New England Patriots finished their 2007 regular season a perfect 16-0 after beating the New York Giants 38-35 in a hard fought game on the road. Patriots trailed 28-16 in the third quarter but were once again able to rally for the victory.

The offensive line had a tough outing, in part, probably, because backup Ryan O’Callaghan had his first start of the season at right tackle, in place of the injured Nick Kaczur. Russ Hochstein struggled at right guard. On one particular play, the second in the third quarter, Hochstein and left guard Logan Mankins pulled right into each other. Left tackle Matt Light and center Dan Koppen also had their hands full. Certainly throughout the first three quarters the line had difficulty getting their pass protection reads right which resulted in pass rushers occasionally getting clear shots at Brady. Koppen did yet another masterful job of shotgun snapping.

Runningback Laurence Maroney had the best game of his career even though he was often decked in the backfield because of the line’s inconsistent blocking and the Giants quick, strong and aggressive front seven. Maroney finished with a lowly 46 yards on 19 carries. He scored two touchdowns and with the exception for one odd, busted-looking draw play he ran hard throughout the game and he hit the holes when they were available and did his best to move the pile when they weren’t. He also scored a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter. His stats weren’t spectacular but his play was.

Also spectacular was quarterback Tom Brady. He completed 32 of 42 passes for 356 yards and two touchdowns, setting a new record for most touchdown passes by quarterback in one season (50). Among the attributes that makes Brady the best quarterback in the NFL is his ability to stay in the pocket and deliver the ball almost no matter how hard the pass rush. Brady displayed that ability repeatedly against the Giants, including on one play in the fourth quarter where he deftly eluded the pressure by stepping up in the pocket and throwing the ball to wide receiver Donte Stallworth, seemingly without even looking for him.

Patriots have so many weapons in the passing game it’s almost impossible to shut it down. Wes Welker caught 11 passes for 122 yards, Faulk eight for 64 yards, Watson four for 38 and Stallworth 3 for 32. It was, however, wide receiver Randy Moss who had the biggest night. He hauled in six passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns, including a 65-yard bomb down the right sideline on a 3rd & 10 play in the fourth quarter when the Patriots trailed 28-23. Moss said after the game that the Giants had ran a “trap-coverage” on Welker at the sticks, leaving the safety hopelessly out matched and Moss wide open. With the score Moss set the record for most touchdown receptions in a season (23).

A couple of things surprised me. One was that the Patriots didn’t use a single four wide-receiver set. Instead they would used Watson in spread formations. The Patriots also didn’t use the no-huddle offense in an attempt to gas Giants’ pass rushers. On the ground, the Patriots did a lot of zone-blocking when traps, pulling linemen and man-blocking perhaps could have been more successful against the Giants’ hard-charging defensive line.

Patriots also used tight-ends in pass protection substantially more than they usually do, which is to say they did it a small number of times. Watson did a good job on at least one occasion on helping Light block defensive end Osi Umenyiora. His performance in the run blocking was less impressive. On one play Michael Strahan pushed Watson straight back into Maroney.

For all of Patriots struggles up front Brady was only sacked once and it was probably Maroney’s fault and not the line’s. Giants sent six pass rushers and Maroney picked up a defensive back rushing on the outside instead of Reggie Torbor who shot the gap between Koppen and Hochstein.

On the 65-yard bomb to Moss Giants threw a clever blitz scheme at the right side of Patriots offensive line with Torbor looping inside the defensive end and a cornerback rushing the edge. O’Callaghan and Hochstein managed to steer the inside rushers in front of Brady and Faulk knocked the cornerback out of the blitz lane, all of which resulted in Brady getting enough time to chuck it deep.

Giants did good job keeping the game close by protecting their quarterback Eli Manning and by protecting the ball. Giants right tackle Kareem McKenzie did a good job keeping outside linebacker Mike Vrabel from getting to Manning. The Patriots did, however, create enough pressure on the pocket to prevent Manning from stepping up to throw the ball which helped bring about a few incompletions, and linebacker Adalius Thomas sacked Manning once. What helped Manning greatly was the fact that the Giants held the lead for much of the game which forced the Patriots’ defense to think run first (add it to the famous Blueprint: To beat the Patriots, hold the lead for 60 minutes). Even so, Manning lead a successful two-minute drive that resulted in a touchdown in spite of his team trailing 16-14 at the outset of the drive.

The Giants were also able to take advantage of the personnel disarray on New England’s kick-coverage teams. The Patriots missed gunner Willie Andrews and wedge buster Kyle Eckel and the Giants capitalized by breaking a kick-off return 74 yards for a touchdown.

When Laurence Maroney scored a 59-yard touchdown against the Miami Dolphins last Sunday it was only the second big-time play this season for the New England Patriots from the Power-I formation that delivered several touchdowns last year. The first was runningback Sammy Morris’s 49-yard run over the strong side of the formation against the Cincinnati Bengals in week four (it was actually a variation of the Power-I with a split end rather than a tight end on the weak side). One reason for the lack of notable Power-I plays is simply fewer opportunities than last year. Last year the receiving corps was the weakest part of the offense, this year it is the strongest, meaning coach Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels have had little reason to go to the Power-I well.

Another reason is that the tight ends, who are key to Power-I success, have been beset with injuries this season. Second-year player David Thomas missed the entire season and Benjamin Watson and Kyle Brady have missed games as well. Back-up Marcellus Rivers looked good in pre-season but was a complete bust in regular season games and contributed to Morris’s season-ending injury. Rivers’s replacement Stephen Spach has performed a good deal better.

With few tight-ends available Patriots have pressed offensive linemen Ryan O’Callaghan , Wesley Britt and Russ Hochstein into action as tight end (a role they were prepared for during training camp). The results have been mixed, but no more so than when the Patriots used their regular tight-ends in the Power-I.

The Patriots have run more to the formations weak side this year than they did in 2006. What I call the worst offensive play of the year for the Patriots, the failed third down conversion late in the third quarter against Indianapolis Colts, was a Power-I run over the weak left side where Hochstein played tight end. Maroney’s touchdown run against the Dolphins also went over the left side, but with Britt as tight end (Hochstein was manning the right guard position).

Different teams choose different approaches to defend against the Power-I. The Colts, for example, used a 4-6-1 lineup, presumably counting on their speed to get defenders to the point of attack. They may also have been wary of a play action pass to Watson. The Dolphins sold out entirely, putting six men on the line of scrimmage and the remaining five in a line just a couple of yards behind them.

Against the Cleveland Browns in week five the Patriots got a bit fancy and ran an end-around to the weak side with fullback Heath Evans as lead blocker and Watson as ball carrier. Watson gained 11 yards.

From Boston’s Chinese-American newspaper Sampan:

A new immigrated Chinese woman with two children age 8 and 10 lost her husband a few months ago. She worked part-time job with meager income. The income barely covers rent and food. She sought assistance with the program at Asian American Civic Association. With the help from program staff, she filed an application for food stamp and public housing too.

Within a few weeks, she received $298 worth of food stamp benefits. This benefits helped her and her family to live much better.

The American Dream sure has a different meaning for ‘65ers than it did for Ellis Islanders.

Top Line: New England Patriots put in 30 minutes of great football that mixed efficient passing and big-play running against the rabble of the league, the Miami Dolphins. The Patriots offense got lazy and sloppy on the second half, but the outcome was an easy 28-7 victory. Runningback Laurence Maroney had a career-best game with 14 carries for 156 yards and one touchdown. One of his runs was of the kind that no other of the team’s runningbacks could have done, Maroney’s first such run of the year. Quarterback Tom Brady finished with a pedestrian 18 completions on 33 attempts for 215 yards, mostly because of a very weak second half. He did, however, throw three touchdown passes in the first half, leaving him two short of setting new record for touchdown passes in a season. Wide receiver Randy Moss snagged two of the scoring throws, leaving him two from breaking Jerry Rice’s record for touchdown grabs in a season.

Offensive line: Right guard Stephen Neal was out for the third week in a row. Otherwise it was the usual lineup, meaning Matt Light at left tackle, Logan Mankins at left guard, Dan Koppen at center, Russ Hochstein at right guard and Nick Kaczur at right tackle.

The Gist: Patriots rolled up 304 yards on offense in the first half and scored four touchdowns to take a commanding 28-0 lead. They scored on four of their first five drives and their sixth possession of the half consisted of a kneel down to end it.

Patriots moved the ball 70 yards on 10 plays - all of them out of the shotgun - on their first drive which ended with an 11-yard touchdown toss to Moss who ran a square from the right side of shotgun spread formation. Moss made the catch in spite of having been pushed by a Miami a linebacker before making the in-cut.

Their second drive was topped when Kevin Faulk was stopped for no gain on third and one by Dolphins Joey Porter (yes, the loudmouth formerly of Pittsburgh Steelers). Faulk would have gotten the first down had Kaczur not failed to hold his block.

Dolphins pounced on the swing in momentum by driving all the way to their own 45-yard line before having to punt a mere seven yards short of a first down.

Patriots then fielded a formation they don’t often: Three wide receivers and two runningbacks with Brady in the shotgun. Perhaps the Dolphins expected a deep pass to Moss, but what they got was the longest run Maroney had ever ripped off in the pros. Fullback Evans was lined up to Brady’s left, Maroney to Brady’s right. At the snap Evans ran right to seal off Miami’s left defensive end while Maroney took the hand off from Brady. Kaczur blocked Miami’s left inside linebacker while Koppen took on the right inside linebacker after helping Mankins turn the right defensive tackle to the outside of the play. Hochstein drove the left tackle down the line of scrimmage, leaving Maroney with a huge gap to exploit. Maroney headed downfield, then wheeled back to his right after getting by the linebackers. Outside the right hashmark he found uncontested ground thanks to Moss chasing a cornerback in front of him. By the time Porter chased him down Maroney had picked up 51 yards and moved the Patriots to Miami’s 28 yard line.

Four plays later Patriots found themselves at Miami’s one yard line after a pass interference on Moss in Dolphins’ endzone. New England sent in a rarely if ever before seen goal line package tht featured Evans as fullback, Kyle Eckel as halfback, offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan as right tight end and tight end Stephen Spach as offset tight end right and Moss as split end left. Brady faked a hand off to Eckel, then turned to his left and hit Moss for a one-yard touchdown pass.

Maroney topped his career-long run on New England’s fourth drive of the game. Facing third and one at their own 41 yard line Patriots went big with a beefed up version of the Power-I formation they had so much success with last year but haven’t used much this season. With the regular tight ends out of the game Britt and O’Callaghan took the end position, Britt to the left and O’Callaghan to the power side with Spach. Dolphins put six men on the line of scrimmage and five on line behind them. The Patriots steam-rolled them with an off-tackle run to the weak left side where Britt kicked out veteran defensive end Taylor, Evans manhandled a linebacker trying to fill the gaping hole and Light secured the inside of the gap. Maroney sprinted through for a 59-yard touchdown, his longest run ever and his third 100-yard game in the NFL.

The first half scoring deluge also included a 48-yard pass from Brady to Jabar Gaffney along the left sideline. Brady threw a fastball that safety Lance Schulters somehow, someway managed to miss even though he had positioned himself perfectly to intercept the pass. Brady was lucky on that play. Or maybe Schulters is just that bad. There’s got to be some reason for why the Dolphins are 1-14 on the season. The play came on a 3 wide receiver, two runningback set

Brady got sloppy and a bit lazy, or perhaps simple minded, in the second half, looking for Moss far too often and holding on to the ball for far to long in the pocket. The Dolphins got enough chances to eventually stumble into New England’s endzone in spite of their quarterback at one point chickening out on a fourth and goal play and stepping out of bounds short of the end zone instead of diving in for the score.

The Maroney Moment: So finally Maroney looked like a first-round runningback. The play that inspires the most hope for the future was not his touchdown run but his 51-yard run in the first quarter. There are two reasons for why that play is of greater importance. The first is that Maroney has struggled mightily with squeezing yards out of zone-blocking plays, either because of his poor field vision or because of poor decision making in terms when to make the cut downfield.The second reason is that he made a play that perhaps no other runningback on the roster could have made, including the injured Sammy Morris. I don’t Evans, Eckel or even Faulk could have picked up 51 yards on that play.

Maroney’s touchdown dash was nice but not particularly spectacular given the picture-perfect blocking. Also, he’d already demonstrated that he is comfortable running behind a lead blocker.

The Beef: The Patriots are short on tight-ends right now, just as they were during training camp, when O’Callaghan, Britt and other offensive linemen took snaps as linemen. The video clip below shows #65 Britt in action as tight end last July. You can see him driving some poor defensive end - LeKevin Smith, I think - into the ground.

Extras: Mike Reiss has a good analysis of how Brady pressed to get the ball to Moss in the second half.

The state lottery is an important source of revenue for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but it doesn’t bring enough money to cover spending. Part of the problem is that people in Massachusetts simply don’t spend enough on state-sanctioned gambling (lotteries, racing). In spite of their state being a world leader in lottery games Massachusettsians spend a mere 1.4% of the state GDP on regulated gambling. In Sweden, regulated-gambling rakes in money equal to 2.4% of the GDP. If people in Massachusetts plunked down that kind of dough regulated gambling would pull in about $7.7 billion, of which the government would capture more than $1.5 billion, rather than the measly $900 million it gets today (plus whatever the race tracks fork over, if anything).

But from where would all those extra billion dollars in gambling come, I hear you asking? What many people may not realize is that our state’s economy is struggling not only with a housing bubble, but also a charitable-giving bubble. In 2000, Massachusetts residents forked over $2 billion in charitable donations. 2006? $4.4 billion. That’s neither healthy nor sustainable. If people redirected 2/3 of their charitable giving, which is really just an obnoxious way of flaunting one’s good fortune in a socially acceptable way, to the state lottery, our children’s schools - our children’s lives, really - wouldn’t be jeopardized by unfunded public spending. So if you’re wealthy, instead of making out yet another five-figure check to your over-endowed alma mater, go down to your local convenience store and buy 20,000 Mega Million tickets. It’s for the best. It’s for the children.

Make this Christmas Merry for Massachusetts. Don’t give. Gamble!

[12/26 update: John Daley disagrees. He evidently hates children. And Massachusetts. And America, too, I bet.]

Top Line: New England Patriots blew out the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-13 at home, improving their regular season record to 13-0. Tom Brady tossed four touchdown passes, including a 63-yard play-action bomb to Randy Moss and a 56-yard bomb off a double lateral with Moss to Jabar Gaffney. Patriots ran the ball only nine times as Brady completed 32 of 46 passes for 399 yards. Outside linebacker Mike Vrabel pressured Pittsburgh’s quarterback throughout the game and safety Rodney Harrison had a great game for the second week in a row. Nose tackle Vince Wilfork had a solid game.

Offensive Line: Left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, Russ Hochstein in for Stephen Neal at right guard, and right tackle Nick Kaczur. As is usually the case when Hochstein or Billy Yates play right guard, the two rotated at the position.

Brady took some hits but was never sacked. Koppen had one shotgun snap that was a bit weak but otherwise he was solid in that department once again.

Back-up offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan got to play tight end on a short-yardage play in the first quarter.

The Gist: As usually is the case the Patriots opened with a plethora of formations but eventually settled for the four wide-receiver shotgun package as the weapon of choice. Steelers did a decent job of keeping Brady off balance, but they couldn’t get off-target much. The Steelers had their moments, though. On third and ten on the Patriots fourth drive - which was kept alive after a Steeler touched a Patriots punt - Steelers sent an overload blitz over the left side of the Patriots defensive line that forced Brady to throw a short pass to Watson who was stopped well short of a first down. On the next play Gostkowski missed a 48-yard attempt.

In spite of not having much of a running game the Patriots beat the Steelers bad on a play-action pass in the second quarter. On the first play of their third drive Patriots fielded a two tight-end formation and faked a run up the middle to Maroney with right guard Hochstein pulling to his left to help sell it. It worked like a charm as the entire Steelers defense bit on it leaving Moss wide-open for and easy catch-and-stroll 63-yard touchdown toss.

New England’s third touchdown pass was even more spectacular. Brady threw a lateral to Moss who dropped the ball, picked it up and threw lateral back to Brady. Brady secured the ball then tossed it deep to Gaffney for a 56-yard touchdown with 10:06 remaining in the third quarter..

The fourth scoring toss was a short pass to Welker late in the third quarter.
Patriots first possession of the fourth quarter ate up six minutes and twenty-seven seconds. The first five plays looked like this:
Brady to Welker for 22 yards
Brady to Welker for 11 yards
Brady to Welker for 7 yards
Brady to Welker for 15 yards
Brady to Welker for 8 yards

Always a pleasure, Mike: The numbers were pretty similar to when the Patriots sliced Minnesota Vikings 31-7 last year, when Steelers current head coach Mike Tomlin was Minnesota’s defensive coordinator. In that game Brady completed 29 of 43 passes for 372 yards and four touchdowns. The running game consisted of a mere 15 runs, including a Matt Cassel kneel down. Maroney had 8 carries for 34 yards, compared to 8 carries for 18 yards against Steelers. Gaffney played his first game as a Patriot, making one catch for four yards.

Bottom Line: If you ply your game of the season against the Patriots you might escape with a three or four point loss. If you don’t, you end up like Steelers, thoroughly outplayed and outscored.

Here are a couple of pictures of a multi-car accident at of the Burlington exits on I-95 South yesterday. It didn’t look too serious, although a small number of emergency vehicle - a firetruck, an ambulance, a couple of cop cars - were at the scene.

On Tuesday night I went to a seminar where a bunch of seamheads lamented the rise of professional football. No, seriously, I went to a panel discussion organized by MassINC that tackled the issue of young adults and their seeming aversion to news in general and traditional news media in particular and what news organizations can do to connect with young adults.

The panelists were Assistant Professor Dan Kennedy (Northeastern University), Deputy Editor on Boston Globe’s editorial board Dante Ramos, WBUR reporter Bianca Vasquez-Toness, and Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin. Adam Reilly, writer and media critic at The Boston Phoenix, did a solid job as moderator.

Kennedy mentioned a stunning anecdote in his opening remarks when he noted that many of the students in his class - which he said is the first class in journalism for NU students who major in that discipline - haven’t read newspapers on daily basis before taking his class. I’d say it’s pretty bad if not even aspiring journalists can be bothered to read newspapers.

Later in the evening Kennedy noted that the thinking about the future of news media has progressed from visions of “The Daily Me” (news personalized to suit me and possibly only me) to what Reilly suggested might be called “The Daily Us,” news that fit a specific social network, the members of which can amuse themselves by collectively laugh at or agree with the news they get.

There was in general quite a bit of talk surrounding how to distribute news via social media. A woman in the audience argued that teenagers get most of their news from friends via email, Instant Messaging, text messaging and what not. In Web 1.0 jargon one could perhaps say that news are viral but not sticky for teenagers and - presumably - young adults (here defined as people aged 18-30). Not being the most charitable person in the world I can’t help but wonder what passes for news for those kids? I’m guessing the latest employment situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t clog too many Trilian windows.

Ramos somewhat self-servingly but certainly not without logic suggested that today’s extreme fragmentation of media eventually will be reversed which would once again allow for healthy and stable news operations (I’m paraphrasing and extending his thesis a bit. Ramos obviously did not suggest that the Globe isn’t a healthy news operations but newspapers in particular are indisputably suffering from audience fragmentation and shifting advertising spending patterns). I think he’s right. Economies of scale and division of labor just make a lot of sense and I think that reality eventually will reassert itself. It follows that the aggregation will happen along lines that make economic sense. I have no idea what those lines are but they are out there.

One can’t have a discussion about the future of media without running into the question of whether - or to what extent - amateur journalists (or citizen journalists, as they are perhaps more often called) can replace professional journalists. Gaffin, old newshound that he is, pointed out that citizen journalists can contribute greatly with observational journalism such as reports, photographs or video from accidents or other occurrences while it takes professional journalists to undertake investigative journalism like finding out why an accident, like the one in Danvers last year, took place. Kennedy argued that new media bloggers soon may very well develop and break substantial works of journalism, although it would be bloggers who have created a functional financial foundation.

One should keep in mind that there was a good deal of citizen-journalism excitement in the camcorder community in the wake of the Rodney King tape in the early and mid-1990’s, but I think the reality is that citizen-journalism camcording today is mostly focused on more or less stalking high-profile celebrities, in particular nut jobs like Britney Spears. As YouTube demonstrates, much has been captured by cameras since 1991, but not a whole lot that’s necessarily news in any meaningful way.

It was repeatedly asserted by various audience members that there is a widespread general discontent with newsmedia. I think that’s bunk. I think there’s mostly wide spread disinterest, some of which is conveniently presented as disillusionment. I just don’t believe that many people say to themselves that Washington Post is so crappy these days that they’re just going to watch “Keeping Up With the Kardashian’s’” instead. Could news media do something bout the way they select and package news in order to win back the young masses? Perhaps, but how far can they go in that direction without losing current readers/listeners/viewers?

It could be that what we’re seeing now is the Mittelstand of the newspaper industry that is getting squeezed the hardest - primarily regional daily newspapers - while a small handful of big-shot newspapers as well as a huge number of small local newspaper do OK or even prosper.

[If one were to look at the newspaper industry through the prism of the so-called Four P marketing mix one could say that a lot of consumers enjoy getting the content (Product) through the web (Place) at no cost (Price) - and then carp about the shortcomings of what they derisively call Mainstream Media or corporate media.]

The discussion sort of petered out in an inconclusive way which made perfectly good sense: Both producers and consumers of news will have to find their way as they move forward in a for now expanding and fragmenting and financially changing media market.

Top Line: New England Patriots somehow, someway, outscored Baltimore Ravens 27-24. Yes, they outscored the Ravens, but they hardly beat or defeated them. The Ravens laid it all on the line and came up just short, in part because of their poor discipline, in part because the Patriots are just too good and in part because of pure bad luck.

Offensive Line: The Patriots fielded their normal starters, meaning left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, right guard Stephen Neal and right tackle Nick Kaczur. Neal got hurt and was replaced by back-up interior offensive lineman Russ Hochstein in the second half.

Patriots gave up three sacks, two of which the offensive line must take responsibility first. The very first sack essentially killed New England’s last drive of the first quarter. The Patriots ran an empty backfield shotgun formation while the Ravens threw a well-designed overload blitz on the the right side of the Patriots offensive line. Raven cornerback Corey Ivy got an uncontested shot at Brady and had he somehow missed him he had linebacker Jarret Johnson right behind. Johnson had started out in a right outside linebacker position, then sauntered over to the middle, then at the snap looped around Kaczur. Three down defensive linemen lined up over the right side of the Patriots line made sure nobody could get in the way of Ivy or Johnson. More than that, a hard stunt to the inside by the defensive end moved the whole scrum to the Patriots left, shortening the loop for Johnson.

The second sack was a pure bull rush by defensive tackle Haltoi Ngata who drove back Mankins and threw Brady to the ground early in the fourth quarter with the Ravens up, 24-17. On the very next play Antwan Barnes beat Light outside and sacked Brady. That play was probably a little bit Brady’s fault and perhaps a consequence of Ngata’s sack on the previous play. Ngata sacked Brady 6 yards behind the line of scrimmage. On the next play Brady took a couple of extra step back, perhaps mindful of the previous sack, allowing Barnes better leverage against Light.

Koppen deserves mentioning for his just about perfect shotgun snapping against a tough, physical hard-charging opponent for the second week in a row. I don’t know that he is the best center in the NFL, but he certainly does what the Patriots ask of him.

The Gist: Gusting winds and a physical Ravens defense disrupted New England’s offense. On the other side of the ball Ravens offense ran all over the Patriots in the second and third quarters only to get stiffed in the fourth quarter.

A different definition of strong and weak sides: Once again defensive end Ty Warren and outside linebacker Mike Vrabel stood their ground on the left side of New England’s defense and once again the right side cratered against the run.

Baltimore’s third and fourth quarter touchdown drives were essentially a series of runs up the middle and over right side of Patriots’ defense. The longest run of the two drives started out as aa run right, were it was stuffed by Vrabel and Warren, prompting McGahee to reverse field and pick up 18 yards down the left sideline.

Another concern is that for the second week in a row nose tackle Vince Wilfork got blocked out of the running lanes. Wilfork shed lot of weight during the last off-season and maybe that’s starting to catch up with him as the wear and tear of the season has taken an extra few pounds off of him. That’s pure speculation but it is odd that the defensive line that started out the season as a dominant unit is seemingly growing increasingly weak.

The peaks and flatlands of Laurence Maroney: It wasn’t just another pedestrian outing for Laurence Maroney. It was even worse than usual. But then made two big plays in the second half on passes from Brady.

It’s been pretty much established by now that Maroney is unlikely to ever live up to the expectations one can reasonably have on a first-round draft pick but last night he hit a new low in the first quarter on a second-and-ten play from the New England 12 yard line. Maroney has struggled all year long finding gaps on zone-blocking plays but he had at least been running hard behind pulling linemen inside the tackles. But on that first-quarter play he had the chance to slam into Ray Lewis who was engaged with a Patriots offensive lineman in the middle but instead broke off the run and headed outside where he was dropped for a two-yard gain that inflicted no pain on any Raven.

But then there were those two big plays. The first came on a second-and-eight play at the Patriots 28-yard line. Brady scrambled to his right out of the shotgun trying to find a receiver when Maroney managed to pull away from Lewis to give Brady an easy target. Maroney caught the ball and headed downfield for a gain of 36 yards. It was a very good play by Maroney that set up New England’s second touchdown nine plays later.

The second play set up Gostkowski’s second field goal. Brady faked hand-off to Maroney But the second play also betrayed two of Maroney’s many limits as a player: His lack of raw speed and his poor field vision. A top ten runningback would have scored a touchdown on that play, but Maroney is far from the ten best runningbacks in the league so that would have been unreasonable to expect, but it was Maroney-esque of Maroney to get tackled not by a defender but by the block Welker threw on a Raven defensive back. The only thing consistent about Maroney is his inability to squeeze anything extra out of a play.

Maroney also successfully picked up blitzes five times, including on the touchdown pass to Moss, and also chipped Suggs once. His third blitz pick up was probably the most impressive one as it called on him to pickup a blitzer attacking in the gap between Light and Mankins.

Officiating is what it is: It has been argued that the officiating was inconsistent throughout the game, that for three quarters it was reminiscent of the Patriots rough up the Indianapolis Colts in the 2003 playoffs, only with the Ravens playing the role of Patriots and Patriots standing in for the Colts. Then in the fourth quarter the crew suddenly called the game as if it was the 2006 AFC Championship between the Patriots and the Colts. In reality, the officials called some of defensive infractions in the pass coverage throughout the game and let some other go. Had the Patriots receivers not dropped passes all over the field it wouldn’t have mattered much how the officials called the game. t the same time, the Ravens played a very physical game game and richly deserved every single flag thrown their way.

A couple of Ravens were upset with official Phil McKinnely for allegedly calling Samari Rolle “boy” on numerous occasions. I think it’s unprofessional for an official to call a player “boy,” but Rolle made the mistake of questioning McKinnely’s football credentials. McKinnely played in the NFL for seven years in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Bottom Line: The Patriots may not have much of a running game and their defense isn’t exactly of the shut-down variety. But what they do have in spades are toughness, resilience and discipline. They fight until the end.

I dubbed Asante Samuel’s interception return for a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles the best play of the year for the New England Patriots. So which might have been the worst play of the year for the league’s best team?

The answer is obviously the Indianapolis Colts 73-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Addai late in the second half.

However, the worst play on offense I’ve seen was a failed attempt to convert a third-and-one situation in the same game. Holy cow, what a bad play that was.

Patriots had a pretty good drive going in the bottom half of the third quarter, trailing 13-7, and had advanced the ball to Colts’ 23 yard line. On first down Tom Brady threw an incomplete pass intended for Randy Moss. On second and ten runningback Kevin Faulk took the ball up the middle for nine yards, setting the Patriots up for a highly makeable third and one situation at the Indy 14-yard line.

In spite of having had success moving the ball out of the shotgun, either throwing it or running between the tackles, Patriots brought in a rarely if ever before seen big-beef personnel group that lined up in the Power-I formation, a formation that was successful last year but hasn’t been used much this year, with back-up interior offensive lineman Russ Hochstein as eligible receiver at left tight end (tight ends Ben Watson and Kyle Brady were lined up on the right side).

There are a couple of things I have consistently praised New England’s offensive linemen for this season. One is that they rarely blow their assignments and another that they do a good job of covering for each other. If an offensive lineman or tight end at the point of attack whiffs on a block the fullback or a pulling offensive lineman will engage that defender. On top of that Bill Belichick is universally known as a coach who places great emphasis on situational and third-and-short in the red zone is presumably a situation he’d handle with care.

Yet, in spite of all those things, this particular third-down play against the Colts went to Hell in a hand basket. It was a pretty complete breakdown.

I don’t know for sure, but it appears as if Hochstein expected left tackle Matt Light to pull around him, while Light seemed to expect Hochstein to seal of pursuit from the inside. The mix-up resulted in Hochstein blocking Light, which looked exactly as farcical as it sounds. The mistake allowed Colts’ top-notch free safety Bob Sanders to shoot across the line-of-scrimmage unopposed. To make matters worse, he timed it so well that Evans couldn’t adjust and block him. Consequently, Sanders got through untouched and cut down Maroney who really had no chance of avoiding the tackle. Patriots had to settle for a field goal.

The Patriots still won the game, 24-20, but it was an unusual mistake for the Patriots, two veteran linemen with plenty of playing time under their belts get so crossed up.