Boston Sports Then and Now

The Bentley Falcons finished the 2009 season with an 8-2 record and as tri-champions of the NE-10.

A 23-21 loss to Stonehill College in the season finale proved to be particularly costly as it knocked the Bentley University Falcons out of contention for the NCAA Division II Championship.

The Falcons seemed destined to earn a spot in the Division II Playoffs after being ranked fourth in the NCAA Super Region entering the final week of the season. However, they fell out of the top eight after their loss and did not receive one of the 24 bids to the NCAA Playoffs.

Bentley’s omission means that the NE-10 did not have a team advance to the NCAA Division II Playoffs for the first time since 2002. The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference received four bids into the playoffs.

Bentley finished the 2009 season with an 8-2 record. Both of their losses came by two points. They shared the NE-10 championship with Merrimack and Southern Connecticut.

Randy Moss scored the game changing touchdown against Miami.

Joey Porter did his talking all week saying that Brady got preferential treatment from the referees.

Looks like the Dolphins secondary also gave Brady preferential treatment.

He torched Miami for 332 yards and a 71 yard touchdown to Randy Moss. Brady broke Drew Bledsoe’s team record with his 27^th 300 yard passing game and his third in a row.

Both Moss and Welker had their way with the beat up Miami secondary. Moss added another 5 catches to compliment his scoring grab, accumulating 147 total yards.

Welker also made his presence felt in the passing game. He continued to churn out hard fought yards and added 9 more catches to his stellar season.

The Patriots offense has been in full flight over the last 3 games. New England has outscored their opponents, 121-24.

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Tuukka Rask and Patrice Bergeron celebrate after defeating Buffalo on Saturday night.

After a somewhat easy schedule in October, Buffalo had a chance this past weekend to prove how good they really are. Buffalo was off to a nice start, but ran into trouble when they faced Philadelphia and Boston.

Despite losing on back to back nights, the Sabres still hold third in the Eastern Conference with 19 points.

After losing to Philadelphia Friday night, what else could a Sabres fan expect the next night?
Buffalo had to travel to Boston for their second game in as many nights. Boston had Friday off, so they were well rested. Jhonas Enroth was scheduled to make his first NHL start. When Ryan Miller is not in net for the Sabres, the team does not play the same way. They lose trust in the goaltender to bail them out in situations.

So, from my view, this was the only thing that gave the Sabres a chance to win Saturday night:

Boston came into the game with five goals in their last five games. They also began the game dead last in powerplay percentage (10%).

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Coming of their successful 1994 campaign, optimism for the Patriots was at an all time high.

Patriots running back, Curtis Martin gained at least 1,000 yards from 1995-1997.

They had the owner in Kraft, the coach in Parcells, and the franchise quarterback in Drew Bledsoe. Bledsoe was able to lead the New England Patriots to the playoffs for the first time since the 1980’s.

What did 1995 have in store for this up and coming franchise?

The Patriots drafted University of Pittsburgh running back, Curtis Martin in the 3^rd round of the NFL draft.

Martin proved to be far more than just a third rounder.

The 1995 season did not start how the Patriots wanted. They started to repeat the team’s inconsistent ways.

Overachieving one year and underachieving the next.

The team started off 1-5 and never was able to emulate the magic from the previous playoff season. New England finished a very disappointing 1995 campaign with a 6-10 record.

However, not all was lost in 1995.

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