“Great art”: New England’s game balls go to …

By Os Davis  |   Monday, November 19, 2007  |  Comments( 6 )

New England Patriots
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The clock was winding down on the New England Patriots' demolition of the Buffalo Bills, 56-10, on Sunday night. Another day at the office for the Patriots, while John Madden and Al Michaels sounded like their videogame personas in bemoaning the blowout. Finally, at a loss for words in the late-late night, post-post-game stuff, Michaels declared that watching the Patriots was like observing "great art."

(Hey, when playing the computer in Madden, who can resist the urge to kick the gratuitous last-second field goal when already up by four touchdowns or so? You have to, if only to hear Al mutter darkly, "Now they're just running up the score." Makes me chuckle every time. I guess there's a little bit of Bill Belichick in all of us.)

This season just becomes more and more exciting for Patriot haters and Boston backers alike. Sure, the individual games usually resulting in multi-touchdown margins of victory for the Pats are brutal for non-New Englanders, but each week we debate, hope for, argue for and against that this is the week the Patriots go down. For some, it's fascinating; for most, it's fascinating like a car wreck. The difference is that, when the inevitable Sunday beatdown arrives, New England fans get the additional bonus of knowing pridefully that someone or someones will step it up yet having the excitement of not knowing who.

RealFootball365 game balls this week, then, to this week's Patriot up-steppers.

Offense. Are you kidding? The guy with the science-fictional statistics, Randy Moss, of course. After dropping a pass at about 8:25 in the second quarter, Moss nearly single-handedly crushed the Bills; four of his next 10 catches were touchdowns, as Moss again destroyed a secondary by simply blowing past them, out-jumping them and just generally displaying his status as an all-out freak of nature. Can we please hear some consideration for the man in MVP discussions?

Kyle Eckel gets one for his TD - How many can Moss carry, after all? Eckel may have contributed his 1-yard plunge with the score 42-10 already, but his early fourth-quarter score -- only his second of the year, so it's special to him, to be sure -- put the Patriots over 400 points for 2007. The 1998 Minnesota Vikings' mark of 556 points in a season now officially appears to be toast with New England on pace for over 700.

(Incidentally, Moss himself is on pace for 23 touchdowns on the season and has outscored the entire receiving corps of all but six teams - the Browns, Bengals, Lions, Saints, Giants and Cowboys.)

Special teams. Not much call for heroics from New England special teams on Sunday night. Again. Maybe Chris Hanson gets a game ball for actually getting on the field against the Bills, even if it was only once; it might be the last time he punts all year. For his career, Hanson averages almost exactly 80 boots per full season. In 2007, he's on pace for approximately 37.

Defense. Remember how Belichick engineered his slick PR/psychological move back in the Super Bowl XXXVI pre-game hype? (To think the general public loved him for stuff like this back in those wild long ago days of 2002.) Rather than have his starting unit called onto the field player by player, the team was introduced simply as "The New England Patriots!" and entered the field en mass. After seeing a game like this, you understand why.

Sure, You can give a game ball to Adalius Thomas, again an animal in the first half and ultimately credited with 2.5 sacks. Toss another James Sanders' way. The ever-consistent Sanders turned in another highlight for the defense's 2007 reel when he nailed Dwayne Wright turning the run around the outside and popped the ball into the sky. Showing high awareness out there, Ellis Hobbs caught it and hustled 35 yards for the TD.

Game ball there, too, sure, but this one was a team effort. Lovers of defensive play have to be eating up the swarming, suffocating Patriot 'D'. One large game ball for all on that squad.

Next up: Picasso, Van Gogh, Cezanne and the boys seek to deliver some post-modern punishment on the Philadelphia Eagles.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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