Adalius Thomas

BALTIMORE -- The Minnesota Vikings' flickering playoff hopes were snuffed out last night by a barrage of precision passes from a suddenly effective Kyle Boller. Boller went 24 for 34 for 289 yards and three touchdowns as the Baltimore Ravens eliminated the Vikings from the postseason hunt with a 30-23 victory. Needing a victory to stay alive, the Vikings (8-7) came up with their worst defensive performance in two months. Minnesota, which hadn't given up more than 23 points since Oct. 30, allowed the Ravens to go 10 for 15 on third down.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Suffice it to say, this is not how Adalius Thomas thought his time in New England would go. When he signed a five-year, $35 million contract on the first day of free agency in 2007, he seemed to be the ultimate Bill Belichick player — big, fast, and versatile. The assumption was he’d become a Swiss Army knife in the Patriots defense: lining up at outside linebacker, a Willie McGinest-type rush end, sometimes at inside linebacker, or even in the secondary, as he had done on occasion with Baltimore.

Boston sports lore is peppered with cartoon characters. The Red Sox had Bob “Beetle’’ Bailey taking strike three and Bill Buckner playing Charlie Brown with the ball skipping between his black high-tops. The Celtics have Tommy Heinsohn playing Fred Flintstone on Comcast SportsNet New England. The Patriots once featured Bill Parcells as Charlie the Tuna. Now the Patriots have Adalius Thomas as George Jetson. Along with three other players, Thomas was late for work at Gillette Wednesday morning.

FOXBOROUGH - The last time the Patriots were humbled with a roundhouse like the one they got from the Ravens on Sunday, they responded with the kind of knockout punch that put NFL history in their crosshairs. So the Colts wanted to roar back from a 21-3 deficit in the AFC title game in January of 2007? So the Patriots lacked the offensive weaponry to keep up with Indy? So the pass defense made Peyton Manning feel like he was in 7-on-7s at the practice facility, and not in a real game?

He had his right hand on the ground and was peering left toward the football before exploding out of his stance and shooting himself like a missile toward the quarterback. For Patriots linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, it was the routine act of rushing the passer, something he'd made a name for himself doing over his nine-year NFL career. But this time, Sunday night against the Eagles, the quarterback wasn't sacked. Colvin was. Colvin sustained a foot injury on the play, one serious enough to end his season.

FOXBOROUGH - Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo suffered a sprained medial collateral knee ligament in Monday night’s dramatic victory over the Bills, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the injury. One source said Mayo is expected to be out 6-8 weeks with the Grade 3 MCL sprain, but the other source said the timetable is “not that bad’’ and the 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year could return sooner. Mayo was injured in the first quarter tackling Bills tailback Fred Jackson at the end of a 16-yard run. Mayo limped around before falling to the turf, where he...

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Suffice it to say, this is not how Adalius Thomas thought his time in New England would go. When he signed a five-year, $35 million contract on the first day of free agency in 2007, he seemed to be the ultimate Bill Belichick player — big, fast, and versatile. The assumption was he’d become a Swiss Army knife in the Patriots defense: lining up at outside linebacker, a Willie McGinest-type rush end, sometimes at inside linebacker, or even in the secondary, as he had done on occasion with Baltimore.

FOXBOROUGH - The last time the Patriots were humbled with a roundhouse like the one they got from the Ravens on Sunday, they responded with the kind of knockout punch that put NFL history in their crosshairs. So the Colts wanted to roar back from a 21-3 deficit in the AFC title game in January of 2007? So the Patriots lacked the offensive weaponry to keep up with Indy? So the pass defense made Peyton Manning feel like he was in 7-on-7s at the practice facility, and not in a real game?

Long before the free agency period began, strong side linebacker Adalius Thomas was designated the year's premier catch by many pundits and personnel men. Perhaps he will prove to be just that, but if history is any predictor, he should be approached with caution. Thomas is a versatile, athletic, aggressive linebacker who at 270 pounds has played both strong safety and nose tackle, which is about as useful as a man can be on one side of the football. He has the speed to cover top tight ends like Antonio Gates; the agility to be used as the spy against mobile quarterbacks like...

NIXBURG, Ala. -- Adalius Thomas has scars. Some are obvious. The 6-inch gash on his forehead, the long, thin slice that cuts underneath his left eye across the top of his nose are both remnants of a car accident. Others are not. They're buried deeper, created by slights he's been enduring since high school. The scars, both physical and mental, trace to a small town in Central Alabama, 75 miles southeast of Birmingham. Nixburg doesn't have a post office or a traffic light. It's just a strip of highway, two-lane Route 9, with houses on either side.

Ten or 11 days from today, the Patriots will return to the NFL playoffs. It will be New England’s first postseason game since (gulp) . . . Feb. 3, 2008. Glendale, Arizona. Super Bowl XLII. Weird, isn’t it? It feels like it’s been a million years since the pursuit of perfection and Arlen Specter. So much has changed. When the Patriots last played a postseason game, the Red Sox were reigning world champs, Matt Cassel was making minimum NFL wage, Plaxico Burress was a free man, and Bob Lobel was anchoring sports on Channel 4. Hard to believe it’s been less than two years.

Once regarded as merely flawed, the three-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots are now clearly vulnerable, and with that realization comes a reduced level of fan expectation. On paper, this afternoon’s game with the Carolina Panthers (the vanquished foe in Super Bowl XXXVIII) should result in an easy victory for the home team. Carolina is a 5-7 team with a quarterback issue. The Patriots remain undefeated (6-0) at Gillette Stadium. The only issue should be whether the Patriots can reward bettors by covering the spread.

Boston sports lore is peppered with cartoon characters. The Red Sox had Bob “Beetle’’ Bailey taking strike three and Bill Buckner playing Charlie Brown with the ball skipping between his black high-tops. The Celtics have Tommy Heinsohn playing Fred Flintstone on Comcast SportsNet New England. The Patriots once featured Bill Parcells as Charlie the Tuna. Now the Patriots have Adalius Thomas as George Jetson. Along with three other players, Thomas was late for work at Gillette Wednesday morning.

FOXBOROUGH - Even with snow-covered roads, yesterday wasn’t the day for members of the Patriots to be late for a team meeting. Randy Moss, Adalius Thomas, Gary Guyton, and Derrick Burgess all were tardy for the 8 a.m. meeting, and when they did arrive they were told to go home. They did not practice as the Patriots prepare for Sunday’s game against Carolina. Coach Bill Belichick declined to comment on the matter, saying, “Anything that happens with discipline on the team stays between me and the players on the team.’’ After losing their third...

LONDON - Getting where you want to go in this city can be daunting for foreigners. You have to look the opposite way to cross the street, drive on the other side of the road, and ride the labyrinth-like tube subway system. But it turns out finding the end zone is just as easy for the Patriots on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. A week after topping Tennessee, 59-0, the Patriots turned the NFL’s third annual London showcase into their own British invasion with a 35-7 romp over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who surrendered a real home game to play foil to the Patriots on foreign soil.

There must be times like yesterday, when he released veteran wide receiver Joey Galloway, or Sunday, when he unceremoniously sat linebacker Adalius Thomas, that Patriots coach Bill Belichick bemoans the work of the team’s personnel chief, cursing him for saddling him with ill-fitting or underperforming players. The personnel chief fires back that Belichick isn’t getting the most out of the players he selected. He’s not putting them in a position to succeed. The argument doesn’t last long because the coach and the personnel chief are the same person:...

FOXBOROUGH - Derrick Burgess’s first reaction to the news that he’d been traded to the Patriots says a lot about Burgess and the plight of his prior team, the Oakland Raiders. All Burgess could think of when he was informed was, “They’re winners.’’ Winning is something the eight-year veteran didn’t get to experience much with the Raiders, who posted an aggregate 15-49 mark during Burgess’s four seasons. “That’s why I’m here - I’m about winning,’’ Burgess said yesterday, following his first practice with his new team and a new lease on NFL life.

FOXBOROUGH - After listening to a week of quips and aspersions following their coach's candid camera escapades, the Patriots played like a team bent on exacting revenge - on the San Diego Chargers, the media, the NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, and anyone who ever had used the word "Patriots" and "videotape" in the same sentence. The result was a 38-14 demolition of San Diego last night at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots and Bill Belichick proved they don't need cameras to put on a good show.

FOXBOROUGH - Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo suffered a sprained medial collateral knee ligament in Monday night’s dramatic victory over the Bills, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the injury. One source said Mayo is expected to be out 6-8 weeks with the Grade 3 MCL sprain, but the other source said the timetable is “not that bad’’ and the 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year could return sooner. Mayo was injured in the first quarter tackling Bills tailback Fred Jackson at the end of a 16-yard run. Mayo limped around before falling to the turf, where he received attention before...

FOXBOROUGH - I lost my bet. I said we would get the Great Stone Face, and only the Great Stone Face. “That was an exciting game,’’ declared Bill Belichick, temporarily flashing that Mona Lisa grin of his. It wasn’t exactly Ed McMahon guffawing at Johnny Carson, but for Coach Bill, for whom football games are solemn affairs, it was pretty good. And why not? What we had just seen was a dramatic way to inaugurate the second half-century of Boston/New England Patriots football.