Week 2 football

Back to work for local teams. One week is gone, and there was a lot to feel good about, but it was only one game with nine or ten more to go. So that momentum will only last as long as this weekend's results allow it to.
I have a better impression of some teams, but it is still hard to say exactly how good, or bad, everybody might be based on one game against one opponent. There's not a lot of info to compare.
There are some big matchups this week with New Britain taking on Newington in my personal favorite. Plainville and Berlin match up, a good rivalry. And there are some good CCC matchups.
Only one game for me this weekend, Wethersfield hosting E.O. Smith on Saturday (no prediction for that as usual). Look for Ken Lipshez at both the Newington-New Britain game and Southington-Weaver and newest staffer Andrew Lovell at the Berlin-Plainville game. I am not sure about the others, but I believe former sports editor Brian Straight will be covering Rocky Hill-RHAM. Say hi to them all.
On to the picks.

Friday:
New Britain at Newington, 7 p.m.: New Britain didn't exactly overpower Conard last week, and Newington played far better than most expected against the Chieftains' crosstown rival Hall. So suddenly this jumped on the radar as a potentially big matchup.
New Britain has all the talent in the world, as written about in Ken's blog this week (lipservice2007.blogspot.com) and is the favorite I would say. But the Hurricanes still don't know how to dominate like their great teams used to. Maybe tonight will be when they start.
Newington knows how much one loss can hurt, going 9-1 last year and missing the playoffs. So they can't look for a moral victory. And the Indians have some serious weapons on offense too.
Still, I like New Britain in a game that should come down to the fourth quarter.
Farmington at Fermi, 7 p.m.: Farmington had a nice win against E.O. Smith last week, but it was said by several people to be pretty sloppy. Fermi lost 18-8 to Bulkeley, a team that is usually decent but not spectacular. So you have to say this is one the Indians could win.
I don't know. For some reason I'm not convinced yet that Farmington is ready to compete this year. I have to take Fermi at home to win.
Berlin at Plainville, 7 p.m.: I got a comment from somebody who said they thought this would be a good matchup, citing the fact that Plainville coach Rocky Gagliardi seems to have the team playing tough and fundamentally sound, both probably true although I haven't seen them play in person yet.
But Berlin has traditionally been bigger, stronger, and more talented at the skill positions, and that was when Plainville had many upperclassmen. I don't know if the young Plainville players can handle a good team like this so early in the season. It will be a good experience for them either way, to see what they have to work on. But I don't think Berlin will have trouble scoring, and should win easily.
RHAM at Rocky Hill, 7 p.m.: If you're looking for a bad omen to start the season for any team, RHAM lost to Cheney Tech last week. Not that Bill Baccaro's squad isn't well coached, but traditionally the tech schools don't hang with the others.
Rocky Hill, on the other hand, shut out what was supposed to be a good Stonington team in an expectedly low-scoring game. Suffice it to say, I don't think RHAM will find the endzone much, if at all, in this one, and the Terriers have pushed the Sachems around in recent years. I don't expect a close one.
Saturday:
Southington at Weaver, 12 p.m.: The schedule is not kind to the Knights early on, following up a trip to New Jersey with a game against a team that is always very tough.
I was impressed enough with Southington in that loss to Bergen Catholic that I think they should be able to come back with a win here. Last year, Southington won matchups like this with its defense, not typical for the school. The defense should be solid again this year, but if the offense can help out more consistently than last year it will help.
I don't quite know the identity of Southington yet, and this should be a telling game. I'm picking Southington to pull away late.
Northwest Catholic at St. Paul/GT/LM, 1:30 p.m.: Don't be fooled by NWC's loss to Xavier last week. That was an uphill battle all along. Now against a much smaller school it should be smoother sailing for the Nutmeg power.
Another reader pointed out that he thinks time has already run out for Jude Kelly to prove himself at St. Paul. That may be. I don't see them getting a win in this one. This isn't Oxford. NWC by a bundle.
STATE GAME OF THE WEEK
Hartford Public at Conard, Sunday, 1 p.m.: Here's two teams, usually pretty good, that both are hoping not to go 0-2. But one will, barring a tie, when they meet.
Public lost to Windsor last week, and Conard lost the close one to New Britain. Neither of those losses is inexcusable. But both need to get a win here.
I'm going to give the edge to Conard at home. I've heard from several people that they looked pretty good in the loss, and could have actually won against New Britain.

I'll be back later in the weekend to recap what happens. But go out to the games before the weather starts getting really cold. The 40 degree temps being predicted for this weekend may look like a pleasure cruise before too long.

a note about the pros

Before I get into my picks of the week for the high school season (which ironically are printed above this on the blog and you probably already read them) I wanted to say something I meant to talk about last week.
Of course, it's the New England Patriots.
Full disclosure up front. I used to root for the Patriots (in fact, I used to root for the Red Sox a looooong time ago, but gave that up when I was around seven or eight years old). The Pats were never my favorite team, that has always been the 49ers (sigh). But I cheered for the Pats the rest of the time, and rooted for them back in the Bledsoe/Parcells/Curtis Martin days. (Although my favorite on the team was always Ben Coates. I always have a soft spot for pass-catching TEs).
But over the past decade, since the Pats' first Super Bowl victory when I was rooting heavily for them, I have seen some disturbing things from both the team and the fans. The team needs no explanation as rumors of cheating carry a lot of weight. But I've seen the fans go from the frustrated ones of a struggling or downright awful team to the arrogant ones of a winner that knows everybody is out to beat them, which usually leads to a very defensive attitude, particularly when that winner is not used to winning or being the favorite.
Put simply, Patriots fans last year reached the point of being unbearable. Their arrogance regarding their team was one thing. But their complete ability to not only overlook the character flaws of their own team, but actually celebrate them, was dispicable at times. I hate to generalize this way, because I know some Pats fans who, of course, are perfectly decent, honest, trustworthy and respectful human beings. But what shocked me most was how so many of them could cling blindly to the faith that their team had done nothing wrong, or the dictum that "everybody's doing it",as if that justified cheating.
So, very few things would please me more than to see those fans and players, who took it upon themselves not just to win last year but to needlessly embarrass opponents for the Jets' audacity of rightfully accusing them of cheating, be handed a big plate of humble pie this year. Don't forget that before the Pats were clinging to leads as the pressure of 19-0(TM) built up, they were running scores up on helpless opponents through the first half of the season, and padding their own stats.
And that brings me directly to the one thing about the Pats that might anger me more than their cheating, dishonesty, manipulativeness, arrogance and general offensiveness: the myth of Tom Brady.
We all know how this myth started. Bledsoe, always a QB prone to making bad decisions, gets hurt against the Jets early in the 2001 season. In steps Brady, an unknown player who never saw the starting position at Michigan, and the fans feared another doomsday. But somehow the new QB played smart, didn't make huge mistakes, and the Pats' defense and a man who must be credited as a brilliant coach went on to win the title (whether by cheating or not).
And all the credit went to Brady.
And more was heaped on him as they won again, and again. Suddenly Brady was a sure-fire Hall of Famer, despite never putting up exceptional numbers.
And then comes to town Randy Moss, and suddenly Brady has a weapon like few others, perhaps none other. There is not a better deep route runner than Moss in the league, and the deep ball is one of Brady's skills. And Belichick's system is still designed to force teams to respect the run and short passes, making this a match made in heaven.
Result: 2007, Brady's first spectacular statistical season.
Now, before you think I'm crazy, I'm not saying Brady is not a good or very good player. He is. But what bugs me is the seeming concensus among analysts and fans that, as I heard several times last week, he is clearly the best player in the NFL and is irreplaceable.
Well, we finally get our chance to find out, and I have to say I'm torn. Do I root against the Patriots so their fans and players can be brought back to reality and humbled? Or do I root for Matt Cassel, a guy with eerily similar pre-NFL pedigree to Brady, to once and for all destroy the great football myth of our generation.
My honest prediction is that the Patriots will go 11-5 or within one game in either direction, make the playoffs, and threaten to make the Super Bowl but will be stopped by somebody just a bit better. That is partly because of their cupcake schedule.
But mostly it's because the greatest myth about this team for the past eight years is that Brady was the reason it was successful. True, Brady did better than Bledsoe, because Drew was never a good QB in Belichick's system, or with a team that needed to minimize mistakes to make its defensive effort worthwhile. Brady gave the team the consistency and conservativeness it needed to win.
So can Cassel. While Cassel doesn't have Brady's experience, which admittedly has gotten better through the years, it was evidenced in Week 2 against the Jets that he can stay away from trouble, and the defense can still win.
We'll see. I guess either way I should be happy. I just kind of want to see Tom Brady's legacy shown for what it is, a very good career, but not necessarily worthy of the Hall, with a lot of team success, more than I want to see the team fall off its pedestal.

Week 1 in review

It was an exciting first week of the football season locally, and a very successful one for local teams. The only team to lose was Southington, a defeat against New Jersey power Bergen Catholic which can certainly be excused. Other than that, there were two clear impressive wins for teams I wasn't sure what to expect from.
Berlin and Newington are the big winners, with solid scores over Ledyard and Hall respectively. The word on the street now is that Max DeLorenzo is something to watch at Berlin. As just a sophomore he showed an ability to completely take over a game. That's bad news for other teams.
And I was at the Newington win, and they looked surprisingly strong considering that few of their key players had much role in the offense last year at all. But Shane Leupold lived up to the expectations I had for him, at least this week, with 153 receiving yards and three touchdowns, not to count two interceptions.
My players of the week, the ones who impressed me the most from what I saw, were Newington quarterback Spencer Parker and Southington QB Josh Lamson, for similar reasons. Both will be critical to their team's success, and both stepped into difficult situations and played well, clearly in control of the offense.
Lamson led an opening drive touchdown for Southington to take an early lead on Bergen, and played well at times against a very physical defense the rest of the way. Parker looked unafraid to tuck the ball and run, accumulating 107 yards on the ground against Hall, and also threw for the three TDs to Leupold. While he needs to take better care of the ball when he runs (he has a habit of extending his arms as he ducks in and out of defenders), that aggressiveness and fearlessness will pay huge dividends.
I wasn't there, but I heard there was a very impressive day for Wethersfield QB Tyler Murphy against East Hartford, and of course DeLorenzo.
Rocky Hill also looked strong in shutting out Stonington, and defensive coach Jeff Perillo was very pleased when I saw him at the Newington game on Saturday. On a side note, I had failed previously to notice that the Terriers are in Class SS this year. While New London made the leap up from Class S with them and is a clear favorite in the division, that bodes much better for a potential playoff trip than another year in talent loaded S.
Congratulations as well to Plainville, which made winning look easy against SMSA. I hope the Devils can get a couple more this year, but the road will definitely get tougher.

As for my picks, I guess I underestimated some teams. I was wrong about both Berlin and Farmington (which blew away E.O. Smith in what was said to be a sloppy game). New Britain made things much closer against Conard than I expected, but got the win, and everything else pretty much went as I expected. I went 5-3 on the week and lost my featured state game when Xavier easily beat Northwest Catholic.