Sunday, January 14, 2007

Patriots 24, Chargers 21

Good Lord. What happened? I'm not even clear on the names. To wit:

1. Sometimes luck is the best plan.

An interception that leads to a fumble, then a recovery, hence a first down? I've been watching football 31 years; this is the third time it's happened in my presence. A late, late, late hit on fourth down, a punk-ass move unworthy of Texas 5-A, something that leads to an opponents' field goal? See below.

2. Bad actors.

What was up with these two teams? Why all the bad blood? To paraphrase Jim Rome, Arizona State-Arizona thinks those teams were over the top. San Diego was like a young pit bull looking to make its mark against the lead dog; nice try.

3. "I'm Keith Hernandez!"

I don't know anything about NFL football except what I see on TV. So I've seen the Patriots' struggle this year, not least because of the Hoodie's "I'm Keith Hernandez" moments, encapsulized by his cutting loose of Deion Branch. This, as Bill Simmons wrote, was his "I'm Keith Hernandez!" moment. This was the trade of Branch that led to a bunch of second-guessing, the whole 13 million under-the-cap business.

And yet here he was.

So what do we say about the Hoodie? He does what he does, and--against all odds--it works.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hoodie's boys follow his swagger. The team that's been there before was there in the end. Not sure if the Bolts won yesterday, if they would have lost again this season.

Anonymous said...

Let me sum this all up. Forget the Hoodie. The Hoodie got beat, and he knows he got beat. The Hoodie got lucky. But those cutoff sleeves are starting shred thread by thread.

If the Chargers can catch the ball, hold the ball, and play disciplined football, they win. These are the things you learn in training camp. Heck, I think you learn them in junior high, flag football. If Marty can't teach them how to do those three simple things, then maybe he has to go. But that's another story.

Slow and steady wins the race, but the cracks in the Patriots armour are being exposed. Slowly but surely the dam will leak. And slowly but surely "Hoodie" will run out of fingers to fill the holes. It's a fact becoming more apparent as games go by. Not every team has what it takes to expose those weaknesses. Not yet.

But for now it looks like Bill Belichek will still have one more finger to raise on Super Bowl Sunday. And we all know that finger as the one reserved for those who are still standing in the end.

-Bluvas