While it is still totally a possibility that the Pats will miss the playoffs with an 11-5 record at the end of the year they did finally get a little help from the Jets Sunday evening as finally someone who needed to lose, did just that.

Its funny because I watched the Thursday night game hoping Indy would lose but lo and behold they pulled ahead with like 4 minutes left in the game and won it clinching them a wildcard spot.

The Dallas needed to beat the Ravens but that was looking bad from the start as Raven had the Cowboys number and Romo, in typical Romo fashion helped the team lose yet another big game.

The next hope was that somehow Kansas City would actually become good and beat Miami and for a while it was looking ok but in the end Miami won it.

Finally there was the Jets who have stunk it up everytime they have made the trip to the west coast this year but honestly even with that I felt that should win because they are the better team. There was hope though because in the previous week Seattle have given the Pats a run for the money too. In the end the Jets never scored a TD and lost the game.

So what did this do?

Well like I said it helped the Pats though they still need more help to make the playoffs it gave them a much more likely sistuation and now could even win the division with some more help from the Jets.

The irony of that scenario is that the Pats need the Jets to win next week against Miami which is much more favorable than needing them to lose obviously. The Pats also need to win against Buffalo next week. If this should all happen the Pats win the AFC east. So this is wird because i have to actually pull for the Jets next week to win so they can help the Pats. As for the Bills, well I think I learned last year for sure that nothing is certain but I do expect the Pats to win that game.

On the other hand If Miami beat the Jets Miami wins the division no matter if the Pats win thier game of not since the Dolphins hold the tiebreaker.

The Jets to me are in the worst situation and what would have to be the worst nightmare. They have to win against Miami, but they also need the Pats to lose to win the division. Here is the nightmare of it all if the Jets win and thew Pats win they will have helped the Pats win the division on the other hand if the Jets lost they will have helped Miami win, and there fore the team who which they traded thier styarting QB to so they could get Farvre. That is crazy.

Wildcard is the toughest situation of all. The Pats would have to win thoer game then have to hope Baltimore loses against the Jaguars to gain the last remaning playoff spot.

There is scenarios for wildcard spots for both Miami and the Jets as well but I won't get into those.

At any rate that is the situation. as far as the AFC east is concerned.

Anotehr interesting development outside of this division is that the Chargers won Sundat while the Broncos did not which mean these teams will be playing each other next Sunday to decide the division. That is crazy.

Oh by the way i didn'y comment on the Pats game last Sunday yet. As I suspected Arizona is a soft team. Yeah they sat thier Wide reciveer but so what. Warner could barely complete a pass and they were unable to stop the Pats running. I don;t know if I said this before but I do not expect that team to go far in the playoffs because simply put they won thier division because all the other teams are weak in it this year and everytime they have played teams from the east cost on the east coast they lost.

I also forgot to comment on the Steelers Ravens game from last week where the Steelers got a call overturned giving them a TD and the game.

Ok so here is the rule. The ball must cross the goal line simple as that, the players feet are not relevant except where out of bounds cab come into play. The Steelers player caught the ball with his feet beyond the goal line in the end zone but leaning forward so ball was outside both the endzone and the goal line because he had to essentially fall forward to make the catch.

Now the ruling one the field was down by contanct on like the 1 yard line or maybe the half yard and to overturn it it would undisputable evidence. There was none yet somehow the refs broke both rules and overturned the call. I have yet to see any credible analyst agree with the call and I have listened to both what the announcers said, ESPN and even the NFL Network guys.

Honestly the Steelers had another play to run. It would have been 4th down and they probably still would have gotten the TD but that does not matter because the refs made the wrong call and didn't allow that to be played out as it should have.

You know not much can speak of the Buffalo Bolls season than Sundays game. The team started out 4-0 and lead its division but has been in downward slide ever since but what occured this Sunday was downright pathetic. With barely over 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter and with the lead the Bills, clearly not familar with how to win a game run passing play with thier backup quarterback J.P. Losman (SP?) who hasn't been that hot with passing the ball the entire game and while thier running game has been great the whole game. What the?!?!

At any rate Losman boneheadly can't find anyone open so instead of taking a sack or throwing out of bounds rolls to his right with his arm hanging the ball out so that a Jets defender coming up from the left can swat th ball out of his hand leading to a Jets recovery and running it in for TD.

Terrible.

Jets should have lost that one.

In other news Miami won thier game which leaves the AFC East still in a 3 way tie though it is my unstanding that the Pats are in last among that group and should both Miami and the Jets win both thier week 16 games the whomever wins in the had to head matchup in week 17 will win the division.

In other news the Pats beat the Raiders easily as expected. Next up as I mentioned in other poast is the Division winning Arizona Cardinals who just lost on Sunday to the Vikings. Sometimes this can play into how a team will perform next week seeing as how they do not want to lose 2 weeks in row but there is also the stat that Arizona has stunk against real teams especially when playing in the cold weather.

I still am picking the Pats to win but really I would not be shocked if it went the other way too. The Pats lost yet more players in the past two games and I think now have like something like 15 starters on IR. They are beat up.

In the end the Pats could win out the rest of the season and with an 11-5 record still miss the playoffs.

I would still be proud of them though

In other news I think no matter who makes it to the playoffs, Jets, Maiami or the Pats I hav e feeling all these teams will struggle.

Lets be honest shall we. Had Tom Brady not gone down in week 1 the Pats would have most likely beaten even the improved versions of both the Jets and the Dolphins because while the Pats D is not spectacular this year thier offense still would have been able to counter that by scoring at near will. Matt Cassel has trurned into a good quarterback for sure but he has had to learn a lot, on the job, which meant losses that pobably should not have happened but they did. On top of that in all the games where the Pats were crushed it was like the whole team failed, not just Cassel as mistakes were to be found all over the place.

My view of 3 of these team though is that just do not stack up against other high caliber teams right now. I think the Steelers in particualr are standout since thier defense is so monsterous. The Giants have done surprisingly well this year but have started to fall off the last few and may very well lose thier spot here soon to the Panthers.

As the season winds down I have to say this was a hella competitive year even though my team has had to deal with as much as it has. I am very curious to see what occurs over the off season because the Pats really need I think to start letting some of thier older players go, as much as I love them guys, they are getting old and it time for new blood.

As expected the Patriots beat the Seahawks although it was not done in a way that was expected. The Pats trailed until the last two minutes of the game until they finally took it and then made a defensive stop afer that.

Worst part of it was that Pats had three injuries during the game, I think only one player returned and there is no word on the others. But it once again cements the position that the Pats are far and away the most injured team in the league and have the most to overcome.

Player of the Game: Wes Welker. This little dude is amazing.

Next up, the Raiders. This is another terrible team this year but they did manage to beat the Jets earlier in the season which I am not sure if that is saying much since the Jets are probably overrated anyways but it did happen.

I expect the Pats to win this one.

By the way. My current understanding of the divional playoff pisture is that if ther Jets and Miami were to win their remaining games leading up to the last one of the season in which they play each other, that game would decide the winner of this divison.

The Pats are said to need helo which I think means that these teams need to lose and the Pats need to win. The main reason behind this is that although within thier divison the Pats are 1-1 against both these teams and have beaten the Bills once and are expected to do so in the last game in the season, the Pats have unortunately lost all thier games against other non-divisional AFC rivals, Chargers, Colts and Steelers.

Not sur how the AFC wildcard is looking. Lat I saw the Colts and Ravens were in that

So here is the teams I was told I need to watch over the next few weeks in reference to the Pats chances. First as I said in the previous post ther Pats ned to win all thier remaining games. I see that as a pretty good possability.

Ravens

14 Dec 07 WAS @ BAL

15 Dec 14 PIT @ BAL

16 Dec 20 BAL @ DAL

17 Dec 28 JAC @ BAL

I do not know much about the Ravens except that they are doing well and they have, as usual, a good defense. I would however say they have a tough road ahead and one that is ripe for multiple losses.

-----------------------
Colts

14 Dec 07 CIN @ IND

15 Dec 14 DET @ IND

16 Dec 18 IND @ JAC

17 Dec 28 TEN @ IND

The Colts have returned to form after a slow start and I think they have a mixed bag with two games that are sure wins against the Lions, the worst team in the league and the Bangles who also suck. Jacksonville has not been that hot this year and the Titans have the best record in the league with a solid defense though I feel they are tad bit overrated. I think the Colts have a good chance of winning all of these.

-----------------------

Jets

14 Dec 07 NYJ @ SF

15 Dec 14 BUF @ NYJ

16 Dec 21 NYJ @ SEA

17 Dec 28 MIA @ NYJ

The Jets have an easy schedule, simple as that. Buffalo should have been a challenge but they seem to have fallen apart and there hardest game may very well be Miami who they beat in thier first meeting. Seattle and the 49'ers both suck. I could see the Jets winning these all but then again they did lose to the Raiders so who knows and they do after have Farve as thier QB who at last check was tied for most INT's in the league this season. He could easily lose a game for them and one can hope.

-----------------------

Dolphins

14 Dec 07 MIA @ BUF

15 Dec 14 SF @ MIA

16 Dec 21 MIA @ KC

17 Dec 28 MIA @ NYJ

The Phins have the easiest schedule of all these teams including the Pats. The Jets are the only ones that will probably present any problems unless Buffalo get thier head out of thier butt.

Well I am not quite sure but I felt it was a must win game however the Pats are still listed as on bubble as for chance of making it into the playoffs but I got to say it does not look good.

At any rate the Pats lost against the Steelers, an AFC team which puts them in a bad spot since they have lost against all of them that they have played not in thier division.

But first let me discuss the game a little. At the end of the first half it was not actually looking that bad. The score was tied 10-10 and the Pats D had done a decent job of holding the Steelers and the offensive line had done well in protecting Cassel.

However nearing the end of the first half you also had to think it was the start of problems to come. Moss dropped like two passes in the endzone, although if you watched the second one in slow motion he'd had landed out of bounds anyway but the first was money and should have been a TD. I think he dropped anothyer in midfield too that was a good pass. The to top theat off the FG attempt was missed right before the half too which would have at least put the Pats up slightly ahead.

Now on tho the second half, yeah if the ending of the frst was an omen than things went as they should because the Steelers D really started to show why they are ranked number 1. The Pats didn't score a point and more drops and turnovers than you would care to count.

Elswhere in the division the Jets also lost, so did the Bills but Miami won. So there was an oportunity there too that was missed. I feel bad about the loss even though I thought from very early on in the season looking ahead considering the situation that this was going to be a loss and those thought only increased as more and more memebers of the team went on the IR.

Next up for the Pats is the Seahawks who are not dong that great this year. This should be a win for the Pats.

Ok I will go ahead and actually give my predictions for the rest of the season games beyond next week too. I'' try to give my thoughts on why too.

Seahawks = Win

Obviously this team is no good this year. The Pats certainly are not as good as last year but they are still much better than the Seahawks.

Raiders = Win

This team actually beat the Jets but they still suck.

Cardinals = Win

The Jets actually beat these guys early in the season. Honestly I think this team is weak. Yeah they are first in thier division, and are so with authority but they have the Rams, Niners, and Seahwks in it. So yeah it was not hard for them to look good. My only worry is that Warner can chuck the ball and the Pats secondary is bad. Really of all the remainng games I think this is the most iffy but I think the Pats are the better team.

Bills = Win

The Bills are still on thier downward spiral from once being in first place. The Pats romped them last time and they should do so again.

So where will the pats be if they winn al these games? Well they are currently 7-5 with all wins they would finish with 11-5. I have no idea whether that will be good enough to at leat make the playoffs through wildcard since it depends on many other factors but I do feel it would be a decent finish despite all the adversity the team has had to overcome this season.

I do feel that if the Pats do make the playoffs there is no chance they will go far proven by the fact that they have alreay lost to all the other teams that will most likely be in the there too. Of course every game is different and things could change but from my perspective on the defensive side of the ball the Pats problems that have been there since the beginning this season are still there, unlike the offense which has impoved.

Earlier in the year the Pats very embarrassingly got whooped by the Dolphins. At the time commentators and analysts thought it spelled doom for this years Pats and I seem to remember I thought so too. The reason for this is because of last years perfomrance of the Miami no one expected them to much better than last year and that early in the season it was looking to be the correct call. As it turns out the Dolphins are considerable better than last year, the AFC East is really.

Last Sunday the Pats went to Miami in hopes of getting revenge. Historically the Pats have always had issues in that place but it was not the case this time and the Pats led Matt Cassel effectively squished the fish and gave the big missl finger to Joey Porter.

I wnet into this one not having an idea how it would turn out because of the previous game. But it now puts the Pats in second place in thier dvision, however they still need to win, and keep winning if they are to have any hope in making the playoffs.

I am not sure how this all work out but I think currently right now the colts are on top in place for the wild card spot.

Next Sunday the Pats play the Steelers.

It is my understanding this is a must win game, since they lost to the Jets

Actually I am thinking they pretty much need to win everything from here on out and hopet the Jets can lose 1 or two along the way. The Jest though have an easy schedule the rest of the way having beaten probably the last opponent worth noting last week in the Titans.

Which by the way was a wierd feeling because i was actually rooting for them on this since I didn' want another team doing what the Pts did last year, or worse, actually going 19-0. Next week the Jets face Denver, who is a mess. But I can hope they bring thier A game.

The Steelers on the other hand are no slouch this year. And as great as Cassel has been these last handfull of games, yes even in the losses, I just do not know if the Pats can win this one. This victory though is what the team needs. They failed to defeat there other league rivals this year, the Chargers and the Colts, they just need to find a way to keep winning and win this one.

Defense remains the Pats biggest problem especially in the secondary. But no mistake up front the lack of pressure on the QB is no help either.

So basically unless the Pats D can really start putting it together, or the Steelers D just cannot stop Cassel I still unforunately see this one going in the L column, On the other hand if the Pats can get a win I think it would push the teams confidence through the roof. Cassel in my opinion has already had his breakout game really but I think beating the Steelers would be an even bigger breakout.

Matt Cassel threw for 400 Yards. The Pats Tied the game in the 4th with one of the most amazing drives ever seen with only like a minute to play and no timeouts.

But it was all for naught.

Much like the teh Colts game thisd is one that the Pats should have won but much like that game they did not.

I do not really have a full understanding of what it will take to make the playoffs but from what I heard it sounds kind of bleak.

1. Clearly the Pats cannot lose any more divsional games which I think of them only 1 against the Dolphins and 1 against the Bills remain and the Jets probably have lose one or more too because really head to head the Jets and the Pats are tied.

I have heard the Pats have to win against the Steelers too.

Unfortunately because the Dolphins have played so well this year actually beating the Pats earlier this year, not to mention this next one is in Miami a place where the Pats, even under Tom Brady have not done well. I can;t say how the Pats will do. They are definately a better team now than when they faced them before that is for sure. But.....

The Steelers are a game that looking ahead I had picked the Pats to lose for awhile now. However maybe, just maybe they can pull it off. I actually think they CAN win both these games actually, however.......

They would need to stop making costly mistakes. In both the Jets and Colts losses that has been what has killed them. Yeah their secondary is a little weak but whatever...when you get penatlies that you should not have gotten or fumble the ball for no reason you really are not helping yourself.

Beyond these next two games the Pats have Seatle who suck this year, the Raiders who also suck, The Cardinals who are doing great this year who I think if I remember right the Jets beat already which means teh Pats need to win, and then closing the season is the rematch of the Bills which unless they play much better than last time the Pats should beat.

You know, sometimes you have to eat your words and I guess after my last post I may have to. The Pats are now tied for first place with the NY Jets. The Pats under Cassel are decent and win more than they lose and with the exception of of their performances against both the Chargers and the Maimi they have done well. Most who watched the loss aganst the Colts felt the Pats should have won it but alas it was not to be.

Before I decide to eat my words though I do think we have to look ahead and I think from what I have seen of the Jets schedule and heard of Miami's the Pats have a much harder road aheadl

Just for record if you remember when schedule came out this year football analysts and experts were all like the Pats have the easiest schedule right? News flash what many so-called football fans failed to hear or do not want to is those proclimations are based on the teams previous season percentages. In case you haven't noticed every team in the Pats division is considerably better than last season. Miami for instance won a single game last year while this year they currently tied for 2nd place in the division. But not even divisional games worry me overall the PAts just have rougher schedule with games against teams like the Cardinals who somehow are doing good this year, and the Steelers. The Pats need to win at least one of these big games in my opinion and hope Brett Farve continues to do what he does best, throw INT's.

Me personally I am hoping the Pats somehow beat the Stealers . I try not to be too biased against any other team because while I am fan of my team I am also a fan of the game and can respect other teams but yeah the Stealers are team that I have have hard time respecting or thiier fans for that matter.

One of the Pats biggest problems this year is injuries. In fact they are probably the most beat up team in the leagur right now with thier QB, considered to be the best in league out for the season, thier strong safety out for the year and probably not coming back next year, thier srting RB out for the year and now Thomas out for the year as well. The loist just keeps getting longer every year.

I mean they still have chance and I got to say that I am pleased with the outcome of the season so far. If they make the playoffs, that would be great but even if they do not I think the team still has to be happy.

I do want to take back what I said though about Cassel. This is the last year on his contract and I actually hope he sticks around. Why? Because assuming Brady comes back next year and is healthy the team now at least weill have tested backup. Besides, it be kind of annoying to see hi go after the Pats did all the work training him and breaking him in. Word I have heard is not likely to be back after this year though since teams have seen what he can do but I can hoe can't I?

Anyway one thing is for ceartian the Division this year has gotten more interesting but I would hate to see the Jets take it, cause comon' they really do noy deserve it. I think no team that buys thier way in like they have done this season ever should. The good news is if they do make it to the playoff I suspect they will get crushed probably by arm of Farve throwing the ball to the wrong team. That would be funny, just like last year.

I skipped last week lets just say the Pats won and move on to this week abyssmal performance against the Chargers.

So with this loss it currently puts the Pats in a tie in thier division with the Jets.

The Pats minus Brady have been anything bu spectacular and quite honestly although they have had thier moments what I see still very much reminds me of what I saw in preseason. A team in need of help.

I said before It would be cool if we could at least make it to the playoffs, even if we lost in the first round and I still think it would be. But lets be serious here judging from what I have seen unless Cassel improves greatly not only will that not occur but I think there is good chance the Pats will come in last in thier division and here is why.

1. The Bills are clearly a better team than last year and are in first place in the division. Though I think they lost there starting QB as well and I am not quite up on the stus of that as of this writing. Depending on how bad that is I do not know if they can maintain.

The Dolphins though right now are the worst in division are also better than last year and although Pennington isn;t a great QB he is definately better than Cassel.

The Jets seem to be getting better every week with Farve and he is of course also better than Cassel.

Fact of the matter is for most of the games palyed so far, inluding the preseason the Pats have not looked good in most phases of the game and as a advid fan of football and not just the Pats I have to wonder when the big changes will begin. By this I mean I really feel like that the Pats are at a point this year where they might need to start thinking about cleaning house and getting some new and younger blood in there. It is really wierd to me how 1 one year the Pats went from one of the best teams in the league on every level to one of the worst. Did 1 year really age these guys that much? I do not know.

Cassel aside I actually think the offense is still potent just he isn't good enough to use it. It is hard to judge the offensive line right now because Cassel hols the ball so long that it wouldn't matter if they were good or not. But I am not sure how much faith I have in them after thier kind of bad performance in the Superbowl even though they had done great up until that point.

Defense is not looking good at all. Had Cassel been good on offense you can get around that but such is not the case. They looked terrible in today's game though Just slow and off. That definately needs to change.

Predictions?

Well I haven't made any yet but I think I will. I afraid that I see my team not only missing the playoffs this year but finishing last.

Yes I said it.

I just hoe that by midseason they take out Cassel and start giving O'Connel some time.

Oh and let Cassel go.

I have been wanting to write this for probably ayear or so now and maybe this time I will get it done.

First let us cover a few things that have occured....

Fact#1: When video gaming was young PC gaming was the leader because it featured superior hardware that consoles just could not match. While PC's still feature the latest and gretest hardware the differences are hardly noticible to most poeple and it certainly isn;t enough to the mass market to pay $500-$800 for a video card when you can get an console for that price or cheaper.

Fact#2: The way hardware moves in the PC industry is too fast for the mainstream. In a nutshell you would have to be pretty well off to keep up with the latest hardware.

Fact#3: For some odd reason until as of late game deveopers have always been making thier games for the highest end hardware out there and some even push for beyond that like Crysis. Of course form a business standpoint this was always dumb because while there are a lot of PC's out there (more than all the consoles) bot that many are high end. The effect of the old model was the PC developers make thier expesive games for the smallest market.

Fact#4: Devopment in PC gaming has shunk. Don;t believe me? Go find a litl of games relesed 10 years ago? 15? Compared to today it is massive I assure you. Not to mention that many PC game only devs have moved to consoles, the ones that are left anyways.

Ok there are probably more but lets move on. i am going to say this but right now I would say that the PC gaming you have known and maybe loved for I don't know how many years now is in the end of its current life as it was. No kidding. I do not see PC gaming continueing in its old model much longer.

So what do I mean?

Well first thing is first almost no company will be developing games for top of the line system's anymore. The ones that hold out will lose money that is for sure and maybe even go under. Proof? Look at Blizzard's next two offerening, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. Nirther of these games is being made to push any system. The are shooting for mainstream sales, the same thing they accomplished with WoW another game built around low system specs.

Also things may not be free much longer. You can thank MS for thsi one with the 360 leading the way with the charge for everything protocol. Think not? Think again. Gaming is expesive and it cost money to run servers no matter what the game is. Recently Joystiq posted a comment from Blizzrd concerning Battle maybe not being free soon.Just so you know Battlenet is used for thier other games that are not MMO's like Warcraft 3, Starcraft and Diablo. If this ends up happening it will be the first time anyone has chrages to play these types of games, ever. I do not know if this will come to pass but my prediction would be yes. And it is not like Blizzard needs the moeny either. Maybe it is something from the whole merger thing. Activision is after all worse than EA these days. Hell they are the new EA and EA seems to be changing more for the better.

At any rate new content will almost all never be free. Free will be rare. Why give it for free when you charge after all. Even better why charge less when you can charge more. I have heard the price of music on games to download is like double or more than it is on like iTunes.

Hardcore, what is that? I think gaming jounalists are showing how out of touch they have become when they say that as gaming has gone more mainstream it is better. Really? What proof do you have of that? Less games are being made. There are less developers now than ever. and there are less genres of games. Not to mention games today are beginning to have the challenge part of them removed. Don;t think so? Ok I loved Bioshock but that game was shockingly easy. Did that ruin the experince? In a way, yeah. Don;t get me wrong I do not long for mad difficulty of the 8 and 16-bit days but I think things are going a little too far to the easy side. Not to mention I think it teaches kids today to be lazy and that everything should be given to them, why earn it? Yay?!?!

I think Spore is another example. You know I have the Sims. i have Sim City, good god Spore is like so unlike Will Wright. That guys agmes have always had some challenge and comlexity and it is like not there in Spore. It was like they designed it the marketing department. Yay for designing for dummies.

I am not sure where things will go on the hardware front. I have to imagine that there release cycles are going to have to change after gaming no longer supports things the way it is being done now else they wan't seel anything. Any really it is dumb the way things are now anyways. It takes anywhere from 2 to 5 years to make the better gasmes these days and from the time one is announced till it releases i can't even begin to count how many CPU's will be released, or even worse GPU's.

I haven't even gottern into piracy either. There seems to be no good solution to it. Look at Spore. They put that DRM thingie on there and people went nuts even though its hardly anything new.

So there you have it. I probably have only just toched on the topic but I am not one who ignorant, and yes there are those who think PC gaming is "just fine" and i think they are nets and in denial. There is tons of proof it is not and nothing to support that it is. I do not think saying well Crysis only came out for PC is a defense. It did and it has been outsold by many console based FPS's, even once that came out on the PC as well.

On another note I almost feel like console gaming needs to change too. I think people are kind of getting tired of buying a new system every 5 years, but that is another blog post altogether.