Week 14

After the Patriots scored their last offensive touchdown yesterday WBCN radio broadcaster Gino Cappeletti said, "It's 28 to nothing and the Patriots are just absolutely dismantling the Buffalo Bills in this game."

That may have been an understatement. The '05 Patriots looked more like the '03 team in their 35-7 shellacking of the slowly-coming-unglued Buffalo Bills. With the win they moved into position to clinch the AFC East yet again and were only delayed in so doing by Miami's shocking victory in San Diego.

The turning point in this game came early when the Bills had a 1st and goal from the 9 yard line after a 59 yard pass from J.P. Losman to Lee Evans. After 1st and 2nd down moved the Bills backwards to the 22 Losman flipped his third down pass softly into the end zone where it was easily intercepted by Asanti Samuel. On the ensuing posession the Patriots drove 80 yards with ease and Brady capped the drive with his first touchdown run of the season from 3 yards out. From that point on it was never a contest.

Tom Brady played probably his best game of the season despite a banged up knee and snowy conditions, throwing for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns. Corey Dillon once again topped the 100 yard mark and as a team New England rushed for 159 yards. 8 different receivers caught passes and 6 caught more than 2 as the offense racked up a season high total of 494 yards.

Even the defense looked like the Belichick teams of old allowing only 184 total yards including only 14 rushing yards. J.P. Losman was smothered all day, completing just 10 of 27 passes for 181 yards and 3 interceptions (70+ of those yards came on the Bills' only touchdown during 4th quarter garbage time). The defense also did something they had yet to do this season, they scored a touchdown.

All in all the team played their most complete game of the season, totally controlling both sides of the ball. Of course we cannot get too excited about this win since it came against a Buffalo team that has now lost 6 of its last 7 and was offically eliminated from the playoffs yesterday. However, winning on the road in December in the snow is no easy task regardless of the opponent. Just like I said last week at this time of year taking care of business and getting into the playoffs is all that matters.

Don't look now but the Patriots have won 3 out of 4 and 5 out of 7 and have just now played their best game from start to finish. The key in the NFL has always been to peak at the right time, the Patriots have yet to peak this year but if they were to do so the next few weeks would certainly be the best time to start moving in that direction. We will see if this game was simply an annihilation of an inferior opponent or a sign of things to come next week as the pesky Tampa Bay Bucs come to Foxboro to fight for their playoff lives. If the Pats can take care of business against a tough Buccaneers team hope will once again spring eternal in New England. I'm not talking Super Bowl, I'm just saying that some post season noise could be made.

The only negative that came out (or almost came out) of yesterday's game was the, "Oh my God no!" moment of the season for the Patriots, Tom Brady coming up limping. I've always said that the X factor in this team's guaranteed trip to the playoffs is the health of number 12 and for just a moment I thought that the X had landed. The team has said that the injury is nothing major but the lump in my throat when he came gimping off the field was tangible. This particular injury may not be serious but it is indicative of a persistent problem with the Patriots. When you live and die by your quarterback he cannot be the most hit QB in football, it's just asking for the inevitable. Right now Brady is the most frequently knocked down signal caller in the NFL and Tampa's defense has a monster pass rush. They need to figure something out before next week so that the Pats do not see Brady limping off again, only this time not to return.

One odd note about this game. I have not talked to anyone else who watched the game on CBS 4 in Boston so I do not know if this happened to others or just to me. Throughout the game the sound on the broadcast constantly sounded like a skipping CD with regular hesitations and pauses.

"Br-- back to --ass, co---ete to Branch. To----own!"

This actually ended up being a good thing as Randy Cross' unendingly annoying commentary was regularly interrupted. Hopefully since next week's game has playoff implications for both teams a less than 12th string commentary team will be calling the game.

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Other NFL Stuff:

- Chicago Headline: "Bears Exposed as NFC Quality!" The line in the sand between the majors and AAA was drawn yesterday as the struggling Steelers smacked around the 2nd or 3rd best NFC team. It was snowing, muddy, and cold i.e. perfect Bears defensive football weather. Too bad they just are not that good. The vaunted defense certainly can beat up on a conference with 2 good offenses but when the ageless Jerome Bettis and an injured Ben Roethlisberger came to town they looked very ordinary, failing to force a single turnover.

Look at their 2 worst defensive performances of the season, 21 points to Pittsburgh and 24 points to Cincinatti, both AFC playoff contenders. Their best defensive performances: Detroit (6), Minnesota (3), Baltimore (6), San Francisco (9), Carolina (3), and Green Bay (7). The Carolina game is impressive, no question about that but the other 5 teams they've held to under 10 points are among the worst offenses in football. It's starting to seem as tough the NFC playoffs are once again a tournament to see who will earn the right to lose the Super Bowl.

And oh yeah, they scored 9 points and for the 6th time this season were held under 14. The calls for Rex Grossman get louder and louder. Why? Because the mediocre quarterback on the bench is always better than the mediocre quarterback on the field.

- I HATE the Giants, I mean really HATE them. I hate them because they are from New York, I hate them because they have Eli Manning, I hate them because I have had to watch them every week this season on Fox. That being said I was rooting with all my might for Jay Feely to make the game winning kick against the Eagles yesterday. Did I want the Giants to win? No. However, did I want to see Michael Strahan rip a 185 pound man limb from limb on national television? No. It would have been like the scene in Swingers when Mike calls the girl he met at the Dresdin 10 straight times, so uncomfortable and even though you know what is coming you still hope it will be different everytime, except for in this version Mike is thrown out the window by a giant black man after she answers and tells him to never call her again. Thank you for sparing me that feeling Jay Feely.

- On the other hand you have Lawrence Tynes. Oh Lawrence, your team improbably drove 55 yards in 18 seconds to give you a shot at a game tying 41 yard field goal at the end of regulation and you shanked it. The snap was not great but the holder got it down and in the NFL 41 yards should be a chip shot. If you want to make the playoffs in the AFC you simply have to make that kick. If I were a lesser writer I'd make a joke about Dick Vermeil crying about the missed kick right now. Maybe something like, "The only thing that could make Vermeil cry harder than that miss is the Bridges of Madison County."

- Sure the Colts won yesterday against the Jaguars, but what the heck happened to their defense in the last 6 minutes? David Garrard just shredded them, not once but twice for touchdowns plus a 2 point conversion. Now if the Colts go undefeated I will wonder forever what would have happened if the Jags could have covered Dallas Clark just one more time. If I had not already declared that I was not going to say anything nice about the Colts for the rest of the season I would have to point out that the 3rd down conversion to ice the game was a gutsy call and a clutch play.

Despite the Colts victory there was a relatively silver lining yesterday from Tony Dungee. To me his press conference sounded like he was setting us up to announce that he is shutting down the starters after next week with all his talk about the Super Bowl and how 16-0, "would be nice." The Colts obviously don't want to lose to a conference team next week against San Diego but the game in Seattle will be totally meaningless to Indianapolis and will mean everything to the Seahawks, will Manning be on the pine? Come on Tony don't choke on a chance for history, play Manning and lose to Seattle the right way.

Dream Scenario: The Colts run the table, the Pats beat the Jaguars at home in round 1 and then in Indy Rodney Harrison comes back on crutches and single handedly destroys Manning's psyche just by stepping onto the field in uniform and New England wins 45-7. A man can dream can't he?

- Does Dom Capers not realize that he's not going to be around next season to coach Reggie Bush? If he does why would he tell his kicker that he'll treat to Friendly's after the game if he misses a 31 yard game winner by more than 50 feet, thereby keeping the Texans headfirst in the Bush. (Sorry...)

- Speaking of Reggie Bush, has there been a player coming out of college recently that has had this much hype? Of course I think that he's going to be a great pro, but what if he isn't? Will we remember all of this talk about puposefully missing field goals and losing games to get him or will he just go into the Charlie Ward Hall of Fame?

- San Diego Headline: "Brees, Gates, McCardell - Good Players, Nothing Without L.T." The Chargers proved yesterday that they will go exactly as far as Tomlinson takes them. With bruised ribs and probably some year long wear and tear this year's league MVP (don't try to talk me out of this, it's a fact) only managed 75 yards and the Chargers were beaten by the resurgent Miami Dolphins. The halftime speech last that Nick Saban gave last week in Buffalo must have been something impressive because the Fish have played like a team possessed since. If L.T. isn't 100% you can stick a fork in San Diego, they're done.

One question about this game. The on side kick by the Chargers at the end of the game was ruled to be recovered by the Dolphins, but at the end of the unpiling of the scrum a Chargers player was holding the ball. How does this happen? If he has the ball does that not mean that he recovered it? If not how did he get it? Doesn't the definition of possession basically come down to who is holding the damn thing? I guess not.

- The Broncos beat the Ravens 12-10. Huh? I thought the Broncos were a Super Bowl contender. The actual headline about this game on ESPN.com "Flat Broncos manage narrow win v. hapless Ravens." I guess this one won't be an Instant Classic or an NFL Films Greatest Moments will it? Is there another program for games like these, "Insomniac Treatment Sporting Events" perhaps?

- Brooks Bollinger set a record for rushing yards in a game by a Jets quarterback yesterday with 56. He also set a record for worst NFL quarterback to have any kind of positive record ever. They beat the Raiders 26-10. This raises the question: If an Oakland Raider falls in the woods an no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? That random gunfire you hear is the friendly fans in Oakland hunting Norv Turner.

- The longest win streak in the NFL not including teams quarterbacked by salad bar groupies: your Minnesota Vikings. They are now 1 game behind "The Greatest Defense Ever Assembled that Can't Beat an AFC Team." Further proof that a possibly illicit gang bang on a boat and an injury to your best player is all it takes to send a team straight to the top of a crappy division.