Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe explores the possibility of having goal line cameras to enhance instant replay to more accurately gage whether the ball has touched or crossed the plane of the goal line, a point that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick brought up in a recent press conference. Atlanta Falcons president and general manager Rich McKay who is also the co-chairman of the competition committee said that such discussions have taken place but it was determined that it would not be cost effective to maintain the additional cameras. "The cost would be overwhelming," McKay said. "You'd have to have a second production of the game to pull it off. All of the feeds right now are generated from television. To capture the shots and get them produced to a monitor to the officials on the field, it would just be extremely expensive. It was an issue that was brought up during our initial discussions on instant replay. It's a legitimate issue and it's a legitimate concern." Eric McHugh of the Patriots Ledger also offers a similar report.
Tom Brady will look to rebound from a poor performance against the Carolina Panthers. Michael Felger of the Boston Herald writes that Brady is often at his best after playing his worst. An interesting stat that Felger provides is that in the week following Brady's previous 14 losses, the Pats are 10-4.
Skip Wood of USA Today writes that the Patriots are working hard to fix the holes in their game and are not making excuses for their poor performance. "Sometimes you just have bad days at the office, and you just have to chalk it up, continue to work hard and look at how each and every guy in this room can get better," said Pats safety Rodney Harrison.
It's been a few year's since the Patriots special teams were "special" writes Eric McHugh of the Patriots Ledger. Patriots rank 30th in the NFL in covering punts and 25th in covering kickoffs so far this season, but to be fair the return game is much improved with the Patriots ranking 11th in punt returns and 8th in kickoffs. "Carolina has been known for the last five years to have the best special teams in the league,'' said Patriots punter Josh Miller, who, as a Steeler in 2001, was victimized by Brown's punt return score. ''We wanted to use that as a measuring stick to see where we stood. I guess we saw those results.'"
*USA Today* offers it's "Inside Slant" which notes that if the Patriots weapon-filled offense is to show its explosive nature any time soon, it better get its running game in gear, or throwing the football will become increasingly difficult. Patriots notes are also offered.
Tom Curran of the Providence Journal offers his daily sports blog with Patriots notes and commentary.
Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe offers his daily sports blog with Patriots notes. Reiss also offers his latest mailbag where he answers your questions.
