5 non-PSI related Patriots thoughts

by Dakota Antelman

As roomers, comments and opinions regarding the "Deflategate" controversy in Foxboro seem to dominate football headlines this week, here is a look at a few non-deflation related Patriots thoughts and story lines...

Patriots practicing indoors

The Patriots held their first practice of the week inside the climate controlled Dana Farber Field House. With temperatures outside perched right around 35 degrees, the move could be one made in an effort to reacclimate the team to what indoor football is like. 

Next week's Super Bowl will of course be held in Glendale Arizona's University of Phoenix Stadium, a domed venue. 

Bryan Stork practicing again 

Rookie center Bryan Stork hit the field for practice on Thursday for the first time since he injured his knee during the Divisional Playoff round vs. Baltimore. According to multiple observations by members of the Patriots media present at the indoor practice, Stork wore a brace and a medical wrap around his left knee. 

Stork was still slightly hobbled by the injury but was surely well enough to be written in as being a "full participant" in the practice.

Still with over a week to go before the Super Bowl and with "Deflategate" dominating press conference topics, no comment has been made by the team about Stork's status for the big game. His participation Thursday remains a good sign nonetheless and at first glance works to remind fans of the sizable chance that he will be ready to go on February 1.

Richard Sherman commenting on Darelle Revis

Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman spoke to media personnel this week about Patriot, Darelle Revis, one of the few CBs in football who seem to challenge Sherman's self-proclaimed title of "best corner in the NFL."

While Revis openly said that he would not answer questions regarding any comparison to Sherman, Sherman responded to a comparison question Thursday saying, "I haven’t thought about that honestly, but he’s had a great year. He’s been doing his job effectively and I’ve liked what I’ve seen from his game. I’m sure people make comparisons, they always do. But I think we play the game two different ways."

He elaborated.

"He plays it more conventional is what people would say, and mine's a little more unorthodox, which means it’s just more difficult to replicate what I do on the football field. So everyone is going to make comparisons but it’s just two different styles to compare. I play my way, he plays his way, and both of them are effective."

As many have pointed out Sherman and Revis have an intense personal rivalry which predated a highly publicized Twitter feud back in 2013 over who was a superior CB. Sherman has been cordial so far in addressing the topic of Revis though while Revis has taken the absolute vow of silence.

HOWEVER...

Richard Sherman taking shots at Tom Brady

Patriot QB Tom Brady has a long list of players who hate him. Sherman apparently is one of them. 

The two famously engaged in an on field verbal scuffle after the Patriots last played the Seahawks in 2012. Sherman and Brady exchanged trash talk before Sherman ultimately took to Twitter to post the now famous taunt "U MAD BRO?" 

This week, Sherman shed light on the moment. He in fact blamed Brady for instigating the clash.

"He was pretty much saying that we were nobodies, and that we should come up to him after they get the win. So we should take that pretty well. ‘Cool, can I get your autograph too?’"He said.

Sherman then more blatantly undercut what he believes to be a facade of professionalism that Brady has created.

"Like I said before, I think people some time get a skewed view of Tom Brady," Sherman explained. "That he’s just a clean-cut [guy], does everything right, and never says a bad word to anyone, and we know him to be otherwise. But in that moment of him being himself, he said some things and we returned the favor. Unfortunately he apparently didn’t remember what he said."

Date for Super Bowl sendoff rally set 

Earlier this week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and the City of Boston announced that a date had been set for the Patriots Super Bowl sendoff rally. 

The rally will take place next Monday at 11AM in City Hall Plaza. Walsh will be hosting the rally while Patriot owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and players Tom Brady, Vince Wilfork, Dan Connolly, Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater are all slated to speak. 

The Patriots will depart for Glendale following the conclusion of the rally.

Read More

Late game lapse sends Bruins into All-Star weekend on loosing note

(Photo by AP)

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins lost their final game before the All-Star break, a matchup with the Colorado Avalanche, by virtue of something that has become a regular occurrence in the Bruins recent meetings with the Colorado; the late goal.

The Bruins allowed two goals in the last two minutes of periods Wednesday night. Ultimately, they squandered a 2-1 lead in the third period when they allowed Ryan O’Reilly to score for Colorado with the goalie pulled and 1:45 left on the game clock.

The Avalanche, invigorated by their comeback, dominated overtime and scored the only goal in the ensuing shootout, winning the game.

“We played a good 58 minutes of hockey and killed a lot of good penalties,” said Bruins defensemen, Torey Krug. “(Rask) came up big for us in some key moments. They just out-battled us at the end and they scored the only goal in the shootout that mattered.”

The Bruins out-hit the Avalanche for all three periods of the game. They held onto the puck with ease, recording 0 giveaways and were gritty in the defensive zone with 27 blocked shots.

Their goalie, Tuukka Rask played well and, for the near entirety of the first period, held the Avalanche off the board. It was not until former Bruin, Jarome Iginla, batted in a rebound with 0.4 seconds left in the period that Colorado managed to draw blood.

The Bruins responded 4:47 into the second period when David Pastrnak’s shot ricocheted to Krug who proceeded to score his ninth goal of the season.

The Bruins played “competent” hockey Wednesday night but struggled with discipline. Even as they eventually took a 2-1 lead off of Brad Marchand’s first goal since his suspension, they were called for penalties. By night’s end, seven Bruins went to the penalty box.

“I thought  we played well the first two periods. We were moving the puck well and skating well for a back-to-back games and again, those penalties took their toll on us,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien.

Julien expressed frustration at an apparent discrepancy in penalty calling. Notably, Jarome Iginla, seemed to get away with an overt trip of Brad Marchand early in the game. No penalties were called and in fact, the Avalanche were called for just three minor penalties Wednesday.

“It's too bad. It's such a close game and to have an edge on us in power-plays is unbelievable,” Julien complained. “There were some blatant missed calls out there and its' getting frustrating. Because at the end of the day, guys work hard they kill penalties, they get burnt out and run out of gas at the end. That took its toll."

Still though, the Bruins seemed displeased mainly with the fundamental issues that took place within their own team; especially on O’Reilly’s game tying goal in the third period.

“We have to look at ourselves here,” Julian said. “It's poor management. We had the puck at least three maybe four times with 27 seconds left where we could have done something much better and we didn't. That's our own fault. And at the end of the game, we need to be a little more aware of when they pull their goalie, we have to collapse a little better and we allowed a guy to come into the slot there and score.”

With the NHL’s All-Stars competing in the All-Star game this weekend in Columbus, the Bruins are off for the next week. Though a loss to Colorado stings, they can seek solace in the fact that they enter the break having taken at least a point out of 12 of their last 13 games.

“It's pretty disappointing obviously but we battled hard and we had a lot of good penalty kills there,” said Tuukka Rask. “It's too bad we got scored on in the last two minutes, but we played a good game today.”

Read More

Bill Belichick addresses confusion, team preferences on football inflation following "Deflategate"

by Dakota Antelman

Patriots coach Bill Belichick made a prepared statement and answered media questions Thursday morning. The conference marked the first time since the escalation of the “Deflategate” controversy that Belichick had interacted with media. He revealed some  details of how the Patriots specifically inflate footballs while also expressly denying any involvement in the accused cheating.

"When I came in Monday morning, I was shocked to learn of the news about the footballs," Belichick said. "I had no knowledge whatsoever of the situation until Monday morning."

For much of this week, the cheating allegations against the Patriots have dominated both football and sports headlines as a whole. On Monday, the NFL announced that they were in the process of investigating whether or not the Patriots intentionally inflated their footballs to a pressure below the league limit of 12.5PSI.

Late Tuesday night, the story was elevated to a national one when ESPN’s Chris Mortenson published a report reveling that the NFL had found 11 of the 12 footballs used by the Patriot offence were 2PSI below the league limit.

Since then, a myriad of reports and roomers have complicated the picture. A debate has been raging in football world on whether or not the Patriots intentionally deflated the footballs. The effect that the alleged deflation had on the Patriots’ dominant 45-7 win over the Colts has also been under question.

Belichick admitted to a sense of confusion that even he felt this past week.

"I would say I've learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew or had talked about in the last 40 years that I've coached in this league," he said. "I had no knowledge of the various steps involved in the game balls and the process that we went through, that happened between when they were prepared and went to the officials and went to the game. So I learned a lot about that.”

Beyond that, he addressed the argument that the balls, which were measured in a room with an estimated air temperature of 70F and then moved outside to the 20F air temperature on the field, could easily have lost air during the game.

He revealed that the Patriots walk a thin line with the inflation of their footballs and that their proximity to the minimum PSI could have been what got them in trouble Sunday. He says that they are in the process of changing their team protocol so as to avoid situations like this in the future.

"Obviously with our footballs being inflated to the 12.5-pound range, any deflation would then take us under that specification limit," Belichick said. "Knowing that now, in the future, we will certainly inflate the footballs above that low level to account for any possible change during the game. “

Read More

Very early look at Patriots vs. Seahawks Super Bowl storylines

(Photo by Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

by Dakota Antelman

The combatants who will battle in Super Bowl XLIX were decided Sunday afternoon when the Seattle Seahawks toppled the Green Bay Packers by a score of 28-22 and the New England Patriots routed the Colts 45-7.

As their February 1 date at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale Arizona nears, the Patriots and Seahawks prep for each other's scheme riddled play calling and power heavy offences.

Below are some initial observations and storylines made at the very beginning of these team's Super Bowl preparations...

Comeback king Seahawks vs. dominant Patriots

The Patriots and Sehawks are alike in the sense that they both finished the season with the best record in their conference and proceeded to win their conference championship. Aside from that, they are two teams with vastly different paths to this season's Super Bowl.

Seattle started the year with a record of four and three and took much longer to find its identity in 2014 than the Patriots did. Furthermore, once they did start winning games, they were only doing so by 7 to 10 points. The Patriots on the other hand scored 40 or more points on five different occasions during a stretch where they won 10 of 11 games between Week 5 and Week 16.

Lastly, in the AFC Championship game, they blew the Colts away with ease while the Seahawks needed a last second drive from Russell Wilson and a stunning overtime hail mary to advance to the Super Bowl.

Pete Caroll faces his old team

Before Tom Brady was in New England and before Bill Belichick left the Jets to coach the Patriots, Pete Caroll spent three seasons as the Patriot bench boss.

He inherited the job from hall of fame bound Bill Parcels before the 1997 season and promptly led the team on a mediocre 27-21 three year run. Caroll was fired after the 1999 season and was replaced by Belichick.

As Belichick earned national recognition as one of the greatest coaches in the history of football, Caroll trundled around the college football ranks before breaking back into the NFL in 2010 as coach of the Seahawks.

He enters this rare meeting with the team that fired him looking to win his second Super Bowl as a head coach.

Brady and Belichick get yet another shot at 4th title

Over the course of 15 seasons, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have now been to six Super Bowls. Their last two appearances have not gone exactly to plan though with losses being handed to them by the Giants in 2007 and 2011.

In 2015, the Brady/Belichick duo are desperate to avoid having the same number of Super Bowl losses as wins.

As for their chances, this year's Super Bowl, according to Las Vegas is the closest in history. When betting opened on Monday, multiple lines offered a pick-em while still others favored either the Patriots or Seahawks by only one or two points.

If Brady can swing those odds in his favor on February 1st, he will win the Super Bowl and tie Joe Montana for the most Super Bowl rings in NFL history.

Doing that, for many, would erase much of the pain felt by those painful losses to the Giants.

Major injuries on both sides could effect game

The last time the Patriots got to the Super Bowl they did so with depleted forces.

In 2015, injuries will once again be a major storyline going into Super Bowl Sunday. This time though, the bug has bitten both teams.

Notably, eccentric Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman was limited in the NFC Championship game with a sprained elbow. Beyond him, teammate Earl Thomas was in a "dire situation" Sunday according to coach Pete Carrol after he dislocated his shoulder in the first half.

While both Sherman and Thomas had MRI's Monday and are expected to play in the Super Bowl, their injuries could have lingering effects two weeks from now and lead to an amended approach for the Patriots offence and secondary.

On the Patriots side of the ball, rookie center Bryan Stork was the biggest Patriots injury story going into the AFC Championship and will likely remain so for the next two weeks. He sprained his knee in the Divisional Playoff Game against Baltimore and missed Sunday's game vs. the Colts. The Patriots are yet to comment on his status for the Super Bowl.

Read More

Report: Bruins expected play Canadians in 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium

(Photo by David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/File)

by Dakota Antelman

According to DJ Bean of WEEI, the NHL has finalized plans for the Bruins to host the Montreal Canadians in the 2016 Winter Classic at Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium.

The WEEI report acknowledges that the league is yet to make a public announcement on the subject. However, it does not come completely out of the blue.

Last month, TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported via Twitter that the Bruins were favorites to host the 2016 Winter Classic. Though no venue was specified in that report, both Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park were names mentioned as potential host venues.

Fenway hosted the game in 2010 when the Bruins toppled the Flyers 2-1 in overtime. The aura of Fenway as an iconic stadium combined with the rivalry between the Bruins and Flyers drew in the largest viewership that the Winter Classic had seen in its then three year history.

Six years later however, the NHL appears to be leaning towards bigger venues in its selection of Winter Classic hosts. Though the Red Sox organization expressed interest in getting the game back, the potential for nearly double the ticket sales at Gillette Stadium seemed to sway the scale in its favor.

In terms of the matchup, the NHL is positioning itself for a bounce back year after the ratings flop that was the 2015 Winter Classic.

The long engraved rivalry between the Bruins and Canadians will be a major story throughout the league as the game approaches while it will also likely draw in far more Canadian viewers than has been the case in the first nine Winter Classics.

The Canadians will be just the second Canadian team to play in the Winter Classic.

For Bruin Dougie Hamilton, the prospect of playing in this storied game is delightful. He is part of a brand drew generation of NHL players who have grown up watching the Winter Classic and dreaming of playing in it.

He spoke Monday on the topic.

“I think it would be awesome,” Hamilton said. “It’s something that you kind of follow every year. In [recent] years I watched the HBO show in juniors and kind of pictured what the NHL was like. Then watching the games, it’s obviously special with the different jerseys and the venue and the crowd and rivalries and everything; it’s something you’d really want to be a part of.

“I think when [speculation] came out last year and we kind of thought it was going to be this year, I think it was kind of disappointing that it wasn’t us. Hopefully we get it and have that chance. It [would be] something to really forward to next year.”€

Read More

Patriot run game carries team past Colts to 8th Super Bowl

(Photo by Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

by Dakota Antelman

The New England Patriots were dominant in their dispatching the Colts from the AFC Championship Game.

After jumping out to an early lead which they held onto until halftime, the Patriots scored 21 points on Andrew Luck’s Indianapolis Colts in just the 3rd quarter alone. They fought through a heavy rainstorm with sometimes debilitating wind gusts to finish the night nearly perfect in their numerous redzone drives.

Tom Brady was crucial in ensuring that perfection, completing 23 of 35 attempted passes for 220 passing yards and three touchdown passes. His success in his record ninth AFC Championship game moved him into sole possession of the postseason touchdown passes record.

Though the game, like the season was not a perfect one for Brady, it was enough to get the Patriots to Glendale in convincing fashion.

"I know we've had some ups and downs this year," Brady said, "but right now we're up, baby, and we're going to try to stay up for one more game."

Brady had plenty of help in getting past the Colts though. As the Indianapolis secondary seemed to negate the efforts of Rob Gronkowski for much of the game, and a hip injury took wide receiver Julien Edelman off the field for some time, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDanials repeatedly called upon seasoned running back LeGarette Blount.

Blount, who ran for 166 yards and four touchdowns in last year’s Divisional Playoff game against the Colts, put up three touchdowns and 148 rushing yards Sunday.

“He ran his [butt] off, ran hard for four quarters” teammate, Shane Vereen said of Blount. "Coming into the game, we didn't know what the game plan was going to be, because we didn't know really what to expect from the Colts' defense. We were expecting some wrinkles but we were able to run the ball."

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Blount had 68 rushing yards AFTER contact. On one notable play midway through the third quarter, Blount earned a first down by continuing to push forward after the Colts defenders assumed he was down and let go of him.

"He made some great cuts in not good conditions," Belichick said of Blount, citing still other carries where Blount simply shook defenders off him without any need for his power running game. "He's a tough guy to tackle."

The Patriots made themselves hard to tackle both in a literal and metaphorical sense in the AFC Title Game. Through Blount’s dominant day, Julien Edelman’s nine catch effort as well as a shutdown showing by the Patriots secondary, the Patriots gained separation from the Colts early and never relented in their scoring assault.

As they revel in their AFC Title Game blowout, New England keenly turns its collective head towards Glendale Arizona where in two weeks, the Patriots will face the Seahawks in hot pursuit of their fourth Super Bowl title.

As Bill Belichick said with a smug hint of a smile following Sunday’s win, “Were on to Seattle.”

Read More

3 takeaways from Bruins 3-1 loss to Columbus Blue Jackets

by Dakota Antelman

The Bruins were dealt a painful loss Saturday night, losing by a score of 3-1. Carl Soderberg scored Boston's only goal while Tuukka Rask was good for much of the game.

Below are some takeaways from the loss...

Winning streak over

The Bruins were riding high going into this game. They had won five straight contests and taken points out of their last 13 games.

Though they played similarly to the way they have been throughout this streak, Saturday's loss ruined the absoluteness of their early 2015 run. The Bruins, having also watched as the Rangers beat the Blue Jackets the night before to reclaim the first wild card spot, now have their record drop to 24-16-6 on the season and will have to wait until Tuesday to get their next chance at leapfrogging New York.

Bruins absorb loss of Marchand

One of the biggest storylines going into Saturday's game was that surrounding the suspension of Brad Marchand for slew-footing Rangers forward Derick Brassard. Marchand was suspended two games by the Department of Player Safety Friday and spoke to media Saturday morning on the topic.

While there was little opposition to the suspension within the Bruins or even Boston as a whole, there was much to be said about how the team would absorb the loss of him vs Columbus.

Very simply, the Bruins seemed to play seamlessly without the grit of Marchand. Fourth line winger Danial Pallie was promoted to Marchand's normal line consisting of Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith. He and his line rattled off 10 shots and played normal ice time.

Though the Bruins definitely missed Marchand, Saturday's game seemed to settle some fluttering fears that his absence would devastate the team's momentum.

Milan Lucic dominates finesse game

Milan Lucic, who already had three goals in the new year, played one of his best fundamental games fans have seen out of him in a while.

He and linemates, David Krejci and David Pastrnak, were connecting on passes with showstopping consistency Saturday. Furthermore, Lucic himself put up five shots in the loss, more than he had in any game this season. Though he did not factor into the score sheet in a major way, Lucic was arguably the Bruins best offensive player vs the Blue Jackets; something that has not been true for a long time.

Read More