Stats on Pats Weekly Article by Joshua Bonneau, southcoast247.com correspondent
Week XII: Pats Beat Chicago at Their Own Game, 17-13 at the Razor
Last week, I had noted that this week’s match-up was a litmus test for the Patriot’s- a battle over legitimacy between two championship caliber teams. Now in the wake of it all, it seems like the Patriot’s have re-asserted themselves as real contenders, that is, depending on how you look at it.
If some mystic would have told me, going into this game that the Patriot’s would turn the ball over five times and still edge out the win, I wouldn’t have believed it. But if that same mystic offered me a crystal ball glimpse into the performance of Bear’s QB Rex Grossman, I would have just nodded and said “I see.”
Yup, this one was sloppy, or should I say it was duel-sided sloppy. And in that kind of game, the decisive factor usually proves to be which team can stop beating themselves just long enough to squeeze out the win. Luckily for New England, Grossman wasn’t worth his weight in shit. Furthermore, somebody would serve to tell him that Asante Samuel is not on his team, as the two connected three times on the day (yes, that means interceptions). Between the two teams, there were nine turnovers in total. Nine.
Now, in some ways that was to be expected. The Bears defense came into the game leading the league in stripped balls and forced turnovers. But the circus act that ensued on Sunday was an entirely new kind of animal, and godamn was it ugly. The crowning moment came when Pat’s tight end Benjamin Watson fumbled inside the Bear’s 30, sending the ball adrift and ultimately, straight into the arms of an oncoming Rashe Caldwell. The Pats wide out then ran for about ten yards, before he too lost the ball, this time for good.
But again, these mistakes would be talked about in a much different way had the Patriot’s lost the game. Luckily, in football there are no effort points. There are no superlatives or awards for the most glamorous. In the end, it’s all about the win.
"You win, it doesn't matter, you come back the next day and
correct the mistakes," said linebacker Teddi Bruschi. Belichick echoed those statements in his post game conference by saying “It’s certainly not how you draw it up, not for either team.” Now, despite being what some might call a hollow victory-a term which I never quite understood or agreed with, the Pat’s on Sunday showed some real positives. For instance, Brady’s offensive line was rock-solid against arguably the toughest defensive front seven in all of football. And at the center of that defense stands Brian Urlacher, the six foot four, two hundred and sixty pound, no-neck, half crazed mutant who prides himself on taking lives. Which brings me to my play of the game. In the fourth quarter, Tom Brady scrambled past Urlacher for eleven yards, one-on-one in the open field. Just to further emphasize the significance of this moment, I’ll repeat myself. Tom Brady put a slice-and-dice move on the league’s most feared, hardest hitting QB killer, one-on-one in open field.
All this to complete a third and nine conversion, which ultimately led to a Patriot’s go ahead touchdown.
“The guys were joking with me after the game, saying ‘He (Urlacher) must have been salivating too much, and his eyes started watering or something, and he couldn’t see me.’” Tom Brady said of his play, calling it more like “an uncoordinated stutter step than a move.” Any way you cut it, it was a defining moment in the game.
But alas, it’s not all sunshine. In the second quarter, Patriot’s linebacker and 12 time pro-bowler Junior Seau suffered a broken arm, in what was probably one of the more disturbing things that I’ve seen in a long time. With about nine minutes remaining in the quarter, Seau stopped Bear’s RB Cedric Benson at the line of scrimmage, and in the process got his arm snapped like an egg noodle. After a lengthy medi-tending, the 17 year defensive veteran marched off the field with his arm braced in a sling, saluting as the crowd sent him off with a chorus of cheers.
On Monday, the Pat’s placed Seau on the Injured Reserve, lost for the season. Moving forward, his is a hard void to fill.
So looking ahead, can the Pat’s run the table? Tell me, Tell me. josh@southcoast247.com.