-

10) Here is my in depth analysis of the Fox coverage. First off, this was a very bad camera and production crew. The TV shots were constantly behind the play, you could never see what was coming up. Hey Mr. Producer, Patrick Pass fumbled, not Corey Dillon. Showing his reaction as the Lions drove was about as relevant as showing a fan in the 3rd row. Also, I had no idea what happened to Lawrence Maroney.
Now the positive; I loved JC Pearson & Matt Vasgerain. I am very used to them. The butt whooping Cardinals are my NFC team from my days of living out in Phoenix. If you thought that the Patriots get stuck with Simms a lot, these two guys could be the local crew for the Cardinal games! Regardless, I think that they have good chemistry together and do a good job announcing the game.
9) Nick Kaczur is not the answer at right tackle. There is no doubt that position is the weak link on offense. There have been too many incidents of sacks, hurries, and hits coming from the right side of the line. I believe that Ryan Ocallagahan will get there eventually, and be where he needs to be to solidify that side of the line. Right now though, they need to get a tight end to cover up the tackle and get at least a chip block on their way out for a pass. Also, I can count on 1 hands the number of times that the Pats ran to the right.
8) Reche Caldwell has become Deion Branch for less money. It isn’t Branch, it’s Tom Brady who makes his receivers the talents that they are. Yes, hard work is relevant, and you have to be able to catch, unlike Terrell Owens or anyone on the Falcons. But Brady is to his receivers what the Dallas Cowboys offensive line was to Emmitt Smith. The glue that makes it stick. Emmitt is a run of the mill back if he’s running behind any other line in the league in the 90’s. Barry Sanders would have run for 2000 yards a year behind that line.
7)Penalties and Fumbles… not the trademarks of championship teams.. That is more along the lines of a Raiders tradition. This will come back and bite them in the behind if they don’t get it cleaned up.
6) Weekly dose of BCS nonsense. Who will pay OSU!?!?!?! How bout a f’n 4 team playoff that would leave NO debate. It is funny how all the BCS supporters as of last week that were saying that they think it is a good system, only now after the USC loss is second guessing the system again. College football is a joke. A very popular joke, but ridiculous nonetheless. Even Urban Meyer whose team actually benefits from the system this year and his Gators are in the game is STILL calling for a playoff.
5) In the 3rd quarter there was virtually a flag on almost every play. It was like watching the first quarter of a bowl game after a team had a 35 day rest. Or in the case of the Buckeyes a 51 day rest between games. Makes sense to me! Don’t want them to miss classes which is why there is no playoff, but an extra 50 days of practice that detracts from studies is ok. Once again, make sense to me!
4) Apparently the rules are different for 2-9 teams- They are allowed to call time outs that they don’t have without being penalized
3)Drinking a double digit number of saki bombers before dinner is even over can cause one to have a massive headache the next day.
2)I am jealous of teams that have a ‘slash’ QB on their roster, the way the Lions used Josh McCown. I am also jealous of teams that don’t have 43 year old emergency back up quarterbacks.
1) Brady hit 9 different receivers on Sunday. I find that absolutely miraculous. It shows that Brady plays the system, not the locker room or favorites. The crap that went on with Bledsoe in Dallas was directly related to him trying to get TO the ball in the wrong situations, and at other times, forcing it to T Glenn when he actually needed the receiver to catch the ball. Same nonsense in Giant country where Plastico cries for the ball and Eli keeps forcing it to him, only to have him give a half hearted effort. There is no doubt that we are lucky enough to be graced by what is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history

Week 12 Patriots Win Over Bears 17-13

10) I think that with the new turf that Kraft should have gone with the old school logo in the middle of the field. How sweet would Pat the Patriot have looked? As long as they were at it, they should have just done the big block letter PATRIOTS in each end zone. They also should put back in metal bleachers and only allow 35,000 people per game…Go way old school
9) Welcome back Walter- his 1st punt was the best in his Patriots career. Then his next 2 kicks were just knuckleball carpet baggers. Typical crappy Walter performance. He’s like an ex girlfriend that won’t go away. Just keeps haunting and stalking you keeps coming back Actually he’s more like herpes, the gift that keeps on giving.
There had to be someone with a leg out there. The only excuse on why they kept him around during the Super Bowl run was because he and Vinatieri had great chemistry with the placekicking. Now that Gostkowski is there, did they really need him back?
8)13 min to go in the 3rd- 4th and less then the length of Jose Canseco’s steroid induced shriveled penis to pick up a first down, and Lovie Smith doesn’t go for it on his own 45 yard line. Mark my words- the Bears will not win the Super Bowl. They may not even get out of the NFC. You need some kahunas as a coach to win it. Lovie clearly doesn’t have them yet.- Also I strongly disagree with Aikman’s assessment that it was a good call to punt because of field position; stating that that’s the type of game it was But that’s not true- there were 3 scores and 4 turnovers in ½ of football. (9 total turnovers) With over 400 yards between the two teams in the 1st half- that’s not a field position game, Both teams were driving well and moving the ball. Heck, the Pats are the first team this year to get over 300 yards on the Bears.
7) Seymour and Urlacher might be the 2 best defensive players in the game today-
Amsey’s top 5 in no particular order:
Richard Seymour
Brian Urlacher
Bob Sanders (YES Bob Sanders of the Colts- watch him… you’ll agree)
Champ Bailey
Zach Thomas/Jason Taylor ( I hate to put Dolphins on this list, but they aren’t winning crap without them 2.
6)Seeing Junior Seau the leading tackler this year be walked off the field with his arm in a cast is a scary pretext for the rest of the season. I was skeptical of the signing from a playing standpoint, not from a leadership perspective, but he had been playing like he was 10 years younger. Let’s hope that this is not career ending.
5)I am going to use the sandwich methodology of criticism:
James Sanders has done a good job in place of Rodney Harrison
Cedric Benson made James Sanders look like a tackling dummy. He absolutely plowed him over, he got his shoulder low, but didn’t wrap up, or get his head up and drive though Benson’s legs.
Sanders is a solid tackler normally.
4) The Pass Interference call on Hawkins and Samuel was absolute bull crap. It gave me shivers and flashbacks from the playoff game versus Denver last year. The defensive player deserves to go after the ball too. This goes back to my theory on making pass interference reviewable (See Amsey’s archives to learn more) The real key here is that Troy Aikman reads Amsey’s analysis- so should you!!
3) Quick hits:
Two fumbles on 1 play by Watson and Caldwell who actually were the receiving stars for the Patriots on the day was just unreal
The 90 yard drive in the 2nd Q for a Touchdown had to be the best drive of the year on the Bears #1 ranked defense
Like I said 2 weeks ago- Asante Samuel = pro bowler.
BCS is playing out well isn’t it? What? There are 34 teams with 1 loss? Let’s let a computer decide.
Lions next week- Pats 31, Detroit 10. I am sure Roy Williams will predict a Detroit victory as well!
2) Chris Spielman has the professionalism as an announcer as I do. The difference is that he works for the largest sports network in the world, and I am read by 1000 readers a week. Despite his inane and inaccurate color commentating of college football games, he also has a local show for Columbus Ohio’s own 1460 The Fan. A poor man’s WEEI., Speilman a self proclaimed homer for the Ohio State Buckeyes, does promotions for the show comparing a dog show to the Michigan football cheerleader tryouts. The kicker here of course is that he has commentated over 6 games this year for ESPN covering the Wolverines. Conflict of interest? Lack of Professionalism? I think it is a lack of integrity as a journalist/media type. I have to believe that if ESPN heard his Web promotions that they would ask him to cease.
1)The real key to the game today was the Patriots ability to generally stuff the run despite giving up over 140 yards. They stopped them when it mattered and forced Rex Grossman to get Manninged by Belichick. The Bears were definitely confused by the Patriots schemes, and that coupled with some excellent secondary play made today a W for the Pats.

Email questions and comments to david@bornintoit.com

Patriots Week 11 Win Over Green Bay 35-0 Amsey’s analysis of Lambeau

A few precludes;
I apologize for the delay in getting this to my loyal fan base.  When you are intoxicated for upwards of 60 straight hours, it tends to take a little while before you can accumulate thoughts that aren’t grunts or sentence fragments
Secondly, this will not be in standard Amsey’s analysis format because, well, how much is there to really analyze in a 35-0 thrashing? Packers bad. Patriots good.
I arrived in Milwaukee on Friday afternoon and met up with my 3 buddies from Arizona (2 native Cheese heads; Joe and Rutt and a fellow Bostonian, Kevin).  We proceeded to Madison as soon as possible. Madison just might be one of the sweetest college party towns in the US of A. 

Top 5 college towns I’ve done right:
5) Colorado State University
4) U Cal Santa Barbara
3) University of Arizona (alum!!)
2) University of Florida
1) UW Madison

Your list and experience may vary.
Anyways, to get to the Lambeau portion of the trip quickly, let’s do the Madison Friday night, all day Saturday, and Saturday night review in quick hit fashion.
-Eating nothing but beer, cheese curds, chicken wings, bratwurst, hot dogs, red meat, and alcohol will cause your rectum to burn as if someone rubbed Tabasco on your lips.
-Eating the same foods as mentioned above can cause your heart to palpitate.
-Camp Randall is a sweet facility. Not a bad seat in the house, although 2 thumbs down for the student section for not showing up until late, and showing up weak for the Buffalo game
-Sparks Energy beer 7.0% alcohol is an excellent substitute for coffee.
-To the Michigan fan that showed up in blue, in case you didn’t hear me 75 times on Saturday, Michigan is the armpit of the world, and your team lost. Deal with it.
-If you are the backup (third string quarterback), and you show up to Wando’s bar after the game to settle in, don’t be a wack job, take off your friggin eye black stickers. No one knows who you are, and those that do, don’t care about the 3rd string QB who only got in because the opponent was the University of Buffalo. Props to Joe the Walrus for not only pointing this out, but for calling him out.
-If your friend Joe snores like a Walrus, then the nickname is mandated to stick.
Onto Lambeau;
The 5 AM wake up call and Sunday morning drive to Lambeau started with your standard multi-stop for pisses and craps road trip.
Rolling up at Lambeau really is hard to fathom. Besides its legendary status, It is like they dropped this 75,000 seat piece of American sports history in the middle of a working class neighborhood. (Then surrounded it with some parking lots, a few bars, and the Packers practice facility and called it a stadium).
It was even extra nice of the Packer faithful to welcome the Patriots contingency to the game with a Brett Favre bobblehead doll commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the Packers victory of the Patriots in Super Bowl 31.  It was extra nice that they had a picture of Reggie White bowling by Max Lane and his cement shoes for one of his 3 sacks. What a slap in the face!
From what I am told, the remodel was nothing like the old place.  The fact that we sat in a luxury box, thanks to the walrus, made the experience surreal. 
Everything was top class.  In a way, it might have been nice to sit on the cold metal bleachers wedged between 2 shirtless cheese heads just to experience Lambeau the way god intended.  Then again, a fully stocked open bar wouldn’t have had my name on it. I digress….
Unfortunately, as the Walrus told it, this ticketed game was the ‘Milwaukee package’ where they give 2 games a year to the old Milwaukee season ticket holders.  Apparently, they are not the rowdier of the 2 crowds. Lots of family.  So the general aura probably wasn’t what it was, say, for the last NFC championship game that was played there.
Another factor was that Saturday was the opening day of deer hunting season in Wisconsin.  The excitement generated would be the equivalent of every Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts opening it’s doors and declaring free coffee and Cruller day. Imagine the crazy mad rush that would ensue.  Now imagine if they were all wearing bright orange.  That’s deer hunting season.  We must have driven past 450 ATV’s and orange coated drunks just on the 1 road that we took from Madison to Green Bay
Another disappointing fact was that the stadium was empty by the mid-4th quarter. So much for the loyalty of the Packer faithful. Local newspapers the next morning were embarrassed by the early exit.  The 35-0 score couldn’t have helped.
Regardless, the post game bar parties were crowded and rowdy.
We even had a steak at the kill it and grill it style steak joint which I couldn’t remember the name of if you paid me. I couldn’t find it if you dropped me off at the front door.
All in all, and excellent time and something that I’ll never forget. A true NFL fan needs to experience a pregame, game, and postgame at Lambeau.
Big one next week! Go Pats

Email comments or suggestions to: david@bornintoit.com

He was burned on that TD, he was out of position on the Wayne bomb in the 1^st quarter, and the PI in the 2^nd quarter. Damn they need Harrison healthy again.

He’s as much of a safety as Refrigerator Perry was a RB. Mr. Scott is out of position. He’s played well as a nickel back. The pick was simply being in the right place at the right time, and he barely made up for the errors he was making all night-

 9) I shutter to say this, but I agree with Madden…. The play calling was unnecessary and too elaborate. They could have run 89 times and won the game. That Colts run defense is embarrassing and will be the end of them in January. I just hope that we are around to witness it.

 8) I absolutely love the black and gold zero tolerance sign at the Steelers game. Zero tolerance of what?  Winning? Good QB play?  You’ll never see that sign in Bengal stripes would you?  Unless it is of zero tolerance for not drinking with underage girls, or assaulting the police, or using your boat as a weapon. You know the usual.  Talk about chemistry self destructing a team- See Bengal season for an example. And Corey Dillon was the problem there???

 7) The Brady QB sneak with a minute to go in the half was not only NOT a first down,  but it was a dumb ass call. I like the call to go for it, but the Brady sneak only works when the gaps are open and the LB’s are a few yards back, not when there are 10 guys in the box. I never understand why teams pack it in on 4^th and short when the average rushing play gains 3 + yards. Spread it out; Go 3 wide which takes 3 cover men and at least 1 safety out of the box. Now you have 7 in the box vs. 5 blockers and 1 tight end. If you can’t gain 1 yard with those odds, then you don’t deserve to retain possession of the ball.

 6) John madden has broken up with Brett Favre and he now is getting his rocks off over Peyton Manning.. His infatuation and loaded compliments are over the top and excessive. Shut the F up and color commentate the game. I am surprised he just didn’t sound like this the whole game “Mmmmm fkjladsfnlakjdfmmmmmm” because he had Manning manhood so deep in the back of his throat; it’s amazing he could even talk 

5) The officiating crew was absolute dog crap the whole game. They botched everything from time outs to illegal hands to the face, taunting,  late or no whistles, quick reactions and poor ball spotting. No doubt this crew is going to get killed by the coaches in their evaluations, and you won’t see this debacle of stripes late in the playoffs.

 4)Brady getting the pass off to Troy Brown with 34 seconds left in the half when Dwight Freeney pushed him instead of tackling him, is a direct result of the crummy roughing the passer calls that happen all the time for no reason (like Mario Williams on Eli Manning yesterday). Defensive players are petrified to do their job and attack the QB because they’ll get flagged. 20 years ago Brady would have been kissing turf, and Freeney would have had a sack. 

 3) When Manning is pressured, even before the big hit comes, he crumbles like a house of cards… He just flat out falls down and curls up in a ball like a armadillo before the actual contact and heat comes. Sally ass? Maybe, but it has helped him stay healthy his entire career.

 2) Some quick thoughts:

 -Congrats to Troy Brown on the Patriots catch record..- It sure was nice of the refs to celebrate it with a BS taunting penalty; NFL football is turning into the rules of engagement for Pop Warner leagues-

-Belichick’s hoody from the Rod Rust logo days was tight!

-Speaking of that- I miss the red in the uniforms. Why are they so navy these days? Bring back the red!

-Heath Evans was amped up on every running play, jumping all over Dillon Faulk and Maroney every rushing play. He was ready to block, why was the play calling ready to try and go toe to toe with Manning?

-How annoying are the Coors light Bill Walsh and Dick Vermeil commercials?

Here’s one, Coach, why does the beer you are pimping taste like pissed in spring water? Why is it 3.1% alcohol and when I drink 24 of them all I feel is fat and bloated?

-The 3 most useless rules in sports are: traveling in the NBA, leaving the free throw lane early in the NBA, and the timer on the officials review in the NFL. 90 seconds means that the clock will sit at: 00 until they’ve made their call and decision…

1) Not that I am going to claim myself a genius for stating this, but the key to the game was Manning picking them apart- the pressure seemed to be the ticket to success against him- it seemed like every time  they put him on his back foot, there was a short hopped throw. For some reason, they played a lot of 2 deep zone, and Manning ( who practices against Cover 2 a lot), just picked them apart.