And the Pats lock up the AFC East and home field advantage in the playoffs with this 34-3 win in which they forced the Bills into 7 (seven!) turnovers! The Patriots have turned the ball over 9 times all season.  Brady now has a record 319 passes without an INT, and the Patriots have gone 7 games without a turnover.  Pretty impressive stats!  The Patriots have 9 turnovers on the season, Eli Manning by himself has turned the ball over 25 times (20 INTs and 5 fumbles lost).

Here’s a great excerpt from the Sporting News where Willie McGinest explains one aspect of why Bill Belichick is so successful.

Wrote McGinest: “We were practicing taking a safety back in 2003. Bill put it in for the case where we’d get pinned back in our own territory late in the fourth quarter. We’d take a safety with our punt team, then punt it away on the free kick, pin the other team back and put in our 2-minute offense to win the game.

“So we went over it in practice and most of us are thinking, ‘Wait a minute. If we’re pinned back, the last thing we want to do is take a safety.’ We thought in that scenario time would just run out, so what we’d really do was punt.

“As luck would have it, that very week, that situation came up in the Denver game. We’re pinned back to the goal line, and Bill calls for it. We take the safety and free kick. And we get a great kick, it goes 50 yards in the air, and the returner misjudged it, so it rolled another 15 yards. So instead of having the ball near midfield, they’re pinned, and we stop them.

“The offense gets the ball, rushes down the field and we score to win the game. It was exactly what we practiced. … Bill would present these crazy situations and say, ‘This may not come up. But we can’t panic if it does. If you do your job and do the little things, you’ll win more than you lose.’

“That’s his attention to detail. The way he’d scout other teams, we didn’t have to do a million things. He would pick two or three things a week we specifically needed to do. And as was the case during that Denver game, it seemed like he was always 100 percent on point.”

This season has been a testament to how good the Patriots are at identifying and developing players. They’ve played every game with their backup QB Matt Cassel, who was ridiculed in the preseason and had never started in college. They played many games with their fifth running back, BenJarvus Green-Ellis. They’ve been forced to start backup offensive lineman Mark LeVoir, backup tight ends Tyson Devree and Steven Spach, backup linebackers Gary Guyton, and Vince Redd.  They had to go out and sign Junior Seau and Rosie Colvin from retirement to come play on the team. And they’ve started games with rookies Jerod Mayo, Vince Redd, Gary Guyton, and Terence Wilhite on defense.  And for the most part, they’ve succeeded.  It shows how good they are at picking out players, and perhaps more importantly, how good they are at coaching them up, and putting them in a position to succeed in their system.

On another note, NFL.com has a video up of Belichick during the Patriots practices in California before the Oakland game, when he was wearing a wire. He’s getting advice from Moss on the Raiders D, joking with Mayo about buying new trucks (”thats first round money” Moss says), and checking on Matt Cassel.  Interesting insight into how practices go with Belichick.

A couple reporters from the 49ers beat were impressed with Bill Belichick’s knowledge of the 49ers at his press conference.  Just another example of his preparation for these games.

From Matt Maiocco’s blog

Here’s Belichick’s amazing answer:

“To a certain extent. Also the scheme and how they are going to play us. They have a lot of different ways of playing teams. You see a lot of different things from week to week. You can watch guys on film but their explosiveness, power, quickness, different moves - it’s different in person than it is watching it on film. You can certainly prepare for it and that is a good part of the preparation. But until you see it live, it’s a little different.

“We have seen a lot of these players — defensively, the whole secondary. Donald Strickland was in Indianapolis. Michael Lewis was at Philadelphia and Mark Roman was in Cincinnati. Nate Clements, we saw a lot of in Buffalo. Walt Harris was at Indianapolis and Chicago. We have seen Justin Smith. We have certainly seen Takeo Spikes and (Aubrayo) Franklin.

“We’ve seen a lot of those guys just not in that system. It’s a pretty veteran group they have on offense and defense. Guys like (Barry) Sims, Isaac Bruce, Arnaz Battle, Bryant Johnson and DeShaun Foster. Plus all of their specialists - those guys are an experienced group, too.

“They have a few young players in there but it is a pretty experienced team. Some have come up in their system like Eric Heitmann and Frank Gore. So, we have seen some of those guys just not in a San Francisco uniform.”

Belichick mentioned 15 players on the 49ers roster. And, furthermore, he did it all without notes. He knew all those players off the top of his head. And he does that every week - regardless of the opponent.

Meanwhile, Mike Nolan mentioned one Patriots player by name today. Well, he said “Wesley Walker,” but I’m pretty sure he meant Wes Welker.

What a crazy game last night.  The Patriots came back at the end, but it was not easy.  But once again, they played extremely well in the clutch.  After the Ravens ran over them for TD’s in their first two drives of the second half, the Pats D stepped it up in the 4th quarter, stuffing McGahee on the line and getting an interception.  And the Patriots final drive was pretty insane as well, they had 4th down plays 4 times and managed to somehow get through it every time (timeout, Pats penalty, Brady run, Ravens penalty).  And then they still had to tackle a Raven’s receiver on the two yard line after a hail mary to stop them from winning.  Afterwards the Ravens were complaining about the officiating, but it was pretty clean, as Peter King explains in his article today.

There were a lot of bad performances in this one.  The Patriots receivers dropped a lot of passes that should have been caught.  Gaffney missed on early, Watson had two drops in the endzone on the first drive, and Moss dropped one or two passes that he would normally catch.  Not their best performance.  The bigger area of concern was the run defense.  McGahee and the Ravens had their way with the Patriots defense in the third quarter.  Maybe they were still trying to figure out how to play without Rosie Colvin (they started in a 4-3 and then switched to 3-4) but it wasn’t good.  Still after those drives in the third quarter, the Pats D held the Ravens to 3 and outs on their next 3 drives.

There were some bright spots in the game.  Maroney finally looked like he was running forcefully downfield.  I would have liked to see the Patriots run him even more, it seems like teams are starting to only play the pass against the Patriots.  Faulk’s play to strip Ravens safety Ed Reed after his interception was also a great heads up play.  I’m willing to bet that the Patriots are one of the few teams in the league that teaches its offensive players to try to strip the ball (they also won the San Diego playoff game last year because of Troy Brown’s strip after an INT).

What does this mean for the rest of the season?  Are the Patriots tired from playing three night games in a row?  Tired from the pressure?  Tired from seeing each team’s best game each week?  Struggling without Colvin in the lineup?  Or is it just a lull?  Will teams continue to put this kind of pressure on the Patriots?  These last four games could be pretty exciting.  If each team the Patriots play is going all-out and playing aggressively like the Eagles and Ravens, all of these wins will be tough.  But it certainly should prepare the Patriots for the playoffs if they’re playing teams playing at that level and in that atmosphere.  As long as it doesn’t exhaust them or result in major injury.

Mike Reiss posted in his blog an article from Cleveland about how the Browns nearly picked Ellis Hobbs over QB Charlie Frye in the 3rd round:

“We ranked 150 players on our board,” Savage said. “Charlie was our 45th-ranked player. People say, ‘Is that a second-round grade?’ We just let players fall off the board and said, ‘If he’s still there when the players ahead of him are gone, we’ll take him.’

“There was one name ahead of Charlie Frye when it was our turn in the third round.‘’

The name was Ellis Hobbs. …
“We’re sitting there talking about it,” Savage aid, “and I’m like … ‘OK, Ellis Hobbs is … probably gonna be a nickel corner. He might be a starting corner at some point, but … he’s 5-foot-9, 180-some pounds, and he’s he only guy standing between Charlie Frye and the Cleveland Browns.

“ ‘Guys, there’s no way we pass up Charlie Frye, who potentially might be our quarterback in a year or two, because this kid … has got grit, moxie, mobility. He’s got just enough arm. Let’s do it.’ ”

The reason I find this interesting is that from what I’ve read from Belichick’s comments about the draft, this would never happen in the Patriots’ war room. If you are going to pick Frye over Hobbs, then Frye should be rated over Hobbs. It sounds like Belichick, Pioli, and the staff evaluate all these possible decisions and know when they get there who they will draft out of who’s available so that there is no need for discussions like this in the war room. There’s no reason to save a discussion like “Ellis Hobbs or Charlie Frye” until you’re on the clock when you could have done it weeks in advance. This kind of preparation is just another reason why the Patriots are so good.

From the Globe:

His most astounding postseason statistic is probably interceptions. During the regular season, Brady averages an interception every 39 passes. In the playoffs, he has thrown three interceptions in 304 attempts; that’s one every 101 throws or so, against some of the best teams in the league.

Hines Ward crying after the Steelers loss

This was a great game. Belichick and Crennel clearly came in with a plan to shut down the Steelers running game and force Roethlisberger to try to throw on them. And he did, to the tune of three interceptions. One of which was returned for 87 yards for a TD by Rodney Harrison. Offensively, the o-line did a great job protecting for Brady, giving him plenty of time to throw and throw deep. The game was over early, with the Patriots leading 24-3 at halftime. There were a number of key plays early, first Eugene Wilson picking off Big Ben’s first pass, then the Patriots stopping the Steelers on fourth and 1 (causing a fumble too) and on the next play the 60 yard pass to Branch for the first TD. Then of course there is Rodney Harrison’s 87 yard interception return for a touchdown. I think the fourth and 1 play and the interception show very well why the Patriots won this game. Let’s take a look at these two plays.

Fourth and one yard to go, in Patriots territory. You knew the Patriots would stop this. Not only did they stop it, but they forced a fumble from Bettis and recovered it. What’s interesting though is that right before the play Belichick called Ted Johnson over to the sideline and said something to him. Here’s what was said about that after the game: “[Belichick] saw something and he alerted me and it turned out to be huge. It was an adjustment — I really can’t go into it,” said Johnson. “That stuff happens all the time. It’s amazing sometimes.”

The second play that shows why the Patriots are so good is the interception return by Harrison. First off, to have a player like Harrison wait there and bait the QB like that and then just jump in front and take the ball is impressive. Then downfield, he just had Roethlisberger to beat and of course he had Mike Vrabel and Rosevelt Colvin to block for him. But the thing that stands out on this play to me is that Roethlisberger is the only one who made any attempt to stop Harrison’s return. No one else ran after him. That is a team that has given up. In a similar situation, back in Buffalo, when the Bills were returning a fumble, not only did Bethel Johnson chase him and catch him but then Stephen Neal got there and punched the ball out the back of the endzone. Not only did we have wide receivers chasing after the returner, but offensive linemen! Clearly the Steelers didn’t care that much.

So now unlike the two years that we won the Super Bowl, we have really dominated in our playoff games thus far. We won the first by 17 points and the second by 14 points and neither game was really even that close. More imporantly, we held the league’s best offense to only 3 points and scored 41 points on the league’s best defense. Amazing! Now we play the Eagles in the Super Bowl. A team that I dont think is as good as the Colts or the Steelers. Another fact to look at is that not only did we dominate, but these were tough teams. After the Patriots, the Steelers, Colts, and Eagles are probably considered the three next best teams in the league. If the Patriots do win the Super Bowl, they’ll have the highest playoff opponent win pct of anyone, with the three opponents a combined 40-8 (83%).

Is this a dynasty? Of course it is. Who do you consider a dynasty? Obviously the Packers of the 60s, the Steelers of the 70s, and probably the 49ers of the 80s and the Cowboys of the 90s. Well, if the Patriots win this Super Bowl they will have won 3 SB’s in 4 years, matching the Cowboys feat in the early 90s. The Patriots however, will have done it with the salary cap and free agency, when this type of thing shouldn’t happen. The Patriots have won 33 of their last 36 games and won 21 games straight between last year and this year. And a lot of the Patriots players are starting to look like hall-of-famers. Bill Belichick is now 9-1 in the playoffs, tying the great Vince Lombardi (as Belichick said, the trophy is named for him). Brady and many of the Patriots are 8-0 in the playoffs. Many of the Pats players, even though they haven’t been recognized with Pro Bowl appearances lately are great players such as Harrison, McGinest, Bruschi, Seymour, Dillon, Brady and Vinatieri. I think Vinatieri has a good shot at being the first kicker in the hall of fame (depending on when the Andersons retire). And Brady’s status is quickly reaching Joe Montana’s, he’s 27 and already won 2 Super Bowl MVP’s, has an insane win percentage, and is 8-0 in the playoffs. I actually saw Tom Jackson say “We may be looking at the best-ever” on ESPN the other day, talking about Brady. He’s 27 and they’re already saying he may be the best-ever. Wow.

This was really an amazing dominating victory. To take a team that scored over 500 points in the regular season, and scored 49 points in their first playoff game, and hold them to a measly field goal (no touchdowns!) is incredible. Add to that the fact that Pro Bowl DL Richard Seymour was out, Pro Bowl CB Ty Law was out, and CB Ty Poole was out and its even more insane. And if only Eugene Wilson hadn’t dropped that pick in the endzone at the end of the first half it could have been a shutout. This shows a few things: A. The Colts are great at beating up on bad defenses, but can’t compete with the best defenses, B. Great defense always beats great offense, and C. The Patriots coaching staff is definitely the best in the league (which is why Weis and Crennel will be head coaches next year). And Corey Dillon, obviously, makes this team so much better than the team last year, and last year we won 15 games in a row, including Super Bowl XXXVIII. The Pats linebackers were great as well, especially Tedy Bruschi. The one play where he hit Dominic Rhodes and then just ripped the ball out of his arms and took it for his own was just amazing. That epitomizes what this team does. And how much more physical they were than the Colts yesterday. Amazing!

Being at the game yesterday was great. Being at the games is always great, being at playoff games is better, and being at big wins is even better. Once the Patriots started dominating in the second half it turned more into a party than a game (even for the players, see Bruschi above). We were going wild and cheering for every play. Dillon made a huge run and we did a Corey chants, then on defense we had chants for Bruschi and Willie when they made big plays. And when the Colts started looking really bad we started yelling “Cut that meat!!” from the commercial where Peyton Manning is cheering at the butcher shop. I guess you could actually hear that one on TV, they even mentioned it in the Boston Globe and the Indy Star:

As the game was winding down, the Pats’ fans were in celebratory overdrive. “Cut that meat!” the crowd roared after Reggie Wayne’s late fumble snuffed out whatever remote chances the Colts might still have harbored. “Cut that meat!”

Celebratory overdrive explains it exactly. It was sweet.

One thing that makes the Patriots coaching staff so great is their ability to adapt. This is an important ability for anything in life, actually. But I remember back when Pete Carroll took over coaching for Parcells and Belichick. And I remember thinking how horrible he was. Parcells and Belichick would see the players they had and come up with the best scheme for them. Carroll would have his scheme and try to make it work whether it made sense with the players or not. A great example is 2002, when the Patriots had 3 good safeties, so Belichick and Crennel came up with schemes using 3 safeties. Pete Carroll and most NFL coaches would never do anything like that. Yesterday you could see in the first half of the game, the Patriots were trying to use a balanced offense, running and passing evenly and they wanted to score points. But Dwight Freeney and the Colts were getting a lot of pressure on Brady and most of Brady’s receiver were well covered, while Dillon was running wild. So in the second half the Patriots came out and ran the ball through the Colts, pounding their defense and controlling the clock to win. For some reason people are saying it was the Patriots plan to control the clock using Dillon from the start but clearly they didn’t change to that plan until the second half. This adjustment to run the ball heavily in the second half shows how great the Pats coaches are. They’re not stubborn people who want to force their schemes; instead if something doesn’t work, they’ll use what does work. Which is key to a victory.

I think the keys to success in the NFL are 1. The ability to adapt, and 2. Playing better in the clutch. Bledsoe can’t adapt to today’s faster game and so he stinks. Brady and Vinatieri play better with playoff pressure on while guys like Peyton Manning and Doug Brien feel the pressure and crumble. If you’re looking for a player that will lead your team to a championship you should compare his playoff stats with his regular season stats and see if he steps it up in the playoffs or if he collapses.

So next week is Patriots at Steelers in the AFC Championship game. Last time we didn’t have Corey Dillon, Ty Law got hurt in the first quarter, Matt Light got hurt, Asante Samuel was out for a while, and I think it might have been Brandon Gorin’s first start at right tackle as well. Obviously this time Dillon will be in, Samuel, Gay, and Brown will be used to playing DB and Gorin is used to playing tackle. I think the Patriots should have no trouble shutting down the Steelers offense, the question will be how the Patriots offense does against the Steelers top ranked defense.

This was my first road game other than Super Bowl XXXVI. My friend Brad called me Saturday night to say he had tickets to my friends Gerard, Brent and I made the trek to the game. It was a great game, almost all the scores were in our endzone. The Patriots haven’t lost now in over a year!!! Absolutely incredible. This is exactly the way they won all of their games last year too. Both sides doing just enough to keep a small lead and ending with the other team trying to drive to tie or win the game and the defense shutting them down. Huge plays in this game: One huge play was where David Givens fumbled his catch (later ruled incomplete) and London Fletcher picked it up and started running for the endzone. Bethel Johnson and Stephen Neal closed on him and forced him to fumble out of the endzone, which is a touchback and makes it Patriots ball. Apparently Belichick had at some point even told his players that a fumble out the endzone is a touchback so in that situation thats what they want to try to do. The fact that the Patriots OFFENSIVE players know enough to chase a guy down and force him to fumble out the endzone is incredible and shows why they’re so good. The other huge play was of course Bruschi forcing Bledsoe to fumble and Seymour returning it for a TD and a 31-17 lead. I truly feel bad for these Bill’s fans. Their team is so bad. Not as bad as the Dolphins, who we play next week. Another cool thing from the game was that the opposite endzone was full of Patriots fans. When Buffalo was making its final drive to tie, they were all up and screaming and scattered fans around the stadium (dumb Bills fans?? or were there that many Pats fans there?) were also up yelling for the Pats D. That was cool. On our way back we stopped at a rest area in Syracuse and it was completely packed full of Pats fans decked out in shirts and jerseys. Next week we hope to make our record 4-0 with a win at home against Miami. Pats - Bills Pictures!