New England Patriots Report Card: Super Bowl XLVI

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Pierce Makes History, Celtics Handle Bobcats

Dolphins 38, Patriots 13 – The Verdict

I apologize for the delay of this week’s Verdict, after Sunday I went into a mini-sports hibernation. We all know the Pats laid an egg so I’ll keep this short and sweet. Let’s see how my questions were answered:

1. Will Randy Moss be involved more often? A lot has been made about Moss and his alligator arms/sulking on the bench. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a few weeks before getting on his case. On the one hand, he came to New England to play with Tom Brady and win Super Bowls, neither of which is happening this year. But he’s a team captain and I think he’ll straighten out quick. Now whether he can get more touches remains to be seen. Will they let Cassel air it out? We’ll see.
2. Will the secondary keep up the good work: Not so much. Granted much of the blame for the 38 points is on the front seven, but the secondary really didn’t make any plays and allowed Chad Pennington to complete 17/20 passes and gave up 245 yards through the air. Heck even Ronnie Brown threw a touchdown! Very disturbing numbers all over the place for the defense this week.
3. Who is our Running back? Without Laurence Maroney and LaMont Jordan the Pats managed just 79 yards on the ground and no one rushed for more than 27 yards. U-G-L-Y. Kevin Faulk needs more touches! Hello! Maroney is back to practice so let’s hope he gets his head on straight and begins to fulfill some of that potential.

Final Analysis

Look, the Patriots were embarrassed from start to finish. The Pats played terrible but more disturbingly they were completely out COACHED. The ‘Phins have posed problems in the past, but this was a team who was 1-21 in their last 22 games and there aren’t any Tom Landry or Vince Lombardi’s on that staff. A very perplexing afternoon at Gillette, and I’ll have more in my 2-Point Conversion column about the hubbub over the fans booing and leaving early. It’ll be a lonnnnnng two weeks around Foxboro…

Tags: Kevin Faulk, Lamont Jordan, Matt Cassel, Randy Moss, Tom Brady