By Ryan McGowan

On December 31, I wrote “Five reasons the Patriots can win Super Bowl XLIV.”

Nice prediction. That’s right up there with the geniuses who predicted the Betamax would clobber the VHS, or that New Coke would be a sales bonanza for Coca-Cola, Inc. Predictions like that basically show why I don’t make my living picking NFL games, though I did win the Poor Man’s PTI regular season pick-‘em championship for the umpteenth year in a row, so what does that tell you about the guys on the show with me?

In light of the Patriots’ embarrassing first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens, I thought it would be a good time to take stock in our local NFL franchise and deliver my State of the Patriots Union Address for 2010 and beyond.

[All rise as two guys in Minutemen outfits holding imitation muskets fire them off and announce BostonMac’s arrival in the room for the speech. BostonMac shakes a ton of hands and makes his way to the podium. He delivers copies of the speech to Mr. Freeze, assistant ambassador of Patriots Nation, and Bill Simmons, the Nancy Pelosi figure in the room. Teleprompters are ready… BostonMac begins the speech.]

My fellow citizens of Patriots Nation…

Yes, I realize that “Patriots Nation” is just as douchey a moniker as “Red Sox Nation,” and not even original. Hey, at least the Pats don’t sell official membership cards. But I digress.

Friends, the Constitution of Patriots fandom requires that BostonMac, as the self-appointed official ambassador of Boston sports for Sportscolumn.com, deliver from time to time a message to the fandom about the state of the teams. I can report, first and foremost, that this is a high honor for me to deliver this address, despite the unprecedented panic-ridden situation we as a fan base find ourselves in after the Ravens loss.

Well, it’s not entirely unprecedented, since the franchise’s entire pre-1994 history outside of a few rogue seasons pretty much sucked, but let’s face it, we haven’t been in this dire of straits since Pete Carroll was getting Ben Coates all jacked-and-pumped to play against Jim Harbaugh and the Colts.

Because, fellow New Englanders, despite the recent setbacks of the last few years—the last-minute loss to the Colts in the 2007 AFC championship that ruined our post-season invincibility against Peyton Manning, the heart-wrenching defeat to the Giants in SB XLII that spoiled the perfect season, the revenge-tour-that-wasn’t with Matt Cassel at the helm in 2008, and the injury-riddled inconsistent monstrosity that was 2009—despite all that, the state of our Patriots’ union is strong.

It is strong despite the subpar season turned in by our golden boy, Tom Brady, who despite enjoying the second-best statistical season of his career, was hampered by nagging injuries all year and never quite found the rhythm he enjoyed in the 18-1 season. It is strong despite the national perception that our fearless leader, the genius-like Bill Belichick, has lost his edge, as evidenced by the infamous 4^th-and-2 call against the Colts (which was still the right call, of course). It is strong despite the uncertain contractual situation of our all-everything nose tackle, the great Vince Wilfork, who for all intents and purposes can expect to have the franchise tagged slapped on him for 2010. And it is strong despite the disappointing, season-ending ACL/MCL double-tear suffered by the inimitable Wes Welker in Week 17 against Houston, keeping him out of the playoffs.

To paraphrase the way one local radio commentator described it, the ugly loss to the Ravens was like a blacklight in a hotel room; every flaw in this team was exposed in that game the way a month-old DNA sample at the Best Western becomes visible in a blacklight.

The linebacking corps is subpar. Folks, Ray Rice’s 83-yard touchdown run, right up the middle, on the first play from scrimmage exposed this one. Jerod Mayo got hurt in Week 1 vs. Buffalo and was never the same after he came back; it is widely accepted that he pushed himself to return too early. Either way, the front office’s complete lack of attention to this spot in the draft (outside of Mayo, of course) is starting to unravel the unit.

The defense has no pass rushers. My fellow citizens, even though Joe Flacco didn’t have to pass much at all in the game, when he did pass, it was evident that this defense doesn’t have the capability to pressure a quarterback if it wants to. Belichick’s philosophy has often been to contain a quarterback with a four-man rush, while punishing receivers physically and confusing the quarterback mentally with a complex scheme. In the Bill Polian-manipulated passing rules of today, the ability to be physical with the Ty Laws and Rodney Harrisons of the world is no more. And since the Pats’ defensive backs are about in the same shape as their linebacking corps, more pressure on the quarterback would have to be the only way to remedy that deficiency.

The offense is too finesse-based now. Friends, back in the first half of the decade, during the three Super Bowls in four years run, the Patriots were known as a physical team. They didn’t have the talented wideouts or the stud running backs, but they were deep and tough, and made the plays when it counted. Sometime between then and now (probably the record-setting 2007 season), the offense morphed into a carbon copy of the 2001 St. Louis Rams or the 2003 Indianapolis Colts, a latter-day Greatest Show on Turf which featured Randy Moss’s superior athleticism on deep balls and Wes Welker’s incomparable guile and quickness underneath and over the middle. Somehow, though, the Patriots lost the ability to be physical when it counted. In the aforementioned Indy game in November, people forget that before the fatal 4^th-and-2 was a 3^rd-and-2. Knowing that they would probably go for it on fourth down, most coaches would probably try to power something up the middle, leaving them (hopefully) a short 4^th-and-inches if it falls short. Belichick (and departed offensive play-caller Bill O’Brien) thought their best chance was a short arrow route to the flat—for both plays! The Belichick-Weis combo of 2003/2004 would have undoubtedly given the ball to Antowain Smith or Corey Dillon and asked questions later while Brady knelt on the ball in victory formation.

The defensive line is suddenly a question mark. Fans, as recently as a year ago, the Pats’ defensive line was without a doubt the best in football. With Jarvis Green, Richard Seymour, and Wilfork on the line (with outside linebacker help in Mike Vrabel and a productive Adalius Thomas), the Patriots controlled the line of scrimmage on the defensive end and forced teams to adjust their offenses accordingly. Then, in the 2009 preseason, Belichick first traded Vrabel to the Chiefs (along with Cassel) and packaged Seymour to the hapless Raiders for a future first-round pick. A shrewd move, yes, because Seymour surely would have walked away after this season with no compensation for the team. But now with Wilfork’s contract status unclear (with a franchise tag almost certain) and Thomas going completely in the tank mentally and physically after Bill sent him home from practice one morning, the status of the defensive line is quite unstable. Wilfork was been outspoken about his unhappiness with the prospect of being franchised, calling it a sign of disrespect (although few objective observers would consider a guaranteed contract that puts you among the five highest paid players at your position disrespectful).

And so, fellow Patriots fans, I propose to you a series of moves which will put our team back on top for 2010 and beyond. Just as China and India aren’t sitting around, letting the United States complacently stay on top of the global economics race, the Jets, Colts, Steelers, Ravens, and Chargers aren’t going to sit around this offseason and allow the Pats to reclaim their spot as AFC royalty. Here is what needs to be done.

1. Franchise Wilfork. Then sign him to an extension. Pay the man! Too bad if Vince feels disrespected by the franchise tag. I’m sure the fifteen BMW’s he’ll be able to pay cash for will help him get over that really quickly. In the meantime, sign him to a front-loaded extension (since 2010 will probably be an uncapped year and you don’t want to tie up too much money in back-loaded deals not knowing what the CBA will look like in ’11 and beyond).

2. Draft a stud linebacker who can rush the passer. I’m not a draft guru and I don’t even know if one is out there. But they got Mayo two years ago. And Belichick used to coach Lawrence Taylor for God’s sake, so he knows how to work with someone who can get to the quarterback. Tully Banta-Cain can’t be their only answer at that spot if they expect to compete for the AFC title.

3. Salvage Laurence Maroney… or say “See ya, saw ya” to him. Maroney’s fumble-itis around the goal line this year was maddening. His fumbles might have single-handedly cost the team two wins, maybe more. Maroney can still be a solid back, as evidenced by his increased productivity this season when he chose to run hard and stop dancing around the holes. If Maroney can’t be a dependable back the way Smith and Dillon were (and Smith was a journeyman who didn’t have half the natural talent Maroney is blessed with), then he needs to be jettisoned. The experiment has gone on long enough, and 2010 is a make-or-break year.

4. Get some real coordinators. I couldn’t believe that both Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel were back on the market this year, and the Patriots are losing both O’Brien and defensive coordinator Dean Pees (gone to the Ravens to be a linebackers coach… I guess if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em) and Weis and Crennel are going to Kansas City, instead. I realize that it might be wishful thinking to expect that hiring the coordinators responsible for the three Lombardi Trophies would bring back those glory days, but it should be noted that Belichick hasn’t won a title without his chubby right-hand men (much like Bill Parcells never won a title without Belichick). Maybe Bill can sweet-talk his buddy (and Parcells’ son-in-law, KC general manager Scott Pioli) to sending the two fat men back to Foxborough for a 2010 reunion tour that will top Michael Jackson’s 1984 “Victory” tour that almost bankrupted the team’s owner at the time, Billy Sullivan.

So, Nation, that is my four-point stimulus package for the return to greatness for our beloved Patriots. Since we last watched Bob Kraft, Belichick, and Brady hoist the Lombardi back in Jacksonville on that cold winter day in 2005, we have had to endure two Steelers titles, two Colts AFC titles (and at least one SB title at the time of writing this article), and the ascendance of the Jets as the team to beat in the AFC East for 2010.

Once again, the State of our Patriots Union is strong. Let it be known that for us as fans, the cause of fandom endures, the hope for more playoff victories lives, and the dream of another Super Bowl title will never die.

God bless you all. And God bless the New England Patriots franchise.

[THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE AS BAND PLAYS “SHIPPING UP TO BOSTON” AND SPEAKER LEAVES PODIUM]

This article is not going to be like anything I’ve ever written before because, quite simply, I’m jealous. And it shows.

Because I’m smarter than almost every head football coach, at least in terms of something as simple as clock management. And while I’m watching people with bigger contracts than the economy of Tuvalu make juvenile errors without anyone pointing out their errors, it makes me sick.

If you’re going to make $2 million a year to stand on the sidelines, eat cheeseburgers, and invent facial expressions that would embarrass even Wade Phillips, then maybe, just maybe you should be able to control the clock.

With the only exclusions of Bill Belichick and, for some reason, Dave Wannstedt, coaches just can’t seem to get it right. Over my decade carefully studying late-game clock management, those two reign above everyone else, calling plays and doling timeouts that used the clock to their advantage, regardless of how good (or in Wannstedt’s case, bad), they were outside of the proverbial final two minutes.

So for the rest of this article, let’s exclude those two coaches from this discussion.

But Week 5, oh man, that might have been the worst. No fewer than four NFL coaches, and I only saw four games, screwed up, royally. They flat-out screwed up.

First, there was Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals.

With six seconds left in the first half, Lewis called timeout to get his punt return team onto the field. His opponent, the Baltimore Ravens, were facing fourth down from around midfield. Sadly, this was not Lewis’s only mistake in a ten second period.

Lewis should have called timeout with 15 seconds left in the half, after Ray Rice was tackled in bounds two yards shy of a first down. This would have forced the Ravens to punt.

But Baltimore was content, being out of time outs, to let the time run out.

So Lewis, being nothing shy of incompetent at clock management, called a time out. With six seconds to go. Also known as enough to time to run one play that will run out the clock.

Now, instead of punting, John Harbaugh sent Joe Flacco and the offense back onto the field to attempt to throw a hail mary.

Two major mistakes in ten seconds that could have cost his team a game. And Lewis is a leading candidate for coach of the year?

But that’s not enough. How about we have the exact same situation. In another game. Being played almost simultaneously.

Wade Phillips of the Dallas Cowboys was faced with the same situation. And let the clock run. Until he called time out. With seven seconds left.

But, somehow, Phillips was made to look like a genius, because Kansas City head coach Todd Haley still chose to punt instead of throwing a hail mary.

In case you were wondering what Belichick would do in the same situation, I’d bet you anything that he  would have called timeout with, say, 22 seconds left.

How do I know? Because he did so! That same day! With the game on the line!

After Kyle Orton was sacked at midfield, Belichick immediately called a timeout, leaving 22 seconds on the clock and the Broncos stuck with a 4th and 15 situation.

Had Belichick let the clock run, the Broncos could have lined up and snapped the ball with a second left, giving them a chance at a hail mary that would have won the game. I had already seen Baltimore attempt it and Kansas City mindlessly turn away the opportunity.

But Belichick took that option away, leaving too much time on the clock for Josh McDaniels to try a hail mary.

Brilliant, or just not stupid, either way, Belichick, unlike Lewis, Phillips, and Haley, did his job.

But the icing on the cake occurred on Monday night.

To say that Rex Ryan was incompetent would be like saying Walt Disney was a chain smoker, or Mickey Mouse is a popular children’s cartoon.

Ryan, the rookie head coach of the New York Jets, instead of finding a way to conserve some time for his offense as the Miami Dolphins marched down the field in the final five minutes of the game, let the Dolphins run the clock to only six seconds before they scored.

If Ryan were competent, if for just a second of his seven-figure salary he knew how to use the clock to give his team a chance to win, Ryan would have called a timeout when the Dolphins had first and goal inside the five with about 50 seconds to play. Instead, the Dolphins ran off half a minute before their next play.

I run three awards that pertain to this lack of clock management skills, each named for a proponent of this movement in football coaching towards not understanding how to use the clock.

In college football, I give out the Tommy West Award to the coach who shows the worst late game clock management. It is named for Memphis coach Tommy West, who epitomizes this skill.

In 2007, the Tommy was awarded to Rich Brooks of Kentucky, who made the exact same mistake as Marvin Lewis and Wade Phillips. Instead of calling timeout with thirty seconds to go against Louisiana State, the Tigers ran the clock down to five seconds before they called a timeout.

The game was tied, but now instead of punting, Les Miles sent out the field goal unit to attempt a 57-yard field goal to win the game.

Had Brooks called a timeout, Miles could not have sent out the field goal team, as had the kicker missed, and he did miss, Kentucky would be only 15-20 yards from field goal range itself. Moreover, even if he had attempted a field goal and made it, Kentucky would still have time left to try to match the result.

Brooks, in plainer words, chose the one thing that a competent coach would never have chosen to do.

But I digress.

The professional version of the Tommy is the Andy, named for Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid.

I also give out the Randy, named for Randy Shannon of the University of Miami. That award goes to the worst clock management in a Bowl Game.

Maybe I’m just bitter, or maybe it is jealousy. Either way, something is wrong if I can sit back on a sofa in Pflugerville, Texas and wonder how a coach can just not understand clock management. It’s really not that difficult.

With all the strategy that goes into football, clock management has become the lost art.

Except, of course, if you’re Belichick.

Those three rings make a lot more sense now, don’t they?

By Ryan McGowan

The Patriots are done.   Tom Brady is done.  Bill Belichick is cooked.

It’s over.

Jason Whitlock thinks Tom Brady’s time is over.  Bill Simmons thinks the Patriots might go 5-11 this season.   Fans all over the country, even right here in the 617, are wondering where the Patriots Elimination Parties are going to be held in Week 11 with their record sitting at 2-9.

Because when it comes to the Patriots, every game is magnified to be a microcosm of the decline and fall of the Belichickian Empire.  The result of every quarter is symbolic of the larger script that the national press and fandom desperately want to believe.  Every play is blown up to take on greater meaning in the grand cosmic scheme of the Patriots’ downfall.

So the Patriots barely squeak by a fired-up, playing-like-it’s-their-Super-Bowl division rival in Week One, a team that hasn’t won in Foxborough since before Gillette Stadium was even built, and the whispers start.  They’re done.  Brady is rattled.  He’s thinking about the knee.  He won’t ever be the same again.  The Bills almost beat them—there’s your proof. Even though we all know that “almost” only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and aiming at a urinal.

Meanwhile, all TB12 does is rack up AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors (for the 13th time in his career) and lead yet another fourth quarter comeback.  Without, of course, the team’s best defensive player, who hurt his knee in the first quarter.

Then in week 2, the Pats thoroughly dominated the first half in the Meadowlands.  They cause wunderkind Mark Sanchez to drizzle urine down his leg and fumble on the first play from scrimmage, and they drive three times deep into Jets territory only to watch college QB turned possession receiver Julian Edelman drop a sure-fire touchdown pass inside the five.  The Jets D mercifully escapes with three field goals and a 9-3 Pats lead at halftime.  Sanchez gets one good drive to start the third quarter, and the Jets  defense buckles down for a 16-9 win at home.  What could have easily been a 24-3 blowout at halftime somehow becomes the primal evidence that Tom Brady’s days as a viable NFL quarterback are over.

The Jets are a good football team.  Rex Ryan is a damn good football coach, who pulled out all the stops against New England, including having every ex-Patriot on the team serve as team captain, not to mention his legendary reverse-911 voice mail to season-ticket holders.  They were playing their home opener.  The Pats’ best defensive player was again out.

Yet somehow this loss causes the national guys (which includes Simmons, who has been in Hollywood way too long to even earn any street cred as a Boston fan anymore) to go completely insane and pronounce the Sacrament of Last Rites for the New England Patriots.

No other team gets such ridiculous scrutiny and jumping to conclusions.  The Colts start off slow last year, and the media give Peyton Manning the benefit of the doubt.  (Why?  Because he was coming off knee surgery.  Sound familiar?)  He’ll come around, they said.  He’s just got to find his timing again and get back on track with his receivers. But when Brady is coming off knee surgery, and is without his best over-the-middle guy in Wes Welker and with his best deep threat, Randy Moss, aching in his lower back, it’s proof that he’s as washed up as Amelia Earhardt on a remote Pacific island.

One of Whitlock’s anointed successors, Big Bad Ben Roethlisberger, has him team at 1-2, having lost back-to-back games to the Bears and Bengals.  (The Bengals!)  Where is the outcry for the fallen Super Bowl champs?  Where is the clamor for the “changing of the guard” from the Steelers to the Jets or Ravens or Saints or whoever this week’s flavor du jour is?

It’s because for whatever reason, when it comes to the Patriots, everything is a microcosm for something larger.  Minutiae becomes hyperbole.  New England comes one Eli Manning pass short of a 19-0 season and all of a sudden they go from the greatest team in history to the biggest group of losers ever assembled.  Eric Mangini tattles that Belichick kept film on other team’s sideline signals on file to study for future reference, and the entire country assails the Hooded One for the most vile form of cheating and demands that asterisks be placed in front of all three Super Bowl titles.  Eagles players demand their stolen rings from SB XXXIX.

Then it’s revealed that Mangini himself and Mike Tannenbaum manipulated the injury list last season so as to keep an obviously hurt Brett Favre from appearing (a practice, by the way, that probably had a hell of a lot more effect on the outcome of games than the Patriots having a tape to study an opponent’s hand signals weeks later ever had) and no one even bats an eyelash.  The Jets pay their fine, everyone moves on.

Where’s Gregg Easterbrook opining about Mangini representing everything that’s wrong with the world?  Where’s Tom Jackson demanding that the Jets’ 34-31 overtime victory over the Patriots in Week 11 (a game which, ultimately, kept the Patriots from winning the division and going to the playoff last season) be overturned and awarded to the Patriots?  Where is Roger Goodell sodomizing the Jets for half a million dollars and a first-round draft pick?

They say that the attention paid to someone is the best compliment you could give him.  The liberal blogosphere hates Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck, and the right-wing punditry despises Michael Moore, Bill Maher, and Obama himself, but the very fact that these people are constantly ripped in print just proves to their supporters how relevant they are.  Maybe no one cares about Mangini and the Jets because they haven’t really been relevant since Joe Willie was making poolside drunken guarantees.

So for all my complaining, the fact that the media even takes the time to slobber over the supposed demise of the once-great Patriots must be some consolation in and of itself.  It’s proof that the franchise remains relevant, even if by “relevant” I really mean “despised.”

But Masshole Nation, of course, has no problem with being despised.  Pretty much our entire way of life is a big F-you to the rest of the nation.  We don’t watch NASCAR.   We don’t care if you think people are nicer and friendlier in the Midwest.  We couldn’t care less if you played by one set of drinking game rules where you came from and we play by another.  We don’t care if our streets are confusing; buy a friggin’ map.  This is the way it is in New England.

So the national media and fandom can keep hating on the Patriots and celebrating every perception of their fallibility as proof of a divine power.  It will just make it all the more sweet for the next time Bob Kraft hosts the Lombardi Trophy high over his head on a Sunday night in February.

Each year, I’m more and more convinced that the NFL’s Coach of the Year Award goes to the most improved team without regard to actual coaching ability.

As expected, the Coach of the Year Award came down to Tony Sparano of the Miami Dolphins and Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons, who took over teams with a combined five wins in 2007 and turned out a pair of 11-5 records.

As expected, the man who did the best job in football got absolutely none.

Sparano and Smith’s accomplishments aside, tell me how Gary Kubiak was not even a candidate? You want to know why? His team did not improve in the standings.

Okay, Bill Belichick got one vote even though his team dropped from 16-0 to 11-5, but that was after Tom Brady went down during Week One. Oh, and the Patriots are routinely under the spotlight.

Houston? If it were not for this article, I doubt you’d remember that its season was doomed from the start.

As the Texans were preparing for its Week Two game against the Baltimore Ravens in Reliant Stadium, Hurricane Ike was moving across the Gulf of Mexico towards Galveston as a Category 2 storm. The NFL made the decision to postpone the game, eventually rescheduling it for Week 10, Baltimore’s bye-week. The Texans moved their game against Cincinnati from Week 10 to Week 8, the bye for both teams.

Ike tore through the Houston metropolitan area with winds that were one mile-per-hour shy of being considered a major hurricane. Street lights went down, trees were uprooted across main street, windows were shattered out of almost every major building, houses were destroyed. One of my friends who stayed had part of her roof dislodged, water pouring in as she lay down every towel and sheet to sop up the water to keep her floors from rotting.

Least of all, the roof of the Reliant Stadium, a retractable-dome stadium, had a few measly panels blown out.

And the players came back to all of this.

Well, sort-of. The team played its next two games on the road, having already lost at Pittsburgh. And those two teams had both made the playoffs in 2007.

Couple that with a collapse in the homecoming on October 5 against the Indianapolis Colts, and the Texans were 0-4 with 30 percent of Houston proper and nearly half of the greater Houston area still without power.

Comparisons were being made to the Saints lost season of 2005. After Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were forced to play home games in three different states, one of which you could barely call a home game. Their Week Two game against the New York Giants was played in Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands. To further the illusion that the Saints were the home team, one of the end zones was painted Black and Gold while the same colors were put over the blue padding around the same end zone.

The rest of their home games alternated between the Alamodome in San Antonio and Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.

The Saints collapsed after a 2-2 start, finishing 3-13 and firing Jim Haslett. Their only win during that stretch oddly enough came in their return to the Meadowlands, this time as the road team, against the New York Jets.

While I’m not going to compare Ike to Katrina in terms of its affect on a city, as what Ike did to Houston pales miserably, but in terms of people affected and lives altered, the storms rank side-by-side among the most potent in modern U.S. History. No doubt, comparing the seasons seemed accurate after Week Five.

The team rattled off three consecutive wins, including an improbable win against the Dolphins in which they had to complete two fourth downs, the latter coming with only three seconds remaining, in order to score the season-saving touchdown.

On fourth-and-two on the Dolphins three yard line, Matt Schaub kept it himself on a designed draw to put the Texans ahead and break the resolve of the much-improved Dolphins.

Yet as soon as the three-game winning streak was snapped, the team saw its season come to a crashing halt. In consecutive days, the Texans lost quarterback Matt Schaub and linebacker Zac Diles, the latter for the rest of the season. Diles at the time was leading the team in tackles.

Schaub had torn his medical collateral ligament in his left knee and would miss the next five games.

Diles broke his leg in a freak non-contact drill after apparently accidentally kicking himself while jogging.

The Texans slumped to 3-7 and .500 seemed a pipe-dream away.

But Kubiak kept the team together.

After six seasons of generally awful play, the Texans found an offensive line for the first time in the franchise’s history. For all sixteen games, the team started the same five people, giving a continuity that had been far from present before. In 2006, for instance, the team started eight different combinations over the course of the season. They surrendered only 32 sacks, the second-least in franchise history.

Moreover, the team found a running back, as rookie Steve Slaton stepped in even as all the other halfbacks around him got hurt, rushing for an NFL rookie-high 1282 yards. In what seems to be a trend, he too failed to register even a single vote for NFL Rookie of the Year, which went to Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Matt Ryan.

By the way, the Coach of the Year award went to Atlanta head coach Mike Smith. I told you, trend.

The defense struggled, surrendering 394 points, sixth-most in the NFL. The offense only scored 366, 17th-best in the league. Of the 21 teams to win at least eight games, only the Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos had a worse point differential than the Texans. Two teams with losing records, the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers, were substantially better.

But despite everything: despite not having a defense, despite losing their quarterback for a third of the season, despite losing their leading tackler for half the season, despite getting off to an 0-4 start against tough teams, they overcame it. Most importantly, they survived and overcame Hurricane Ike.

And after the precedent New Orleans set, that last thing is key.

Kubiak kept the team together. He led them down the field against the Dolphins when it looked like the Texans and Lions matchup Week Seven would be both team’s only chance to avoid an 0-16 season. He got them to 8-8, beating Tennessee and knocking Chicago out of playoff contention in the process.

Kubiak beat Hurricane Ike.

Sure, it has been done before.

Don Shula beat Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The Dolphins Week One game against the New England Patriots in Joe Robbie Stadium was moved to Week Seven, costing the Dolphins the benefits of a bye week. Still, they started 6-0 and made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game.

But that team had an established, Hall-of-Fame quarterback, two high end wide receivers, a solid, deep defense with a great secondary, and a very good, very young offensive line.

The 2008 Houston Texans had none of that and still managed to win eight games in the toughest division in football. And you’re telling me Gary Kubiak didn’t even deserve a whisper for Coach of the Year? Pathetic.

You can go on and on about Mike Smith and Tony Sparano until your head hurts, but that’s not all-inclusive. Just because the Texans finished 2008 as it did 2007 should not eliminate Kubiak from the conversation.

After everything they went through, it should only propel him.

It did not, and that’s a joke. A pathetic, insulting joke.

By Ryan McGowan

There will be a head coach from some NFL team who will raise the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Raymond James Stadium on February 1, 2009.  It very well might be Tony Dungy and the Colts for a second time.  Perhaps it will be Mike Tomlin of the Steelers, or Tom Coughlin of the Giants in a repeat.  Maybe even a dark horse rookie such as the Falcons’ Mike Smith or the Ravens’ John Harbaugh.   One thing is certain, though–whoever it is will have a giant asterisk next to his name.

The 2008 NFL playoffs (or “the tournament”, as Bill Parcells likes to say) will be conducted for the first time in six years without the New England Patriots, and the rest of the league can breathe a sigh of relief.  

First of all, this is not going to be an arbitrarily argued rant about how the NFL needs to change its playoff format.  There has been talk that the NFL needs to go to a seeded tournament; I’m not sure that drastic change is necessary.  The NFL playoffs are certainly not like the BCS in which slights and egregious omissions happen every year.   In fact, the playoff and tiebreaker system has been generous to the Pats in the past (see: 2001 playoffs), so this is not sour grapes of a disgruntled fan.

Simply put, despite injuries that piled up like the body count in a Terminator movie and having the proverbial bullseye on their back for every game after their historic 2007 regular season, the 2008 Patriots emerged as the best story of the NFL season.

The national media doesn’t want you to think that.  Tired of the Patriots and annoyed at Bill Belichick’s say-nothing press conferences and loose-lips-sink-ships disclosure policies, the ESPNs and SportsColumns of the world want you to believe that the Falcons, Dolphins, Ravens, Colts, or even the Giants are better stories.  They want to focus on the dysfunction in Dallas or the myopia in the Meadowlands.  But the Patriots, despite being universally loathed for nothing more than their consistent and sustained excellence this decade, are the best story.

It might be quite a dubious honor to become, within the same calendar year, both the best team in history not to win the Super Bowl and the best team in history not to make the playoffs.  Perhaps that was the karmic revenge of the football gods for the videotaping rule infringement and the “running up the score” fiasco of ‘07.  But not even the most vocal Patriot-hater of them all, Gregg Easterbrook of ESPN, wouldn’t wish the run of bad luck that soiled the season in Foxborough this year on his worst enemy.

We don’t need to name all the iconic players that ended up on injured reserve this season, nor do we need to rehash the biggest injury of them all, to the heart and soul of the franchise, the man whom Belichick calls the greatest football player he has ever coached.

In stepped an untested backup who hadn’t started a game since high school, but had benefited from playing in perhaps the best college program in the country as well as the best professional organization of this century.  And from the moment he threw his first pass from his own 1-yard line for a 50-yard completion to Randy Moss, Matt Cassel showed that not only does he belong as a starting quarterback in the league, that he has the tools, intelligence, and desire to be an elite quarterback in the league.  And only Belichick, despite the calls from fans and local media that the four-year Cassel experiment has failed and the team needs a proven veteran quarterback, was vindicated for being the only one to have kept the faith in his new star quarterback.  

Sure, there were bumps along the way.  There were embarrassing dismantlings at the hands of the Dolphins and Steelers at home, and the Chargers on the road.  There were tight, excruciating losses to the Colts and the Jets that could have gone either way with a Jabar Gaffney catch here or a third down stop there.  But there were also thorough beat-downs of the Broncos, the Raiders, the Cardinals, and those same Dolphins late in the season.  There was the exclamation point on the season, the Week 17 shutout of the Bills in Buffalo that will forever be remembered as the Wind Game as well as the game in which Belichick made Dick Jauron look like an overmatched Pop Warner mom who was calling plays for the first time.

Surely enough, the 2008 season will be remembered as Belichick’s best coaching job ever.  How many games would this year’s team have won had Wade Phillips been at the helm?  Six?  How about Norv Turner?  Would the Pats have gone 8-8 under Norv just as his Chargers did?  Would Rod Marinelli have managed to eke out three wins with this team?  The fact that the Pats finished with 11 wins despite their circumstances, and managed to pummel some teams with a hell of a lot more talent on the field than they did, was testament to Belichick’s peerless masterdom of his profession.  When’s the last time anyone cited Belichick’s record without Tom Brady as proof that the Hooded One was overrated and that his star was forever tied to the Golden Boy?  Does anyone out there still doubt that BB is the greatest NFL coach of this era and perhaps of all time?

After Week 17, the Patriots were playing as well as, if not better than, every other team in the league.  Their downfall is a result of some hiccups early in the season as Cassel struggled to find his rhythm and the defense adjusted to its laundry list of injuries.  Win just one of those close games, and 12-4 is certainly enough to get into the playoffs.  In most years, 11-5 is more than enough.  In 2001, 11-5 was enough to get the Patriots a first-round bye on their way to the Super Bowl XXXVI title.  This year, it was a weaker conference record that allowed Miami to claim the division title and Baltimore to claim the final wild card.

The Dolphins and Ravens should be congratulated for taking care of business within the division and conference, and the Patriots won’t be whining about being shut out of the playoffs.  But the twelve remaining playoff teams should be ecstatic that the best team in the NFL right now is on the sidelines.

We can be certain that Belichick and the Patriots are not only resting up for next year, but the team now has one more chip on its shoulder as it fights to reclaim the Lombardi Trophy for the Team of the Decade.

If there is anything the 2008 season proved, it is that the Patriot Way is alive and strong.  All the talk about an aging defense and the collapse of the team’s winning culture after the Giants loss is all subordinate to the unflinching resolve of a team that could have pulled a Dallas Cowboys and gotten themselves embarrassed in a most disgusting manner with their season on the line.  And with a reloaded cast of young stars such as Jerod Mayo, Brandon Meriwether, and Jonathan Wilhite to go along with the old reliables, the Patriots brand is in no danger of going the way of the Raiders any time soon.

Be afraid, NFL.  Be very afraid.  The Revenge Tour 2009 has already started.  And this year’s champion*, whoever it ends up being, is Target #1.

Last week the Washington Redskins faced off against the NFC leading Cowboys. The Redskins lost. This was not a surprise. The Cowboys were clear favorites. Terrell Owens scored four touchdowns. The Redskins were missing Sean Taylor. This was a game the Redskins were supposed to lose. Something surprising happened last Sunday afternoon though. The Redskins should have won the game.

Despite troubles in the secondary and a career game from TO, the Redskins should have won. They were in position to do so and I am not referring to only the final couple drives where all the pressure was on Jason Campbell to deliver in the most difficult of situations. Admittedly, Campbell came up short at the end of the best game of his young career. However, it was Joe Gibbs and his staff who put Campbell in the position to fail.
Two times in the second half, when it was apparent that the Redskins could not stop the Cowboy passing game, the Redskins did not go for it on fourth down and less than three yards to go. Late in the third quarter the Redskins punted from the Cowboys forty yard line. The Cowboys promptly drove down the field for a touchdown. Halfway through the fourth quarter, trailing by a touchdown and facing fourth and one, the Redskins opted for a field goal instead of going for it. Again the Cowboys responded by marching down the field for another TO touchdown catch.

The Redskins should have had a play that will gain two yards when they were needed. Especially on a day when the offense was clicking. Especially with an offense that is supposed to be centered around hard nosed running. The commentators were impressed with how well the Redskins were moving the ball but all the Redskins had to show for it was three points. But the Redskins were playing well enough to win. Twice they were marching. Twice they had good field position. If there were ever times to be bold those were the times. Instead the coaching staff played it safe, taking the game out of the hands of players. They were rewarded with a loss following awkwardly rushed final drives.

Later that day I sat watching the Patriots game. One play stuck out in my mind. Facing third and ten from the Bills forty yard line Tom Brady hit Randy Moss for a touchdown. This by itself is not particularly surprising or interesting. However, on the replay I noticed something strange about how Moss got so open. Randy Moss and Wes Welker both lined up wide right and both ran deep patterns. Welker ran a deep post up the middle, pulling the safety along with him, leaving Moss with only a cornerback to attempt to cover him one on one. Touchdown. This is notable because Belichick showed no fear in his play calling. There was no ten yard crossing route that the linebackers could sit on. Belichick was rolling the dice on a well designed deep passing play, letting his best players make plays for him. He was rewarded for his bold but logical decision making. In a league that is always becoming more risk averse the bold play is often the smart play. Belichick regularly goes for it on fourth down and short because he knows that more than likely his team, as with almost every team in the NFL, can gain those one or two yards whenever they are needed. In a copycat league this is something that should probably be copied.

This week Joe Gibbs adjusted well. Twice he went for it on fourth and short in the second half when the Redskins needed to put points on the board. Once he even passed up an easy field goal to take the risk. His players failed to convert on one of them. I still stand by his call. His players should have been able to find a way to push their way to a one yard gain. A first down would likely have led to a touchdown which would have meant the lead. Considering how poor the Tampa Bay offense played taking the lead in the fourth quarter would have almost guaranteed a victory. Joe Gibbs let his players decide the game and this time it was they who came up short, not him. Even with the failed fourth down conversions the Redskins were in a position to win with Jason Campbell marching the team to within striking distance of the winning touchdown. The situation was eerily similar to last week’s and once again Campbell came up short. Not a good omen for the future. This time however, it was Campbell himself and the players around him who put him in a position to fail. Six turnovers ended up being too much to overcome. The Redskins were the better team today and once again should have won. My faith in Joe Gibbs has been temporarily restored as he adjusted well and gave his players a chance to win. This time they let him and themselves down. Hopefully today’s result won’t deter him from continuing to be open to some smart risk taking.

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