Congratulations, Stephen Spach! Former Patriots tight-end make play-off mark with Arizona Cardinals
Arizona Cardinals iced their Wild Card play-off victory over the visiting Atlanta Falcons when tight end Stephen Spach caught a third-down-and-16 pass for 23 yards and a new set of downs that allowed the Cardinals to kneel out the clock.
The Cardinals picked up Spach in late October and he quickly became a regular on the field. Not that being a late-season addition was new to Spach. In late 2007 the New England Patriots signed him to shore up the team’s battered tight-end corps. The Patriots could have kept him, but cut him after he drew a false start penalty on a meaningless down late in the second game of the 2008 season against the New York Jets. That probably wasn’t such a smart decision. Spach’s three catches for 34 yards against the Falcons easily topped the season averages for Patriots’ starting tight-end Benjamin Watson, 1.6 and 15 respectively. Not only that, Watson had more catches in only one game and more receptions in only two of the 2008 regular season games.
It goes without saying that Spach is a substantially better run-blocker and pass protector than any tight-end on New England’s roster since the days of Daniel Graham in 2006.
Some pictures of Stephen Spach at Patriots’ 2007 training camp.
