The tortoise and the hare

“Seahawks Shock Patriots” declares the Boston Globe. “A goal line interception, an intentional grounding that wiped away a chance for a score at the end of the first half, and another intentional grounding that forced the New England Patriots to punt at a critical point in the fourth quarter led to the Patriots' 24-23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks Sunday, quarterback Tom Brady said.” Brady, intercepted once all season, saw two passes picked off that ended scoring opportunities, and that intentional grounding that foiled another opportunity. "I think we just got to do a better job when it counts," he was quoted. “A lot of guys are making plays. You have opportunities to score points, we had an interception. And then you lose by one point, a lot of things that we could have done better so we're not in that situation." At several points in this game, the Patriots seemed to operate on the notion that they only had to play their “C” game to win, and it was almost enough. But in the end it was a variant of the old fable of the tortoise and the hare—except that while the hare arrogantly dawdled, the tortoise made-up ground by being catapulted in the air over the head of the dumbfounded hare, landing first at the finish line.

I’m not a Seahawk fan and I’m not jumping on the Russell Wilson bandwagon. I watched this game and I just saw one team beat-up the other between the Twenties for most of the day—gaining 475 total yards, nearly double what the Seahawks number-one ranked defense was allowing per game—and at one point the Patriots did not punt for eight consecutive possessions. But this did not show-up on the scoreboard. In six opportunities in the red zone, the Patriots converted only once. On the other hand, after passing for 131 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter, Wilson was a meager 4 of 10 for 46 yards in the second and third quarters, as the Seahawks offense went into hibernation; this has been the MO of the team all season: Look good during the scripted plays, then seemingly lost when their quarterback is off-script—before somehow pulling miracle plays out of a hat when the opposing team’s defenders think he’s been beaten into submission and can’t get off the mat. What other explanation can there be when Wilson looks so bad for half the game, and then suddenly throws up fifty yard passes that leave opponents “stunned”?  It’s like a lame Kirk Gibson hitting that homerun against the A’s in the 1988 World Series. As a two touchdown fourth quarter lead was being squandered, Brady looked like James Remar in the film “48 Hours” after he is shot by Nick Nolte: “I don’t believe it. I got shot.” 

But I’m a Packer fan, and the good news is that Green Bay’s offense finally found some life, on the road against the unbeaten Houston Texans. Aaron Rodgers erased some of the embarrassment of watching his understudy Matt Flynn passing for a team record six touchdowns in a single game last season by accomplishing the same feat himself in a 42-24 victory over the Texans.