Curran's 44 lines on 22 Patriot issues

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By Tom E. Curran
CSNNE.com Patriots InsiderFollow @tomecurran
The tenor of Tedy Bruschi's Ocho comments on WEEI suggest he's been itching for a chance to go off on the wideout. If he's seen how hard Ocho's been working, he wouldn't have gone after him like that.

That said, the bus is pulling away from the stop and Ocho is running down the driveway, papers falling out of his book bag with one shoe off.

The weird limbo that Brandon Spikes seems to be in has to come to a head at some point. Promising second-year linebackers don't get thrown in mothballs for nothing and that's what seems to be going on.

I theorized in the offseason that scoring would be way down early in the season since offensive timing would be hampered by the lockout. In only one game during Week 1 did the two teams fail to combine for fewer than 40 points.

I thought Nate Solder got away with an unbelievable amount of holding Monday night against Cameron Wake. On further review (watching the DVR), the rookie did his share but it wasn't as egregious as I believed from the press box.

Sat next to Ty Law in the press box Monday night; he played with Dolphins corner Benny Sapp. When Tom Brady's pass from 5 yards deep in the end zone whizzed past Sapp's ear and into Wes Welker's hands, Law said simply, "Oh, s, Sapp."

ESPNBoston's Mike Reiss charts player participation on offense, defense and special teams from the press box during the games. Everybody - sports talk, fellow writers, blogs - use the info but not enough people say where they got it and they ought to...it's a lot of work from Reiss.

Tom Brady's currently got an autographed baseball from Chili Davis in his locker. Turns out, Brady once mentioned he got stiffed for an autograph by the Giants outfielder when Brady was a kid and Davis - hearing that news - sent him the signed ball with a quick apology.

While Brandon Meriweather may not have been involved in the alleged rape that took place at his home over the summer, I've heard that he was the one that bailed the accused out of jail. Probably should have kept his distance from the situation in the interests of job preservation.

We all agree that "innocent until proven guilty" still applies, right? Well, the jury's back on Meriweather and he's been found guilty on several counts of stupidity.

That Eric Mangini feels awful about "Spygate" doesn't surprise me at all; I've mentioned before that the resulting national panic and outcry wasn't what he intended. It will take a lot of apologizing for the bitterness to go away though; and Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum may never be forgiven.

I have that Dan Koppen injury as an 8-10 week recovery; Albert Breer of the NFL Network pegged it a few hours after I reported it on Tuesday as a 6-10 week recovery. Begin looking for Koppen November 13 against the Jets.

Thought I'd be done with these by now, but gotta get down to Foxboro. Will finish later.

Tom E. Curran can be reached at tcurran@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Tom on Twitter at http:twitter.comtomecurran

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