Sports Redux: Road Worriers

Lynne Sladky / Associated Press Is it the home/road thing? Is it true that the Patriots can’t win any road game, unless it’s a neutral site game on another continent against a winless team? Or is it just that the Pats really aren’t that great, and we should be thankful that at least they’ve been able to run the table at home so far? Because yesterday, for the fifth time this year they visited an opponent’s stadium, and for the fifth time this year they’re looking for answers, this time after losing in Miami, 22-21. This one started off so well - Brady hit Moss for a long bomb reminiscent of 2007, and then Faulk ran one in for a 14-0 lead - but things fell apart quickly after that. The Dolphins cut it to 14-10 before halftime, and then the Pats assembled a series of three-and-outs before a Tom Brady interception led to a go-ahead Miami field goal, and another INT killed the Pats’ last shot as coming back and winning it. That makes it sound like the loss was largely Tom Brady’s fault, but let’s face it: even the best quarterback in the league (which he’s not, these days) can’t win a game by himself. When your running game is less than an afterthought, when your defense can’t even rattle a QB n00b like Chad Henne (who threw 52 times, occasionally to Miami receivers, and got knocked down twice by our unofficial count), and when your fans are openly calling for guys to take a knee on the 21 so the anemic red-zone offense doesn’t come into play…you’ve got trouble. Whatever stadium you’re playing in. So now the Patriots lead the AFC East by only one game over Miami and the Jets. Three weeks ago we were talking about first-round byes; now we wonder if this team’s going to completely

sink out of sight. Mike Reiss says the killer instinct is long gone. Dan Shaughnessy gleefully pees on everything in sight . And the Herald has the latest roundup of confused and frustrated quotes from confused and frustrated Patriots players. They’re at home against Carolina next week; maybe they’ll steal one. Former Patriot coaches have caused a kerfuffle in the college football world this week. Charlie Weis (our old offensive coordinator, now the ex-Notre Dame coach) made some remarks about Pete Carroll (our old failed head coach, now in charge at USC) living with a USC grad student, and everyone went crazy. Weis, if we’re reading this correctly, says he got scrutinized more for being a mediocre coach at a national football institution than Carroll did for having a legal and not-even-that-creepy living arrangement. Um. In any case, USC will be Boston College’s opponent in the Emerald Bowl, which is one of the 437 bowls leading up to the Texas/Alabama national title game, which will crown a champion even though there are a bunch of other undefeated teams, who will be playing in lesser bowls because to have an eight-team playoff would be too confusing. Seriously. The BCS has established a website to tell us all why a playoff system , which works in every pro sport and every college sport except football, wouldn’t work in football. As far as we can tell, it’s because they mostly don’t want it to be a 65-team tournament like in basketball, because that’s exactly what nobody has suggested. Also, having bowls is good for the average fan and student , which is why all those BC shuttle buses will be heading out to San Francisco on 12/26. And you wonder why we have a hard time taking college football seriously.

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Sports Redux: Road Worriers