Hi.

The Patriots laid an egg today. I am the first one to say "those fucking refs", "that fucking wind gust", etc. I will always make an excuse when I can, because I am a biased, complete and utter shameless fanboy.

You can't do that today.

The Patriots were beat by the Ravens today straight up. Weather didn't make it happen. Bad calls didn't make it happen. The Baltimore Ravens came in, punched the Patriots in the mouth, and the Patriots didn't punch back. 

Why?

I am not blaming the defense. The offense lost that game. Brady was as bad as I've ever seen him, probably the worst game of his career. The line was okay but not good enough. They had chances to get back in that game, they fucked up every last one of them. Julian Edelman is the only person on that offense that deserves any praise today. Chippy little bastard. He played his heart out, and he did everything he could to put that team on his shoulders. They didn't want to climb on.

However.

Though the defense didn't lose this game, I look at them when I try to figure out what the fuck happened this year. Did Coach Belichick make more "uh.... what" decisions this year then I've ever seen? Yes. Did our new offensive coordinator suck? Absolutely. Did Brady put up a clunker here and there? Amazingly, he certainly did.

But what used to happen when games got bad? Bruschi. Harrison. Somebody. One of the leaders would find a guy with the ball, knock their fucking head off, and pop up like a man possessed screaming and convulsing like a God damn maniac. That team would look at them, get fired up, go "YEAH, LETS FUCK THESE GUYS UP" and put it together.

They didn't have that this year. This was a finesse team. This was an old Colts team, back when the Patriots kicked their ass every time they had to. The talent was there. They had phenomenal players. Phenomenal players that when a tougher team decided to smack the shit out of them, they did not respond. They turtled. 

The 2009-10 Patriots are the Rams team the Patriots beat for their first Super Bowl. Talent? Tons. Toughness? Very little.

Welker is one of the toughest little fuckers you will ever see on a NFL field. Sammy Morris breaks a lot but when he's out there he runs angry. That's pretty much it, folks. Randy Moss is a Hall of Fame player, but when you smack him around, he goes away. Same for the defense we have now. It's fast as hell, it's talented, but if you push it, it doesn't push back.

If the 2010-11 Patriots want to have a legitimate run at the trophy, they need to bring in some big, ugly, dumb motherfuckers that you slap a helmet on and tell them to go kill somebody. I'm serious. They need a good half dozen of that type of player. Position irrelevant. They just need them. The talent is there, the anger, the ill defined murderous rage that you need people to have to win a championship in the NFL.... it isn't. They're talented enough. They aren't tough enough.