What a day of football! First we were treated to a Lions 49ers game (who would ever have thought that this would be the marquee match-up of the day? The teams were a combined 9-1 with the one loss in OT) that featured a Montana-esque throw from Alex Smith to win the game. Following that, we saw two coaches (well really only one, the media says they had to be separated but it looks like Harbaugh is just trying to get away from the lunacy of Jim Schwartz) get into a post game argument with team officials having to step in, how great would a playoff game be between these teams? Also to coach Schwartz, you've been trash talking, yelling, and intimidating teams sense the season started you can't tell me that you're getting upset about what you love doing kind of sucks when it happens to you doesn't it? Schwartz was just bitter that his team lost, and over-reacted to a harmless pat/slap on the back. At that point Harbaugh could have said "nice game coach" and I still think Schwartz would have snapped. The real shame here is that the confrontation will overshadow the 49ers performance. They held Megatron to no touchdowns, extended their streak of not allowing rushing touchdowns or 100 yard rushers and themselves ran for 200+ yards. In the process Alex Smith threw a pass that if Manning or Brady threw you would have to clean the post-game rooms following the analyst's reaction (I will let you figure out what would need to be cleaned) this team is legitimate!
Enough about San Francisco though, this is called the Patriots Report and was the second game of FOX's double header and it might have been better than the one preceding it. The Patriots and Cowboys came in knowing that Buffalo lost to the Giants so a win for the Patriots would give them the sole lead in their division, and the Cowboys needed to keep up with the Giants (and maybe the Eagles). The general consensus was that this would be some sort of 41-38 affair with defense taking a back seat. It is really funny how the consensus can be so wrong sometimes. The Patriots easily played the best defensive game of the season while their offense put out its worst performance of the year. I think that they will be happy with the result because they now know that if their offence fails them they can hang around with their defense. Furthermore, the Patriots now head into a BYE week riding a 3 game winning streak. This gives coach Belichick 2 weeks to patch things up on the defensive side of the ball and if they manage to do that, they will have earned 'contender' status. I wont hit you with boring stats anymore, I will just offer thoughts from now on (unless the stat in question is a major one). The only thought worth mentioning this week is the brilliance of Tom Brady. Did anyone else have trouble remembering Brady just destroying a team with execution in a 2 minute drill? This is part of that mystique that the Patriots lost and this is another indication that they may be regaining it, this felt like the early 2000's Patriots: keep it close with defense, let Brady win it for us at the end, Considering that this won them 3 Superbowl's Patriots fans should be happy to see it again. There is still a very long way to go for New England, but today they took steps in the right direction, even if it meant doing things the old way.
Some information: Luka is MIA due to being swamped with exams, expect articles about the Eagles from him when he finishes them all (or attacks a helpless TA).
-Daki
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