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BY JIM DAWSON SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 PATRIOTS RAID LAS VEGAS 36-20 Ooh Las Vegas...Patriots fans were concerned coming into this game as their Center David Andrews had been put on the IL with a reported broken thumb in his right, hiking hand. What would Team Belichick do? Well, they switched LG Joe Thuney to Center and put OL Mike Onwenu (6th round pick in 2020) at LG. Thuney had played Center at NC State, but that was a while ago. The Pats got off to a slow start going 3 and out and what would have been another 3 and out except for a Raiders penalty that earned them only 3 more plays. Meanwhile the Raiders Josh Jacobs was running well getting 6 yards or more a carry. However after LasVegas got to the NE 12, LB Shilique Calhoun stripped Jacobs of the ball and JC Jackson recovered. It was the first NE BAP (Big Ass Play) of the game. Then Cam Newton, who did not have a great game throwing the ball (he threw a near pick forcing it to Edelman who had 3 guys on him), was intercepted and the Raiders had it at the NE 14. The Pats D stiffened and Las Vegas settled for a FG. 3-0. On the next NE possession, they put 5’6” JJ Taylor in at RB and that sparked the running attack. Newly activated Isaiah Zuber helped with an end around for 13 yards helped as did a facemask on one of Taylor’s runs. It led to a tying FG. 3-3. Next came the 2nd Pats BAP as Chase Winovich stripped Carr of the ball and Lawrence Guy recovered. Behind Taylor’s running, the Pats got another FG, 6-3. Taylor’s running seemed to inspire Sony Michel as he started to run harder and Burkhead began his awesome day with a screen pass which he carried into the end zone vaulting over the Raiders’ Nevin Lawson. It was 13-3 with 34 seconds to the Half. Then the Pats Defense did the inexplicable – allowing the Raiders to score a TD. A bad penalty on Stephon Gilmore set the Raiders up at NE’s 33. Two passes to Hunter Renfrow set up their TD. Aargh! 13-10 NE. Las Vegas had the ball to start the 2nd half and got close enough for a 41 yard FG try but Daniel Carlson missed it. The Raiders would be held to a FG and a late meaningless TD. After that missed Raiders FG, the Pats drove for the TD that made it 20-10 behind a 38 run by Sony Michel and the receiving and running of Burkhead who ran it in from the 5. The Pats held and added to their lead with another Folk FG of 32 yards. Sony Michel had a 48 yard run that set up the score. 23-10. Next came the Raiders FG that made it 23-13. They had reached the NE 7 and had 4th and 5. I thought they should have gone for the TD, but was glad they didn’t. The Patriots would then salt the game away in the 4th quarter as they had an 86 yard drive for a TD. This time Cam Newton contributed by hitting N’Keal Harry for 27 and Rex Burkhead for 11. Cam then scrambled for 21. Burkhead ran for 14 and 2 for the TD. It was the first 3 TD game in Burkhead’s career. His effort was something to behold. Just in case Derek Carr and company thought they could rally, NE snuffed out that delusion when Carr was stripped of the ball in his own end zone by Shalique Calhoun and Deatrich Wise, Jr. with Wise getting the TD. BAP! With 5:09 left, and the score 36-13, it didn’t matter when Las Vegas scored another TD. POINTS AFTER The Patriots found another way to win on a day that Cam Newton struggled throwing the ball much of the game. They amassed 250 yards rushing with Sony Michel having 117, Burkhead with 49 and Taylor 43. Keys to the game were holding bruising RB Josh Jacobs in check (71 yards) as well as scary TE Darren Waller (2 meaningless 4th quarter catches). The Pats double teamed Waller most of the game. Jacobs had 54 of his rushing yards in the 1st half. After coming in with only 6 penalties in 2 games, the Raiders matched that in the game. Bill Belichick used all 3 of his 2nd half timeouts by the beginning of the 4th quarter. I had never seen that happen. Someone like Andy Gresh may have some insight into that. Jon Gruden is now 0-3 versus the Belichickian Patriots. He lost the ‘Tuck Rule’ game as Oakland’s head coach, another with Tampa Bay and yesterday’s with Las Vegas. Nick Folk hit on 3 field goals. He missed an extra point. I hope that Justin Rohrwasser gets healthy soon because Folk’s range is only from about 45 yards out. My good friend Paul asked me if the NFL might do away with the extra point try. I said I didn’t think so because since they’ve moved that kick back to the 15 yard line, there have been misses and blocked tries. Yesterday, besides Folk, Washington, Arizona and Atlanta missed extra points. Dallas, Carolina and Tampa Bay had extra points blocked. BULLETS • Once the Celtics got down 3-1 in games versus the Miami Heat, you knew they were in trouble. Sunday, the Heat ended the Celts’ ‘bubble season’ winning Game #6 125-113. Inconsistent defense, Miami’s zone and their hellacious 3-point shooting contributed. • Now that Chaim Bloom has let Ron Roenicke go as manager, will Alex Cora return in that role? I’m willing to forgive Cora for his transgressions. He has a special bond with many of the Red Sox players. This team needs Cora. Roenicke as Cora’s bench coach? • The Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont (9/27) had a great interview with Derek Sanderson. Sanderson had a drinking problem and thought he lost his two Stanley Cup rings. His business partner at Daisy Buchanan’s, Joe Cimino, had taken them for safe keeping. Sanderson was thrilled that Cimino had them. His two sons now have those rings. EMAIL Top of my head, Muddy Waters.  There is no Queen Album called Bohemian Rhapsody. It is a Night At The Opera, and it is a classic and in my top five.  The best albums are always by the Beatles. The top two, non-Beatles, albums are Live At The Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers and Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs. Matt Dawson  Muddy Waters is incorrect but thanks for the correction on A Night At The Opera which was named after the Marx Brothers movie because Queen loved them. - Z Hi Jim, love the “long-format” zine. For this issue’s music trivia quiz, I’m going with B.B King! Mark Allio Hi Mark, good guess but No, it's not BB King. Thanks for the kind words. - Z Quick guess on the trivia question: Paul Butterfield. Saw in Newport (I think it was the '69 Jazz Festival that also had Jethro Tull, but my memory isn't as sharp as it used to be.)   Glenn Dewell Hi Glenn, Paul Butterfield is a good guess, but incorrect. - Z Good writing James. I’m thinking Muddy Waters is the answer to your quiz. Don’t know when he was at the Newport event, but possibly our compadre Wild Bill Shea was there!   Mike Curtis Mike, a good guess but incorrect. Did more research as you are a Blues savant. I researched Muddy Waters vs. my answer. The one difference I could find is that McKinley Morganfield aka Muddy Waters does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (based on a list I found – I looked under both names). Other than that, Muddy would have fit the description. Muddy Waters has a star but at a different place in Hollywood. https://totally-la.com/rockwalk-the-walk-of-fame-for-rock-stars/ - Z Hello Jim, outstanding Zine this week. Great story about Terry Nau and Fleet Pete. Quiz guess would be BB King. Keep up the good work. Tom Robinson Hi Tom, sorry but BB King is not the answer to the quiz. Thanks for the kind words about the Fleet Feet Pete and Terry Nau story. While Pete is from Foxboro and Terry originally is from the Pittsburgh area, they have lived here long enough that they can be considered Rhode Islanders. You've heard of Kevin Bacon's 6 degrees of separation. In Rhode Island, it's 1 degree of separation. - Z The RI - 1 degree of separation gets even better in that story. Terry Nau was the Sports Editor of the Pawtucket Times. That job was held for many years by Ted Mulcahey, my father in law and Mike’s (Tanya McIntyre and the Professors) Dad .I’ve attached a great picture of Ted from what had to be the late 50s. I know two of the people but I’m still trying to figure out the guy on the right. I’ve been thinking that it’s possibly Manny Almeida. Any idea? It’s a small world. Tom Robinson Tom, besides Mike's dad Ted Mulcahey, that's Rocky Marciano on the left. My guess is the man on the right is either a boxer or a boxing promoter. Will send to Terry Nau and see if he has any idea. Tom, Terry emailed: “That is Jim Murphy, a Times editor, father of Sheila and Greg, who confirmed this.” - Z Thanks Jim - sure this will go over well with the gang! LOL. Trivia educated guess: by your description three names popped into my head - Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon. I think John Lee Hooker. Peter Bortolotti You deserve it. Yes it's John Lee Hooker. One bourbon, one scotch, one beer. - Z Is this the longest Sportzine you’ve ever written? No wonder you were “late”.  And BTW...it was terrific. Richard Flinn Rich, yes I think it is the longest regular Sportzine- 7 pages. I think special edition #700 was 8 pages because of the photos. Lately I have been getting more email and putting them in the Zine as I think they inform. Also after Peter made that connection with Terry Nau I felt like that had to be in there. I even left out a photo of that beer race with Peter smack dab in the middle. Thanks as always for your positive feedback and kind words.-Z Hi Jim - Thanks again for another awesome 'zine, even though there was absolutely NO mention of the (current) AFC East leader...😜 (I wonder how long THAT will last, eh?) No, not gonna try the quiz again - I hit my limit with one win. Just wondering if you're still accepting "favorite album" input? If so, and now that you've opened it up to ALL music, here are four of my all-time faves: Miles Davis-Kind of Blue, Billie Holiday-Lady Sings the Blues, Bob Dylan-Nashville Skyline, and Beatles-Abbey Road. Oh - and anything Bach! Stay safe, my friend! Buffalo Steve Lenz  Steve, great album choices. While Buffalo is 2-0, they gave up 17 points to the Jets and 28 to Miami. What happened to that defense? - Z Great 'Zine, Jim. Even though we lost yesterday, I can see some encouraging signs for the Pats. Cam looked OK but he can use some additional receivers. And we need to stop the big pass plays. We almost pulled it off but we have had some close games with Seattle over the last few years (Malcolm Butler comes to mind). Lots of injuries around the NFL yesterday, especially involving the knees (something I am very familiar with at the present time). Brady had his problems yesterday but the Bucs still won. The lack of a preseason is responsible for a lot of this. Still a long season. I feel confident in the Pats. Walt Dzialo Walt, we'll see if the Pats trade for a veteran receiver. I was heartened at how many catches Harry and Byrd had. Cam has been working hard with these guys. Brady never trusted the young receivers that much. He still looks off in his passing game and winged one so high over Gronk's head that even he couldn't catch it. A lot of this (Brady and Brees looking human) has to do with the lack of proper preparation because of COVID-19 shutting down camps. The injuries are also starting to accumulate, much of them for the same reason. - Z The Pat’s last play was predictable. Even I called it. Russell Wilson was truly amazing. May we meet again. Mike Hunt Mike, I agree that the last play was telegraphed. Would like to see a pass/run option. - Z https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hockey_League Mark Allio Thanks Mark, I wondered about that 31 teams (See the Hot Club section). Now I understand. Las Vegas was the 31st team. There will be a 32nd in 2021. - Z When I was going to college in Toronto from 75-77, I went to York University and its Glendon College (the original York), created to emulate the Canadian ideal of a bi-lingual bi-cultural society. It was comprised equally of French and English Canadians. I was the only Yank followed by my brother Paul a year later. I ran mainly with the Quebecois, and we would attend hockey games played by the Nordiques from Quebec City. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Nordiques. They never won a Stanley Cup, and in 1995 the franchise was sold to Colorado, who promptly won the Stanley Cup in their first year! Some Canadians think that the US has taken over Canadian hockey, a sore spot to discuss indeed.  Mark Allio While writing this Sportzine I listened to John Prine’s last CD, 2018’s The Tree of Forgiveness (great music and a fitting conclusion to a fantastic career). Also I played Robbie Robertson’s solo debut album released in 1987 (thanks Peter). Sportzine is also available at jimdawsonsports.com thanks to Buffalo Steve Lenz THE HOT CLUB Brought up that I had seen Warren Zevon at the Paradise Theater in Boston many years ago. ‘Waddy’ Wachtel was his lead guitarist/band leader. Session man Rick Marotta was the drummer. On the stage there were stairs going to a dressing room beneath. During Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, a roadie down below threw fire crackers onto the stage. Marotta got down from his drum kit, descended the stairs and you could hear punches – bap, bap. Marotta came back up, and resumed playing drums on the song. So Dr. John told us about when he was at UMass-Amherst and in a band with Taj Mahal. They were playing a gig at Dartmouth and were the last band on. By then all the college kids in the audience were drunk. So the band huddled up trying to figure how to get the attention of the audience. Voila. Taj threw a cherry bomb and that got their attention. They then played The Twist. John said they were invited back every year. We were talking about the Stanley Cup Finals between Tampa Bay and Dallas. I noted that once again a Canadian team would not win the Cup. I said it must be 15-20 years since a Canadian team won the Cup. Mark looked it up – Montreal won it in 1993. So actually 27 years ago. Mark asked how many Canadian teams there are – we checked – there are 31 teams. 24 are American, 7 Canadian. That led us to the American Olympic hockey team winning in 1960 and 1980. Peter pointed out that professional hockey got a big boost when the NHL allowed their players to go to the Olympics. We checked – it was 1998 and continued thru 2014. ANSWER TO LAST ISSUE’S TRIVIA QUESTION So who was that blues man who debuted at the Newport Folk Festival, is in the Rock and Blues Halls of Fame and who has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame? Peter Bortolotti was the only one who got it, with Mark Allio getting half credit for saying that John Lee Hooker came to mind but he didn’t think it was him (HC). The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock n’ Roll had John Lee debuting in Newport (1960). Hooker was in The Blues Brothers movie. Two of his songs, Boogie Chillen and Boom Boom, are in the Rock Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. R.I.P John Lee. THIS ISSUE’S TRIVIA QUESTION This duo has sold close to 40 million records. They’ve had six #1 hits (Billboard Hot 100), 7 platinum albums and 6 gold albums. They are in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock Hall of Fame and have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Name the duo.