Looks like Pats have wall New York Jets special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff said Tuesday that the New England Patriots employed a similar "wall" tactic on punt return coverage as was orchestrated by Jets strength coach Sal Alosi on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. Alosi, who was suspended for the rest of the season Monday for sticking his knee out to trip the Dolphins' Nolan Carroll on punt coverage, had his suspension upgraded to "indefinitely" after the team learned Alosi had "instructed" five players to stand in a wall along the sideline. "I had nothing to do with it, just to be honest with you," Westhoff told Chicago sports radio station ESPN 1000's Waddle and Silvy Show. "I didn't even know we were doing it. There was some organization to it. [There are] a number of teams [that do it]. If you watch carefully, there is a pretty good team up north that lines up their whole defense when they do it, so it's something that just kind of happened." When asked specifically if he was referring to the Patriots, Westhoff said that he was, but that he didn't see anything wrong with that tactic. "Well, if you watch them, their defense when the opponents' punt team is out there, they're up there pretty close to the line so yeah it certainly looks like they are trying to do it," Westhoff said. "Now are they doing something illegal? Are they tripping anybody? Heck no. I'm not saying that at all, that's not the point. But, yeah, they're lined up there. Is it making a difference? I don't know. I really don't know, it's hard to say. To tell you the truth until this occurred, I never really looked at anybody's sideline in all my years."
you can't defend that and thats why nobody is defending it. Not Alosi or anybody else. But now suddenly some people want to argue that you shouldn't stand in a line on the sidelines. ... which is just a stupid thing to argue about. People standing on the sidelines inside the white lines are allowed to stand there. The Pats apparently like to have their guys stand behind the line - good for them - perfectly legal as far as i can tell. and it should be legal. Last i checked teams are allowed to stand on the sidelines and form circles, straight lines, pyramids, trapazoids or rectangles. WTF is the point in making a big deal over something that is legal to do?
ok, I thought you were saying otherwise. My mistake. Had Alosi not had his knee out and Carrol ran into him, then oh well, Carroll probably would've made the tackle and been penalized for going out of bounds on the play before tackling Holmes. there's nothing wrong with standing on the sideline the way they did, but it just makes it look worse being that he told them to. It shows intent of something foul, jmo. Like I said in my previous post, we got penalized for the guy running into Vernon Carey. Carey didn't do anything wrong, didn't even flinch, and the guy crashes into him ... it sucked.
not to mention the fact Carey was at least 3 yards or so past the white stripe ... he was closer to the bench than the sideline!
Refs make stupid calls - sounds like thats what happened to Carey. People getting all hot and bothered about where somebody stands on the sidelines is pretty ridiculous. Its allowed under the rules. If we suddenly want to make people on the sidelines have to run around to get out of people's way crashing into them - that would be on par for where this crazy league is headed w/way too many rules and penalties. The NFL needs to relax w/all the rules and let teams play football imho. But yes obviously a sideline coach tripping a dude is not defensible.
snip from ESPN dot com: "A number of teams do it," Westhoff said. "There is a pretty good team up north that lines their whole defense up when they do it, so it's something that just kind of happened." Asked if he's saying the Patriots line up players to impede punt coverage teams, Westhoff elaborated: "Well, if you watch them, their defense when the opponents' punt team is out there, they're up there pretty close to the line, so it looks like they are trying to do it. Now are they doing anything illegal? Are they tripping anybody, heck no. I'm not saying that. That's not the point. But, yeah, they're lined up there. Is it making a difference? I don't know. I really don't know, because to tell you the truth, before this happened I never really looked at anybody's sideline in all my years." _____________________________________________________________ You know what's wrong with Westhoff's statement ? He starts off saying the Patriots and others teams do it too < line up on sideleines > OK... cool... lining up isn't illegal/against the rules. Then at the end of his statement he says until the Alosi incident he never looked at anyone's sidelines until this happened. So what did he do.... spend the last day or two looking at NFL game films for the entire season or further back to see who lines up and who does not ? I'm not buying it. I think he has watched all along. Which is fine. Who cares ? But don't contradict yourself by saying I never noticed, BUT others have been doing it all along. Did you notice or not ? Foxy
So Westhoff knows the Patriots do it but he has never really looked at anybody's sideline in all his years? What? Why start accusing other teams? This would have blown over by the end of Sunday but now becuase the Patriots do it I am sure it is going to become a much bigger issue than what it is; A coach for the jets made a really bad judgement. That's it... end of story. If I am Rex I am telling Westhoff to STFU because now it looks like the Jets are accusing the Patriots of something and you know the d-bags at ESPN are going to have a field day with that and we will have to listen to hours upon hours of nonesense about where people stand on the freakin sidelines.
So he was basically laying lifeless on the ground for 2-3 minutes then is running around a few minutes later like nothing happened? Dont defend this tool. Miami hates us and we hate them and you would have to be an idiot to not know that played some part in this acting job.
Where did I say anything about him acting after he fell? I specifically stated I had no idea how hurt he was from the actual impact but you chose to ignore that. You want to say he was acting when he was on the ground? fine, nobody can prove you wrong but you also can't prove yourself right so that argument is pointless. My contention was that anyone who has ever sprinted before wouldn't be questioning the fact that taking a knee to the thigh while moving at full speed could make someone fall.
Hemi ? What am I on too ? All I said was he contradicted himself. I also think he HAS noticed other teams doing it. As I said, so what ? He noticed. No biggie. The fact that his statement is contradictory could raise suspicion and more " piling on " to your team's rep. That's all. I have no dog in this fight. If he watched films every week for the last decade to see who was lining up... who cares, what's the big deal. There isn't one. If he hasn't noticed it, why did he say other teams have been and are doing it ? When I said what's wrong with his statement it was to illustrate that his statement could give fodder to the naysayers. You won't like what I am going to say but here goes..... they all need to take a page out of BB's book. Keep your mouths shut. Just keep repeating " we're moving on " " we're preparing for a tough Steelers team, anyone want to talk about the game against the Steelers " The media LOVES this stuff and will beat you up and black and blue anyway. Don't give them more ammo. Foxy
The Jets did give him that puffy eye back in the Herm days. Next to Super Bowl III that was probably our best contribution to the sports world.
Sorry but saying you have "no dog in this fight" is kind of funny as we know how much Pats fans and their team hate the Jets. My point was, way too much is read into a few statements. Perhaps someone told him that other teams have done it, and he never bothered to try it himself. NY media doesn't even need comments to make a big deal out of anything, they will just assume anyway. I will agree that they should just move on from the questions because the media wants to keep this going as there is not much in the way of NFL news to discuss this week other than the dreaded Favre streak.
Just to be clear, when Foxy-boro refers to the Jets 'rep', he refers to how much talking Ryan does. Cause that's the team's rep
