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The source for back issues of Clint's Corner. Forget a trade? Were Clint's predictions correct? Here's every edition, verbatim.

For 12/26/2003

Piling on...

As if beating the Bills at home 16 weeks after the Orchard Park Alamo were not incentive enough, the Patriots also know that a win over Buffalo means that Gillette Stadium will host the AFC Championship game should the Patriots defeat their divisional round opponent two weeks from now. Think the Pats will be ready?

Tom Brady was posed an interesting question this week during a radio interview: is the team glad that the Buffalo game still means something, or would the team prefer to have everything locked up already? Brady’s response was as quick and as sharp as if the question had been posed on September 8 rather than December 22, "the Buffalo game means a lot - no matter what’s at stake." Brady reinforced that the entire Patriots locker room felt the same way. Hard to put his tone into words - but suffice it to say you could tell he meant it and was not simply spouting a generic "every game counts" response.

How have these two teams taken such different paths since opening day? The Bills are a very talented yet underachieving team. Their defense is #1 in the AFC, but those ranking are based on yardage allowed only. Preventing your opponent from scoring and making big plays to help your team win are critical components of playing defense that are not factored into the rankings. This explains why the defense of the 13-2 Pats ranks 4 spots behind the Bills in the AFC at #5.

You could site injuries and personnel turnover as a reason why Buffalo’s offense has sputtered. The Bills did lose their #2 receiver from last season in a trade, and also were without the services of their #1 receiver this year for a solid 4 or 5 weeks after Moulds injured his groin. Substitute David Patten for Peerless Price and Troy Brown for Eric Moulds, and that excuse no longer seems to hold water.

The Bills have more star power up and down their roster than the Patriots, but top to bottom, there can be little argument that the Patriots are the better overall team. While the Pats have few headliners, they have few duds as well. Take away 3 of the 4 opening day starting linebackers? Someone will step in. Take away the last season’s top 2 receivers and a solid starting offensive guard? Someone will step in. Release your defensive team captain - a player who two days later becomes the highest paid player at his position in the entire NFL? More on that later.

The bottom line is that while the Pats turned 0-1 into a record setting season, the Bills season went down the drain after a 2-0 start with 7 losses in their next 9 games. The Bills did hang tough down the stretch with a recent three week run that included wins over the Giants on the road, the Jets at home, and a 2-point road loss to the sans McNair Titans that came down to the final play of the game. However, once the Bills were officially eliminated from the playoffs, observers would certainly be within their right to question whether or not the Bills mailed it in last week at home over Miami. Despite the final score being closer, the Bills actually looked worse last week at home than the Patriots did in their 31-0 opening day loss.

Boo-Hoo...

The Boston Globe featured a lengthy column on Lawyer Milloy earlier this week. While it’s certainly great to hear that Lawyer is happy in Buffalo, he’s got to stop playing the "victim" here. At the risk of simply repeating my September 5th column, suffice it to say this was clearly a two-way street.

There was no way the Patriots were going to allow Milloy to count $5 million against their cap, and there was no way Milloy was going to accept a penny less on a reworked contract. Milloy was and still is a great NFL strong safety, but the best in the league? Were the Patriots really out of bounds here? Belichick may in fact be as headstrong as they come, but it was Milloy, in anticipation of such discussions, who hired the Johnny Cochran of agents in hard-liner Carl Potson to represent him.

To read Milloy’s statements, you’d think the Patriots were the evil empire of the NFL, painting their players into corners and forcing them into signing unfair contracts. Is Buffalo any different? Like I stated in my September 5th column, ask Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas, or Andre Reed that question. How about Doug Flutie? All that guy ever did in Buffalo was win, yet he was benched and later released in favor of Rob Johnson.

Now that Milloy once again is the highest paid safety in the NFL, I’m anxious to see how that impacts the Antoine Winfield negotiations. Winfield is one of the top corners in the NFL and is in for a big time raise. Something will have to give – either Winfield, like Milloy, will find himself elsewhere or the Bills will have to wield the ax elsewhere on the roster to find the room. Time will also tell whether or not Milloy will last the full 4 years of his Bills contract, for no safety is likely to eclipse the deal he signed any time soon.

The Patriots and Milloy’s new agent had been negotiating before training camp even began. During these negotiations, Milloy took every snap with the starting defense during training camp and throughout all 4 preseason contests. No other safety on the roster was more acclimated to new teammate Rodney Harrison than Milloy. Does this sound like the plan of a coach who knew Milloy would be gone? No way. Belichick was forced to throw the untested Harris into the starting lineup before finally settling on converting rookie corner Eugene Wilson to safety. Reportedly, the two sides were about $500,000 apart and neither side would give. Milloy walked away from the table banking that the Patriots would have little choice but to absorb his cap hit for one more season - and he guessed wrong.

Still think the Patriots should have kept Milloy? That’s fair, but please provide me with a list of players who should have been cut instead to get under the cap. Would the Patriots be 13-2 today had they cut players other than Milloy? You don’t cut special teams players to save millions, so another impact player or two would have been gone. Would they be 13-2 today with a starting tandem of Milloy and Harrison vs. Wilson and Harrison? Is there anyone out there who doesn’t think Harrison has been a significant upgrade over Milloy, for less money? Harrison has benefited from a stronger supporting cast than Milloy has last season, but do you think Milloy could have chased down Jimmy Smith two weeks ago to prevent an 80-yard TD pass? No way.

To directly quote my September 15 column, "while I don't doubt for a second Belichick's sincerity when he says this was the toughest cut of his career, you won't find BB second-guessing himself either. Belichick has proven that he knows what he's doing - particularly on defense. If Belichick thought that his chances of getting back to the playoffs would be better with whatever options B, C, and D may have been, that's what he would have done." Can anyone dispute this today? Could there have possibly been a more attractive option B, C, or D?

Look - I’m glad that Milloy is happy in Buffalo and I for one will give him a standing ovation when he returns on Saturday. He’s one of the greatest players to ever wear the Patriots colors, and he was a huge part of the franchise’s first and only World Championship in 2001. Don’t let the finger pointing fool you, however, and also take note that the pointing is only coming from one direction - his. Lawyer Milloy did want to play for the Patriots in 2003, but only as the highest paid safety in the NFL. Only Lawyer can answer as to whether the reported $500,000 difference was worth it, and my guess is he’d say yes.

Down the stretch they come...

Why do the Patriots still need to win this week? In terms of edging out the Chiefs for the #1 seed, last week’s victory over the Jets meant little given that Kansas City had already lost their 3rd game of the season earlier in the day. Even had the Patriots lost to the Jets, they would still be in position to clinch the top seed with a victory over the Bills since they would own the strength of victory tiebreaker over the Chiefs. A loss to the Bills, however, and Kansas City would win the tiebreaker with New England based on a better record against common opponents. The way Kansas City’s defense has been exposed, however, you have to wonder if the Chiefs will survive the first round anyways.

There are plenty of scenarios that could unfold next week, but the most likely would have the Broncos visiting the Colts and the Titans visiting the Ravens in the first round of the AFC playoffs. Should the Patriots remain the #1 seed, the only team the Patriots could not face in their first home game would be the Colts, for as the #1 seed, the Patriots will host the lowest advancing seed from the first round. As the likely #3 seed in the AFC, the Colts know that they’ll be on the road against the #2 seed with a win.

Another certainty is that Denver, as the 6th and final seed, will play on the road against the #1 seed with a win. With the way Denver manhandled the Colts last weekend, Indy cannot be looking forward to that rematch. The winner of the Tennessee vs. Baltimore game will also go on the road for their next contest, but are dependent on the outcome of the Indy vs. Denver game to find out whether they’ll be traveling to Gillette or Arrowhead Stadium.

We’ll have to wait another week to find out for sure, but it looks like either Denver, Baltimore, or Tennessee will ride into Foxboro in two weeks with a playoff victory already in hand. Typically when the playoffs roll around, the competition stiffens. While that’s still true, the Patriots have not exactly gotten fat on a weak schedule. They are 7-0 against winning teams this season, and have already defeated Tennessee, Denver and Indy, the latter two on the road. Granted Denver was without Jake Plumber, but the Patriots were without both Ted Washington and Richard Seymour, enabling Clinton Portis to become the only back to date to gain over 100 yards on the Patriot defense.

The playoffs certainly bring the competition up a notch, but the Patriots mettle has already been tested, and they’ve passed with flying colors. The Patriots have enjoyed the greatest regular season in franchise history. That’s a major accomplishment, but that won’t provide much solace should the Patriots lose in the playoffs. The bar has been set. Anything less than winning the Super Bowl would officially be considered a disappointment. I can’t believe I just said that.

Honestly - can any team beat the Patriots at home? Bring ‘em on. The 12th man is ready.

See you next week, and Go Pats!