Ocho has been with one team his entire career.
He has moved to a different situation in New England and he did it on the fly. Just like any new player on a new team he is learning the system and trying to become comfortable.
That is what the preseason is for. But if you read some of the reports the ground work is being laid to put the blame on him if for whatever reason the Patriots offense doesn’t click.
Ochocinco wasn’t effective when he played. He didn’t make a catch, but he did have a 15-yard pass interference penalty. It looked like a bad call on television, but Tedy Bruschi of ESPNBoston.com points out that Ochocinco’s poor timing on the play caused the penalty.
“When you’re in the Patriots’ precision offense, there is a right way to run a play and a wrong way,” Bruschi wrote.
“To put it plainly, Chad Ochocinco’s sucked this preseason,” Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. “Yet because the guy has works his ass off, shows up every single day ready to go and is as disappointed in himself as everyone who wanted an Ocho explosion on arrival, I’m cutting him slack.”
The whole “precision offense” is BS, in all offenses you need to be precise and not sloppy. It isn’t any more precise than the Saints or the Texans offense. Tom Brady makes it look like it is some sort of super offense, but it isn’t. I saw the offense pass interference call and it was bogus, but even if it wasn’t if you are going to nitpick every single route and play Ocho runs then do the same for every other player.
Saying that Ocho sucked is a bit strong, he struggling a bit in a new system, but by continuously pointing it out I wonder if the media realizes they are reason that Ocho gets the attention they say he shouldn’t be getting?
He hasn’t done anything since coming to the Patriots to bring attention to himself, but he is under a microscope in meaningless preseason games.
At least he is on the field working hard, maybe the media should be concentrating more on Albert Haynesworth.