Patriots vs. Giants: Defensive Line

Posted on January 26, 2012 by davecouture

Today we will take a look at the defensive lines of the Giants and the Patriots, I know this might be the best part of the Patriots defense (not saying much), but I think you all know where this one is going.

The Giants have arguably the best pass rush in the whole NFL. There isn’t a team that can pressure the quarterback without blitzing the way the Giants can. I hate bringing it up as much as the next guy; but when the Patriots matched up against the Giants last time in the Super Bowl their offensive line got exposed by the rush of the Giants. On many passing downs the Giants will switch off D-Tackle Linval Joseph and they will go with a four man front of Umenyiora, Tuck, Pierre-Paul, and Kiwanuka. The fact that the Giants pass defense is as bad as it is when they often times have no need to blitz and can keep many players back in coverage really shows how inept their secondary is. A combination like that possesses more speed up front than any D-Line in the NFL. The bright spot of their defensive line has to be Jason Pierre-Paul. He leads the team with 16.5 sacks so far this season. Osi Umenyiora isn’t to bad himself; he’s only played in nine games this year and has still recorded 9 sacks. Expect Brady to make many changes at the line of scrimmage based on the personnel the Giants send out there. This game is going to come down to the success both sides have in the trenches.

Overall Grade: A

The Patriots defensive line is very solid. They have a big presence in the middle with Big Vince clogging up all the running holes, and he even showed last week he could get after the quarterback as well. The loss of Andre Carter certainly didn’t help the pass rush, but veteran Mark Anderson has stepped right in and recorded 10 sacks this season. Like many positions on this team, the Patriots have a constant rotation on the D-Line. Kyle Love, Brandon Deadrick, Shaun Ellis and Gerard Warren always move in and out of the game. You have to be confident the Patriots run defense shouldn’t be the main issue against a team that often times forgets they have a running back. Overall the Patriots defensive line looks solid and should be able to get some pressure on Eli.

Overall Grade: B+

Edge: Giants

Weekend Recap

Posted on January 23, 2012 by jtulz07

I think it’s safe to say this was one of the better weekends Boston has seen in a long while. We’ll start out with the obvious. Patriots are in the Super Bowl once again!! Now, there’s a sentence that never gets old. Although I figured it’d be in a more decisive manner, the Pats came out victorious yesterday, edging the Ravens 23-20 in the AFC Championship. With 27 seconds left I think everyone in the world thought this game was heading for overtime and who knows what could have happened. But the stars were aligned in Foxboro last night as Raven’s kicker Billy Cundiff botched a 32 yard routine field goal to tie the game at 23. Shanks for coming! Has a suicide watch been put on Cundiff yet? I sure hope so. In case anyone was wondering, the Bruins and Celtics both played yesterday too. With the Pats game overshadowing pretty much every other sports game in Boston, the two other teams were victorious on Sunday as well. The Bruins pulled past the Flyers 6-5 with Seguin netting the decisive goal in the shootout. Pierce stepped up his game and showed Boston why he is a Celtic as the team got a much needed win against Wizards 100-94. Both the Bruins and the Celts lost a game as well over the weekend, with the Celts falling to the Suns 79-71 in an ugly showing Friday night while the B’s suffered a very disappointing loss to the Rangers Saturday with just seconds left in overtime. Overall I’d say it was a great weekend in the City of Champions, with the Patriots continuing to prove their domination as they head to their 5^th Super Bowl in 12 years. This is going to be a long two weeks…Happy Monday!

Patriots Preview

Posted on December 29, 2011 by davecouture

The Patriots end their regular season at home on New Years Day this year, and if all goes well they won’t have to play any true away games throughout the playoffs. With a win Sunday the Patriots clinch the top seed in the AFC East and will have a chance to both playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl.

The Bills have looked absolutely terrible in the second half of the season, but did have a pleasant bounce back win against the Tebow led Broncos last week. The Patriots struggled greatly in their previous matchup with the Bills, but I look at that as a fluke. With Fred Jackson on IR and Ryan Fitzpatrick playing like the Fitzpatrick we all got to know in the past this Bills team cannot matchup talent wise with the Patriots and it will show this week. Expect the Pats to come out firing as this game has great playoff implications.

Prediction: Patriots 34 Bills 21

Golf Cart Takes Out Crowd At Cowboys Stadium

Posted on December 19, 2011 by davecouture

Fortunately no one was seriously injured in this accident but this video is just hilarious. The funniest part of this video is the guy that gets taken out, but ends up landing in the driver’s seat. What’s his first instinct? Lets kick my legs up on the front of the cart and hope for it to stop. Once his first brilliant plan failed the guy decided to gracefully barrel roll out of the cart. Wouldn’t your first instinct be to try to stop it by moving the pylon out from under the brake? Nah, screw it. I’ll just jump off and let someone else handle it. Thank god they had that well-educated guy that works at the stadium there to move the bright orange pylon out from under the brake or this really could’ve gotten ugly.

Mayor Menino Speaks Out on Cathedral’s Fist Pumping Loss

Posted on December 7, 2011 by davecouture

Mayor Thomas Menino bashed the MIAA this morning when asked about his opinion on the Cathedral High School Super Bowl loss last Saturday. If you missed the story check it out here(https://tullysportsblog.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/fist-pump-costs-owens-cathedral-h-s-super-bowl-title/). Menino stated, “I think sometimes these rules are written by frustrated athletes,” Menino said on a visit to the high school. “They never participated in a sport, and they don’t know what it is to be excited. You play in a football game, you run for a touchdown, and you do something special.”

Mayor Menino even offered to take the Cathedral football team out to lunch to help ease the pain; although I’m sure it would help much. Of course the MIAA will stand up for the referee that made the call, but what I really want to know is how do they really feel about the situation? Do they honestly think the call on the field was the correct call? The MIAA must adjust these rules. Texas and Massachusetts are the only states in the U.S. that have adopted the NCAA’s rules on taunting. If the NCAA took away touchdowns every time a player so much as raised his hand running into the end zone, all games would end up like the LSU v. Bama’ game earlier this season. Bottom line: This referee took away a Super Bowl title from the more deserving team, and every single possible action needs to be taken to make sure this never happens again.

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