Ellis Hobbs

Gametime: Jets at Patriots

The Teams: New York Jets (6-3) at New England Patriots (6-3)
The Terms: Regular Season Week 11
The Place: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass
The Time: 8:15pm
The Channel: NFL Network, Channel 5 (Boston), WMUR (New Hampshire)
3 Burning Questions:

Which quarterback do you trust more? A laughable question heading into Week 2 when Matt Cassel was making his first career start [...]

Patriots 23, Rams 16 - The Verdict

Despite all the complaints and misgivings with backup QB Matt Cassel, you gotta take a step back and appreciate that he’s got the team to 5-2 and now in a virtual tie atop the AFC East. On Sunday, the strength of the offense - the wide receiver corps - let Cassel down on several occasions [...]

Gametime: Broncos @ Patriots

The Teams: Denver Broncos (4-2) At New England Patriots (3-2)
The Terms: Regular Season Week 7
The Place: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass
The Time: 8:30 pm
The Channel: ESPN
3 Burning Questions:

How does the team respond from last Sunday night’s beat down: The blowout loss to the Dolphins was shocking, but last weekends dismantling of the Patriots in all three [...]

Patriots Upset with Fans Leaving Early

For this weeks column I’ll be focusing my two points on the fan reaction of Sunday’s disaster at Gillette Stadium.
There was still much of the fourth quarter to go, yet most of the fans were headed towards the exits. The field which has seen multiple AFC championships triumphs in this decade was emptying faster [...]

Gametime: Dolphins At Patriots

The Teams: Miami Dolphins (0-2) At New England Patriots (2-0)
The Terms: Regular Season Week 3
The Place: Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, Mass
The Time: 1:00pm
The Channel: CBS
3 Burning Questions:

Will Randy Moss be involved more often? Let’s sure hope so. Moss was pretty much a non-factor in last week’s win over the Jets and it’s evident the quarterback/wide receiver [...]

Patriots 17, Chiefs 10 - The Verdict

The Patriots survived week 1 (which is more than we can say for a certain team from San Diego) despite losing the golden boy. I was at the game and it’s an understatement to say that the energy completely left the house for the balance of three quarters. There are rumors that it’s an ACL [...]

2008 Training Camp Preview: Special Teams and Coaching

Here’s the schedule for the training camp previews:
Wednesday: Special Teams and Coaching
Special Teams
Key Departures: None
Key Arrivals: Matthew Slater, Terrence Wheatley
Breakdown
The Patriots are loaded at special teams, so first we’ll look at the crowded areas which are punt and kick returns. The Pats have a plethora of options to return kicks this season, with Ellis [...]

2008 Training Camp Preview: Secondary

Here’s the schedule for the training camp previews:
Thursday: Secondary
Friday: Linebackers
Saturday: D-Line
Sunday: O-Line
Monday: Tight Ends and Wide Receivers
Tuesday: Quarterbacks and Runningbacks
Wednesday: Special Teams and Coaching
Cornerbacks
Key Departures: Asante Samuel, Randall Gay
Key Arrivals: Fernando Bryant, Jason Webster, Terrence Wheatley
Breakdown
The major storyline for the 2008 Patriots defense will be the cornerback position. Gone are Asante Samuel and Randall [...]

El Clásico Preview: Secondaries

In the second edition of a week long preview of the Colts vs. Pats (deemed El Clásico after a world famous European football rivalry between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid), I’ll take a look at the secondaries of each team.
Cornerbacks
Asante Samuel/Ellis Hobbs/Randall Gay: In analyzing all aspects of the Patriots roster, it’s obvious that the [...]

Samuel Return Analysis

Asante will be working on conditioning for the time being.(Courtesy of mell-oonthemic.blogspot.com)

The return of Asante Samuel - what ever his feelings are off the field - puts the Patriots secondary in another league. Samuel intercepted 10 passes in the 2006 regular season and while most don’t expect a similar gaudy total, Samuel needs to step [...]