Jerome Cox: Hi Jim,

Saw late hits on Bulger and out of bounds hit on Brown not called. Lots of holdiong calls on Rams. Were the zebras doing home cooking for NE?

jerry

Jim Thomas: It was very frustrating for the Rams. And yes, this feeds into the paranoia going all the way back to Super Bowl XXVI when the Patriots did everything short of criminal assault to slow down the Rams receivers. In Sunday's game, some of the overlooked calls seemed pretty obvious. I was surprised that Haslett didn't make a bigger deal out of them, but I'm sure he doesn't want to get fined. There were some other obvious no-calls as well. Witherspoon was blocked in the back on a short pass to Faulk that went for a big gain. Witherspoon was in position to tackle Faulk in the backfield. Little was mauled on at least one occasion trying to rush a passer on one of the few plays he was in the game. You don't expect the refs to see all these infractions. But none of them?
I just wonder if the NFL office is aware of the impression in St. Louis and Indy and other outposts that the Patriots are coddled by the league. And it wasn't just the Rams-Pats game. Did you see the Denver-New England Monday night game the week before? The Broncos appeared to get totally hosed on calls as well.

StlKerby: Hey Jim,

Thanks in advance for your time on these two quick questions.

1. Is T. Holt done? Or is it more a case of the ball not getting thrown to him?
2. Its early, but B Devaney’s first draft seems to be coming on strong. How do you feel about Greco and King’s future once healthy?

Thanks for these live chats, what a great service you provide for us fans!

Jim Thomas: 1.) T. Holt is anything but done. Continued development by Avery and Burton will help free up Holt, who's still getting plenty of extra attention.
2.) Yeah, the early read on Devaney's draft is good. Although it's way to early to pass judgment. King was looking good in training camp prior to the injury; he had moved ahead of Wade. And I still think Greco has the potential to eventually be a starter in this league.

Kenny H.: Jim,

Not that it matters, but I keep hearing that the 69-yard pass to Avery was Bulger's career long. Am I crazy, or are they wrong. I would have sworn that Bulger threw an 80-yarder to Curtis in the Colts game in 2005. It was the game where Bulger later left because of a shoulder injury following an interception, and might have been the first game that Martz missed due to illness. First quarter, from their own 20, Bulger whips it to Curtis and replay showed Marc just started walking to the sideline as soon as he threw it, knowing that Curtis was gone?

Jim Thomas: You're memory's pretty good, but. . . .Bulger threw a 57-yard TD to Curtis against Indy that year before leaving with the injury. Curtis did catch an 83-yard TD pass that year, but it was against Jacksonville and the pass was delivered by the injured Bulger's replacement _ old friend Jamie Martin.

Mitch from San Diego: HI Jim,

Thanks again for your time. I just read the Perfect Patriots commited no penalties in the game yesterday. Baloney!! I read a column here in SD a couple of weeks ago prior to the Chargers rout of the Patriots that enumerated the pluses and minuses for each team. One plus listed for the Chargers was that since the game was here the Chargers would not have to contend with the "Blind Officials of Foxboro. Now I know what they mean.

I watched the game with six others and we saw:

1. Bulger's helmet spun sharply to the left, a flag dropped and then picked up.

2. Fakir Brown being shoved way out of bounds into the Patriot bench.

3. Bulger being body-slammed well after the pass was thrown by Richard Seymour and to add insult to that foul, when Bulger tried to get up Seymour pushed him down again!

These are just the ones that stuck out. They would have been game changing fouls had they been called. And all of these fouls were committed (check the tape) with at least one official staring right at them. I saw other games this Sunday where these kinds of fowls were flagged repeatedly. For example I saw #87 of the Giants get a fifteen yarder for pushing a guy on the arm after the whistle.

The Rams played a good game with terrific effort for four quarters only to be cheated again by the Patriots and the Blind Officials of Foxboro.

Jim Thomas: It's amazing isn't it? Maybe this crew came from nearby Wrentham. And this was a close game where field position was very important.

cardsnumber7: Hi Jim,
I love what Avery is doing, and what about his YAC! The guy is a playmaker.

When Bennett is back healthy, what is the depth chart?

Thank you
Todd W.

Jim Thomas: Good question. Avery of course will still be the starter. I think the No. 3 spot depends on if Burton continues to develop. Bennett is at least a couple of weeks away still. He's going to try to do some running this week.