The rub or pick or block did not effect the play. The receiver was open but he dropped the ball. It was an incomplete pass.
Wes Welker had just suffered two concussions. The Broncos are not going to send him to hit DB's. Welker turned his head towards the QB, it looked like he was looking for the ball even though it was already out. Welker was not going after Tahib, it was a clean play.
I like the Patriots. I saw Tom Brady at U of M and liked him then. He is one of my favorite players. I think Belichik and the Patriots have had an unexplainable attitude towards receivers. They forced Deion Branch out and he helped Saeattle to the super bowl. They treated Wes Welker poorly and forced him to Denver. I think Belichiks statement was more about his feelings towards Welker than his belief that it was a dirty play.
I hope I did make it clear that I did not see Welker going for a “Hit”.
I think his job on that play was to be the pick, and he was trying to fulfill his responsibility and mis-timed it.
The ball was in the air before he crossed paths and cut slightly downfield around his teammate and headed straight for Talib. He knew in advance he wasn’t going to catch it, it was going in the direction of his teammate whose path was 180 degrees opposite to his own.
Again, my point isn’t that it was a call or non-call, to me, it was irrelevant to the outcome of even that series, never mind the game.
The point I was making is, no matter how other Freepers want to view it, it was an ILLEGAL hit. Because it is ILLEGAL doesn’t make it dirty, just not legal.
That’s all.
As for their attitude towards receivers, this is nothing new. They simply don’t value them the way other teams do, in both a good way and a bad way.
All teams have positions they somehow seem to specialize at year after year after year. Some teams always have good linebackers. Some always have good tight ends. Some have great running backs, and so on.
The Patriots, as long as I have watched them, have not developed receivers well, and when they do, they aren’t prepared to pay them what other teams are. I think it is that simple. Dion went after the money, that’s all. I hated to see him go, but I can’t fault him there. And I loved it when he came back, he was a lot of fun to watch.
“Even if the incomplete pass hit the receivers hand a fraction of a second after initial contact refs will not call it. It may technically be a penalty but it is almost never called. There is this kind of contact all the time on crossing routes over the middle.”
Agree. The pick play is football’s version of the “phantom tag at 2nd” in baseball’s double-play. It’s a play that seldom gets called, but you see it all the time.