Hobbs had his moments
Returns helpful but penalty costly
By Joe Sullivan, Globe Staff | January 22, 2007
INDIANAPOLIS -- At times, it seemed the whole game was going to be decided on a play by Ellis Hobbs. The Patriots cornerback was a huge part of the back-and-forth AFC Championship game. His defensive play and kickoff returns almost helped push the Patriots to victory, but his pass interference penalty in the third quarter didn't help in the Patriots' 38-34 loss to the Colts last night. His key moments: In the first quarter, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning airlifted a long pass to Reggie Wayne that looked like a touchdown but Hobbs reached out at the last moment and knocked it away. The Colts had to settle for a field goal soon after.Hobbs took the ensuing kickoff back 29 yards to start the Patriots on their way to their second touchdown.The Colts were driving for a touchdown late in the first half and Manning again went to Wayne, who was slightly behind Hobbs. Wayne and Hobbs got tangled up in the end zone and an official threw a flag for pass interference. The officials huddled after that call, however, and changed the ruling, declaring the contact incidental. The Colts had to settle for a field goal.There was another Hobbs-Wayne incident in the third quarter. Manning tried to hit Wayne in the left corner of the end zone but the ball hit Hobbs instead. Hobbs had his back to Manning and was called for interference. "I never touched him and the ball hit me in the back of the arm," said Hobbs, who didn't feel the flag was deserved. The Colts scored on the next play then converted a 2-point conversion to tie the game at 21."I tried to put that play behind me and run it right back," said Hobbs, who did just that with the ensuing kickoff, accelerating up the right sideline and bursting through an attempted tackle by kicker Adam Vinatieri before he was pushed out of bounds at the Colts' 21. Five plays after his 80-yard return, Tom Brady hit Jabar Gaffney with a 6-yard touchdown pass.In the fourth quarter after the Colts tied the game, 31-31, Hobbs took the kickoff back 41 yards to put the Patriots at their 46. Four plays later, Stephen Gostkowski put the Patriots ahead by 3 with a 43-yard field goal. It looked like a winning play for the Patriots.After that, Hobbs and his defensive teammates stopped Manning once before the quarterback led the Colts on a seven-play, 68-yard drive for the winning touchdown."We let them off the hook," said Hobbs. "We keep punching them but we didn't punch hard enough." Hobbs was right because the Patriots had control of the game in the first half but the defense allowed Indianapolis to score 32 second-half points. "There's no excuse, we didn't execute," said Hobbs. "What happened in the second half? I honestly don't know. Maybe we sat back and got comfortable. We had the dagger in but just didn't twist it. "We knew they weren't out of it. The way they play offense, they're never out of it." In the end, Hobbs prevented two touchdowns with plays in the end zone, had three tackles and two passes defensed, and returned six kickoffs for 220 total yards, but he was also part of a defensive unit that couldn't make 34 points stand up. "We thought the way to win was to make Peyton throw the ball and we did a good job of covering most of the day," he said. "But they did a good job, too. When we were set up to defend the pass, he changed to a running call and he was dumping it off to the backs. The idea is to keep him guessing; sometimes I played press coverage, sometimes I was in a zone. We just didn't want to give up the big ones."
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
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