Sigh...freaking Pitino! I remember writing a report about him/the Celtics in 8th grade because I was so excited he became their head coach.

On topic: Guys our defense sucks and is the reason why we'll be one and done again!!111

True Pitino story. He was in my brothers fraternity at Umass and he had quit the team over some dispute with the coach. So he would grab my brother (who couldn't make our High School team) and any other random frat brother and go down to the cage and immediately would get challenged to 3 on 3 by the best black players. My brother said they never ever lost.

Hey, I'm a typical negative Boston fan I guess, but I don't have anything bad to say about the Bruins right now!

Go Minutemen! Including #44 James Ihedigbo UMass Alumn!

Why are we talking about Rick Pitino and his "15 seconds of fame" in this thread?

Here are some links involving the Pats in the, you know, Pats thread to get us back on track:

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...s-about-colts/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=iy1dXPuI_gE

The Pats are playing the f'ing Colts this weekend. Any Pitino talk is welcome. I do have an "on topic" though. I heard this morning that Volmer was the only player absent from practice yesterday. Does anyone know if that means McCorty and Chung will be playing this weekend? They might just keep them out for another week since it's the colts?

This week's "Belichick Breakdown". These are usually great, but this one was particularly good, especially the looks at the pass-blocking. I don't think I've ever seen an OL come off a double-team to level another guy, but they do it twice here.

http://www.patriots.com/media-center...6-94c7b5b2f37c

I know it's not football related but this is a poker forum so is anyone else pretty psyched about having a casino across the street from Gillette?

That would be friggin awesome!!

Goodie, I'd be surprised if it happened there. The front runner for the Eastern Mass casino is Suffolk Downs. It's in the Speakers district and they reportedly already have their architectural plans drawn and ready to go they are so confident. A long shot is Milford, where I'm the Town Engineer but while we have a geographically better location, I think politics will win out.

Foxboro selectmen, btw, also came out opposed to their town as a site and local approval is required.


Edit: LOL. Ignore the above. Apparently Steve Wynn is teaming with Kraft and it's going to be on 200 acres across the street from the stadium. Just heard 5 minutes after I typed the above.

Yeah, that's what I read this morning. To be honest, it was the first I heard of it. So, you think that Steve Wynn being involved makes it much more likely to happen?

Yeah I do, pair Wynn and Kraft two of the country's wealthiest men and there's a lot of clout there.

Agreed. Apparently Wynn is going to the game on Sunday as Kraft's guest.

It would be so awesome if my brother and I could play some poker and then head over to the game. That would kick ass.

Can Steve Wynn see? Seriously, heard he had vision issues. I'm still pissed at Stevie Wonder for eating up prime Super Bowl seats.

BTW, I don't care WHERE they build the casino, just BUILD IT. I want to come home!

Having been following the casino bill, I'm very curious about this latest development. Suffolk Downs could still be granted the Slots license and have Foxboro take the Casino bid for the Eastern division. Prior to this story I thought Suffolk Downs was the favorite to receive the Resort casino.

Pittsburgh has a casino in walking distance of both Heinz field and PNC Park, and it was a nice place to get free parking, cheap beer, and cold craps tables before and after the games when I visited in June.

I gotta get to Pittsburgh some time. Guy I knew in Vegas ten years ago is now the Pirates' tv announcer. I gotta imagine he'd hook me up, after all the buffet comps I've given him...

A win is a win, and we'll need it with the Steelers, Ravens, and Texans all winning, but 21 4th Q points, 353 yards to Dan Orvlovsky is pretty terrible. What was up with starting Faulk in the first drive? A blowout would have been nice and it was shaping up that way coming out of the half, but our D had another awful day, and the O sputtered a bit after two video game drives to start the 3rd Q.

We learned nothing new today about the Pats. The defense is what it is at this point unless McCourty gets much better coming off his injury and we get a few guys back so that we don't need STers at safety. In our last 4 games we'll score a lot of points, give up a lot of yards, win most if not all of them, and probably get a bye. But we're pretty clearly the 3rd best team in the AFC.

overreaction ITT.

i wouldnt be surprised if we are favored vs anyone we play all the way to the SB if we make it that far.

Pats would not be favored in Pitt or BAL in the playoffs. They would be small favorites at home.

Ya, that's probably accurate. Small dogs on the road and small favorites at home.

Dogs to GB in the super bowl.

Getting HFA wouldnt be a big surprise, so his point stands IMO.

Fourth quarter was obviously bad, but not surprised the defense didnt bring their A game to a 31-3 battle against an 0-11 team...and this is clearly not a defense with the talent to skate through anything. Absolutely no pass rush after the first series, which was disappointing, and they blitzed a little bit today. Slater, Nate Jones, and Niko I wont even pretend to try and spell his last name played most to all snaps and Ihdabego was playing some really wierd safety/linebacker/corner position all game so....there will be flaws.

Went to more of a 3-4 look today, with the front three shifting late a lot, which I dont remember the team doing much in the past. Almost looks like BB is still in experimentation mode to figure out WTF we can piece together for the playoffs.

Defense will be better once Edelman takes over the starting corner role from McCourty.

Only half joking, he was picked on early and often.

Pats have better odds to reach the SB out of the AFC than any other team.

11 straight years being above .500 let's enjoy this continued success. Winners cant be choosers IMO.

How current is that source? SB odds change every week. My point was that the Pats haven't shown any greater or worse strength in the past couple of weeks but the Steelers and Ravens have both gained in strength, odds-wise for the AFC title. The Steelers destroying the Bengals and the Ravens' last two wins mean far more than the Pats' recent wins.

I'm just looking ahead at this point because we should be.

Indy was +20.5 @ Pats this week
Indy is +15 @ Baltimore this week

Pats would be small favs @ Balt (or Pitts)

that's just 1 simple of stating it - there are various other ranking systems that use recent point spreads and they say Pats are 4 or 5 points better than Balt or Pitts on a neutral field. For example here. or here.

GB would be something like 2 point favs over Pats on neutral field

I would still like to see those updated after today, though. If a current GB-NE line of GB -2 on a neutral field hit the books today, it would be pounded into submission.

Check them in a few days. They won't change much.

It's great that you think that line would be pounded but frankly what you think doesn't really matter. The market is pretty clear on this.