Opening night reviewPage 4 of 19 -- With Charlie Weiss fully recovered and ready to go, will the Pats be able to establish a balanced attack on offense and stay the course of a balanced attack, run and pass, 50-50? How much has the O-line been bolstered by the draft and free agent signings? Tommy boy can't afford to scramble and with a weak wing he will need a good o-line. Thanks, Nick. Glad the mail bag is back! You do a solid job by being the air in this pigskin of a forum! Go Pats! --Jamie Regan, Milton
A: Charlie is fine. I'm not certain you'll see "balanced" in the Patriots vocabulary. I think Charlie likes to throw the ball and use spread formations. He runs an exciting offense, and I'm sure he'll try to get a few more run plays in there, but that depends on how effective the run game is and what the score is. As for the O-line, I like Dan Koppen from BC. He could develop quickly. They have added depth in Brenden Stai and Bill Conaty at the guard position, which is good. Won't the Patriots have to run the ball more than 20 times a game to keep opponents from crushing the Brady dinky-pass offense?--Bronco Bob Koenig, Portsmouth,NH A: That makes sense. It seems to me that A. Smith becomes a more effective runner when he gets into that 20-plus carry mark, too. Hi Nick, nice to see your back. My question is mostly from excitement about how this Defense looks on paper...but when they play on Sunday, are we going to see the best Belichick Defense he has ever put together and if not, how long might that take? Thanks, and Shouts to all the wr's who will be hurting after they test the middle --G Stevens, MA A: Anthony Pleasant would be very upset to hear you say "Belichick's defense" because the players feel its Romeo Crennel's defense. Anyway, it has potential to be exciting, but they have to get those veteran corners back on the field. Nick, do you know if Mike Woicik, the Pats, strength and conditioning coach ever worked at Oregon State University? I played there briefly back in the mid 80's and the strength coach at OSU back then had a very similar, if not the same, name. Thanks, jr ps I tried looking on the Pat's web site for such info and didn't find anything. Do they have such background info available anywhere? -- Jim Racine, Boston, MA A: His bio does not make mention of Oregon State. Nick, It seems from reading articles regularly that the Patriots are going to be offensively challenged again this season. Last year they surprised a few teams with an all out passing attack, but in the end their lack of running game cost them against the Jets. Do you think they should have added to the offense in some way? It seems to me that screen passes and 8 yard outs can move the chains but not put the ball in the end zone enough to win those big games. Thanks for the great reading down here in Tampa.--Jeff Ballou, Brandon, FL Continued... |
