Decide is a word that comes from the same family as homicide, fratricide and genocide. A decision takes a singular route that kills off other alternatives. Such a decision was made in regard to the Grandview Farm building. After much committee work and discussion it was decided that the building should be renovated. Renovated in this case means to bring it up to current day building codes for the occupancy of people and use the building for offices and various functions.
It seemed a worthwhile project that was met with a good deal of local enthusiasm when first proposed. The farm was the centerpiece ostensibly for the 3 way land swap that resulted in the town giving up 14 acres of prime industrial space on Wheeler Road to one company, who then gave their Mountain Road property to another company who then gave the town the Grandview as well as three house lots. The town also got another pair of parcels on Mall road.
If this deal was done solely on the basis of financial considerations it would have been killed immediately. There were many political considerations however, the primary one being a comprehensive permit that was proposed on the site of the Grandview. The project consisted of several hundred units and would have been adjacent to one of the more expensive neighborhoods in town. This proposal was met with bitter opposition and soon the Grandview preservation group was joined by enthusiastic neighbors looking for a method to kill the project.
On paper the scheme looked reasonable. The town would sell off a portion of the land to a developer for 42 age restricted condos and the house lots would be sold to fund to restoration of the farm building.
The housing has been built and the pricing of the units was favorable to the buyers. The land however, was sold to the developers for a paltry sum of $300,000 with the proviso that the town would split the profits over $800,000. This part of the deal required the appointment of an auditor who would audit the costs associated with the construction to certify the profit. The building is complete without the appointment of an auditor. That in itself seems like a strange way to conduct business.
That is a small part of the problem. The major problem is that it seems now that the total renovation costs of the farm will be some where in the neighborhood of 3 million dollars. If this is correct there is simply no way that the town should go forward with this project.
In retrospect it was optimistic to think that you could upgrade a nearly 250 year old wooden structure to a level satisfactory for the purposes of offices alone. To think that it would be economical to bring it up to a point where it would be handicapped accessible and able to serve as a revenue producing function hall was simply folly.
It is time to seriously review this decision and change gears. Saving the building for limited use as an example of early days in the community is commendable. Get some paint on it and take measures to perserve and renovate some of the decrepit areas. Give it over to the Historical Society for use for exhibits on an occassional basis. Any thing more grandiose than that simply cannot be justified.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
Random thoughts
Not a good start for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Her choice for majority leader got beaten almost 2 to 1 in the election. This apparently came as quite a shock to Congressman John Murtha who was heard to say that "he had the votes" on Chris Matthew's show. By the way, Matthews should change the name of his show from Hardball to Half Speed Fastballs Down the Middle after his gentle handling of Murtha.
Murtha also had another interesting remark when he labeled ethics and lobbying reform efforts as "total crap." Seems to me to be a tad undignified of the congressman. Murtha it seems is one of the obstacles that will have to be overcome for the proposed legislation to move forward. Murtha apparently feels that ethics reform might cramp his style.
Speaker Pelosi could also be coming up for some serious and well deserved ridicule if rumored attempts to place Congressman Alcee Hasting as the head of the house intelligence committee are true. In case you forgot, Alcee was overwhelmingly impeached by the house and then convicted in the senate for some rather nefarious conduct as as federal judge. This is a very special distinction since only about 7 judges have been impeached in the last 250 years. It is hard to imagine that a new speaker could get off to such a terrible start and squander voter good will so quickly. Let's wait and see
Not a good week for John Kerry either it seems. After the election of the Senate leadership, a photo was taken of them striding down the hall. In the background, looking almost forlorn was Sen. Kerry. The Democrats won despite Senator Kerry's late gaffes. Fortunately for the Democrats the only thing he seriously hurt was his chances for another presidential nomination.
In Massachusetts, Governor Elect Patrick made all the sounds of a middle of the road performance and merit minded manager when he made his comments about patronage appointments."The decisions will be made on qualifications and merit". Asked what effect legislators attempts to get cronies hired would have he replied, "It is not going to have any impact at all." Very noble and business like but anti patronage politicians soon get the noses of public officials out of joint. I wish him luck but this is Massachusetts or could more commonly be known as patronage heaven so it will be interesting to see how such a policy is received by the solons on Beacon Hill.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid's name came up in some reporting on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. It is rumored that Jack has named Harry in some shadowy dealings. That will be an interesting situation to watch as it develops. The Republicans have already taken some heavy hits from Jack but what good lobbyist would pay off only one side of the aisle?
The Red Sox made all kinds of headlines with the winning bid for Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsusaka. The guy is 26 years old and is reported to have number 1 starter stuff. That means four pitches and speed on his fastball enough to punch out American League hitters. When he is signed that will give the Sox a starting five that looks pretty settled. Curt Schilling, followed by young phenoms Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett is a formidable threesome. Follow those three up with Matsusaka and Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox are suddenly very much back in the hunt for the American League East.
I managed to catch the Patriots play the Jets last Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Despite the usual terrible traffic conditions it was a very good take. The torrential rain stopped just at kickoff and stayed pretty much clear the rest of the way. The stadium experience was quite a bit better than the football experience. The Patriots simply did not play very well offensively. The play calling seemed somewhat suspect as once again they abandoned the running game much to quickly. When Dillon carried the ball he simply bowled the Jets over.
Oil prices continued to fall this week to around $55 dollars a barrel. This is quite a decline from the high of $78 but still not near to the original $28 that it started at prior to Iraq, Katrina, Nigeria, Prudhoe Bay and rampant speculation to name a few reasons why it jumped.
There seems to be a good news and bad news aspect to this. All of the products and services we buy are likely to cost less as a result, but efforts to encourage nascent alternative and domestic sources of fuel are likely to suffer as people begin to forget about foreign fuels negative strategic impact.
Will Americans give ethanol and other domestic fuels continued consideration if they are higher priced than oil? Is the patriotic effect strong enough to lessen reliance on foreign sources? It would seem to me that we ought to take steps to make sure that it does. Now might be a good time to tack on a dime or even a quarter per gallon of gasolene and earmark those funds for some major problem like Social Security or Medicare. I heard an analyst refer to the middle American grain belt as the "New Middle East" when talking about ethanol. Isn't that something that we should make sure comes true?
I used to be a 12 handicap in golf and then one year I suddenly got the yips and the shanks and what little game I had soon disappeared. The worse I played the harder I would swing, which resulted in a downward spiral of ineptitude. The last couple of years my playing rounds declined to the point where this year I played once. Playing less or in fact not playing at all was good for my mental health.
I went out with my friend a couple of weeks ago and shot about 60 on the front nine. After helicoptering a club about 50 yards I had somewhat of a miraculous golf epiphany. I found that if I kept my left shoulder still while I am coming through the ball and released my hands that I started to hit the ball with new found authority. Just to make sure I wasn't being teased by the lord of golf, I went to the driving range last week.
I was almost giddy with the results. Drive after drive went smartly down the middle and landed between 230 and 260 yards away. These were results I haven't seen in 10 or 15 years. Of course this happens like two weeks before snow will be flying so I guess I better keep those swing thoughts fresh for the next 5 months.
O.J. Simpson has written a book that his publisher says is a confession of how he murdered his wife and Ron Goldman. I wonder if anyone has contacted members of the O.J jury and asked some simple questions like "do you feel really stupid having let this creep walk the streets? Have you had any seconds thoughts and are you losing any sleep? Well you ought to be. Where's a random drive by shooting when you really need one?
Murtha also had another interesting remark when he labeled ethics and lobbying reform efforts as "total crap." Seems to me to be a tad undignified of the congressman. Murtha it seems is one of the obstacles that will have to be overcome for the proposed legislation to move forward. Murtha apparently feels that ethics reform might cramp his style.
Speaker Pelosi could also be coming up for some serious and well deserved ridicule if rumored attempts to place Congressman Alcee Hasting as the head of the house intelligence committee are true. In case you forgot, Alcee was overwhelmingly impeached by the house and then convicted in the senate for some rather nefarious conduct as as federal judge. This is a very special distinction since only about 7 judges have been impeached in the last 250 years. It is hard to imagine that a new speaker could get off to such a terrible start and squander voter good will so quickly. Let's wait and see
Not a good week for John Kerry either it seems. After the election of the Senate leadership, a photo was taken of them striding down the hall. In the background, looking almost forlorn was Sen. Kerry. The Democrats won despite Senator Kerry's late gaffes. Fortunately for the Democrats the only thing he seriously hurt was his chances for another presidential nomination.
In Massachusetts, Governor Elect Patrick made all the sounds of a middle of the road performance and merit minded manager when he made his comments about patronage appointments."The decisions will be made on qualifications and merit". Asked what effect legislators attempts to get cronies hired would have he replied, "It is not going to have any impact at all." Very noble and business like but anti patronage politicians soon get the noses of public officials out of joint. I wish him luck but this is Massachusetts or could more commonly be known as patronage heaven so it will be interesting to see how such a policy is received by the solons on Beacon Hill.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid's name came up in some reporting on disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. It is rumored that Jack has named Harry in some shadowy dealings. That will be an interesting situation to watch as it develops. The Republicans have already taken some heavy hits from Jack but what good lobbyist would pay off only one side of the aisle?
The Red Sox made all kinds of headlines with the winning bid for Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsusaka. The guy is 26 years old and is reported to have number 1 starter stuff. That means four pitches and speed on his fastball enough to punch out American League hitters. When he is signed that will give the Sox a starting five that looks pretty settled. Curt Schilling, followed by young phenoms Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett is a formidable threesome. Follow those three up with Matsusaka and Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox are suddenly very much back in the hunt for the American League East.
I managed to catch the Patriots play the Jets last Sunday at Gillette Stadium. Despite the usual terrible traffic conditions it was a very good take. The torrential rain stopped just at kickoff and stayed pretty much clear the rest of the way. The stadium experience was quite a bit better than the football experience. The Patriots simply did not play very well offensively. The play calling seemed somewhat suspect as once again they abandoned the running game much to quickly. When Dillon carried the ball he simply bowled the Jets over.
Oil prices continued to fall this week to around $55 dollars a barrel. This is quite a decline from the high of $78 but still not near to the original $28 that it started at prior to Iraq, Katrina, Nigeria, Prudhoe Bay and rampant speculation to name a few reasons why it jumped.
There seems to be a good news and bad news aspect to this. All of the products and services we buy are likely to cost less as a result, but efforts to encourage nascent alternative and domestic sources of fuel are likely to suffer as people begin to forget about foreign fuels negative strategic impact.
Will Americans give ethanol and other domestic fuels continued consideration if they are higher priced than oil? Is the patriotic effect strong enough to lessen reliance on foreign sources? It would seem to me that we ought to take steps to make sure that it does. Now might be a good time to tack on a dime or even a quarter per gallon of gasolene and earmark those funds for some major problem like Social Security or Medicare. I heard an analyst refer to the middle American grain belt as the "New Middle East" when talking about ethanol. Isn't that something that we should make sure comes true?
I used to be a 12 handicap in golf and then one year I suddenly got the yips and the shanks and what little game I had soon disappeared. The worse I played the harder I would swing, which resulted in a downward spiral of ineptitude. The last couple of years my playing rounds declined to the point where this year I played once. Playing less or in fact not playing at all was good for my mental health.
I went out with my friend a couple of weeks ago and shot about 60 on the front nine. After helicoptering a club about 50 yards I had somewhat of a miraculous golf epiphany. I found that if I kept my left shoulder still while I am coming through the ball and released my hands that I started to hit the ball with new found authority. Just to make sure I wasn't being teased by the lord of golf, I went to the driving range last week.
I was almost giddy with the results. Drive after drive went smartly down the middle and landed between 230 and 260 yards away. These were results I haven't seen in 10 or 15 years. Of course this happens like two weeks before snow will be flying so I guess I better keep those swing thoughts fresh for the next 5 months.
O.J. Simpson has written a book that his publisher says is a confession of how he murdered his wife and Ron Goldman. I wonder if anyone has contacted members of the O.J jury and asked some simple questions like "do you feel really stupid having let this creep walk the streets? Have you had any seconds thoughts and are you losing any sleep? Well you ought to be. Where's a random drive by shooting when you really need one?
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Historically hopeful
When it comes to the Boston Celtics I am always optimistic. Over the last 20 years of non championship futility, it usually takes a good chunk of the season before I throw in the towel.
Well after watching this year's edition go 1 and 4 over the first five games it is hard to get very enthusiastic about this club. Quite frankly so far the only thing worse than their play has been Doc Rivers coaching. These guys came out of training camp flat as a pancake and have gone down hill since.
This is another year where we seem to have an abundance of young talent but good old Doc can't seem to settle on a steady rotation. This has been his hallmark to date in his Celtic tenure. No one knows from night to night who is going to be marched out on the court.
The team despite its over all youth and athleticism does not do well in the running game. The half court offense boils down to watching Paul Pierce or Wally Scerbiak. The transition defense is plain and simply very bad.
New addition point guard Sebastian Telfair is a bust so far. He is a clay statue on defense and he does not look like much of an assist man. The team over all has fifty percent more turnovers than their opponents. In their one win of the young season, Paul Pierce scored 35 points and had an astounding 12 turnovers.
The frontline other than Ryan Gomes is a collection of under achievers. It was hoped that this would be break out years for Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson, but hard luck Al is down for a month plus because of an appendectomy and Perkins starts fouling when he gets to the scorers table.
Michael Olowokandi is a surprise even making the team and Theo Ratliff can be a defensive force but did anyone think that these two would fit into the plans at all?
Other disappointments are Tony Allen who at times looks completely lost on the floor. Nothing could illustrate this more than the fact that in 80 minutes of play he has managed to make 4 of 15 field goal attempts. The free throw shooting has been abominable. Pierce is shooting 65%, Gomes 60% and rookie Rajon Rondo at 54%. Unbelievably, Perkins has played a total of 90 minutes this season and has managed to get to the free throw line twice missing both.
The only potential bright spots seem to be that Rondo can bring some speed and excitement when he gets in and that maybe Gerald Green won't get buried on the bench. Other than that it seems like it is going to be a long and wholly un-entertaining season.
Well after watching this year's edition go 1 and 4 over the first five games it is hard to get very enthusiastic about this club. Quite frankly so far the only thing worse than their play has been Doc Rivers coaching. These guys came out of training camp flat as a pancake and have gone down hill since.
This is another year where we seem to have an abundance of young talent but good old Doc can't seem to settle on a steady rotation. This has been his hallmark to date in his Celtic tenure. No one knows from night to night who is going to be marched out on the court.
The team despite its over all youth and athleticism does not do well in the running game. The half court offense boils down to watching Paul Pierce or Wally Scerbiak. The transition defense is plain and simply very bad.
New addition point guard Sebastian Telfair is a bust so far. He is a clay statue on defense and he does not look like much of an assist man. The team over all has fifty percent more turnovers than their opponents. In their one win of the young season, Paul Pierce scored 35 points and had an astounding 12 turnovers.
The frontline other than Ryan Gomes is a collection of under achievers. It was hoped that this would be break out years for Kendrick Perkins and Al Jefferson, but hard luck Al is down for a month plus because of an appendectomy and Perkins starts fouling when he gets to the scorers table.
Michael Olowokandi is a surprise even making the team and Theo Ratliff can be a defensive force but did anyone think that these two would fit into the plans at all?
Other disappointments are Tony Allen who at times looks completely lost on the floor. Nothing could illustrate this more than the fact that in 80 minutes of play he has managed to make 4 of 15 field goal attempts. The free throw shooting has been abominable. Pierce is shooting 65%, Gomes 60% and rookie Rajon Rondo at 54%. Unbelievably, Perkins has played a total of 90 minutes this season and has managed to get to the free throw line twice missing both.
The only potential bright spots seem to be that Rondo can bring some speed and excitement when he gets in and that maybe Gerald Green won't get buried on the bench. Other than that it seems like it is going to be a long and wholly un-entertaining season.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
A must win for the Democrats
The mid terms will finally come to a close today. In history this is usually a difficult day for an incumbent president's party. Given the amount of controversy and criticism President Bush has received surrounding the Iraq war it would be an election or Rovian miracle for the Republicans to stave of election day disaster.
Disaster should be defined however. The Democrats need 16 house seats and 6 senate seats to take over both houses of congress. On the surface it would seem quite plausible for them to do this.
Digging a little deeper however exposes some things that make it a bit more difficult, particularly in the senate. The Democrats need a net gain of 6 seats but that also means they need to run the table on the 18 seats that they are currently defending.
Two weeks ago it would have seemed to be a slam dunk for a tidal wave striking the Republicans in both houses but that all seemed to change over the past week. The face of that changed seems to have been the national attention given to John Kerry's remarks regarding soldiers end up in Iraq. A joke it may have meant to be but an insult is was it was interpreted as.
This may have only been the straw that broke the camel's back of the Democratic momentum. Their are a number of more important underlying issues that may make voters think twice in the voting booth.
In no particular order of importance are the following reasons for the Republicans to feel somewhat heartened; Oil prices have been dropping like a stone and this has very positive impact on pocketbooks at home. With the rise in the Dow to historic levels, the average voter can see tangible results in his 401k. The unemployment rate is near 4.4% which by any measure is a very positive number. Corporate profits have continued strong and the merger and acquisitions business has picked up substantially. The bond market has remained steady with the 30 year treasury still well below five percent. By these indicators alone the Democrats have an uphill battle.
In another item not given much media attention. The government had posted a large number of Iraqi documents captured during the war. In those documents were allegedly very sensitive plans for nuclear devices. The Democrats were placed in the tenuous position of continuing to argue against the idea that Iraq had WMD's yet were forced to call for the removal of Iraq's nuclear plans from the net.
In foreign policy issues, the major news was the North Koreans announcing their intention to return to the six party talks. The significant reaction here was the stiff response announced by the Japanese. They said don't bother to come back unless you renounce nuclear weapons.
The main issue for the Democrats remains the Iraq War and try as they might to exploit anti war feelings they have been stoked but are not the raging issue that the Democrats could exploit in a strong return to power. This was apparent early on when the party dumped Joe Lieberman in Connecticut. The hard left in that state will be unable to fend off an independent run by Lieberman and the question is only how badly Lamont will be defeated.
All in all it should be a good day for the Democrats as they probably will win enough seats to take the house. It will be a disaster for them if they don't.
Disaster should be defined however. The Democrats need 16 house seats and 6 senate seats to take over both houses of congress. On the surface it would seem quite plausible for them to do this.
Digging a little deeper however exposes some things that make it a bit more difficult, particularly in the senate. The Democrats need a net gain of 6 seats but that also means they need to run the table on the 18 seats that they are currently defending.
Two weeks ago it would have seemed to be a slam dunk for a tidal wave striking the Republicans in both houses but that all seemed to change over the past week. The face of that changed seems to have been the national attention given to John Kerry's remarks regarding soldiers end up in Iraq. A joke it may have meant to be but an insult is was it was interpreted as.
This may have only been the straw that broke the camel's back of the Democratic momentum. Their are a number of more important underlying issues that may make voters think twice in the voting booth.
In no particular order of importance are the following reasons for the Republicans to feel somewhat heartened; Oil prices have been dropping like a stone and this has very positive impact on pocketbooks at home. With the rise in the Dow to historic levels, the average voter can see tangible results in his 401k. The unemployment rate is near 4.4% which by any measure is a very positive number. Corporate profits have continued strong and the merger and acquisitions business has picked up substantially. The bond market has remained steady with the 30 year treasury still well below five percent. By these indicators alone the Democrats have an uphill battle.
In another item not given much media attention. The government had posted a large number of Iraqi documents captured during the war. In those documents were allegedly very sensitive plans for nuclear devices. The Democrats were placed in the tenuous position of continuing to argue against the idea that Iraq had WMD's yet were forced to call for the removal of Iraq's nuclear plans from the net.
In foreign policy issues, the major news was the North Koreans announcing their intention to return to the six party talks. The significant reaction here was the stiff response announced by the Japanese. They said don't bother to come back unless you renounce nuclear weapons.
The main issue for the Democrats remains the Iraq War and try as they might to exploit anti war feelings they have been stoked but are not the raging issue that the Democrats could exploit in a strong return to power. This was apparent early on when the party dumped Joe Lieberman in Connecticut. The hard left in that state will be unable to fend off an independent run by Lieberman and the question is only how badly Lamont will be defeated.
All in all it should be a good day for the Democrats as they probably will win enough seats to take the house. It will be a disaster for them if they don't.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Big matchup
It is week nine in the NFL season and the New England Patriots are positioned comfortably at the top of their division standings with 6 wins and 1 loss. It doesn't mean a great deal at this point in a grueling 16 game regular season however it is useful to mention that the team is at this level without hitting on all cylinders yet.
The passing game has been the number one concern as the offense is integrating a whole new core of receivers with the exception of Troy Brown. Every one knows at this point that Tom Brady has lost David Givens and Deon Branch. This point was brought up constantly during last Monday night's game against the Vikings. Tony Kornheiser was whining constantly about Belichik "using up" players and letting them go. What Tony forgot to give much consideration to was the fact that most of the players Belichik has let walk have not (so far) achieved at the same level as when they were with the Patriots. Perhaps these players achieved at high levels because of the team and Belichik's schemes and coaching skills? Perhaps they ought to be grateful for getting to the point where they could cash in on a big payday?
In any event some of the concern regarding the passing game was alleviated with the team's performance Monday night. The Vikings were perhaps much softer than their record indicated but that is being said in hind sight after the aerial destruction wrought upon them by Brady and the ten different Patriots who caught balls against them.
Tonight's big match up against Manning and the Colts is likely to have a game plan entirely different than what Brady unleashed on the Vikings. Unlike the Vikings, the Colts have a very weak run defense and Belichik will use this to his advantage. The best defense against Manning's air circus is to keep him on the bench. Belichik will likely try to accomplish this with a ground game designed to eat up a lot of time and yards.
Look to see a lot more of Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney ripping off consistent gains against the Colts who are both undermanned and under sized along the front seven. Out of a total of 61 plays against the Vikings, only 15 were running plays. Look for almost a complete reversal of that number this week as the Patriots will demonstrate once again that they simply change gears and game plans to attack the particular foe that is next on the schedule.
On the defensive side of the ball, the team will have its hands full as Manning and his two wide outs Reggie Wayne and the incomparable Marvin Harrison have been racking up enormous yardage during their current 7 consecutive win run. The defensive key will be pressure on Manning from the front three or probably a four man front. If Seymour and the crew (look for Jarvis Green to be a factor) can pressure Manning quickly without blitz help, then he will be looking into a defensive backfield with a lot of double coverage on his wideouts.
Manning has not had a lot of luck against the Patriots but did administer a good beating on us last year. As Belichik constantly reminds us, every game in the NFL is a new set of circumstances. The Colts are riding high at the moment but they are at Foxboro up against a veteran Patriot defense that has seen him many times over.
The defense has proven that they can hold Manning to a reasonably human performance. The question becomes whether or not the offense is continuing its week to week improvement. What we have come to expect watching this club is that they are steadily working new players into the program and that each week the club operates more smoothly.
Tonight will be a huge test of that progress. Since I am the consumate "homer", I think that Brady, Seymour and company will bring the Colts crashing back to earth and will expose weaknesses in them that other coaches will be exploiting the rest of the year.
Don't dare waste any money on this but I have them two touch downs better at Patriots 28, Colts 14.
The passing game has been the number one concern as the offense is integrating a whole new core of receivers with the exception of Troy Brown. Every one knows at this point that Tom Brady has lost David Givens and Deon Branch. This point was brought up constantly during last Monday night's game against the Vikings. Tony Kornheiser was whining constantly about Belichik "using up" players and letting them go. What Tony forgot to give much consideration to was the fact that most of the players Belichik has let walk have not (so far) achieved at the same level as when they were with the Patriots. Perhaps these players achieved at high levels because of the team and Belichik's schemes and coaching skills? Perhaps they ought to be grateful for getting to the point where they could cash in on a big payday?
In any event some of the concern regarding the passing game was alleviated with the team's performance Monday night. The Vikings were perhaps much softer than their record indicated but that is being said in hind sight after the aerial destruction wrought upon them by Brady and the ten different Patriots who caught balls against them.
Tonight's big match up against Manning and the Colts is likely to have a game plan entirely different than what Brady unleashed on the Vikings. Unlike the Vikings, the Colts have a very weak run defense and Belichik will use this to his advantage. The best defense against Manning's air circus is to keep him on the bench. Belichik will likely try to accomplish this with a ground game designed to eat up a lot of time and yards.
Look to see a lot more of Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney ripping off consistent gains against the Colts who are both undermanned and under sized along the front seven. Out of a total of 61 plays against the Vikings, only 15 were running plays. Look for almost a complete reversal of that number this week as the Patriots will demonstrate once again that they simply change gears and game plans to attack the particular foe that is next on the schedule.
On the defensive side of the ball, the team will have its hands full as Manning and his two wide outs Reggie Wayne and the incomparable Marvin Harrison have been racking up enormous yardage during their current 7 consecutive win run. The defensive key will be pressure on Manning from the front three or probably a four man front. If Seymour and the crew (look for Jarvis Green to be a factor) can pressure Manning quickly without blitz help, then he will be looking into a defensive backfield with a lot of double coverage on his wideouts.
Manning has not had a lot of luck against the Patriots but did administer a good beating on us last year. As Belichik constantly reminds us, every game in the NFL is a new set of circumstances. The Colts are riding high at the moment but they are at Foxboro up against a veteran Patriot defense that has seen him many times over.
The defense has proven that they can hold Manning to a reasonably human performance. The question becomes whether or not the offense is continuing its week to week improvement. What we have come to expect watching this club is that they are steadily working new players into the program and that each week the club operates more smoothly.
Tonight will be a huge test of that progress. Since I am the consumate "homer", I think that Brady, Seymour and company will bring the Colts crashing back to earth and will expose weaknesses in them that other coaches will be exploiting the rest of the year.
Don't dare waste any money on this but I have them two touch downs better at Patriots 28, Colts 14.
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