Matt Light on IR; Pats, Jets Injury Report

The New England Patriots placed offensive tackle Matt Light on injured reserve earlier today, ending his season and speculation that he would be able to return by the playoffs from an ankle injury suffered on Sept. 25 in a game against Pittsburgh. Light becomes the 10th Patriot placed on injured reserve.

Light, 27, was a starting member of the offensive line in all three Patriots Super Bowl wins. He played in 65 games with 63 starts since being drafted by New England in the second round (48th overall) in the 2001 NFL draft.

Before moving on to the injury report, I just want to point out that when Tom Brady took over for Drew Bledsoe, and Brady played so much better, everyone said, "Well, the offensive line just came together to protect Brady" and "Bledsoe constantly had different personnel on his offensive lines" (except for Bruce Armstrong, of course). I'd like those people to point out all the starting offensive linemen on the Patriots who have been starting at their current position for more than 1 year. Yes. Thanks for playing.

The fact is, and it always had been, Tom Brady makes his offensive line better, probably better than they really are. And Bledsoe make his worse. Much, much worse.

Patriots at Jets Injury Report

Do our eyes deceive us? Can it really be so? The only player on the Patriots injury report is Tom Brady? And he's listed as Probable with a shoulder injury? (Matt Light is listed as being moved to IR, but we know that already.)

That means the dozen or so guys hanging around the list for the last 10 weeks are really all "healthy" now?

I'm sure the other 31 teams didn't notice.

New York Jets
QUESTIONABLE
a FS Oliver Celestin (Ankle)
DE Shaun Ellis (Hamstring)
DT Dewayne Robertson (Thigh)

PROBABLE
RB Derrick Blaylock (Ankle)
MLB Mark Brown (Neck)
T Scott Gragg (Back)
WR Harry Williams (Knee)

Nothing dramatic here, except that every injury listed is one more nail in the Jets coffin for 2005.