""I'm going to be a little quiet. You won't get the same Chad you're used to. …" – Chad Ochocinco on July 30, 2011.

Chad Ochocinco uttered those words exactly a month ago today in his introductory press conference as a Patriot, the one he ended with a group hug. Yet, it is the Patriot Way, the austere, individuality-snuffing code of conduct in Fort Foxborough, that is squeezing the football life out of the flamboyant and free-spirited wide receiver.

Thus, Ochocinco's words now ring true now for all the wrong reasons.

He hasn't been the same Chad, on or off the field.

Ochocinco has looked out of synch and out of sorts in a Patriot uniform. He has appeared unnatural in interviews, like an actor using a British accent just for affectation. He has looked as lost on the field as he got in his Prius trying to navigate the serpentine and byzantine roads of the Greater Boston-area without the aid of GPS.

He has been thrown to eight times this preseason and has just two catches for 14 yards and a touchdown against Tampa Bay that was the football equivalent of an uncontested layup. Saturday night in Detroit he was catchless.

Quite simply, Ochocinco hasn't been himself, and it might be because he's not being allowed to be himself. His personality has been muted and so has his performance. It's time for the Patriots to stop forcing Ochocinco to do it the Patriot Way and let him do it his way, the one that made him one of the game's most entertaining characters and most productive receivers.

Ochocinco has been such a standout during his career because he has enjoyed standing out – after touchdowns, on reality TV shows, in interviews, on Twitter. "