State of Patriot Union

Before the Patriots or more accurately the referees (again!) severely impacted on my ability to sleep I finished off the next in Brad Thor’s Scot Horvath series, State of the Union.  This series and the author are really starting to grow on me.  He crams a lot of action into a very condensed time period, very Bauereque.

Horvath takes on the Russians in this one who are  trying to win the Cold War, having faked their own well publicized demise.  Horvath must thwart the plan in a compressed time period while of course charming a couple of ladies along the way (we’re not talking Gatsby here).  In a little over a week he mistakenly takes on Delta Force in Maryland, gets in a shootout in a flaming Berlin brothel, fights the Russians, first in the Baltic and then Arctic Ocean before returning to the US for yet another shootout.  Houses are blowing up, bullets are flying, and new technology is imposed on a classic Cold War story. 

Thor really seems to be finding his stride as I am reading these books in the order that he wrote them.  It was also kinda cool to see the Cold Warriors, such a staple for most of my life, take the stage once again.

Now to the Pats and why I was denied a restful night.  The Panthers were an impressive team and outplayed the Patriots’ undermanned defense for most of the game.  However despite their failures the Patriots were still in position to win when on the last play of the game the Gronk was physically assaulted in the end zone however the referees picked up the flag.  Their explanation that the pass was uncatachable was ridiculous when Gronk was illegally prevented from coming back to the ball.  Tough when such a great game ends with controversy; especially when the Patriots have that same call made against them so often.

Of Course it is Uncatchable If You're Physically Prevented From Moving into Position

Still the Patriots have no one to blame but themselves for being in the position.  As time was winding down they had marched down the field and had a very makeable third down and short.  Instead of running the ball as they were doing very successfully they tried to get cute.  The resulting field goal instead of a touchdown and taking more time off the clock ultimately doomed them as it gave the Panthers time for the go ahead score.  Whenever the Patriots lose a game they should have won I stew so much I find it impossible to sleep.  Well at least my son in law’s band played on part of the Monday Night Football intro’s which was exceedingly cool.

I Think Brady Agrees With Me

So not much sleep last night but I do get to spend the entire day in a conference with the union – win!