Tom Brady shook off one of the worst games of his career and had a relatively quiet game throwing for two touchdowns and more importantly, having no turnovers. The Patriots have played three out of their first four games away from Foxborough and are sitting at a record of 3-1, I think most coaches in the NFL would love to be in their position right now. The Buffalo Bills loss coupled with (at the time of this writing) the Jets losing to the Ravens, means that New England will be atop their division once again (tied with the Bills). With seven home games left, it's hard to see this team finishing with less than 10 wins overall. Wes Welker once again dominated proceedings, did you know he already has 40 catches this year? This game he had 9 of them to go with 158 yards, considering that only 16 passes were completed by Brady, this is huge! He was responsible for more than half of the Patriots offence (by air), I feel safe in saying that if Welker gets injured and has to sit out more than 2 games that this team would be in some serious trouble. Chad Ochocinco continues his relatively quiet season; today he had 2 catches (although he was targeted only 2 times) for 26 yards. Cabrock speculated in his last article that this could be a result of him not understanding New England's offence yet. if this is the case then Chad has 13 weeks to figure it out if he wants to contribute to this team. In the playoffs (assuming the Patriots make it) New England can not rely only on Welker as a primary wide receiver if they want to contend.
Defensively, the Patriots finally held a team to under 20 points, this is a good sign after being torched by Buffalo last week. Vince Wilfork had another pick (his only 2 career interceptions have come this year) and continued to be a beast on the defensive line, continually drawing double teams. Patrick Chung also came up with an interception and showed that he is a valuable player to this team (he missed the game against Buffalo). For some reason, (and I do not know enough about the technical aspects of football to explain this) Safeties seem to be really important to defenses (more so than other positions) and teams that had great safeties tend to have great defenses (Ed Reed, Bob Sanders, Troy Polamalu, Lawyer Miloy etc.). This is an open invitation to Cabrock Jones to try and explain this in writing, it is something I've been wondering for a long time, so Cabrock: Why do defenses in the NFL rely so much on safeties? and why do defenses under-perform when starting safeties are out? Anyways, today it was business as usual for the Patriots who now host the New York Jets next week. If the Ravens keep kicking their ass this game could put the Jets in jeopardy of missing the playoffs, should make for a very good game. Two quick notes: Tom Brady passed his idol Joe Montana (while playing where he grew up no less) on the all time Touchdowns list. Just another achievement to put on the hall of fame plaque reserved for him. Second thing, Brady cut his hair, Think what you will about this; my guess is that Belichick told him he's tired of his pretty-boy shit and that he wants him to take this season seriously. The only true contenders that have emerged so far are all in the NFC (Saints, Lions, Packers). Belichick senses that the AFC is weak and that this could be the Patriots year. Stay tuned.
