Patriots Take Care of Business

Morris led a well-balanced attack.

The Patriots won and clinched the AFC East championship yesterday afternoon for the seventh time in nine seasons. A well-balanced attack sparked a wonderful team effort. First, lets recap our keys to the game:

Let Tom Brady Light it Up. Just what the Patriots' offense needed to get back on track. Against the league's 27th ranked pass D, Tom Brady found open receivers all afternoon. Completing 23-26 passes for 4 TDs (three to Moss, one to TE Chris Baker), Brady looked like the Tom of old. Any time Brady needed a completion, he had Wes Welker open and he caught all 13 passes thrown to him for 138 yards. Lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet though. Brady had all day to throw (this was the 4th straight game in which he was not sacked), and he had wide receivers wide open all day.

Stop MJD. Jumping out to a 28-0 lead in the first half, the Patriots made Maurice Jones-Drew less of a factor. Unable to run the ball all that often playing from behind, the Pats held MJD to 18 carries for 63 yards and 3 catches for 35 yards. Early in the game the Patriots struggled at times bringing down the "little-big man", but a team effort helped bring down the relentless runner.

Take Away the Jags' Underneath Passing Game. David Garrard was able to complete 19 of his 25 attempts, but for only 185 yards. Playing from behind, his dump-offs were not beneficial to the team. Their best wide receiver Mike Sims-Walker (2 catches, 19 yards), was shut down. In fact, on a red zone target Shawn Springs stepped in for a pick after Garrard stared him down.

Other reasons we won the game:

The Running Game. The Patriots orchestrated a beautiful opening drive that went 82 yards on 10 plays and saw Laurence Maroney run well against the Jags on half of the plays for 22 yards. On his goal line carry to put the Patriots up 7-0, he coughed up the ball (his 4th fumble of the season) and never saw the field again. In came Sammy Morris. Morris took over the feature back role and had 95 yards on 12 carries while adding a TD and a 55 yards gallop. Kevin Faulk added 6 carries for 41 yards, and old friend Fred Taylor (active for the first time in weeks) had 11 carries on the Patriots' final drive to help milk the clock.

A well balanced attack by the running game, and the Patriots have four capable backs ready for the playoffs. Maroney is fumbling at bad times, and Coach Belichick has plenty of options to go to despite his impressive play of late.

The Safety Play. Safeties Brandon Meriweather and James Sanders both played a good game yesterday. Each made some crucial tackles (Meriweather on a 3rd and 1 and Sanders on a 4th and 1). Sanders was heralded by the announcers for his ability to communicate with the secondary and Meriweather added a pick. You have to applaud Sanders for his ability to cope with his midseason benching to Brandon McGowan and his ability to step back into the starting role.

MORE:

• Recently re-signed lineman Dan Connolly returned to his reserve role today because Stephen Neal was back at RG. Connolly though played a large role seeing some snaps at FB and had the key block on Morris' 55 yard run. He is Ross Hochstein 2.0.
• Sebastain Vollmer started at RT for the injured Nick Kazcur. Vollmer was very good in protection, but was whistled for two false starts which will draw the ire of Belichick.
• Welker is up to 122 receptions with one game to go. He set a new franchise record for catches breaking his previous high of 112. Oh yea, he missed two games earlier this year.
• Ty Warren returned to action, but did not start. Mike Wright saw a lot of time at DE as they eased Ty back into the lineup.
• Vince Wilfork did not suit up for the game and rookie Myron Pryor saw many of the snaps at NT.

This is the type of game the Patriots need to build off of. They played 60 minutes of football for the first time in a while (their last drive in a 28 point game was 20 plays that milked over 12 minutes!), and this is a building block.

The Pats head to Houston for a game that will only decide seeding. If they win they will remain the 3rd season in the AFC, but their opponent in the opening Wild Card round is too tough to tell with so many 8-7 teams. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, but our Patriots are playoff bound!