No surrender from opposition
Focus isn’t just on Pats
Just about every oddsmaker, poll taker, football prognosticator and media pundit have the Patriots locked, loaded, and ready to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Chalk up championship No. 6. It’s a done deal.
According to Bovada, the Patriots opened as 5-1 favorites to win the Super Bowl, then moved to 4-1 after the first week of free agency. With the additions of Stephon Gilmore, Lawrence Guy and Rex Burkhead in free agency, coupled with bringing in Brandin Cooks, Kony Ealy and Dwayne Allen via trade while retaining Dont’a Hightower, Duron Harmon and Alan Branch, it’s hard not to pick the Patriots.
But what about the rest of the NFL? Maybe some of the moves, most notably giving Tom Brady gifted speedster Cooks, sent some coaches for the Rolaids. Raiders coach Jack Del Rio admittedly cringed at the thought of having to defend the Patriots offense this season, and Texans coach Bill O’Brien acknowledged everyone’s still chasing them.
But concede the title? In March no less? Let’s just say the other 31 teams aren’t about to do that, particularly the ones in closest proximity.
O’Brien’s defense put a scare into Brady and the Pats in the divisional round of the playoffs before ultimately losing. The Falcons had a 25-point lead in Super Bowl LI, and similarly held Brady before running out of gas. We haven’t even had the draft yet.
Tony Romo still hasn’t landed. O’Brien certainly gives props and respect to the Patriots, and applauds what they’ve done to this point, but that’s as far as it goes.
“It’s so hard to win, and the Patriots have definitely set the standard. I think they’re an organization that does a great job in a lot of different areas, but at the same time, we’re all competitive and we’re all trying to build our team in our own vision with the knowledge they’re the Super Bowl champion,” O’Brien said at the annual league meetings in Phoenix last week. “You know the road to the Super Bowl is going to go through New England in some way, shape or form. Every year’s different, and you never know what’s going to happen, but no one’s laying down the sword.” O’Brien even kidded that Bill
Belichick wouldn’t be happy if that was the case. The Hoodie doesn’t want it easy. He lives for the competition.
“Look, I respect what they do, but I’m playing to win,” said O’Brien, “just like he’s playing to win when he plays us.”
Thomas Dimitroff, general manager of the Falcons, offered similar sentiments. His team has to find a way to overcome the aftershocks of their devastating Super Bowl loss, but by no means are they giving an inch.
“I think everyone’s just worried about their own team, and not worried about what the prognosticators are saying,” said Dimitroff, whose Falcons play at Foxboro this season. “Speaking for us, we’re focused on our own growth, and our own evolution and where we need to make changes. We don’t care one bit what they’re saying (about the Patriots). We know what we did last year. We’re proud of how we played through the season and we feel like we’re in a really good spot. We have our whole offense back, and a nice budding defense. We’re in a good place.”
Dolphins coach Adam Gase claimed not only didn’t he know what prognosticators were saying, he also wasn’t paying attention to what the Patriots were doing in free agency. Somewhat hard to fathom given they’re a division rival, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
“We’re just focused on getting better ourselves,” said Gase, whose team made the playoffs last season for the first time in eight years. “If we’re going to start worrying about what other teams are doing, it’s just mental clutter. It’s not going to help us at all. We just have to figure out a way to get better ourselves. When it’s time to play those guys, we have to compete better than we did last year. We can’t spot them 20 and 24 points and wonder why we lost. We just have to play better against those guys.”
“The Patriots have had a good offseason, but I think you can say that hopefully for our team, and a lot of other teams,” Detroit general manager Bob Quinn told the Herald. “We’re all striving for the same goal. They had great success last year and in previous seasons. But every season’s a new season. You read what’s being said, it’s a good story, but I don’t think it’s something I pay attention to, or anyone else pays attention to. There’s a long time between now and when we play.”
True. There’s five months before the start of the regular season. That’s also more time for the favorites to get even stronger, depending what happens with Malcolm Butler.
To be the guy . . .
New Broncos coach Vance Joseph, the Dolphins defensive coordinator last season, came across well in the round table discussion at last week’s AFC coaches breakfast. It was interesting hearing him basically say he was going to push wide receiver Demaryius Thomas.
“I want ‘88,’ that’s what I call him, I want him to be a dominant player all the time,” said Joseph. “I don’t want him to ease into games. I want him to be a guy. I want him to step out and be a guy. It’s time. He’s a great player. He can take over a game, but I want his mindset every game to be, every game we play, to walk on the field and take over the game. Again, running the football will force them to load up the box and give him one-on-one opportunities. I want him to win every oneon-one. I want him to become a leader of our football team.” Translation: Thomas hasn’t been that guy.
Luck finally no-hitter
The Colts have left franchise quarterback Andrew Luck practically defenseless by failing to give him a quality offensive line, but Luck hasn’t helped his cause by not always protecting himself after leaving the pocket.
Luck, on the mend from right shoulder surgery, doesn’t always slide to avoid contact. Given his big frame, he’s been willing to take on tacklers to gain the extra yard. Colts coach Chuck Pagano said he’s had to learn not to do that.
“Early on, he felt like he liked to get his bell rung, so he’d go try to run a linebacker over. You just can’t do it in this league. He understands,” Pagano said. “He’s such a great competitor. You don’t want to take the instinctive, natural playing ability out of a guy, because there’s times when he extends plays and he makes plays down the field and he finds receivers down the field. Then there’s times when he’s taken some shots he shouldn’t take. So, he’s done a great job. We saw a quantum leap last year of throwing the ball away and getting on the ground and avoiding some of those hits.
“I think it’s just a maturity thing and an experience thing and I think we’re beyond that point now.”
Fins are who they are
Gase, whose Dolphins were one of the most penalized teams for celebrations, is fine whether or not the league gets more lenient on how players express themselves after a good play.
“It was bad when we were watching the celebration tape, and we were on it like five times,” Gase said. “I’m going, ‘This is not good. Everybody’s probably looking at it like, we’re probably the most undisciplined team in football.’ But I look at it like there’s some negatives to some of the things that happened last year with our taunting and personal fouls, but that’s a little bit about who we were ... that’s the attitude we brought every week. That’s why I never said anything. I wanted our guys to be who they were. I wanted our guys to make sure they played with everything they had.”