I’ve always been a fan of lists, tables or anything that puts things in numeric or alphabetical order. Blame it on my small case of OCD, but these things always seem to make their way into my everyday life. In fact, today’s update was on my list of things to do while hanging out at Starbucks at UConn in Storrs, Connecticut. Other things on this daily list?
- Walk Rossi
- Make coffee
- Eat breakfast
- Organize paperwork
- Read articles/blogs/news
The fifth thing on the list is definitely one of the most important. It’s strange because growing up, I really despised reading. I blame it on the fact that I was forced to read entire series of books in elementary and middle school. God forbid we only read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, nope it had to be the ENTIRE series. But, I digress. The point I was trying to make was that, now as a “grown up” I find a lot of joy in reading a lot every single day. Perhaps it has to do with my growing thirst for knowledge and the fact that the majority of the things I read are related to football at the collegiate and professional level. My friends tell me all the time to broaden my horizons but it seems like the football world always has so many things going on.
I promise to try to expand my sports interests soon….but for now, football is my main focus.
One of the more interesting things I read recently was a post by Tim Graham called:
The Big Question: Three Playoff Teams?
Graham briefly but rather accurately, discussed the major debate as to who will dominate the ever so competitive AFC East. He also describes the very small possibility that the AFC East will produce three equally dominate playoff teams (Sorry Buffalo, maybe at some point we’ll consider you a threat). We’re all familiar as to why this would come up as an issue. The Jets have managed to sign every big name imaginable during this off season and to be honest, the Dolphins aren’t doing too bad either. Last season, the Jets found success all the way to the AFC Championship Game…and the Patriots were embarrassed by the Baltimore Ravens at home (ouch.)
I like Graham’s points, especially that the Patriots have the 6th most difficult schedule in the league. Whereas the Dolphins, Bills and Jets are hanging tight tied at the 16th most difficult.
With the Patriots having the most challenging schedule, ESPN’s Michael Clayton still gives them the top spot in the division. I can imagine how this could be somewhat frustrating for Jets fans to hear. Here are my thoughts as to why the Jets are ranked third, behind the Dolphins. I feel like based on some of their recent transactions, they are acting like the really needy, attention-hungry and overly ambitious middle child of the AFC East. Let’s look at few things:
- Rex Ryan has been incredibly vocal in ALL of his opinions about every other team in the league.
- The Jets have managed to almost every big name that has become available.
- They are all about their new and shiny quarterback Mark Sanchez.
Given that these points are purely biased and probably not entirely enough reasoning as to why the Jets will not win the division, I still think that there so much intangibles that the Patriots have as a team that makes them the best. I measure the team intangibles that the Patriots posses is what will get them to the playoffs. Don’t get me wrong, last year’s Patriots never got into a groove. They just never seemed to get things going except for a few, a very select few shining moments. As a fan, I am praying that the 2010 Pats are a better and mentally tougher than that of 2009′s.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the new draft class and off season additions like Holt will bring the Patriots to the playing level that they were three years ago?
God, I hope so.
My newest piece on Patriots Insider just got posted today.
Kisha’s Korner: A New England Specialty
Give it a read and let me know your thoughts. It’s an interesting look at how the Patriots have strategically picked Special Teams’ players throughout the last 10 years. It’s pretty interesting to think about how much emphasis New England actually puts into building the special teams department.
Enjoy.
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