by Chris Warner, Patriots Daily Staff
Without getting hysterical, can we analyze what’s going on with Randy Moss? Can we do that without forwarding a pathetic agenda, or do we have to revert to the “I told you so” game?
Really, it’s like the Boston media are weathermen who warn of hurricanes every day: when one finally happens they feel vindicated, despite being wrong for two years.
Make no mistake, Moss had a terrible game against Carolina. He gave up on a pass route (interception), caught only one pass (fumble) and dropped one on an open slant. His performance stands out only as a contrast to the nifty play of Wes Welker, who continued his torrid reception streak to reach 105 grabs on the season with three games to play.
Welker gets the tough yards across the middle. Welker gets tater-mashed and pops up for more. Welker fights for the ball.
Randy Moss? Not all that much. He needs coddling, and he needs attention. Most of all, though, he needs to make plays. It’s possible that he’s harder on himself than others and goes turtle due to his own poor execution. We can say that he can’t handle adversity, but in some ways that’s a projection from his fans. We love him when he does well, but after a few bad games we’re ready to ship him out of town.
Next week’s performance at Buffalo will tell us whether or not Moss has packed it in: there will be snow (Moss likes the cold about as much as gila monsters) and the Bills have a statistically strong pass defense, partly due to the fact their run defense is the worst in the league.
Mr. Moss, you’ve had some rough going the past couple of weeks. PD asks you to shake it off, and there’s no better way to do that than to take a lap.
Email Chris Warner at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com
So anyone thinking that maybe we could trade moss for boldin?
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Yeah I’m thinking the same thing, or look for ocho cinco
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I’ve got a new feature suggestion for you : “Media Take a Lap” pointing out the most disgusting media effort of the weekend. If you take my advice, start right with the D-Bag himself over at csnne.com. I agree with your take — Moss had a poor afternoon, the worse game he’s had as a Patriot for sure — but contrast a reasonable criticism with Felger’s gems, like “an embarrassing, mail-it-in effort that made his dog-days Oakland seem blood-and-guts by comparison.” Everyone knows Felger’s been waiting for Moss to have a bad day since he first got here. He probably wrote that sentence sometime back in early 2007 and he’s been sitting on it ever since.
Mike Felger, take a lap.
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Totally agreed Aaron – the Media has a formula here. Midweek turmoil + bad game = “We told you so”
May I remind Patriots fans that the year for Moss to take off was 2008, after Brady was injured. His whole reason for being in New England was gone. Sure, he looked disinterested for a few games, but came back, with a vengeance. Was he the 2007 Randy? No. He put the effort in, though.
Earlier on in the year, he had a back injury, and still worked his a$$ off to make things work for his team, and in particular, his QB, still getting back into the flow of things.
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I’m to the point where everytime Felger opens his mouth I’m ready to jump through the TV and slap him.
It’s a sad thing, what he’s become. Back when he was just the Herald’s Patriot beat writer, he probably did that job better than anyone in town.
Now he’s just another annoying, story-line driven, controversy-sniffing media whore.
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As a sports fan, when a free agent/new player comes to one of the teams I root for, I give them a blank sheet (with some players, you kind of have to, or you fall into hating your team, which ain’t fun). I did so for Randy Moss (and I’m sure that’s very important to him), and since he’s been a Patriot, he has given me a few occassions to look at his performances negatively, and many, many occassions to be awed by his awesomeness. Players have bad games, for whatever reason. Moss had a history of taking plays or games off, but with the Pats, I really don’t see that as being the case. Whatever happened yesterday was a fluke, in my opinion and not some new norm. He’s showed how much he wants to compete and win and I don’t see that going away so easily as the media would like it to.
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I do LOVE the way Moss’ coach and QB have backed him up. Everyone is entitled to a slump now and then and his teammate have stood behind him..
Funny thing, the press has been completely soft on the biggest no show, run your mouth malcontent Adalius Thomas. Why? Well of course, he feeds them all the media crack (dirty laundry) they can handle and heaven forbid if he was criticzed he might shut his mouth. Better to not critcise him and keep the blather flowing.
At least Moss contributed, drawing double teams, and then he took his lap like a man with his yap shut. AD didn’t even finish his lap and beefed and moaned the whole way.
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