Corrado's Corner

Snow falls. Wind gusts. Cars slide. Noses run. It's the life of every New Englander when the calendar turns to the months of winter. It is easy to overlook these inconveniences when we have the New England Patriots to distract us for three or four hours each Sunday. And for the past decade, we have had just that. Are we spoiled? Yeah, probably. Since we are on the eve of Super Bowl XLIV and the members of the Patriots are in Miami dressing for golf, not football, it seems fitting to partake in a longtime tradition that belongs uniquely to spoiled individuals: Complain. How did the Patriots lose? How could Brady and Co. dare to let a team beat them up and down the field like the Ravens did in the opening round of the playoffs? I mean, come on. These are the Patriots. The answer, unfortunately, is simple. They just aren't that good. People may disagree, and I don't blame them. New England won a somewhat difficult AFC East Division. At times, the Pats looked great. Brady looked like a magician as he torched the Jacksonville Jaguars' defense back on December 27. So, with the help of several assertions I have heard over the last few weeks concerning the Patriots, I am going to prove why the same team that won three championships in four years simply is not that good anymore.

"The Patriots have Moss, Welker, and Brady. How could their offense not be effective?"

Let's not get things confused. The Patriots were not offensively anemic by any stretch of the imagination. At the same time, they were not even close to the prolific offense of 2007 that routinely buried opponents until that dreaded night on February 3, 2008. This year, New England found the end zone 50 times in the regular season, 25 less trips than the record-breaking '07 squad tallied. In comparison, the highflying New Orleans Saint's offense notched 64 touchdowns in '09. Conversely, the lowly Buffalo Bills made only 25 appearances in the end zone this year. On the surface, it seems as though the Pats were a relatively productive offensive team. Don't be fooled, however. Great Patriot teams of yesteryear prided themselves on their success during the two-minute drill. Timely offenses, not record-setting ones, win games and championships. Looking back to week 10 against the Colts, the Patriots failed to convert on fourth-and-two. That loss ripped momentum away from a young Pats team that had just reeled off three wins in a row. Their offense blew some teams out (Bucs, Jags, Titans), but stalled against beatable opponents (Dophins, Broncos). Touchdowns matter much less when you are winning by double digits than they do when there are three minutes left in the fourth quarter. Their lack of timely offense is reflective of the inexperience and lack of leadership that plagued the 2009 Patriot team.

"Okay, so they're not in the Super Bowl. They'll regroup, draft well and be ready to go in September."

Woah! Back it up. Beep, beep, beep (Seinfeld reference, anybody? No?). But seriously, it's not that simple. I'm pretty sure Wes Welker is still face down on the turf in Houston. Oh yeah! Remember that little incident where the second best player on the team effectively ripped his knee into unidentifiable parts in a week 17 loss to the upstart Texans? Don't expect to see the gritty receiver on the field early next season. It took Brady the best part of a year to fully recover from an eerily similar injury, and just think, he had Gisele to nurse him back to health. Halloween '10 would be an optimistic prediction for when you will see Welker on the playing field come Sunday afternoon. The Patriots haven't exactly been like the Pittsburgh Steelers when it comes to drafting either. I'm going to throw some names at you. All of whom were drafted in the last five years by the Patriots, none of which were lower than the third round. Terrence Wheatley. Shawn Crable. Chad Jackson. Laurence Maroney. Ellis Hobbs. Kevin O'Connell. Absolutely awful. The best player on that list is Maroney who doesn't seem to realize that the quickest path to the end zone is straight ahead, not side to side.

The Patriots are similar to a weak-hitting lineup in baseball. The three and four hitters may be good, but there are enough holes to work around them. Sure, the Pats have Brady, Moss, and Welker, but it's been a long time since they had a shutdown cornerback or a marquee running back. Ty Law and Corey Dillon aren't walking through the door anytime soon. Maybe Darius Butler will turn into the next Asante Samuel, but Maroney isn't going to be the franchise back that Patriots' brass may have thought. Thankfully, there are solutions. Resigning Vince Wilfork needs to be a priority to anchor the Patriots' defensive line. Jarrod Mayo took a step back this year in his progression as a full-time NFL linebacker. I would expect the Patriots to look at adding a legitimate pass-rushing threat through the draft. Sebastian Volmer proved to be an asset on the offensive line, especially in the latter half of the year, but the o-line could still use some augmentations. As the draft approaches and free agency nears, it will be interesting to see what the Patriots do to improve their team for 2010 campaign.