by Chris Warner, Patriots Daily Staff
“What are you standing around for?”
If you’ve ever watched a JV football team get killed, at one point you’ll hear their coach yelling at his team. The above phrase is one borne of frustration, when nothing else has or will work. It’s also what you might have heard around these parts as the home team got their backsides handed to them Sunday.
So few Patriots actually made plays that this week’s awarding of the coveted PD Game Ball became easy, especially after Julian Edelman’s impressive gain of a first down late in the fourth quarter. (Yeah, it got called back, but nothing else went right yesterday, either.) Added to his six catches for 44 yards and two touchdowns, Mr. Edelman receives the final game ball of the 2009 season.
On that fourth-down play, Edelman snared a screen pass four yards behind the line of scrimmage and raced to the sideline. He went into reverse to elude two defenders, accelerated, pinballed off two more defenders and slipped past another to gain the energizing (if short-lived) first down.
During the broadcast, they showed Wes Welker applauding this play. Next to him sat Troy Brown. The shot of these two receivers summarized what the Patriots lacked on Sunday: guts. Talent is great, but talent without determination always seems to come up short.
Mr. Edelman, for your mix of quickness, strength and fortitude, and for your consistent efforts to cheer up a dismal afternoon in New England, PD awards you the game ball. Take a little rest this week. You, at least, deserve it.
Email Chris Warner at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com
Patriots Daily 
Shows you how bad the #2 through #4 WRs are for the Pats. Might be the worst in the NFL. Their #2 receiver was a rookie, who missed 5 games, had a cast on his forearm, was a college QB and never played the position. Their #3 WR, Aiken was a special teams player. Their #4 WR, Stanback, was a practice squad player, who, was, again, a college QB. The way the NFL is presently constituted, you can’t win with this WR talent level, unless you have a great, not good, RB and a physical OL, neither of which the Pats have.
Game ball to a receiver who averaged about 7yd per catch. Shows how bad things were/are. Tom E. Curran was right. Edelman couldn’t get separation. Hopefully, it was because of inexperience.
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