Projo Pats Blog

Happy Monday...

The Patriots are back in town today, practicing after having the weekend off. ... No access for the media though so we are left to our own devices out here which means I'm going to....clean the garage.

Next up for New England are the Bills who had a tough day yesterday out in Oakland, losing 38-17 to the previously 1-4 Raiders.

Sal Maiorana in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle smoked the Bills' defense in this morning's paper saying:

Overrated is no longer a term that should be used to describe the Bills defense because it lost its rating long ago.

Sunday, against a team that came in ranked 31st in rushing, the Bills yielded 162 yards including 122 to (Lamont) Jordan, just the second 100-yard rushing game of his career.

Against a team that ranked 21st in first downs, the Bills gave up a season-high 26 as well as season-highs in points (38) and total yards (416).

Against a team that was dead last in the NFL in third-down conversions, the Bills allowed Oakland to convert 7 of 11.

Twelve of the first downs Oakland earned came on plays where it had to gain at least 10 yards.

"Some of the big runs, the big passes, in crucial situations, it's unacceptable," said Vincent. "Third-and-14, that's a no-brainer. You have to get off the football field. Third-and-12, third-and-17. Those are pin your ears back, get after the quarterback and get off the field and bring the punt unit on."

Maiorana's counterpart, Mark Gauaghan of the Buffalo News, tore into the Buffalo offense. Check out the comments by Bills quarterback Kelly Holcomb who hangs his offensive line out to dry pretty badly in this excerpt.

"They had every guy in the secondary hurt, but I just couldn't get enough time to exploit that," Holcomb said (in Gaughan's article).

Continuing, Gauaghan wrote:

Holcomb never even attempted a deep pass. However, Mularkey said some long balls were called in the huddle.

"It was absolutely called, a number of them," he said.

"We had some calls, but what do you do when you're having protection problems and you can't hold up when you go to seven-step drops?" Holcomb said. "I'm trying to get it out of my hand as quick as I can just to make some positive yards."

"It's a combination of things," offensive coordinator Tom Clements said. "Sometimes we get the wrong coverage, sometimes we don't have the time to throw it."

Raiders safety Stuart Schweigert said Oakland wasn't too worried about the deep ball.

"He doesn't have the strongest arm," Schweigert said of Holcomb, "so we knew they weren't going to throw the ball downfield."

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From 1993 to 2001, it was easy to spot a Patriots fan on many Monday mornings. They were the ones with matching bald spots on both sides of their head, hard-earned from having watched Drew Bledsoe do something unconscionable at crunch time.

Yesterday, Bledsoe (who's having about his fifth "career renaissance" since coming into the league) made one of those throws Sunday that introduced the great state of Texas to the wonder of No. 11.

By now you've seen the pick in Seattle and the resulting game-winning field goal that sent Dallas to a loss it shouldn't have. But maybe you haven't seen the quote in Sports Illustrated last week from Buffalo president Tom Donahoe who said of Bledsoe's gaudy early-season in Dallas, "We'll see what happens when teams get him the second time around."

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