Every time I hear that monicker for a swashbuckler I think of the old joke my father used to tell me:

Father: Where are your buccaneers?
Me: I don't know.
Father: On the side of your buccanhead.

Bahdum, ssssss.  Thank you very much - I'm here all weekend.

Ugly is my word for this game.  Ugly, messy, stinky.  There were very few bright spots in what was an abysmal showing.  However, as I've mentioned before, relax.  This is preseason and it's not about winning, although winning would be nice.  It's a science experiement.  It's about putting players in situations and examining the outcome.  It's about getting as many players on the field as possible.  And it's about getting a look at players so coaches can decide who to send home.  A few rambling thoughts:

• A most excellent observation by standingpat during the game thread, the defense was "bend don't break" and very generic, as if BB was purposely "hiding" his good stuff.  This was evidenced by CB Ellis Hobbs playing very soft for the first part of the game.  Bucs QB Brian Griese made the same observation.
• Adam?  We heart you and thanks for the rings, but DANG!!  G-man spanks a 53 yarder.  2 games in a row he's money.
• Welker looked like he'd shaken off the rust from a post season groin injury which put him on the PUP.
• Cassel stretched out Moss midfield and I thought he was going to get crushed.  Brady never does that as it spells disaster for tall skinny guys like Randy or little skinny guys like Wes.  2 de-merits, Matt.
• Speaking of Cassel, he's in the fight of his career and he's losing.  No excuses at this point, because the vets were on the field.  Matt can't blame "The Chad" or CJ Jones for his woes when Moss and Welker were on the field for a crapload of snaps.  He managed only 3 points in 6 drives.  Not good.
• S Brandon Meriweather appeared to be in considerable pain when he left the game in the first quarter.  If it's serious, batter up - John Lynch.
• Kevin O'Connell, after looking pretty good in his first NFL outing against the Ravens, throws an interception on his first play against Tampa Bay.  Later, he admits he forced that one and the ball should've ended up in the stands.
• ILBs weren't plugging the gaps during Tampa Bay running plays.  Even veteran Bruschi was having a tough night.

General observations: There were some glaring individual mistakes on the field.  But, this is where I gotta say Belichick is smarter than me.  He's playing very basic, vanilla offenses and defenses.  There's nothing exotic nor is there anything special about what he's putting on the field.  It's all about evaluation in a "live" situation, against someone wearing a different helmet.

Buccanhead...I kill myself.

I always laugh at this stuff.  The scrutiny placed on the health and welfare of professional athletes, especially a team's stars, is nothing short of ridiculous.  Remember how fast pictures of Brady's booted foot spread through the blogosphere?  Here's the word straight from our record breaking wonder:

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady spoke on WEEI this morning, answering questions about the leg injury that kept him home while the Patriots traveled to Tampa Bay.

While he didn't give details, Brady said the current injury he has isn't the same ankle injury that dogged him in the Super Bowl. "Same side of the body, and same leg, but not the same injury," said Brady. He said it also wasn't related to an Aug. 2 bump during practice, when running back Sammy Morris accidentally kicked him during a drill.

"I spent some time this weekend getting treatment on it, and hoping that it responds quickly like it usually does," said Brady.

"The key is not to go out there and aggravate anything when I'm not ready to go," said Brady. Obviously I'd love to be out there with my teammates, but Coach made the decision that that's not the smartest thing to do right now."

The quarterback wasn't sure about his status for Friday's third preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

"I'm not sure," said Brady. "I'm trying to get treatment this week, and I'm feeling better every day. It's going to be up to Coach, what he wants to do. I think he's been coaching long enough to know that the first game in September is the most important game for us."

Given the abysmal performance of Cassel and the rookie mistakes by O'Connell, one could assume we're in serious trouble.  Relax.  If we go 0-4 in the preseason Tom can rest his foot for the really important stuff, you know, like the regular season, that's fine by me.  We have 3 backup quarterbacks.  Lambs to the slaughter.

Yes, New England Patriots fans, preseason game number two is upon us.  For your viewing pleasure, tune in to The NFL Network or WCVB / Channel 4 @ 8:00 PM.  I'll have the game thread opened up around 6'ish as well.

After preseason game number one against the Ravens, I have a few things I'll be looking for, so here's a breakdown:

Quarterbacks - Matt Cassel did not have a good game.  Communication with wide receivers was off, despite a lot of reps in training camp.  Hopefully Belichick and the coaching staff worked on that aspect of Cassel's game and he comes out with a little more polish than we witnessed.  Matt Gutierrez wasn't much better, but he's backup to the backup; I'm less concerned about him.  Kevin O'Connell was a welcomed surprise and I hope to see more of the same.  Tom Brady did not make the trip to Tampa Bay due to a sore foot.  Which foot it is has not been revealed.  Happy place...happy place...ohhhhmmmm.  Seriously, relax.  Preseason is not the time to push an injury, especially with your star quarterback.

Wide Receivers - After Welker got off the PUP a few weeks back, he commented how it'll take some time to get back in the swing of things, that he was working to get his timing back with the QB's, specifically Brady.  Apparently, it didn't take long.  Mike Reiss has reported that the triumvirate is looking as sharp as ever.  Look for more playing time from Moss, Welker and Gaffney.  C.J. Jones is fighting for his job.  He did not have a good showing and will need to step up.  "The Chad" is another that needs to amp it up a bit.  I really hope he succeeds; we could really use the skills he projects to have.

Running Backs - LaMont Jordan was killer against the Ravens.  At this point, I really feel like he could own the redzone/goal line RB job.  I think Maroney and Morris will see more playing time as well as Faulk.  I'd like to see a few successful options to Kevin before a feel better.

Offensive Line - JHR is the guru, but overall the O-line struggled against the Ravens and has been hampered by injuries.  Barry Stokes has been IR'd and the boys are getting older.  A younger OL is a necessity, IMO but we needed to fix linebacker first.  Let's just hope we don't need Kevin O'Connell scrambling skills all around.

Linebackers - An area focused on so heavily, the linebacker corps appear to be shaping up nicely.  OLB draftee Shawn Crable is really looking good while ILB Jerod Mayo is turning into a stud and Pierre Woods was an animal against the Ravens.  OLBs Mike Vrabel and Adalius Thomas will see more reps as will ILB Tedy Bruschi.  I think if this lineup proves successful, fan favorite ILB Junior Seau will retire.  I'd like to see ILB Victor Hobson do well.  He's been struggling after moving from OLB for the Jets.  Rookie ILB Gary Guyton continues to impress.

Cornerbacks - Hobbs and Bryant continue to be the starters in my mind and rookie Terrence Wheatley has really gotten himself noticed in a field of 10.  Why so many?  Belichick's looking for something, some secret sauce that'll spell disaster for opposing teams.  With that many cornerbacks on the roster, this says to me he thinks this will be a key position for 2008.

Safeties - The Denver Broncos released veteran John Lynch and Belichick promptly snatched him up.  Lynch is known for being a super hard hitter and has signed a one year deal with the Patriots.  This appears to be a direct response to the loss of Tank Williams, the hybrid safety/linebacker guy who was such a good fit for the nickelback position.  I'll be watching John.

Defensive Lineman - Jarvis Green is back and Richard Seymour is feeling pretty good.  An interesting note: Belichick had the guys practice switching from a 3-4 to a 4-3.  A 4-3 is a good overall defense, but is very effective against the run so look for it during an obvious running situation.

With less than a month and 3 preseason games left until the Sept 7th opener with KC, the New England Patriots have their work cut out for them.  But, this is no surprise; every team has their work cut out for them.  Preseason games are not about winning, they're a science experiment designed to test many hypotheses in a live situation.  You'll see play calling I'd term "head scratchers" (pass on the 2 point conversion vs. hand off to Jordan), but coaches are experimenting with different packages, players and situations.  There's a lot of ingredients in this soup and we haven't even seen much of the starters.

Positives

Jerod Mayo - as any first rounder should, he's having an immediate impact.  Other than a few mis-reads in coverage, he appears to be stepping up to the NFL level and making an impact.  One play in particular, knocking of Ray Rice's helmet on a 1 yard run, was of particular note.  He smothered Rice.

Stephen Gostkowski - I said it in the game thread - Adam who?  I mean no disrespect to one of New England's heroes, but Gostkowski was money.  He hits 3 field goals for 36, 44, and 40 yards and was kicking off like a mofo.  Thanks G-man.

Shawn Crable - he used his long arms to bat down at least one pass.  When he was taken out on one play, I saw his eyes never the play and he bounce up running.  It's good to see the "never stop" mentality.

Kevin O'Connell - cool surprise.  He handled himself better than Matty Squared.  Sure, he may have been up against backups to backups to backups, but I thought he did a fine job and DAMN... he can run.

Pierre Woods - What tha?!?!?!  He was all over the field, reading pass coverage and making tackles.  I think we'll see more of him.

LaMont Jordan - the guy's a bull and fills the gap between fullbacks and running backs; he could be the goal line guy to blast through defenses.

Negatives

Cassel and Gutierrez - looked like O'Connell should've looked - deer in the headlights.  Whether it was their fault or receivers running bad routes, who knows.  I just know how Kevin looked compared to #2 and #3 - they should be worried.

CJ Jones - dropped passes, mental mistake during a kickoff return (should've let the ball hit the endzone for a touchback) and bad routes.  If he can't catch the backup's passes, how's he going to pull down Brady's rockets?

Chad Jackson - He's not showing me he can fill Stallworth's shoes.  Whether it was Cassel's fault or his, there was clear miscommunication between the 2.  Chad needs to build confidence with the QBs and hit the playbook.

Special Teams - FINISH! FINISH! FINISH!  That run back was ugly.  I mean, how many Patriots had their hands on the guy?  Finish the tackles by either knocking his block off or wrapping the guy up.

Head on over to Baltimore Beatdown for blogger Rexx's take on the game.

He's off his rocker. No, the rocker tipped too far and he's banged his head on the table where the bottle of moonshine is settin' a spell.  QB shootout at training camp?  Tom's our boy!  YOU...ARE...NUTS!!  Yes, there is a shootout, however it doesn't involve our tops-in-the-NFL pigskin tosser.  We need to keep the ranks fresh, dontcha know.  What happens if Tom decides to buy a ginormous Alpaca farm and retire?  Or, better yet, just lay in the grass with his girlfriend, Giselle, and sell cologne?  It's not a bad gig if you can get it.  Heck, I used to lay in the grass with my girlfriend and noone asked me to sell cologne.  Well, I'm not a 3 time SB champion QB nor was my girlfriend at the time one of the highest paid supermodels in the business.  She was cute and all, but I digress.

Unless something catastrophic happens, Brady is our man for the forseeable future.  He's the dude.  He's the franchise guy.  Nuff said.  So what's the big deal?  The big deal is planning for the future.  Matt Cassel's contract is up at the end of 2008 and Matt Gutierrez is relatively untested.  Just to confuse things a bit, Belichick and the front office have tossed in another QB with Kevin O'Connell.

The media had many questions for Cassel, but he was cool in a prototypcial, Belichick coolaid kind of way saying things like he is focusing on working hard and being prepared and... blah, blah, blah.  Word is, Gutierrez was tossing the rock with ease during 2008 OTAs.  Should Cassel be worried?  I think so.  I think he should be carrying a roll of toilet paper onto the field during training camp.

Tom Brady - Uhhmm...3 rings with average receivers (except for Deion Branch, of course), 50 regular season touchdown passes last year...Giselle...beautiful son.  Yup, he's got it all and he's the - drumroll please - starter.  Cymbal crash, thank you very much.

Matt Cassel - Matt should be worried.  Gutierrez looks good, darn good.  And Matt's appearances in 2007 weren't that awe inspiring.  You can bet, with the other Matt nipping at his heals, Cassel is cramming and looking to look sharp come July 24th.

Matt Gutierrez - He's hungry.  As I've stated above, he looked good in OTAs.  His throw had zip and he appeared to be working the routes correctly.  You can bet he's working as hard, if not harder, than Cassel.  He wants to move up in the ranks.  He wants the nod.  He wants to do something other than throw meaningless passes or take knees at the end of a blowout.

Kevin O'Connell - This pick was a head scratcher for many.  With 3 QBs already on the roster, was a third really necessary?  If O'Connell can make the grade and not fall victim to the chopping block, he could be a surprise pick.  A dual threat, he finished his senior year in college breaking both the passing and rushing records, the latter because his O line was sooooo bad, he was always on the run.

O'Connell, as the new guy, is probably vulnerable unless Belichick has him onboard for a reason.  Shake things up a bit?  He sees something in the kid?  Who knows.  He's Belichick, know what I'm sayin'?  I think Cassel is the most vulnerable at this point; he's got to hold on to his spot with 2 guys gunning for his job.  Maybe he should find a supermodel to date.

 
via cache.boston.com 

As many of you know, Mike Reiss is a sports reporter for the Boston Globe and scribes about the goings on with our favorite team, the New England Patriots. Mike's fact-based writing style provides us Patriots nuts with great reference material; you will often see him quoted here, more so than any other reporter.

I knew Mike Reiss was prolific, but I realized just how crazy he was during the Goodell/Specter press conferences.  Reiss's Pieces , Mike's Patriots blog, was being updated constantly with the goings on.  I think it really connected us fans with what was happening at the time.

I've done enough jabbering.  Let's get to the Q&A.

A Colts blogger of ours did an excellent analysis suggesting it will take time for the Patriots's new acquisitions to add value to the defense.  Have Belichick and the front office done enough to fill the gaps between the old guard (Bruschi, Vrabel, Seau) and the new guard (Crable, Mayo) while our rookies come up-to-speed?

Reiss: Time will obviously tell, but I'm going to say a definitive "yes" right now. One area that stood out to me at recent organized team activities was the versatility among many of the defenders, and how the Patriots have a lot of different parts that will allow them to do different things. I could be way off on this, but I think this defense is going to be a lot more dynamic than we've seen in recent years. I sense they're going to try some new things -- a little 3-4, a little 4-3, different sub-package combinations -- and I wonder how much the influence of new secondary coach Dom Capers is playing into that. It might be stuff that we don't see for a few weeks and then all of a sudden it pops up. In terms of the new defenders, I think Fernando Bryant looks like he's a starter at one cornerback spot. I also envision Jerod Mayo and Victor Hobson teaming up with Tedy Bruschi to provide a 1-2-3 combo at inside linebacker. I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon Meriweather is in the starting lineup at safety and much improved, with Tank Williams a major factor in sub packages, bridging the gap between safety and linebacker. On paper, the Patriots might be a bit weaker on the back end of the defense (it hurts to lose Asante Samuel), but I think they'll be stronger in the front seven. Overall, this rates as one of my top storylines going forward -- how will this defense be re-shaped? I might be reading the tea leaves wrong, but it's one reason I particularly enjoy following a Bill Belichick-coached team. Good luck figuring out what's coming next.

The Red Sox won the World Series, The Patriots narrowly missed having a perfect season and the Celtics are inches away from a championship. Have we become spoiled?  Are our expectations now too high?

Reiss: Can I turn this question over to safety Rodney Harrison? Entering his 15th NFL season, Harrison was asked this exact question at the Patriots Charitable Foundation Golf Tournament on Monday. His answer: "No question, fans are spoiled. Having a baseball team, world champions. A football team. Now possibly with our basketball team. Just a great legacy and history of winning championships around here. Hopefully it continues." As for my own opinion, I think Harrison is probably right in some respects. I'd just add that it seems to me that many fans realize this is a great era of sports in town that we'll be reflecting upon fondly when we all look back. Given all the ups and downs of the Patriots since their inception -- not just wins and losses, but ownership instability and off-field incidents -- I don't think any long-time Patriots/football fan who lived through that can ever really be considered spoiled.

Tom Brady won't be around forever.  Do you think the Patriots see something in Kevin O'Connell indicating he's the future of this franchise?

Reiss: I don't know if I would word it that way. Obviously, a team wouldn't draft a player in the third round, specifically a quarterback, if it didn't think it had a chance to be a big part of the future of the franchise. But in this case, I think it's as much as being a No. 2 as it is the possibility of being a future starter. More than 60 quarterbacks started at least one game last year in the NFL. That's an astronomical number, and a reminder of the importance of the backup spot. Can Matt Cassel be that guy? I don't think anyone knows the answer, because it's a question that can only be answered if he's thrust into that role, and he hasn't been. So in that case, I like the idea of improving your odds by adding a highly touted player to the mix. I also like the idea that Cassel's contract expires after this season and the team gives itself built-in insurance. That's just smart long-range planning. I'd also point out that there have been positive signs from Matt Gutierrez, a rookie free agent who signed with the club in 2007. The Patriots have been fortunate that Tom Brady has been an ironman, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't prepare for the possibility of having to call on a backup.

There's been a lot written about Chad Jackson and his return to full time play. Do you think he could be the Donte Stallworth replacement we're looking for?

Reiss: Yes, but I don't have the highest confidence at this point. Maybe it's that I caught out of the corner of my eye Jackson running the wrong route in the weekend mini-camp, when there wasn't a defense on the field. I don't want to base my opinion solely on that -- it would be short-sighted to do so -- but I also know there needs to be a trust and bond that develops between quarterback and receiver and that doesn't seem to be there at this point with Tom Brady and Jackson. That's what training camp is for, and it's probably fair to say that's why Jackson will be one of this camp's most intriguing stories to follow.

It's early and there's been limited access to Patriots voluntary camps (ie: Passing Camp), but which new acquisition do you see as adding value quickly?

Reiss: Not including the obvious choice of first-round pick Jerod Mayo, cornerback Fernando Bryant would be at the top of my list. I also think Victor Hobson is going to help, and people will be looking back and saying 'How could there not have been more interest in the free agent market for him?' The third name I'd add to the list is Tank Williams; much of today's game is played with offenses calling on three- and four-receiver packages, and he adds value as an extra defensive back who has linebacker-like skills.

A big Thank You to Mike Reiss for his time and thoughtful answers.  Very cool, Mike.  Don't forget to check out Mike's articles as well as Reiss's Pieces at boston.com