The Try: New England Patriots 25 - Buffalo Bills 24

The Blame Game


Let's hope that the focus of Buffalo's effort in the MNF opener at Gillette isn't solely on Leodis McKelvin. After the Patriots had scored to widdle the lead down to 24-19 with 2:06 on the clock, Belichick decided to kick deep, rather than go for an on-side attempt. Buffalo, unable to take a chance, had to utilize their hands team on this kick-off to protect the possibility of a short kick. This left them with a poor blocking corp in front of Leodis. It was not in his interest to return the ball.

Yes, he made a mistake. Two in fact, but one was not returning the ball. The first was catching the damn thing. What's the point? Even with his rudimentary knowledge of physics, I have to believe the Greek King could traject that the ball was going out of the back of the End Zone.

That being said, you want player with fight and McKelvin took the ball in hopes of helping. I don't think at this point, he was wrong to return it once he caught it. He was right on the edge of the End Zone and with his eyes on the ball, I doubt he knew if he was definitely in position to kneel. He had to return it and he did a good job. His second mistake was that once knowing he was done, he should have dropped. Here he went from fighting spirit to friggin stupid. Because in his attempt to gain an additional yard, he lost the ball and gave the ball back to the Patriots right outside of the Red Zone with 2 minutes.

The Try

1. The two people we should be talking about for Buffalo are RB Fred Jackson and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. The latter was given the Offensive Cooridinator job 10 days ago and found a functioning offense against a Superbowl favorite after the Bills's offense had failed to score in pre-season. The former carried the Bills offense with 15 carries for 57 yards and 5 catches for 80. He also scored. Perhaps MTV should give him a crappy show.
   
2. TE Benjamin Watson scored 2 TD's all of last season, yet 2 in 1:16 tonight. I am projecting him to score 498 at this rate.
   
3. Tom Brady's biggest contribution to this game might have been the (insert curse)ing Tom Brady rule. Early in the 2nd half, Vince Wilfork hit Trent Edwards below the waste. Edwards had been throwing the ball away and I thought the flag was for such, but Wilfork, who was mid-lunge when the ball was thrown hit the Bills' QB
   around that tally-wacker region and got called for roughing the passer. F'ing Tom Brady. Luckily the Bills didn't score and Brady brought the Pats back with two late touchdowns.
   
   But in all seriousness, the NFL is going to be a league of mime's withing 10 years, where flag football will look like Rugby compared to this supposed "hard" sport. They really need to quit fucking with the rules.