Still Kicking At 45

Former Pats kicker Adam Vinatieri shows no signs of slowing down at the age of 45 in his 23rd season.

While kicking for the Colts, he broke Morten Anderson's career field goal record when he made his 566th in today's loss to the Texans.

He also played his 341st game, breaking a tie with George Blanda for 4th place. If he plays the entire season, he will tie Gary Anderson for second.

He needs 31 points to become the all-time leader with 2,544.

His resume is filled with regular and post-season records that might never get broken.

Not Just Another Game

The Pats are ranked among the lowest on defense and offense categories. Not much has gone right after their opening win over the Texans.

When it comes to stats, Tom Brady is really struggling. You would not want him on your fantasy team.

They have always had the ability to turn it around and win games. Let's see what happens now.

First Big Game of 2018

Nobody on the Pats wants to say it, but their game with the Dolphins is very critical. The Pats are 1-2 and the Dolphins 3-0. A loss to them could make for an uphill battle in the Eastern Division.

The Pats need to worry about themselves, but also need some losses by other teams in their division.

Bentley To The Sidelines

Pats rookie LB Ja'Whaun Bentley made an instant impact on the team's defense in their first three games. Unfortunately, he will miss at least the next eight weeks as he was placed on IR with an "upper body" injury.

Fans can only imagine what it is because that's the only information they will get from Dr Bill.

The fifth round pick from Purdue was a starter in Week 1. Hopefully, he can return and not miss the entire season.

Crazy Talk Again

Callers to sports talk radio are going off the deep end with their criticism of the Pats after going 1-2 and looking bad in their losses.

Some of the comments don't make any sense. One caller said that Belichick is trying to get himself fired so he can go coach the Giants.

Fans have become spoiled from the team's success and have a sense of entitlement. I don't listen to these shows for long.

It will only get worse if they lose to the Dolphins on Sunday.

Still Making Millions

All it took was one play for the season of the 49er's to turn for the worse. QB Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL while trying to run with the ball in the team's loss to the Chiefs.

He will join a long list of players who have suffered this injury. His time will be taken up by rehab.

Most players make it back to their former level, but some don't. Every player is different.

He waited so long for this opportunity to be a starter. He also makes so many millions whether he plays or not.

Slow Start For 2018

The Pats are 1-3 and face the 3-0 Dolphins on Sunday. The schedule doesn't get any easier. There are no given victories. The Lions certainly proved that.

Will the team resolve its problems that lead them to this bad start? The offense and defense rank among the lowest in the league.

They have been through this before, but this team is unique to this season.

Lack of Success

When the Pats face the Lions and former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia tonight, it will be against a team lead by one of his former assistants.

All eight of them did not have much success in the NFL with only Al Groh having a winning record at 9-7. The others are all under.500, including Patricia so far.

The list includes some impressive names who all did great jobs as assistants: Nick Saban, Al Groh, Jim Schwartz, Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Josh McDaniels and Bill O'Brien.

Belichick holds a 14-8 record against them in the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs.

How will it end tonight?

Big Win For UMass

UMass had a big win today over Charlotte, 48-31, to increase their record to 2-3.

It will be a tall order to go 5-2 the rest of the season to finish 7-5. That would get them to a bowl game.

They are a tale of two teams. Going into today, their offense was tied for 14th with Alabama for total yards with 1,634 and an average of 409 yards per game.

The defense will eventually ruin their season. They are ranked 127th in Division I. They are giving up an average of 469 yards and 41.8 points per game. This will never get them to the post-season.

Browns Win

The Cleveland Browns finally won their first game since Christmas Eve of 2016 after beating the Jets 21-17 on Thursday Night Football.

They are now 1-1-1. It's a long way from making the playoffs, but better than their winless season of 2017.

Jets QB Sam Darnold went 15/31 for 169 and two interceptions. After a big start against the Lions, Darnold is beginning to look like a typical Jets QB.

Fans have high expectations from him. It remains to be seen what happens.

Not Time For Winston

The Tampa bay Bucs are off to a 2-0 start lead by QB Ryan Fitzpatrick in place of Jameis Winston who is serving a three game suspension.

Ryan has excelled with 819 yards and eight TD's. Will the Bucs give the ball back to Winston?

It will be a tough decision either way. Winston has struggled at times to live up to his hype. Fitzpatrick is a 35 year old journeyman who has been around the league.

I think the Bucs should stick with Fitzpatrick and see what happens.

The Silent Bell

The Steelers have begun the season 0-1-1 with a tie with the Browns and loss to the Chiefs.

RB Le'Veon continues his holdout and has not signed his franchise tag of $14.5 million. Every game he misses costs him $852,941.

Neither side appears willing to move. Bell claims that it's all about his future. Players are disgruntled. WR Antonio Brown was absent from practice the other day.

One player does not make a team, but things are not going well in Pittsburgh.

Vontae Davis

Bills CB Vontae Davis took the unusual step last Sunday when he retired at halftime during his team's 31-20 loss to the Chargers.

He changed his clothes and left the stadium after his team went back on the field. He talked about not feeing right about playing and his body told him to retire.

He must be serious as he is leaving most of his $5 million salary on the table.

His ten year career came to an abrupt end.

A Chance For Josh Gordon

I think the Pats made a great deal today when they traded a 5th round draft pick for Browns WR Josh Gordon.

He comes to the team with all of his issues. He has the chance of a lifetime to resurrect his career.

His talent is so immense. He lead the league in receiving in 2013, but has played 11 games since then.

There is no guarantee that he will do anything to help the team.

Maybe In December

The Pats lost to the Jaguars 31-20 today and now have of record of 1-1. What does that mean in the overall season?

It was not a good day on the road for the Pats.

It might happen again this season.

Good Start To His Career

Jets QB Sam Darnold had a good start last Monday night against the Lions. He had a line of 16/21 for 198 yards with two TD's and one interception.

Fans were excited about the 48-17 win, but they need to pump the brakes as it was over the Lions.

The Jets face the Dolphins tomorrow at home. He needs to have another good game and build on that.

Thursday Night Nonsense.

Boston College is now 3-0 after beating Wake Forest last night. They have a great start on their way to a bowl game.

I'm not a big fan of Thursday night games after playing on the previous Saturday. It's an extra day of rest and practice compared to the NFL, but the only reason games are played is because of the money.

College rosters are so much bigger which allows more players to be rotated onto the field. Most teams play their starters unless the score gets out of hand.

I still think it's a bad idea.

Sign of the Week

Every team in the NFL is tweaking their bottom five roster spots. The Pats signed three players today and will continue to have roster moves throughout the season.

It's like a big revolving door for those bottom five and practice squad slots. So many great stories will come from this.

The Life of Riley

Pats WR Riley McCarron found out how one mistake can derail a career in the NFL. He muffed a punt in the Pats win over the Texans and was released the next day. Nobody has picked him up so far.

What will happen to him? Will the Pats resign him at some point? Is their dialogue between them? Coach Belichick remarked that it was a good lesson for McCarron.

As BB would say: "It's all about ball security".

The Worst Field

The Oakland Raiders have one of the worst stadium situations in the NFL. It's easy to see why they moved to Las Vegas when the city agreed to help finance a stadium. That was never going to happen in Oakland.

I don't believe in any public subsidy of a sports stadium or arena. Oakland was left with a "take it or leave it" situation.

The Oakland Coliseum is the worst place to play a game. Their match tonight against the Rams on Monday Night Football was played on a field that has the outline of the baseball diamond of the Oakland A's.

Raider fans deserve better than this. Team ownership could have done a better job in trying to get a stadium built in Oakland.

The Start of 2018

The Pats won today against the Texans to open the season, but sports talk radio will go negative this week.

There were many mistakes in their win. It wasn't perfect. They turned the ball over twice. That's never a good sign.

How will this season end?

Traditional Mismatch

College football has so many great rivalries. Some of them eventually end because the teams have gone in different directions. It's nice to get together one more time.

We saw that today with Boston College and Holy Cross when they had their ultimate mismatch. Holy Cross was able to keep the score at 62-14. It could have been a lot worse.

Like any other Division 1 school, BC is hoping to get seven wins which will lead to a bowl bid.

They key is to get some easy wins which every team does to help their win/loss record.

Sam's First Record

It's hard to believe that QB Drew Bledsoe made his debut with the Pats 25 years ago this week in a loss to the Bills.

At the time, he was the youngest starting NFL quarterback ever at the age of 21 years and 203 days. He went on to have a great career.

When the Jets open on Sunday against the Lions, Sam Darnold will be the youngest ever at 21 years and 97 days.

This will be his first record. Hopefully, he will have many with the Jets.

You never know with draft picks.

Pats Now Lions

When Mike Patricia left the Pats to become head coach with the Lions, it was inevitable that some former players from Foxborough would end up on the roster.

That has certainly happened after signing John Atkins, Eric Lee and Marquis Flowers once they were released in the final roster cut. They joined Matt Cassel, Ricky Jean Francois and Tavon Wilson who were already with the Lions.

It's a good sign when former players sign with another team. It means the Pats have good depth and competition for every roster spot.

No Experience Needed

Giants QB Alex Tanney is one of the luckiest players in the NFL. He remains the backup to Eli Manning after the team released Davis Webb, a third round pick from last year who was expected to be part of their future.

Tanney has quite a story after entering the league in 2012 as an undrafted free agent. He set the all-time Division III passing record with 14,249 yards while at Monmouth.

He had stops with the Chiefs, Cowboys, Browns, Buccaneers, Bills, Colts and Titans before hooking up with the Giants.

His only playing time was one game with the Titans that closed out a 3-16 season.

The Giants are taking a risk with him and Kyle Lauletta as the options if Manning gets hurt.

Brandon Bolden

Many fans thought the Pats would resign RB Brandon Bolden like they did last year when they released him in the final cutdown.

It didn't happen this time as he signed with the Dolphins. This might be a good career move for him.

He fought his way onto the Pats roster in 2012 after being undrafted and excelled on special teams. He always produced when given a chance to run or catch the ball.

His playing time might increase with the Dolphins. Once he got cut for the second time, it was time to move on.

Who Starts

I don't understand why some teams have such a hard time in naming their starting quarterback.

Any team with this type of situation is probably not going to the playoffs.

It's easy to see why teams have concerns with their quarterback.

Names To Forget

Just because a player made the 53 man roster, it's not guaranteed that they will collect a game check for next Sunday's game against the Texans.

Coach Belichick has always tweaked the bottom five roster spots going into the season.

More names will come and go.

More Moves

It's hard to comprehend all of the personnel actions around the league on NFL cutdown day. Some of the names being released are quite shocking, but that is life in the NFL.

Whatever roster the Pats have after signing their practice squad tomorrow will not be the one that starts the season.

Fans are looking forward to the next moves by Coach Belichick.