats appeared to be headed early in 1994.

 

Two years earlier, the franchise had been purchased by James Busch (as in beer — Budweiser, to be precise) Orthwein, whose ties to St. Louis were strong. That city had lost its NFL team in 1988, when the Bidwill family took the Cardinals to Arizona.

 

When the NFL announced it would add two teams for the 1995 season, St. Louis was very much in the running for a new franchise. But the city didn’t get one. Instead, teams were awarded to Charlotte and Jacksonville. That’s when St. Louis turned to one of its native sons — Orthwein. He had a team. If Bidwill could take the Cardinals to Arizona, then, surely, Orthwein could bring the Patriots to St. Louis.

 

One problem.

 

The Pats had a lease to play in Foxboro Stadium through 2001, and that lease was held by Robert Kraft.

 

“I was offered $75 million to break the lease,” Kraft recalled. “My wife, Myra, said: ‘You’re going to take it, aren’t you?’ ”

 

But Kraft knew that, if he did, Orthwein would take the Patriots to St. Louis. And, since the NFL had just expanded, who knew how long it would be before New England would get another team? Or even if New England would get another team?

 

That greatly concerned Kraft, who’d been a season ticket holder at the no-frills, bare-bones stadium beside Route 1 in Foxboro long before he became the lease holder.

 

Section 10, Row 25 — that’s where Kraft would sit with his sons when the Patriots played at home.

 

“I’d always been a fan,” said Kraft, who grew up in Brookline and followed the fledging Patriots as they moved from stadium to stadium around the city before finally settling in Foxboro.

 

“Those were wonderful times — driving to the games, tailgating beforehand,” he said. “It was a great family experience. I was passionate about the game of football.” So passionate, he said, that he’d “always dreamed about buying the team.”

 

Because of his business acumen, that was a dream Kraft was in a financial position to do something about.

 

He took the first step in 1985, when, at a cost of $1 million, he took a 10-year option on the land surrounding the stadium.

 

“My banker thought I was nuts,” he said. “But, in any business, you’re always trying to figure how to get a competitive edge. That option was the first step. We wound up controlling the parking for all the events at the stadium. We overpaid to get that option in order to have the right one day to buy the team.”

 

It was at that time that Billy Sullivan, who in 1959 purchased Boston’s original American Football League franchise for $25,000 — money he’d saved to buy a house on Cape Cod — was looking to sell his beloved Patriots.

 

Money always had been tight for Sullivan, and the family’s financial situation took a turn for the worse when his eldest son, Chuck, lost millions promoting Michael Jackson’s “Victory Tour” in 1984 and plunged the stadium into bankruptcy.

 

Remington razor magnate Victor Kiam had purchased the Patriots from Sullivan in 1988. With the stadium also up for sale, Kiam made a low bid for it because, after all, who would want the stadium if they didn’t own the team?

 

Bob Kraft, that’s who.

 

“My banker again thought I was nuts, that I was buying a white elephant, that the team would never play there,” Kraft said. “But the bankruptcy judge reaffirmed our lease on the stadium through 2001, which turned out to be the year we won our first Super Bowl.”

 

Beating — in a strange, but delightful, turn of fate — the St. Louis Rams, who’d moved to Missouri from Los Angeles in 1995.

 

That lease in Kraft’s pocket was also his ace in the hole in his high-stakes gamble to buy the Patriots. According to the terms of the lease, if the Pats were going to play football, it would have to be in Foxboro. Breaking the lease would result in the owner of the team paying treble damages to the owner of the stadium.

 

“The reason I bought the stadium,” Kraft said, “was to get into position to own the team.”

 

As a boy, Kraft had been broken-hearted when the Braves left Boston for Milwaukee. He didn’t want to see the same thing happen with the Patriots.

 

So it was that, instead of pocketing a substantial profit by accepting the offer to buy out the lease, Kraft shelled out $172 million — then the highest price ever paid for an NFL team — to purchase the Patriots.

 

“This team was gone,” he said, “if somebody didn’t step up with a good local bid. If we didn’t have that stadium lease, there was a high probability this team would have been in St. Louis.”

[TheKilo]

Helps when the Rams absolutely blow, doesn't it?

[Believe in Boston 7]

Hope they start Faulk tonight.

[Cocos Disciples]

Manning is spanking us down the field this drive.

[MANNYHOF24]

The Patriots are playing way to conservatively tonight. 2 quarters and zero throws to Randy Moss?

[Cocos Disciples]

Awww man, so close by Gaffney.

[Dojji]

Of course he drains it. He hasn't drained ome that long in 5 friggin' years but of course he nails it.

[Dojji]

Bad return.

 

Those timeouts are going to be a factor aren't they?

[Dojji]

Wow, way to screw over a drive! Absolutely awful penalty by David Thomas!

[The Dustball]

f***ing awful play on 3rd and long. At least look at the WRs

[Dojji]

This is as bad as the Giants game. Why throw fourth and long and not third and long?

[Dojji]

DISGUSTING sequence. Olympic bed-crapping effort. UGGH.

[The Dustball]

Well it's time for the defense to step up and shut down the run game before they run out the clock. We should be f***ing tied right now if it wasn't for the personal foul.

[Dojji]

Well it's time for the defense to... shut down the run

 

Read: game over.

 

Actually it doesn't matter if they shut down the run. They have no time outs. THey HAVE to force a turnover.

 

2 minutes left. Colts get one more first down, and that's it. Forget it. See ya. Game over. Maybe even if they don't. David Thomas' idiot penalty literally cost us this game.

 

Oh well, at least we're tied for first.

[YanksHater213]

CUT DAVID THOMAS.

[The Dustball]

It's over. 2 min to go with no timeouts. f***.

[Dojji]

Yep, 3 downs left, a minute and twenty to go, if the Pats get the ball back it's a formality.

 

Unless we get a TD on the return, Colts win.

[The Dustball]

We'll have a couple of bomb attempts by Cassel.

[MANNYHOF24]

The Pats gave the Colts this game. Whether it was the Gaffney drop or the ridiculous Thomas personal foul. Should be 6-2, we outplayed the Colts today and have nothing to show.

[Dojji]

Brilliant play by the Colts kicker whose name is dead to me. Touchback there pretty much nails it down.

[Dojji]

Wow, this IS like the Giants game. One idiot mistake followed by 3-4 minutes of numbly watching the team die.

[The Dustball]

Yeahhhhhhhhh, glad I skipped doing that AP essay for this.