52-7? How Can that Be?

Attending my first game of the season, I couldn’t have asked for a more dominating performance by the Patriots. Going in, I was expecting the margin of victory to be sizeable, but certainly no 45 points. Although the offense wasn’t its prettiest, it was very effective, running the ball with ease, and passing the ball with more precision than style. Defensively, the team excelled at all levels. Although Washington moved the ball in the start, the defense was able to calm down, make strong tackles and keep Washington’s offense from scoring (they scored against our second stringers).

Who’s Up

1. Mike Vrabel – Dominating performance from #50. He controlled the perimeter, and of course, applied constant pressure (forcing three fumbles on three sacks). Mike Vrabel is a top ten linebacker in this league, it’s about time he got noticed.

2. Matt Cassel – Nice touchdown run, nice deep pass to Gaffney on fourth down. Wait… Cassel threw the ball on fourth in the fourth, that wouldn’t be running up the score, would it? Of course not.

3. Laurence Maroney – Although he didn’t carry the ball much last week, he looked very effective on fourteen carries yesterday. He hit the hole hard, not doing much east-west before hand.

Who’s Down

1. The Obnoxious Two Fans Sitting Behind Me – This guy behind me kept repeating everything I said, like about Richard Seymour being back, alignments, Gutierrez on special teams, etc. Not to mention, they spilled beer all over my Rodney Harrison jersey (which I had taken off for my new Randy Moss one)

2. Tom Brady – What’s this? 29/38? That’s less than 80%! Only three touchdowns? That’s tied for his worst this year. I’d expect to see more from this “Franchise” quarterback. Dissapointing, flat out, dissapointing.

3. Redskins – Need I say more?

What They’re Talking About
They’re talking about a lot of things this week. Seymour is back, we’re still undefeated, Tom Brady chasing the record, etc. But the big story coming out is if the Patriots were running up the score. The answer is yes, they were. But does it matter? No. Football is a 60 minute game, so if they want to play it out, they can, there’s no rules against it. And we all know Belichick doesn’t care what his perception is, so why not get the backups going a little bit?

A Look Ahead

Next week will be the biggest test of the season, as the Patriots are going up against the Indianapolis Colts. Right now, the Patriots have a chip on their shoulder from last season, but the Colts do too. Why hasn’t anyone been talking about a team that hasn’t lost since 2006?