Tuesday Early Afternoon Quarterback

I was just about to finish the column, you know reading the sweet-sour plays, skipping the astronomy lessons, and getting back to the football portion, and I was getting nervous that there were only a couple of snide remarks on the Patriots, until the end of the column. Sadly, all he did was regurgitate the same bile that has been written a hundred times in the last two days and really added nothing.

"Why Williams kept calling vanilla defenses in the fourth quarter, passively submitting to being mocked, is something only he knows. But the fact that Washington took its humiliation lying down is no excuse for New England's classless victory."

Here's a novel concept for you Gregg. If a team is getting destroyed, why shouldn't they raise the white flag? Why should the conqueror put in their replacements, run the ball up the middle only, never try for a first down, while the team being destroyed decides to run their last 10 plays out of a no-huddle shotgun? And when they finally did score their garbage-time TD, they tried an onside-kick.

Why should the Patriots (or anyone interested in keeping a mental edge), take the foot off the gas, if the other team is going 100% with a 2-minute offense and onside kicks with more than 8 minutes left in the game?

Why isn't it the sportsmanlike thing to do for the team that got destroyed, to just run out the clock with draws up the middle? As for playing your starters when they could get hurt...why not take Jason Campbell out? Brady hadn't been touched in two quarters, and only sacked 5 times on the year, so he was clearly in no danger, but Jason Campbell was getting wrecked. If the game is already over, why isn't Joe Gibbs taking him out? The more obvious risk was to Campbell not to Brady. Even if they sent a double blitz as you suggested, that meant 2-3 receivers would be open immediately and the ball would be out of his hands so quickly that any attempt to tackle Brady would be an obvious cheap shot.

But wait....the cheap shot is okay, but playing your starters in the first 7 minutes of the 4th quarter is classless. Ok, now I get it. *By the way, a number of people including Michael Wilbon, suggested doing this very thing. The Colts are legitimately classy, but if anyone can get to Brady fast enough to take out the knees it's Dwight Freeney. The good thing is, he can then go seek absolution from the Reverend Tony Dungy.

One other thing. Is it possible for a defense to be classless in a blowout, or just the offense? If you blitz in the 4th quarter with a big lead is that shameful? No doubt we'll find out in the coming weeks when the defense continues to pick off passes with two minutes left and runs them in for a touchdown instead of immediately falling to the ground in a protective fetal position.