The Patriots are losing to the Bills and the Red Sox have gone from 9 games up in the AL Wild Card race to only 1 game up in the last 22 days. The city of Boston mine as well be on fire as full-fledged panic is running rampant. I must first start by saying thank you to Jacoby Ellsbury for for putting some water on the flames with a game winning 3-run homer in the 14th inning against the Yankees last night.
That said, let’s start with the Patriots.
The Patriots started out on fire against the Bills, taking a 21-0 lead on 3 Tom Brady touchdown passes. From there on out, the Patriots were exposed as beatable team, much as I mentioned last week following the Chargers game. A perfect storm of sorts cost the Pats the game as time expired, with 4 major factors contributing to the loss:
1) Tom Brady decided to throw more touchdown passes yesterday than he did all of last season.
2) New England’s defense decided to be absolutely atrocious, showing a complete inability to stop Buffalo even after Brady put the interceptions behind him and the Pats ahead with only a few minutes left in the game.
3) Buffalo played football as if they were a team inspired to end a 15 game losing streak to the Pats – kudos to them.
4) A controversial call was overturned on the 1-yard line with 1:42 left to play in the game. Rather than the play being called a touchdown, the Bills were ruled down at the one and thus were able to take a knee on consecutive downs, running the clock down before kicking a game winning 28-yard field goal.
While all of these factors played a role in the game, I need to apologize to all New England fans for this loss – it was my fault. While I acknowledged that this game would likely be a shoot out (it was), I had enough confidence in the Pats ability to win the at I disappeared to New York for the weekend. Next thing you know, Eli Manning looks like he knows how to play football and Tom Brady suddenly can’t. Lesson learned – I’ll never leave Boston again. At least the Jets also managed to lose.
On to the Red Sox.
To be honest, I am very much not concerned with the Patriots loss but I’m hyperventilating a bit with regards to the Red Sox. At this point I hold no faith in the 89% chance the Red Sox still have to make the playoffs – BS I say, they are one lousy game up with 3 games to play in the season. Anything can happen, and this team is way too good to go out like this. I’m hoping they man up and play with some hunger, but I can’t say that I’m overly optimistic. They’ve given me no reason to be as of late.
I basically look at it like this – I need either a Super Bowl or a World Series victory out of Boston this year. I know those are high demands, but I really do. I think both of these teams were set up to win, and if they both fall flat that will be tough to swallow. I definitely think the Pats have a better shot than the Red Sox, but nothing is more fun that watching the Sox play in October in Boston. I’ll be glued to the TV the next several nights hoping my boys can pull it out. Oh, and the Pats play at the Raiders next week in a game that could very easily get away from them. With a Bills win next week and a Pats loss, the division could quickly be slipping away from them.
This next week will be very telling – will the Sox and Patriots man up, or will Boston’s teams melt?
Boston will be in the playoffs. Assuming you win 2 out of 3 and the rays won’t be sweeping the Yankees the red sox will be in the playoffs. If you only manage 1 win against Baltimore you don’t deserve to make the playoffs.
I think A) There’s pretty good odds the Rays sweep. They are hungry as hell and will be playing a very depleted team. B) There’s a good chance the Sox lose 2 of 3 to Baltimore, who showed last week they are going all out to make Boston suffer.
To be fair the Orioles seem to want everyone to suffer
As they should. They’ve suffered quite a bit.
Remember when the orioles did this last year and everyone thought they would do good this year?
Nope, they don’t deserve to make the playoffs.
How about a little love for JD Drew for playing in pain tho?
JD Drew consistently fails to impress me.
You are more then welcome to come back to NYC at any time if these are the results we are going to see.
I will never return!
you will be back, and was that something nice said about eli? NYC made you soft.
That’s what it does. Hang out with a bunch of soft people, turn soft. Boston is like living The Departed each and every day. I’ll get my swagger back soon enough.
you worried about the pats D yet?
I am! They are on my fantasy team!
Yeah well I got Kenny Britt, Ill trade you.
I do too. Damn it.
That’s rough then.
It’s still only game 3. I’d say there is reason for concern, but I still think they’ll be solid. Also, with the way the NFL has gone this year it seems as though there are very few teams that shouldn’t be worried about their D.
You know I probably win out on that trade.