Why Dan Orlovsky Is Once Again Dead Wrong With Patriots Diss
The national media continues to disrespect the Patriots success
As NESN writer Colin Keane put it, “It’s become customary for the media to take credit away from the Patriots all season long.”
This was once again the case after the New England Patriots dismantled the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon to earn a trip to the AFC Championship Game.
“If you’re Houston, you win that game with 31 other quarterbacks,” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky said on Monday morning’s “Get Up” in a now-viral clip with more than one million views.
The former NFL quarterback then went on to say it’s “unfortunate” that Houston’s defense will not be playing in the AFCCG, and “eventually the Super Bowl,” after it gave up 105 rushing yards and allowed quarterback Drake Maye to throw three touchdowns in Sunday’s losing effort.
The only problem with Orlovsky’s take is that — not counting Week 18 with the Texans’ backups in — 18 other quarterbacks had a chance to beat Houston, and Drake Maye’s Patriots put up more points than all but one of them.
In Week 12, Texans backup quarterback Davis Mills’ 153-yard performance was enough to beat the reigning MVP Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills on prime time, 23-19.
Buffalo only scored two touchdowns, with one coming on a 97-yard kickoff return.
But because the Bills were unable to produce enough points, the story of that game was not Texans quarterback play letting them down.
The story is the same in Week 17 when Justin Herbert’s Los Angeles Chargers only scored 16 in a narrow four-point loss.
Stroud’s two interceptions weren’t the storyline from that high-leverage late-season conference game because Herbert was not good enough to make Houston pay.
So why, when the Patriots become only the second team in the NFL to put up 28 or more points on Houston’s first-ranked defense in blizzard-like conditions, is their performance deemed not good enough to beat “any other quarterback in the league.”
There’s no way to prove that 31 other quarterbacks would not have beaten the Patriots on Sunday, but the fact that Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes could not accomplish what Drake Maye did seems like reason enough to give the Patriots their flowers.
The double standards are reaching historic lows for the national media’s coverage of the AFC East champions.
