Snow’s coming (it is December, last time I checked) and the Patriots will surely face the frigid winter weather in two of their final three regular season games, starting Sunday in Buffalo.
It’s that time of year, friends. Time for cold temperatures and falling snow. Time for the Patriots to finish strong.
And it’s time for Laurence Maroney to run like a man.
No more juking and jiving. No more indecision as he approaches the hole. And he knows this.
“You know that’s one thing that in the last six, seven games that I’ve been focusing on, that’s just running hard, just running physical whether it’s a two-yard gain, you make it a physical two-yard run,” said Maroney.
With Tom Brady obviously hurting, the Patriots need their running game to offer balance to the offense. They showed a strong glimpse of it, piling up 185 yards on the ground against Carolina — just the third time they’ve topped 150 yards rushing in any game this season.
For what it’s worth, Maroney has often looked strong running, particularly to the left side against the Panthers. And he’s found the end zone a career-high eight times this year.
It also seems like he’s found the confidence of his head coach, Bill Belichick. Granted, coach Bill has always seemed to give his former first-round draft pick every last opportunity to prove himself.
Well, now’s the time for Maroney to earn that respect and leave all those doubters (is there a more maligned Patriot player not named Randy Moss?) in the cold.
“The cold isn’t anything I like, but you’ve got to do your job,” admits Maroney. “I personally don’t like the cold or the snow, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Tis the season, right?
4 Downs
Patriots (8-5) at Bills (5-8), 1:00 p.m.
1st: Tackle Football
It’ll be interesting to see how Bill Belichick uses Matt Light, Sebastian Vollmer and Nick Kazur this week. Against Carolina, he rotated the three of them between left and right tackles — an odd if not rare strategy, for sure. But while Light is strictly a left tackle, Vollmer can play both and play them well. As for Kaczur, well, he may still be waking up in a cold sweat to visions of Julius Peppers. Looking ahead to next year, the consensus seemed to be that Vollmer was a much more affordable option at left tackle than Light, but there may be room for both of them, after all.
2nd: Buffalo-ed
The Bills have a new head coach and a Harvard alum at quarterback — this is a much different matchup this time around than in the Patriots 25-24 win at Gillette in September. Granted, it was a rather uninspired win over the Bills, a game they quite frankly could’ve lost. (Quick aside: I’m not a fan of saying, “should’ve won/lost” to anything because, well, they didn’t! I’ve never understood that kind of what-if speculation. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just listened to one too many Bill Parcells press conferences or something).
3rd: Moss Growing
Anyone else tired of hearing about Randy Moss? Thought so. Randy needs to just suck up whatever is troubling him, burst off that line of scrimmage and throw up his right hand to let Tom Brady — and all the rest of us skeptics — know that he really is into this. Especially if he’s double covered.
4th: Road Trippin’
If they have any aspirations of a playoff push, the Patriots are gonna have to win on the road at some point. That would be now, guys.
Around the NFL
Forward Progress
Peyton Manning, QB/Colts
It occurred to me on Thursday night while watching from the NESN control room as Manning rallied the Colts to a win over the Jaguars that he has this Indy team undefeated (14-0, folks … fourteen-and-zero) while throwing to Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon. No offense to Collie and Garcon, of course.
Wes Welker, WR/Patriots
I know it sounds like a broken record, but Welker is the most important player on the Patriots. He topped 100 catches for the third straight season (the NFL mark is four) and has my vote for toughest player in the league after bouncing back from a near-decapitation against the Panthers.
Thomas Jones, RB/Jets
Is there a more unheralded running back around? This guy consistently gets overlooked — even by his own fans — and yet he keeps churning out 1,000-yard seasons.
Down & Out
Keith Null, QB/Rams
Making his first NFL start, the Rams’ third-string quarterback threw five interceptions. Needless to say, St. Louis lost by 40 to the Titans.
Jay Cutler, QB/Bears
Cutler now has 22 INTs on the season. The significance? Other than just plain awful, it’s two more than Rex Grossman’s highest pick total in any season with Chicago. Sorry, Bears fans, but I couldn’t resist.
Dallas Cowboys
Fire Wade Phillips, already. Mike Shanahan is holding on line 1.
Fantasy Fix
Playoff time in the NESN fantasy football league and by some sort of oversight or mathematical error, team More Cowbell made the postseason. Barely. (Thanks to whoever let the BCS computers run our league this year!) Time to ride Frank Gore to a title. And $20.
Film Room
Get your popcorn ready … though, by this point in T.O.’s career it tastes a little stale, doesn’t it?
