2004-2013 sox

While I was growing up, my father always told me about fantastic past Red Sox players like Dwight evens, Luis  tiant, yaz and many more. I would sit down with him and watch old highlights and ask why tiant threw so funny and watch the Sox play Cincinnati as he explained to me how great both teams were at the time. I watched the famous Carlton Fisk waving so hard until that ball struck that pole in left field. I can even remember watching videos of just before i got into baseball such as the infamous decision making with Pedro vs the Yankees. No matter what old recording of the red sox it was i can always remember that feeling, the feeling of awe as i looked over the century of great players. these players appeared as semi godly figures only still alive on stories recorded on old school television or by a red seat in the right field bleachers.

 I was thinking back on these memories following the Red Sox terrific run leading them to world series victory, when i realized...... All those great players that won the world series yesterday will be the immortal beings of redsox folklore only a short time from now.  Instead of Tiant we will be able to cite pedro, we can note the bloody sock and the come back vs the yankees down 3-0 in the series,we can pay homage to Beckett in 07 and Lester in 2013, and we can reflect on all the terrific players and personalities over the years (ortiz,manny, millar, faulk, pedroia etc etc). It's not all good. for every Johnny Damon there's a coco crisp, and for every buckner there is a dice k. But the thing to pay attention to is just how grand of a contribution to red sox history has been made in this short decade. It truly is a great time to be a fan.

RED SOX WIN

RED SOX WIN LORD HALLELUJAH REDSOX WIN WHAT A DECISIVE WORLD SERIES VICTORY ANND ANOTHER TO ADD TO THE SHELF. MORE CHAMPIONSHIPS TO COME!!!!

Role players in Red Sox victory

David Ortiz and John Lester have been amazing within this playoff run. Lester's ERA has been great and Ortiz hits everything thrown his way but the real story of the post season and the regular season this year has been role players not stars. There is no question that without David Ortiz and Lester the sox would not be where they are now but the same can be said about the unexpected role players. Starting this season who saw David Ross hitting a key double down the left field line? Or uihara being a shutdown closer. Who saw lackey pitching like he's back in Anaheim and Johnny Gomes being nice pop in the line up. The way this team has jelled has been outstanding this year and a key to success.  The role players are the reason why the Red Sox can outplay teams like Detroit and LA despite those teams having more "stars".  So when the sox clinch at Fenway and everyone goes crazy thank the teams that released these key role players and thank Epstein for picking all of them up

The Brady Bunch Resurgence

I'm looking for Tom and the Brady bunch to break out of it's passing slump this week against the steelers assuming Brady's hand  really is ok and here's why

Lack of pass rush
         The steelers have a terrific line in order to stop the run. They have big beefy linemen that hold blocks well but they don't have a very good pass rush.They have no real pass rushing threat other then woodley at outside linebacker. One man can only do so much so Tom should have a clean pocket.

Gaps in secondary
          Everyone knows the long haired flying Hawaiian polamalu playing safety but in the pass game he's more of a name then an actual threat. He's no ed reed ballhawking on the back end , he's much more useful coming up as a robber and helping with the run. Other then polamalu there is Ryan Clark at safety ( yea the same one that challenged the pats several years ago) Clark is an average safety at best and like polamalu is better helping with the run. At corner the steelers rely heavily on Ike Taylor to shut down number one wide outs but he has lost a few steps because of age and struggles with big wide receivers ( ex Dobson/thompkins) there should be more then a few passing opportunities against this secondary.

Open middle of the field

                   Similar scenario over the middle with the linebacker coverage as with the safeties. They          are good downhill players but dropping into coverage they can be exposed. Timmons is a terrific tackler in the middle of the field but if he gets matches up in man coverage look for tom to pick on him. All of the linebackers starting for the steelers are better vs the run than in coverage and could give up good yardage.

Not opportunistic     

   As previously stated the steelers are not getting to the quarterback but they also aren't getting interceptions or fumbles. With Brady throwing a pick in each of the last two games he may be able to get away with a mistake or two in this one and keep it together for a strong performance. 

Celtics - to much talent to be good

Looking at this year in basketball I don't think anyone in Boston had the hope that the team will be a power in the east. No ones going to challenge the heat this year except maybe the nets but pierce and Garnett couldn't do it here so that won't be able to do it in Brooklyn. The problem with the celtics this year is not the lack of talent it's actually quite the opposite!  The celtics have too much talent this year to achieve what they need to be a successful basketball organization. With the NBA starting in just a few days the celtics look like they will be a middle of the road team. Probably not making the playoffs but certainly not the bobcats. Rondo is still a great point guard, Jeff green is coming off a very good season and both will look to put up big numbers. Avery Bradley is still a little package of energy and their should be plenty of scoring off the bench. But their is no star on the celtics team, and star power is what drives the nba. Most people can't even name more then 5 people ok the heat, but they have lebron , wade, and Ray Allen. And with 1 superstar and a few semi big names they won the title twice. The point of all this is to point out the celtics draft projections. The celtics will have plenty of first round picks in the next few years but with them coming from Brooklyn and LA the picks will not be very high. With the celtics finishing mid table their pick won't be high either. All this leads to the celtics being stuck in no mans land in the NBA. Not good enough to challenge inthe playoffs but too good to get a superstar in the draft. The celtics very well may be dead in the water for many years to come.

Patriots post game positives-negatives

Here's a quick look at what I saw as positive and negative takeaways from the patriots-dolphins week 8 match up

POSITIVE

• Third Quarter
• after years of being known as a second half team the pats this year have been down right atrocious. Outscoring the Dolphins 17-0 in the third quarter is an enormous step in the right direction. 

• Aaron Dobson 
• known by many in New England as Aaron "Dropson" for his noticeably bad drops and occasional complete miscommunication with Brady he actually has been quite good especially in today's matchup where his catches went for more then half of Brady's total yardage.  he caught four passes on five targets and torched the dolphins corners on a long comeback route. All of his drops have one thing in common, he's open and once he starts seeing the ball in he will be very useful.

•  Secondary play

• Even if you don't include Mccourty's insane tip to Cole for an interception he secondary played well, Especially in the second half when they played tight man coverage. Logan Ryan dropped a should have been near pick 6 and both Mccourty and Gregory played admirably over the top. Not to say it was perfect, alot of easy underneath passes in the first but without talib that wasa a great showing. 

• Resiliance
• Gotta love the way they fought and turned the game around

NEGATIVES

• Offensive play calling 
• Ridley was a beast but only had 14 carries? 
• No routes over the middle of the field
• Running on third and 2 when you are down......
• then running on third and 5...
• then running on third with 2 minutes left with a chance to put away the game.
• Brady's love affair with gronk
•  Brady must have forced the ball to gronk in double or triple coverage 3 or 4 times. also another route gets undercut when Brady tries to force it to gronk. Gronk only caught 2 passes despite being targeted multiple times because he WASN'T OPEN, don't force the ball.
• lots of blitzing
• Not to say i didn't enjoy watching the patriots blitz and crush Tannahill in the second half, but all the blitzing came because the pats couldn't get pressure with 4 men rushing. against a weak o- line I expected better.

• Amendola/ Thompkins
• Amendola has had no impact since coming back, and Thompkins wasn't even targeted after being a major option in games past

Quick Hit Predictions for Sox Game Three

Peavy is going to come out like lightning in a bottle, everyone who watches the sox knows that, i don't think the pressure will effect him since he literally always puts that much pressure eon himself anyway. Kelly for the cardinals is going to let the nerves get to him a little bit. look for him to leave something high in the zone with runners on. look for a less then expected player to take advantage of that pitch (drew maybe?)

Sox win 6-4 as the cardinals can't come back from a few runs early

pats-dolphins where the pats win and lose

Looking forward to the week 8 matchup i have several key areas that the patriots need to exploit and cover up. Starting off with the strengths i think we have to look at what i think is the most obvious, the Qb's.

As good as tannahill was on his "coming out party" through the first three weeks he managed a meteoric fall back to earth after that. He's thrown seven interceptions and fumbled five times already this year proving he coughs up the ball.The patriots defense is beat up in several key areas and talib is still questionable but as a unit they are still opportunistic, look for a key pick or strip sack. On the other hand brady is having the worst statistical year of his career with a passing percentage in the fifties and a few more interceptions then usual but he's still tom brady. Wouldn't be surprised to see the middle of the field open in the passing game.
The dolphins offense will have plenty of issues working the ball outside the hash marks and over the top as mike wallace will be bracketed and dennard has been playing great for the patriots. look for hartline to be open underneath in the dolphins pass heavy offense. The patriots on this one will probably sit back and play a lot of bend but don't break defense, giving up the underneath yardage but trying to keep the score down.

The linebackers for me in this  game is a wash, both the dolphins (ellerbe, misi, wheeler) and the pats (spikes, hightower) have good down hill linebackers that like to stack up the runningback. both teams however leave a lot to be desired with coverage from the linebackers. Hightower was consistently torched last week so look for him to have a better day.

The line play will most likely determine this game for me. the pats o-line is having an up and down year and once again the Connolly and cannon are both not fully healthy leaving a lit to be desired on the inside, especially when you include wendell's average play. With the pats line playing up and down olivier vernon and cameron wake will be looking to hit brady. The patriots linemen will also be looking to hit tannehill with a weak interior line for the dolphins and newly acquired bryant mckinnie playing against chandler jones.   I think the patriots get outplayed here and brady is under some heavy pressure, but they just have to keep this battle close enough to win.

If the pats can keep the battle between the lines close the secondary will be where they win this game. the dolphins safeties reshad jones and Chris clemons leave a lot to be desired from a coverage standpoint and other then brent grimes the dolphins have very unproven corners. some quick short passes may get the pats some big plays. Even without talib the patriots win this matchup  because mccourty will challange any deep ball and has been excellent over the top in bracket coverage. wallace will be eliminated from the game and hartline simply cannot beat the patriots alone.

does anyone remember david givens?

So i was watching the 2001 rewind of the pats season with my buddy a couple months ago and i could not be more surprised at all the names. Yea i remembered Bruschi and tom and troy but man the names i forgot. People like roman phifer ( forgive me if my spelling sucks) and larry izzo. these players were such integral parts to the patriots and all had huge parts in the super bowl. but im here to talk about hope! with this years team and a possible championship!

Now what the hell does David givens have to do with this years championship hopes? if my memory serves me right im pretty sure he had something like 40-50 catches, not a huge amount (Lloyd had more then that last year ), but he was a guy that caught several key passes including touchdown catches on the pats road to glory. Fast forward to today and who does that sound like? to me that could be either kembrell Tompkins or aaron dobson. thompkins already has that memorable catch vs the saints in the corner of the endzone and that ridiculous catch vs the falcon. Dobsons got the size and length, he had that one impact catch a couple weeks ago that went for like 50 yards and he looks increasingly comfortable working outside near the sidelines on comeback routes, beating his man 1v1, and is expanding his route tree.  I am not here to tell you that these two guys are going to be like a healthy julio jones and roddy white, they will still let the ball get into their body on short routes and drop the occasionall slant,  but  they can make a huge impact. With gronk back and edelman being a pretty big part of the offense these guys have the opportunity to get a little more space and make some really big catches if brady is willing to spread it out. These sort of role players are a big deal and are necessary if the pats are to make a championship run.

Mcdanials screen over his eyes

There once was a time when a man named John Madden would go on and on about the patriots screen game. He hated it, he hated the throws behind the line , the shifty wide outs and scat backs he wanted nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact so did the Rams, Eagles, and Panthers because the patriots beat those three teams in the super bowl with that very offense style.

Much has been said this year about Tom Brady's apparent "regression" as a pass thrower, but i'm here to tell you that's a complete load.Now i know many people could cite stats like the fact that Brady had something like 11 passes that were incomplete on his own will last game but all i can think is " What happened to the QB getting in rhythm" What happened to the quick throw to the Wide out on the sideline or the bubble screens we ran with welker. I know we don;' have Welker anymore but hell we have his clone in edelman. The main hit on Brady has been his accuracy this year and his apparent skittish attitude in a collapsing pocket, but the screen game can help this! yea some of the wide receivers cant catch, and Vareen is still out with injury but holy crap i could go out their and catch a screen pass from brady. And the thing is, these kids at wide out are OUTRAGEOUSLY athletic compared to last years wide outs. Boyce ran a 4.36 forty and dobson ran in the low to mid 4.4s. Thompkins, although not as standout with his measurable, is terrific at changing direction at the line of scrimmage. now all i'm saying is we lost two games so far this year to teams that had dominant pass rushing d lines and stopped the run. When we threw, the wr either weren't open or didn't catch it.

So whats this all about? i want to beg mcdanials please! bring back a consistant screen game! it will help remedy brady's accuracy issues because he will have easy throws to get in rhythm, the youngsters will get easy catches and it will stop the opposing d line from being able to just sprint down field at brady