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The play where Maroney ran out of bounds reminds me of the play by Sam Cunningham in the famous Ray Hamilton roughing the passer playoff game in Oakland years ago. Cunningham did the same thing thereby causing a fourth down situation for the Pats. If he had stayed inbounds it probably would have clinched a Patriots victory in that playoff game. Instead the Pats had to punt and the Oakland offensive drive culminated in the phantom penalty against Hamilton. Cunningham also became a "dancing" running back.

Maroney has shown flashes of brilliance, but his consistently just isn't there.

Mike - Outside of the last 2 minutes, I believe the clock stops when a player goes out of bounds (if going forward) until the ball is spotted with a 25 second play clock instead of 40.

L-train, I was incomplete in my answer. I sent in a revision after checking with the league. The new answer is "the clock stops temporarily when the player goes out of bounds, but then is re-started immediately after the ball is spotted. The only time the clock does stop after a player goes out of bounds is in the last two minutes of the first half or the last five minutes of the game."
--Mike

Mike: I can't believe I almost made it through a patriots mailbag without a Joe-number-x-y-z comment regarding Ty Law coming back, only to have you mention it, unsolicited in response to a question about another player. I moved on about 5 years ago and I think it is time the rest of New England did too. Don't get me wrong, I was an avid Ty Law fan back in the day. But he cashed in for a big contract in NY or KC or wherever it was, and Asante stepped up in his place. Now Asante is gone too, and we need to start to look at the players we already have on the roster, and those we draft next year.

I'm looking forward to seeing players like Mayo, Merriweather, Sanders, Wilhite and Wheatley develop, with the veteran additions like Jordan, Moss, Thomas and others. I'm also looking forward to next year's draft picks in rounds 1-3, including the one they got in trade from SD. It's crazy to wallow in the past and even entertain the idea of bringing in a player that peaked 5 years ago, when the impact of such a signing would be to knock a talented younger player off the roster who comes in at half the salary cap hit.

It was great to see undrafted free agent Gary Guyton getting the confidence of coach Belichick as evidenced by the number of snaps he took against the 49ers. What do you know about Shawn Crable, our 3rd round draft pick, and why he hasn't made the grade yet?

I appreciate your column, as always. Great job.

from what i have read crable hasnt been able to be active yet because guyton is a better special teams player so he has more value currently. He def has the talen to be playing thought we all saw that preseason. Im excited to see when he will be able to get on the field.