10 Thoughts on the Pats and Other Things

1) First and foremost, I still standby my "deserve go nuthin' to do with it" post. That doesn't mean that I am not bitter though. It sucks that this team is missing the playoffs and yes I was pissed Sunday night. I really thought they had a run in them.

2) The more I think about it, the more I think my idea of swapping out conference playoff teams if a team that misses the playoffs in one conference is one game better than the last team in in the other is a good idea. I mean, imagine the possibility of New England going to New York to play the Giants in the Divisional Round if they could escape Minnesota? No need to harp on what-ifs though.

3) Us New Englanders are going to be pretty harsh on Brett Favre for the next few days and rightfully so. With that in mind, let me just say that the guy is one of the 10 or 15 best quarterbacks of the past 20 years so we should pay him some respect.

4) Backhanded compliment? Of course! Here are the QBs:

Way Ahead of his Class:
Montana
Elway
Manning
Brady
Pennington

Distinctly Ahead of his Class:
Young
Aikman
Marino

In his Class:
McNabb
Favre
Jim Kelly
Kurt Warner

Slightly Below his Class:
Drew Bledsoe
Vinny Testaverde
Steve McNair
Mark Brunell

5) Brad Penny signing? Sounds good to me! If I had to guess I'd predict 150 innings, 10 wins, and an ERA in the low 4's. I'll take that from a cheap, back of the rotation starter.

6) Do you know who the Dolphins remind me of? The 2001 Patriots. They have the stingy defense, an efficient offense, and a Troy Brown type in Ted Ginn who can break a play either as a receiver or in the return game. AND they even have their own Bryan Cox in Joey Porter. Also, let's not forget that Chad Pennington as a quarterback now is very similar to what Tom Brady was then. In fact, Pennington's 2008 was actually better than Brady's 2001. Pennington started 16 games to Brady's 14 that year which skews the counting stats, but he still completed 67% of his passes to Brady's 63% while accumulating about 800 more passing yards (3,653 to 2,843) and having a better TD:INT ratio (19:7 vs. 18:12). Long story short, if you think that the Dolphins can't win a Super Bowl with a quarterback like Chad Pennington, that is incorrect.

7) I love how the Red Sox are seemingly tackling the catching position with their real team exactly as I do with my fantasy team. In other words, they are going to throw a bunch of mediocre players against a wall and hope one sticks and if that does not work out then probably try to swing a trade for an upgrade at the position from mediocre to average. I guess this could work, but coming from somebody who has never successfully implemented the strategy in fantasy, I would not advise it.

....And now some quick hitting Celtics items before we wrap this up

8) Looks like Tony Allen has reverted back to his old form and by old form I mean a running, jumping, and turning the ball over machine. I thought he may have learned some actual basketball skills over the summer but turns out I was wrong.

9) There are two things I do not think I have ever seen while watching a Celtics game. The first is Rajon Rondo finishing the layup when he does his fake behind the back pass and then lay it in move and the second is Big Baby hitting a jump shot.

10) Speaking of Big Baby, the guy just looks awful whenever I see him play. Keeping that in mind, put me in the camp of people who say that any move the Celtics make between now and February should involve a backup big that can play the 5 in a pinch. In other words, if the Celtics could get PJ Brown back and know that he could give them close to what he gave them last year, then that is the move. While I like the Mutumbo idea, I'd prefer a guy like Brown who can at least hit the open shot when he has it as a compliment to Leon Powe who is a master of garbage points. Baby gets the garbage points too, but Powe is much better than him at it so therefore Baby is the odd man out and the position in most need of an upgrade unless he can figure out how to hit the jump shots he is more than happy take.