Tag: 211104

Pats mid-year report

The Patriots hit what passes for the 2021 midway point in the new 17-game NFL season with Sunday’s gritty 27-24 win over the San Diego, er L.A. Chargers. After their wild off-season spending spree, that’s not what the optimists or pragmatic folks like myself were expecting. I even said they could start 6-2 if things went their way during what was supposed to be the easiest part of their schedule. But I underestimated how good Dallas and the Saints defense would be — which showed itself in the Pats’ only real dog so far. Well, OK, the Houston game was stinker.    

So amid the ups and downs here’s a midseason report and what to expect moving forward.  

Coach B:He’s faced a ton of pressure from the over-reactionary wolves mostly for how well you-know-who has done in Tampa Bay and their 2-4 start. The most ridiculous came from doofuses on the afternoon crew at Boston’s Sports Hub, who actually wondered out loud whether ”the game had passed him by.” Like integrating 25 new players is no big deal and should happen like that. The last time they had as much turnover was 2001 when, while also breaking in an untested QB, they were 5-5 after their first 10 games before rolling off nine straight wins. Not saying it’ll happen the same this time, just that it takes time. Not that he hasn’t made a mistake or two, the most damaging one being sending Stephon Gilmore away just before getting hit with a rash of injuries in the secondary. He’s also getting hit for being too conservative for not going for it on fourth down. Which worked out perfectly on Sunday, didn’t it, when they got stopped on fourth and 1 at the goal line instead of taking the FG and then falling behind 17-15 late in the fourth quarter. Of course that comes from the same people who killed him for going for it on fourth and 2 vs. the Colts in 2009. If you want to hit him on the GM front, have at it, but even with the mistakes I’m OK with what he’s done overall.  

The Big Mac Project: Amid all the yacking that he’s a dump down artist, his 1,997 yards after are 9th best in the NFL, put him on pace for 4,237 (Brady at 2,830 in 2001) and are more than Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Aaron Rodgers and all four QB’s taken ahead of him in the 2021 draft.

Best free agent – Matt Judon: With JC Jackson he’s arguably been their best defender who’s shown up in the run game and been the most reliable at pressuring the QB.  

Best surprise – Jakobi Meyers: I wondered if his leading the team in 2020 catches was a function of somebody from a bad bunch had to do that. But with a team-leading 48 catches for 427 yards, not so, as he catches in traffic, takes big hits, is clutch and most importantly is reliable on third down.   

Biggest free agent disappointments: There are a few among the large free agent newcomers, but so far it’s the starting-to-come-around Nelson Agholor, whose target-to-catch ratio is among the worst in the league and who had a few big drops.  

Biggest disappointment – offensive line: Trent Brown has played one play and since he went out right tackle was an absolute disaster until Michael Owenu went back there and Ted Karras went to left guard vs. the Jets. That led to the first time Mac Jones was protected all year and the result was a 54-point explosion.

Below expectation: We’ve been told all off season and in pre-season that Josh Uche was going to be a sack machine. He’s had his moments, but with three sacks, seven solo tackles and a fumble recovery in garbage time vs. the Jets that has not been the case.

Anything good most don’t realize: With all the yards they give up, especially vs. Dallas, it obscures the fact that the Pats are only giving up 20.5 points per game on average, which is 6th best in the league.

Likely second-half improvements: (1) The targets– Free agents Bourne and Hunter Henry seem to be finding their footing to give the QB more reliable options beyond just Meyers. (2) The offense – They’ve scored 110 points in the last three games, which suggests the pieces are coming together.

Biggest trade deadline need: Game breaking wide receiver that Agholor was supposed to be.   

They will make the playoffs if: They need to beat wild card competitors Cleveland and Indy, who are just ahead in the next month, and a split with Buffalo would help too. To do that, (1) the O-line improvement needs to continue, (2) ditto for the defensive front seven, which played very well holding down the explosive Chargers on Sunday, and (3) they need to eliminate theboatload of stupid penalties, like those that brought back 29- and 38-yard (for a TD) runs by Damian Harris on Sunday and other bonehead mistakes that hurt all year.

Bottom line: Without playing close to a complete game until Week 7 vs. the Jets, they still are just three plays away from starting 7-1. You can’t unring the bell off a loss of course, so instead they are just 4-4. But Coach B’s biggest strength has always been that the team improves as the season moves along, which is how to ultimately judge this team in 2021. Because, as I said in the season preview, the biggest x-factor would be not Big Mac but how quickly all the new faces can be turned into a well-functioning team. And with three wins and narrow losses to the Bucs and Cowboys that each turned on one play in their last five games that seems to be happening, making the prospects for the second half seem a lot brighter than they did after that deflating loss to Dallas three weeks ago.

Minding minds

Meet Catholic Charities NH’s new mental health director

Catholic Charities NH has named Danielle Capelle its new director of mental health services. Capelle discussed the position and how she plans to lead Catholic Charities New Hampshire in working to address New Hampshire’s mental health needs.

What is your background in mental health work and with Catholic Charities NH?

I have been a licensed mental health therapist for over three years in New Hampshire, and I was licensed for six years when I was living and working in Wisconsin. My family moved out here when my husband got a job at Saint Anselm College, so I [transferred] my license over to New Hampshire. I started working at Catholic Charities in 2016, doing counseling. Then, I took over as interim director [of mental health services] when our previous director left, which happened to be right during the beginning of the pandemic, so that was a strange transition. I became the [permanent] director on Oct. 18.

What does your job as director of mental health services entail?

I still have a large caseload of clients. … I work with adults, teenagers, couples, families, you name it. … In addition to that, I am the go-to for all of our counselors for any issues they have with clients or billing or other kinds of issues, and I do the financials for the department. I work with the other directors and the VPs on different programming to better serve the people of New Hampshire. I also work with the community to figure out what the community needs so that we can be a good resource for different communities across New Hampshire.

What are some of your goals for Catholic Charities NH?

The No. 1 goal right now is to get more therapists. The more therapists we have, the more services we can offer, and the more people we can reach. Eventually, we would like to expand our services so that we can work more with children than we do right now. Finding counselors for children is incredibly difficult, but it’s definitely a service that is needed. We would also like to work more with groups of people [in addition to] individual counseling services and be able to offer different types of groups based on our counselors’ areas of specialty.

What do you find fulfilling about this work?

My favorite thing is seeing my clients progress. It’s amazing to see that transition from when their anxiety, trauma, history or whatever is going on determines how they live, to when things click for them and they become in charge of their own lives and determine how they are going to live.

What is challenging about it?

The most challenging thing is definitely leaving work at work. As mental health counselors, we always want to be helping everybody, so it can be hard to [create] that separation of work life and home life.

What are the greatest mental health needs you’re seeing in New Hampshire now?

There’s always a need for [addressing] depression, anxiety and life changes that people sometimes don’t have the coping skills to deal with. There’s the opioid crisis, which continues to hit our state and the whole country, so we need more people who are trained to help with that. Then, of course, there’s the pandemic, which has created a lot of social anxiety and family issues. People who have never experienced anxiety before are now having anxiety, either [due to] being isolated for too long, or going back out in public after that isolation. We’re having to help people with these transitions that nobody [was prepared] to go through.

How do you maintain your own mental health?

I have a great husband and kids who definitely help me with that. I’m also a firm believer that mental health is just as important as physical health, and that every single person should have their own therapist, whether it’s [for] weekly [appointments] or just a check-in a couple times a year. We [therapists] especially need our own therapist to be able to unload some of those things [from work] so that they aren’t just sitting on us.

Featured photo: Danielle Capelle. Courtesy photo.

News & Notes 21/11/04

Covid-19 update As of Oct 25 As of Nov 1
Total cases statewide 129,663 136,755
Total current infections statewide 4,430 3,948
Total deaths statewide 1,524 1,568
New cases 3,920 (Oct. 12 to Oct. 18) 2,029 (Oct. 25 to Nov. 1)
Current infections: Hillsborough County NA* 642
Current infections: Merrimack County NA* 257
Current infections: Rockingham County NA* 364
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. *Numbers not available on Oct. 26 when the state’s Covid dashboard was undergoing maintenance.

Covid-19 news

As of Nov. 1 there were 3,948 active infections of Covid-19 statewide and 193 current hospitalizations. Three additional deaths were announced in the last week, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,568 since the start of the pandemic last year.

The Department of Health and Human Services has resumed the Homebound Vaccination program to administer Covid-19 vaccines and booster doses to Granite Staters who are unable or have difficulty leaving their home or who have been advised by a medical provider that their health could worsen by leaving their home, according to a press release. Call 603-338-9292 or visit onsitenh.com/vaccine to set up an appointment.

Vax lawsuit

New Hampshire has joined the states of Missouri, Nebraska, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming in filing a lawsuit against the federal government for imposing a vaccine mandate on federal contractors and federally contracted employees, according to a press release from Attorney General John M. Formella. “The State has made clear that the available Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective and that every eligible person in New Hampshire is encouraged to get a Covid-19 vaccine. That said, the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine do not justify violating the law. This lawsuit is being filed to protect the State of New Hampshire from the federal government’s attempt to impose illegal mandates,” Formella said in a statement.

Criminal defense

The New Hampshire Supreme Court Report on the Recommendations of the Criminal Defense Task Force has been released. According to the report, the Supreme Court has approved and adopted the following recommendations from the task force to help resolve current criminal defense issues, including a shortage of public defense attorneys.

(1) Increase public awareness.

(2) Adopt Early Case Resolution. “ECR programs are a necessity given the present overwhelming caseloads that are challenging all participants in the criminal justice system,” the report says. “The Hillsborough County Attorney’s Office is hiring two additional prosecutors for ECR purposes.”

(3) Secure additional funding to support contract attorneys. “Funds from the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery have been approved to reimburse contract attorneys for past administrative costs associated with their increased caseloads,” the report says. “The Judicial Council is in the process of seeking $2,066,000 in American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 funds for up to ten new, temporary attorneys to assist with current caseload challenges…”

(4) Improve scheduling: “A brief pause in criminal cases would allow practitioners to better assess caseloads. … The Court recommends that the Administrative Judges of the trial courts schedule a one-time, one-week pause on all criminal cases in the trial courts [in] January 2022.”

(5) Work on recruitment: “Judges in the trial courts … should consider making personal overtures … to criminal practitioners in their counties to accept contract and/or pro bono criminal cases.”

(6) Expand training: “Criminal defense training and mentoring [is needed] to expand the number of attorneys representing indigent clients.”

(7) Make rule changes: “Temporary rule changes could encourage more attorneys to represent indigent defendants,” the report says.

ARP Homeless funds

The New Hampshire Department of Education announced last week that nearly $2.3 million in American Rescue Plan funds will go toward funding the education of homeless children and youth. “Students experiencing homelessness encounter unique barriers in accessing educational opportunities, which have been exacerbated by disruptions to academic and other vital supports throughout the pandemic,” McKenzie Snow, director of NHDOE’s Division of Learner Support, said in a press release. ARP Homeless funds were distributed to the state in two parts: Part I, which totals nearly $575,000, was awarded through a competitive grant process to Concord, Claremont, Seabrook, Winnacunnet and Manchester school districts and will be used to support activities such as trauma-based professional development, social work staffing and expanded school liaisons hours, according to the release. Part II, which totals more than $1.7 million, was awarded to 52 school districts by a formula based on population, poverty and homelessness and will be used to address the academic, social, emotional and mental health needs of children and youth experiencing homelessness, the release said.

The Manchester Marathon will take place Sunday, Nov. 7, starting at 9 a.m. in front of Veterans Park on Elm Street. There will be a marathon, half-marathon and relays on that day, according to a press release, as well as a 5K the day before at Fisher Cats Stadium.

After being selected as the state’s most outstanding schools for demonstrating leadership in getting and keeping their students fit, Londonderry Middle School, Portsmouth Middle School and Groveton High School each opened their new Don’t Quit Fitness Centers at a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony last week. According to a press release, the facilities were gifted to the schools by the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils.

The 2021 Seven to Save list was released last week and includes the Milford Bandstand. According to a press release, all the properties on the list need investments to help restore them back into viable community assets. Other properties include The Weirs Drive-In & Archaeological Site in Laconia and all of New Hampshire’s Historic Theaters.

The wire brush

Whether the topic is the pandemic, the economy, the climate, world affairs or politics, we all seem to be having serious conversations these days. And to come to those conversations with knowledge, we often feel there is so much to read, to view or to listen to. It seems overwhelming. What I have observed, sadly, is that those conversations too often end with a comment such as, “I am really worried” or “I feel so depressed” or “Will things ever change for the better?”

The roller coaster of daily life these days contributes greatly to this sense of dis-ease. With its flow and ebb, Covid-19 keeps us shifting our behavior, ever uneasy about where to go, what to do or with whom to be, and with what consequences. The rising cost of living, the persistence of hate speech and acts, the inequities of our society, and the sufferings of so many cast deep shadows over the lives of so many. No wonder there exists the mental stress about which we read, which we see in others and we feel at times ourselves.

A recently departed dear friend once counseled me, “Hope is that most noble of human virtues. Especially in tough times, we need it to keep us going and to do what we need to do.”

Those words came back to me as by chance I happened upon a poem by John O’Donohue titled “This is the Time to be Slow” (from his collection To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings). While the very title of the poem was strangely, and in a welcome way, quieting to me, it was an image in his poem that impressed me most by its simplicity and beauty.

He counsels the reader not to let “the wire brush of doubt scrape [from your heart] all sense of yourself.” Instead, he urges we remain generous even as our “hesitant light” may flicker. For with hope, we shall, in time, find a new beginning. We’ll step again on “fresh pastures of promise.”

A poem is a purse made of words into which a treasure is kept (or so I once heard it described). O’Donohue’s poem did indeed carry a treasure greatly in need at this time in all of our lives. His image of “the wire brush of doubt” and its potentially abrasive effect is truly wise counsel too. I hope to keep it firmly in mind and to share it with others.

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