Connelly’s Top Ten: Blanket Dinner Tonight, Patriots Win

By Michael in Featured, Now!, Top Story ⋅ October 9, 2012 at 6:48am ⋅ Post a comment

Tom Brady, Wes Welker (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

6th Annual Blanket Dinner tonight 6:00 – Doubletree in Cambridge – Speaker Jeff Idelson of the Baseball Hall of Fame

1. Patriots:

OFFENSE

* Patriots had 18 rushing first downs
* Patriots have no vertical game
* If you noticed Welker made nice adjustment when the ball was thrown over the other shoulder for his touchdown compared to the shoulder in the Super Bowl
* Relative to Stevan Ridley’s fumbles – Navy has a coach follow their QB, who is prone to fumbling, the entire pregame punching at a football whenever he is not doing drills
* Got love Danny Woodhead not running out of bounds
* Sometimes Brady gets too cute at the end of the half with not using timeouts
* Patriots had drives of 16 / 16 / 14 / 12 plays
* Doesn’t seem this way but Brandon Lloyd on pace for 90 receptions / 1,027 yards
* Long kickoff 23 yards

DEFENSE

* Manning got hit hard three or four times
* Teams go after McCourty like he is the last antelope in the herd – like to see SAT scores considering he can’t figure out how to turn around and play the ball
* Another team moves the ball on the first series against Pats – 74 yards before fumble
* Jerod Mayo 13 tackles – I’m positive he is paying the official scorer

OTHER

* Belichick lost yet another challenge
* Bob Kraft streak stays alive early at the 7:52 mark of the first quarter (again in third quarter)
* Interesting comments by Welker – he is starting to poke the tiger the way Ty Law used to

2. Around NFL:

* Special win in Indy for their coach (are things graver than reported when the owner says “he is fighting for his life”)
* Leader in tackles is Curtis Lofton, 37th pick / Leader in sacks is Clay Matthews, 26th pick / Leader in interceptions is Tim Jennings, 62nd pick / Leader in receiving yards is Brian Hartline, 108th pick / leading back in rushing is Jamal Charles, 73rd pick
* We talk about insane fans all the time: KC fans cheer knocked out home QB Matt Cassel / Bears fan throat slashed at Jacksonville bar
* RG III could have died Sunday

3. Around College Football:

* With Oregon, South Carolina, West Virginia, Alabama, Notre Dame wouldn’t this be a great year for the playoff system
* Locks – Sorry 1-2 on locks Friday
* Boston College – Sad that DeFillipo just allowed a season to be a complete waste of time, money and effort
* Speaking of Notre Dame -they will lose this week to Stanford

4. Around MLB:

* Seemed like just yesterday Bronson Arroyo was hanging out in Freshman co-ed dorms at Northeastern now he is pitching shut out ball for Cincy
* Buck Showalter most underrated coach in baseball history?
* I’m glad for Terry Francona – although he should have paid back Boston for the second half of 2011
* The infield fly rule was the correct call

5. Who have been the top Red Sox prospects over the years:

1. Brian Rose
2. Frankie Rodriguez
3. Carl Pavano
4. Sam Horn
5. Scott Cooper

6. David Ortiz:

Why does John Tomase give David Ortiz an A- when part of his job is to stay on the field to earn his $89,506 a game and he only played in 90 games

7. Amazing Stats:

Bill Mueller hit grand slams from both sides of the plate in the same game (that was a complete filler – did I mention Blanket Fund tonight?)

8. Old School:

Imagine the Red Sox not showing up with their ace to the postseason like the Nationals are without Strasburg…

* 1918 – Babe Ruth – 2-0 / 1.06 ERA
* 1967 – Jim Lonborg – 2-1 / 2.63 ERA
* 1975 – Luis Tiant – 3-0 / 2.64 ERA
* 1986 – Bruce Hurst – 3-0 / 2.13 ERA
* 2004 – Curt Schilling – 3-1
* 2007 – Josh Beckett – 4-0 / 1.20 ERA

9. Just a Little Bit Outside:

Spread in gas prices since Obama took over: $2.35 to $3.82

10. Randomocity:

* Worst steak ever at McCormick and Schmick the other day
* Why do restaurants serve sour dough bread?
* Remember BK Kim? – he was awesome

About Michael

Lifelong Boston resident who finds equal enjoyment in celebrating the local team's success as I do complaining about their failures. I have been writing the Top Ten for the last decade as well as five sports books: 26 Miles to Boston, Rebound, The President's Team, The Great Book of Boston Sports Lists and NBA List Jam.

Tags: Connelly's Top Ten, Top Ten

Discussion

4 comments for “Connelly’s Top Ten: Blanket Dinner Tonight, Patriots Win”

Worst Patriots play of the game, and I knew it would be bad because it was so unnecessary – 4th down and Brady goes for it… and fumbles. You could hear the entire neighborhood yelling at their TVs even before the snap.

REPLY – MPC – playing with fire – lucky it worked out. That was probably me you heard yelling

Posted by Koepp | October 9, 2012, 8:50 am
One underappreciated Red Sox management blunder was passing on Adrian Beltre at $16mm per year. Instead they traded the entire farm system for the right to pay Adrian Gonzales $22mm a year forever, forcing Youk to move to third. Youk was never the same, and he’s gone. AGon was a mild dissappointment, and he is gone. The prospects are gone. And Adrian Belre, who is a better ballplayer than either Youk or AGon, will probably finish third in the MVP voting. Ouch!

REPLY – MPC – Great point – bird in the hand right?

Posted by TimU | October 9, 2012, 8:53 am
I loved Bill Mueller so I appreciated the “filler”.

REPLY – MPC – Quiet impact player similar to Steve Kasper

Posted by RuthieB | October 9, 2012, 9:44 am
Gas prices were actually $1.86 the day Obama was sworn into office. That was a huge story during the Bush Years that gas was too high. Not a peep from the same people now.
You were right about O’Brien coaching his way into the conversation about coach of the year. I wonder if he will get many votes because it’s still Penn State. They missed an easy field goal at VA – they should have only one loss. The opener was understandable because it was the first time they stepped on the field together since sanctions and losing key players.
Sorry that I can’t be at the Blanket Fund dinner – Great event evry year. Good luck.

REPLY – MPC – In some ways the early losess help O’Brien if winning looked easy for him they would have given Paterno’s group credit / Thanks for shout out on Blanket Fund – and your first rate support through the years!

Posted by David H | October 9, 2012, 12:52 pm