Now to the main issue on hand, the New England Patriots. It has been a rough month or so since the Pats tough loss in the Wild Card round of the Playoffs and the question I have heard from Patriots Nation is “who do we blame? “ I have heard some ridiculous theories about Brady, such as “now that he has a baby and wife his mind is elsewhere.” This is unreal; Brady had a fantastic season. No, it wasn’t 2007 good, but Brady is not the problem. Do we blame Belichick -- has the genius lost it? Is his risky decisions (i. e., the Indy Game) hurting this team? As much as I didn’t like that decision to go for it on 4^th down at Indy, I don’t blame Bill, and I don’t believe he is the problem. So where does the blame lie?

My answer is on the defensive side of the ball. There is no leader on this defense. We watched four giant pillars of this defense in recent years walk away this off-season in Harrison, Bruschi, Seymour and Vrabel (granted through trades and retirement) and tried to replace them with younger, faster players. But one thing was missing -- none of those players are ready to be leaders on this team. Mayo is a fantastic player but he is still young, and while I do believe he will be one of the leaders down the line, he just wasn’t that guy this year. Mayweather and Sanders were supposed to be leader types but I didn’t see it, on the field anyway. Wilfork should be ready for the role, but with big Vince worrying about his upcoming contract he certainly wasn’t much of a leader in the locker room. They brought in Adalius Thomas in free agency a few years ago to be a vocal playmaker; he’s been vocal, but not much of a playmaker, and he may not be with this team much longer if he keeps mouthing off like a spoiled child. And the 75-year-old Junior Seau and his TV show wasn’t going to save this defense.

So to paraphrase Rick Pitino, “Bruschi and Harrison aren’t walking through that door.” It’s now up to Coach Bill to bring in someone to be a leader on defense and be his voice out there on the field. Who that should be is a mystery -- Peppers? Mayo? All I know that was not the New England Patriots hit-you-in-the-mouth defense on the field during the 2009 season, and Belichick knows it. Why do you think he has taken back the defensive play calling?

See you next time on the Blaaaaaammmeeee Game!!

Please feel free to comment.

Sunday afternoon was more of the same for the Patriots. Just like early last week against Buffalo the Patriots offense was ineffective when it mattered most. Tom Brady and the offense were in the redzone twice and had to settle for field goals. At halftime the Jets trailed only 9-3 after Brady and rookie Julian Edelman just missed hooking up for a a touchdown inside the Jets 15-yard line.

All week and really this summer Rex Ryan and his Jets made it abundantly clear that they were going to take it to the Patriots. Although I wouldn’t describe it as “embarrassing” the Jets did pull it off. In the third quarter Mark Sanchez made the Patriots defense look like a mediocre Pac-10 team, (Not to be confused with Washington’s.) After throwing for just 15-yards in the first half Sanchez threw for 148 yards and 1 TD in the second half, with the bulk of his production coming in the third quarter. The Patriots offense never got off the ground in the second half, smothered under Rex Ryan’s pressure defense. For Patriots fans dissecting this loss however I don’t think they will find anything that qualifies as “news.” Through the course of Super Bowl XLII we all learned that if you get pressure on the Patriots their offense falters. This afternoon we saw another example of that. Although it’s important to point out that Brady’s comfort blanket, Wes Welker was out today. Rookie Julian Edelman making his first NFL start played admirably catching eight balls for 98 yards in Welker’s spot in the slot.

Early in the preseason Steve Young talked about how the biggest challenge for Tom Brady would be timing and decision making in the redzone. Young has been proven prophetic Brady and the entire offense has at times been off. This afternoon with the Jets bringing six and seven defenders the Patriots timing problems were exasperated. In the fourth quarter with the Patriots trailing 16-9 and needing a touchdown Tom Brady just had no time to throw the ball. While the Bills dropped into a Cover 2 late against the Pats Rex Ryan and co. continued to bring defenders at Brady. Without time there was no miracle escape like last Monday.

After the game the Patriots gave credit where it was due, Bill Belichick after the game summed it up pretty well, “Give the Jets credit... they outplayed us, outcoached us, played better than we did for 60 minutes.” After constant harassment from the Jets defense Tom Brady talked about going forward from the loss, “We all gotta do a better job, I gotta do a better job throwing the ball, being more accurate, making better reads. A lot of things are correctable, that were not so good today. Towards the end of the game a sign was shown on CBS that read, “Bye Bye Brady Bunch” that is a little premature but for the Patriots they must know they have to work harder to maintain control of this division.