Give ‘em a “C” for creativity
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Some are scrappers. Some are underachievers. Some are so bland that the fact they have no true identity is actually what separates them from everyone else.
While this year’s New England Patriots will never be as explosive as the 2007 team, or as resilient as the 2004 edition, they are, without question, the most creative team of the Bill Belichick era. That’s their identity. That’s what will be scribbled inside the cover of their yearbook.
The 2010 Patriots are football’s starving artists, slapping paint against a canvas in hopes of recreating the Mona Lisa. Last night, they drew up a masterpiece worthy of a spot among the most memorable moments in recent franchise history – a lofty honor considering everything this team has accomplished within the past nine years.
Despite allowing 400 yards of offense and getting absolutely nothing from Randy Moss, who failed to catch a pass for the first time in 52 games as a Patriot, New England routed Miami, 41-14, on Monday Night Football, scoring touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams for the second time this season.
Last night’s rout gave new meaning to the term, “finding ways to win.” This wasn’t as pretty as the final score might indicate. In fact, the game got off to an auspicious start with Dolphins quarterback Chad Henne completing his first seven pass attempts.
For a while, it looked like it’d be another shootout, similar to last week’s grotesque 38-30 win over the woeful Bills, but somewhere between all the completions and yards racked up by Miami’s offense, the Patriots snagged four interceptions and turned in the mother of all special teams’ performances.
Safety Patrick Chung blocked a punt and a field goal, the latter which resulted in Kyle Arrington’s 35-yard return for a touchdown, and sealed the game with his own touchdown on a 51-yard interception return. Not to be outdone, Brandon Tate opened the second half with a 103-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, his second special teams’ touchdown of the season; ironically, his first came under similar circumstances at the start of the third quarter against Cincinnati.
Common sense tells us you can’t bank on wins like this over the course of an entire season, but try telling that to the Patriots, who have now won two games in four weeks in which they scored in all three phases of the game. As improbable as it seems, the Patriots are masking their obvious flaws on defense by overachieving on special teams, an area of the game often overlooked during the dog days of summer when teams are putting the finishing touches on training camp.
To their credit, the Patriots have never skimped on special teams under Belichick’s direction; they’ve just never been this good this early. They’ve had weapons in the return game – Troy Brown and Ellis Hobbs come to mind – but no rookie has ever made an immediate impact the way Tate has in just four weeks.
At times like this, I wish I had a direct extension for the Elias Sports Bureau, the king of irrelevant statistics. I’d like to know if any team in NFL history has ever scored five touchdowns on defense and special teams through the first four weeks of the season. I’d like to know how many rookies have broken off two kickoff returns for touchdowns in their first four NFL games.
Whether you love or hate the Patriots, you had to chuckle at the absurdity of last night’s game. Even Bill Belichick found it funny. Asked how his special teams’ unit played, Belichick paused for a few second and said, “Eh … They were alright,” before cracking his trademark smirk.
They deserve to smile. Despite still being ranked among the NFL’s bottom-feeders on defense (29th in points per game allowed), the Patriots are 3-1 heading into the bye week and must feel pretty good about themselves knowing it’ll be difficult to play much worse than they already have on defense.
Furthermore, there’s now a clear divide between the contenders and pretenders in the AFC East. The Bills are terrible and the Dolphins aren’t much better, and most of that has to do with the fact both teams have mistake-prone quarterbacks who can’t get out of their own way. As long as the Patriots have had Brady, they’ve always had a chance, and now they’ve got an opportunistic special teams’ unit in addition to having one of the league’s three elite quarterbacks.
The lone blemish on New England’s record is that Week 2 loss to the Jets, which gives New York a temporary edge in the division race. Whether the Patriots are good enough to surge past their longtime rivals remains to be seen, but at least we now know any failure to do so certainly won’t be for a lack of creativity.
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