Drive As I Say - Not As I Do

Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards recently said at a labor group gathering that he would ask Americans to give up their SUV's. Well, well.... a picture (from the Hedge Hog Report) of Edward's 28,000-square foot shack show that Edwards either doesn't listen to himself - or isn't an American! Now the question is, what planet is Edwards from?

Click on photo to enlarge, Edwards SUV's are circled

Patriots Beat Up Giants in 27 to 20 Victory

Also titled; Oh Come, All Ye Backups!...Just to do a quick recap of last nights forth and last preseason game of the 2007 season. The Patriots, playing with all backups, won the game by a 27 to 20 score. It's hard to take anything from this game because it was our backups vs the Giants backups, but some players did show that they should be on the team and some should that they really shouldn't (more on that further down). Overall the Patriots backup defensive and offensive units preformed well. The Pats defense had an interception and harassed whoever was quarterbacking the Giants, totaling eight sacks and forcing two fumbles. On the offensive side, Matt Cassel passed for 99 yards (10 -14) and generally looked posed. Vinny Testaverde and Matt Gutierriz also played well with a combined 147 yards (one TD/G, one INT/V) passing on 20 attempts. Heath Evans had another rushing touchdown, his third of the preseason and forth total. The best running play actually came from wide receiver Bam Childress, lineing up as the tailback in the forth quarter, slashed up a hole in the defense for a 25 yard gain. He has quick feet and good hands so if he does make the team as I hope he does, expect to see him in the backfield.

Players Who Impressed
*Marcellus Rivers - since joining the team in the middle of training camp, Rivers has done nothing but play very well. He totaled 5 receptions for 47 yards last night and almost made an amazing one handed catch. Now a all but lock to make the team.

*Vinny Testaverde - even though he threw the only Patriots interception, his throws were crisp and he can manage an offensive if Brady goes down.

*Eric Alexander - 13 total tackles, two forced fumbles, 1/5 a sack; makes the team.

*Pierre Woods - after a low profile first three preseason games Woods finally broke out and had the type of game fans were hoping for. Nine total tackles and two sacks ain't bad. He's also pretty good in pass coverage and is a special teams monster.

*Le Kevin Smith - huge game for Smith. As one of the more present surprise starters this year (he has started on the Pats defensive line in every preseason game this year), Smith made 14 total tackles and four sacks this preseason. Three of those sacks came last night when he was just unstoppable.

*Bam Childress - four receptions for 39 yards and a touchdown and three rushes for 27 yards including a 25 yard dash in the forth quarter.

*Brandon Meriweather - ten total tackles, more then a couple huge hits, only negative was that he may have got hurt in garbage time (47 sec left in the game) when the Giants scored their last touchdown. He did talk to the media after the game though which is a good sign.

*C.J. Jones & Kelvin Kight - both have special teams experience but also showed last night that they can play receiver as well. C.J., three recptions for 59 yards, and four kickoff returns for 119 yards, and Kight, five receptions for 61 yards, are going to be hard cuts.

*Dante Wesley - had a good game last night in coverage (one int, five total tackles) and showed enough to make me believe that he could be a decent backup defensive back.

Players Who Didn't Impress So Much
*Corey Mays - he was here last year so he knows the system but he didn't do enough in my view to beat out the other guys around him this preseason.

*Tory James - in the last three preseason games James has a a total of three tackles and has gotten beaten too many times while in coverage. Tough cut but I don't think he's worth keeping over some other players such as Dante Wesley or Bam Childress.

*Quinton Smith - needed to have a breakout game to even make the pratice squad and just didn't. 46 yards and a rushing touchdown are decent but he doesn't seem do have much of a burst, a killer for a guy who isn't a powerback in a way.

It's A Sweep

Yankees win three out of three! All we need now is the Sox and Seattle to lose like crazy for the next few weeks.

The Yankees Win! The Yankees Win!!

So far game one and game two have gone to America's team. Game three is still up for grabs; wish it actually meant something, like the lead for the devision.

In the words of a great bard Pheillo (1123?-1143, murdered by the Huns)
Oh to cut down a tree
And be stung by a bee

I had my own bee and tree experience today when I was cutting down some ceder trees for fence posts with my chainsaw and after I cut down the first one, and was sawing off the branches, I noticed that the back of my legs felt like someone was sticking nails into them. When I turned around I didn't see anything (thorns, someone else's chainsaw, rabid squirrels, ect) so I just kept cutting but as the pain got worse I set the chainsaw down to find out what was going on and low and behold - I was standing over a bees nest that had been knocked out of the tree when I cut it down.

At least I wasn't killed by the Huns.

Samuel Returns

Patriots holdout, Asante Samuel showed up at Patriots Training Camp this morning. Last season Samuel was the ballhawk of the Pats secondary with ten regular season, and two postseason interceptions, both of which he returned for touchdowns. He was drafted in the forth round of the 2003 NFL Draft by the Patriots and since his second season (after Ty Law was injured) has been a consistent starter at corner for the Patriots.

Now with Samuel back in the lineup the Patriots have six possible cornerbacks that could take up roster spots on the team. Asante Samuel, Ellis Hobbs, Randall Gay and Brandon Meriweather (cb/s) are all locks to make the team. Tory James and sixth round draft choice, Mike Richardson are both battling for roster spots.

Patriots Maul Panthers 24 to 7

It wasn't a close game. The Patriots, playing on national TV for the first time this season, showed the CBS watching audience why NFL pundits believe that the 07 Pats have the right mix to win a Super Bowl. Defense, offensive and special teams, the Patriots have it all. Even the backups, players such as Le Kevin Smith, Tory James, Jarvis Green and James Sanders, as they showed tonight, have the capability's to start, and play well. This team is loaded from the bottom to the top, expected great things - because their going to be unlike any other team in New England sports history.*

The Patriots opened up the game by running Laurence Maroney nine straight plays. Maroney had missed both of the previous preseason games so you can assume that this was quite a workout for him (he totaled in the game 58 yards on 15 rushes). The Patriots took a three to nothing lead into the second quarter but then burst out in the second and third quarters to score 21 points. Tom Brady had his best game so far this year throwing for 167 yards (17 for 22) and two touchdowns. His longest completion, a 37 yard pass to Donte' Stallworth, was probobly ironically his worst pass of the game. Overall, Brady and the Patriots offense is ready for week one. Randy Moss hopefully will be ready as well (I'm 90% sure he will be) but we do known that barring the unthinkable Stallworth, Welker, Gaffney, Cardwell and Washington will be.

What a game for Heath Evans and Sammy Morris. The two backup running backs combined for a total of 85 yards and one touchdown on 14 rushing attempts and four receptions for 42 yards and a touchdown. Evens had a perpendicularly great run in the third quarter when he broke several tackles at the line of scrimmage and scampered for 43 yards. Both of Morris's best plays came on the Patriots second drive of the game, firstly when the Pats had 4th down and 1 situation at their own 25 yard line and opted to go for it. Morris ran it, and he got it. His second great play came a couple plays later when on a third down and long play he caught a pass yards short of the first down and with a guy hanging on to him, threw himself an extra three or four yards to get the first down. All around A + job from this unit.

Defensively, the Patriots were impossible to run against - but they did let up some big passes on third down and long situations. Overall though, it's preseason, but letting up only seven points isn't that shabby. Oscar Lua, who's spot on the team I believe is in danger because of his so far horrific job of doing pass coverage finally caught a break and had the Patriots only interception of the game off David Carr in the forth quarter.

On special teams it was a bad game for both teams in the kicking department as the Patriots blocked two Panthers kicks and the Patriots missed two field goals. The turf or whatever they used at the Panthers stadium appeared to be ripping up way to easily so that could have had something to do with the misses. On the Panthers side, you just have to block the guys coming at the kicker.

The Good
*Heath Evans - two touchdowns and 77 total yards.

*Tom Brady - on target like the good old days with Givens and Branch.

*The wide receivers - Stallworth, Welker, Cardwell and Washington all caught at least two passes and had over twenty yards. Tight ends, Benjamin Watson (4 receptions 26 yards) and Watson lookalike, Marcellus Rivers (2 rec, 27 yards and touchdown) also had great games.

*Defense - when the starters are in - this defense is really good. And thats without Pro Bowlers Richard Seamour or Ty Warren who haven't yet played this preseason.

*Willie Andrews - quickly becoming one of the best special teams players in the AFC and second best on the Patriots behind future Hall of Famer Larry Izzo. But he also is showing that he can do a good job at the defensive back position as well.

The Not So Good
*Stephen Gostkowski - two missed field goals is not a good sign on what has been a shaky preseason for the second year kicker. Just be glad that it's preseason.

Play of the Game
In the third quarter with Matt Cassel quarterbacking the Patriots, Heath Evans takes a handoff and breaks several tackles for a 43 yard run down inside the Panther eleven yard line. Four plays later, Evans would finish off the drive by plunging into the endzone for a touchdown.

Patriots win 24 to 7. Next week they face the New York Giants at home.
*assuming you know who doesn't get hurt...

To fire, or to not fire...

....that is the question

Huckabee Spins His Way To Victory!

Watch Huckabee win an unusual victory here...

Patriots Win War But Lose Battle vs Titans

The Patriots played their second preseason game of the 2007 season last night vs the Tennessee Titans. They lost by a score of 27 to 24 - and yes - the game was that close. The Titans won the game on a field goal they scored with just 1:45 left in the forth quarter. Looking at the overall picture of the game, the Patriots may have lost but they still played really well. Both the Patriots and Titans had problems with protecting the quarterback which led to some interesting hits. Vince Young and Tom Brady and Matt Cassel all got whacked around like pinatias.... Need work there; but the Pats offensive line group is really a strong unit. Hopefully last nights problems were just an abnormally. The interception numbers may look bad for the Pats (four ints, one returned for a touchdown) but both of Brady's interceptions came as a results of the offensive line and both of Cassel's interceptions were because guys tipped up passes, or as Cardwell did, just dropped the ball into a defenders lap.

The first team defensive played spectacular. They totally shut down the Titans offensive for a full two quarters that they were in allowing zero points. That's good. The backups, making up the Pats second and third team defensive were not so good however and thats why the Titans won. With the exception of a few players, poor game speed, positioning, and tackling are big problems with this unit.

Danny Baugher helped to make the game a good one for the special teams unit. After Josh Miller was cut this week, Baugher was basically handed the job and he didn't do anything last night to make that look like a bad decision. He ended up punting three times in the game and had a monster 70 yarder and also pinned one inside the 20 yard line. The kick returners, C.J. Jones and Bam Childress both did excellent job punting the Pats in good field position.

Overall, once some guys get cut from the roster, this will be a better team. The first team vs first team battle is what really matters and the Patriots won that by a landslide. The Titans just had better backups.

The Good
*Jarvis Green - was a total monster. The official game center stats say he only made two total tackles but he was in on every play.

*Danny Baugher - the Patriots have a new punter!

*Keven Faulk -104 total yards in just the first half. Still has great vision for what is going on around him when he's running the screen plays.

*Rodney Harrison - three tackles, one huge sack and a almost interception.

*The starting defense - let up no points in the first half.

The Not So Good
*Reche Caldwell - dropped key passes once again and had a costly pushoff foul in the endzone.

*Oscar Lua - rookie linebacker is making a lot of tackles but he's not doing great in pass coverage.

*Quarterbacks -four interceptions, nuff said.

*Backup defense - allowed the Titans offensive to run over them.

Play of the Game
In the first quarter of the game with the Patriots trailing by seven, Tom Brady threw a 28 yard touchdown pass to Wes Welker after faking out the Titans defensive on a great pump fake. The touchdown tied the game at 7 -7.

Vermont Trip Part One

Monday thru Thursday we went camping up in the Green Mountain state, Vermont. It was a lot of fun just getting away from the big city and all the skyscrapers...


Awwww... Vermont!

A small taste of a quaint little Vermont town

The Green Mountains

Ingrid poses at the park entrance

(spots park rangers) Woopsee! Someone is going to get towed at their own expense... Used bottle sale anyone?

The campground

The view from our campsite

Smoke on the water


Another look

The Von Trapp loge

One of the Von Trapp children no doubt

Vermont Trip Part Two

The amazing voyage of Tash to Vermont continued - IN COLOR!!

We drove by a Planned Parenthood center on a trip to get supplys and I suggested that we take our family picture in front of the sign. David added that we should get one of the employees to take the picture. Sadly it didn't end up happening. MaN!

A closer look

Huummm, Suspicious Persons should be reported? Does that mean that the people that are suspicious of suspicious people go to the jail too?

Suspicious Persons 1

Suspicious Persons 2

The Waterbury Dam







You can tell the size of this thing by seeing how small the people walking on the top of it are

On the way back we hit the Vermont capitol building

and a Norman Rockwell museum

For the rest of the way back I have no comment. Really. Nothing bad to say at all. Zip, Nada, Nothing. Not a word. Not a paragraph. Not a even a separate blog post!

Just this:
"!!!AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

"Reserved For Who?"

Ingrid begins her life of crime and lawbreaking.... Just got back from camping; I will post pictures as soon as possible.

Huge Victory For Huckabee

Mike Huckabee finished in second place in todays Iowa Straw Poll! Mitt Romney came in first with 31% while Huckabee had 18% of the total vote. Why is so big? While most of the other candidates threw a ton of money and fancy ploys such as busing in voters or big tents with air conditioning to get votes, Huckabee was relatively modest with his spending on the straw poll. So basically, at least from my point of view, he won because of his ideas; not local popularity or big time spending. From the beginning it was a two man race for first place in the poll, Mitt Romney vs Mitt Romney and surprisingly enough - Mitt Romney won!! But today was Huckabee's day, now he's one of the big boys. Watch out.

Buc's Sink Pats 13 to 10

The Patriots played their first preseason game of the season today and lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a game winning 32 yard field goal by Matt Bryant. Overall the Patriots looked pretty good. The starting offensive didn't have Moss, Stallworth, Watson or Maroney tonight so it's hard to judge how good they really were but they did move the football - they just really didn't score touchdowns. The starting defense had to be one of the brightest spots in this game. Adalius Thomas was a monster and Brandon Meriweather stuck to his guy in the slot. The Buc's offensive really couldn't do anything against these guys. On special teams it looks as if Bill Belichick may have decided that one of the kids, Thomas Malone or Danny Baugher is the Pats punter of the future. Or at least that he's going to give them the best chance to prove that they should be. Out of the six Patriots punts, Miller only booted one (43 yards). Nothing special happened in the return department other then a great 39 yard kick return by rookie defensive back Gemara Williams.

The Good
*The defensive backs - most people say that the weakest area of the team is the DB's. And although compared to the wide receivers and defensive line this unit may be lacking star power, they pretty much shut down the Buc's air attack in the first quarter.

*Justin Rogers - six total tackles, one sack and a fumble recovery. Not bad.

*Gemara Williams - showed a lot of speed on his one kick return. One more block and he could have brought it all the way to the house.

The Not So Good
*The QB's - it was the first preseason game of the year so it's hard to tell but none of the quarterbacks looked very sharp. Matt Gutierrez especially looked off. In his two quarters of playing time he only passed for 66 yards on 6 completions.

*The backup's, backup defensive linemen - The Buc's ran a lot in the third and forth quarter and for a good reason. Expected to see some early cuts in this unit.

Play of the Game
With the Buccaneers threating to score a touchdown in the first quarter defensive tackle Mike Wright sacked quarterback Luke McCown on a third down play. The Buc's were forced to kick a field goal to make the game 7 to 3.

PTC Trip Two

We went to a Patriots Training Camp practice yesterday afternoon. The Pat's defensive total dominated the practice. In total they had five interceptions - and they returned two of those for touchdowns. Our defensive looks good. Our passing game - hopefully it was an off day. Moss wasn't at the practice but Donte Stallworth who had missed most of the previous practices was. He appeared to have a lot of speed but he did drop at least two catchable passes.

Of all the pictures I took, I think this one (above left) expresses best what Brady thought about the day (the last pass he threw was an interception to Mike Vrabel...)

I got autographs of Rodney Harrison (as did Peter and Aidan) and also Brandon Meriweather, Eugene Wilson and James Sanders. Harrison's auto was a especially good one to get since this is most likely his last season in the NFL. The Patriots first preseason game is this Friday vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

My pictures of PTC Trip 2

One side of the field...

...the other side

You have to click on the picture to actually see the snap

Brady to Bam Childress

The Patriots 2007 first round selection Brandon Meriweather

Rodney Harrison a split second before he slams into Garrett Mills

Mel Mitchell (24), Brandon Meriweather (31) and Willie Andrews (23) sitting in their thinking spots

Ellis Hobbs (27), Eugene Wilson (26) and Randall Gay (21)

Wes Welker attempts to avoid James Sanders in a tackling drill

Laurence Maroney

Running backs vs Linebackers