What we now know about the Patriots

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, November 29, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

New England Patriots
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In sloppy fashion, the New England Patriots have sent a message to the NFL: "As long as Rex Grossman is throwing the ball, we can go all the way this season."

Just kidding. Halfway.

With the 17-13 must-win win over the Chicago Bears in the key game of week, the Patriots did indeed show their hand in what was ceaselessly hyped as a matchup which would "tell us a lot about these two teams going into the playoffs." Right, then. Lessons learned from Bill Belichick, et al, as they cruise into the playoffs are the following:

These Patriots are thin. The rhetoric on New England is quite familiar: Yes, The System is awesome, but ultimately you cannot create a starting roster of guys from the XFL and the YMCA and expect to win. Now that old faithful Troy Brown is playing more and more 'D' to help cobble together a secondary, Tom Brady's third option out there is, well, Kevin Faulk, maybe. Or Laurence Maroney. (Sudden thought: Maybe the Patriots should move Mike Vrabel to the offense full-time. Dude had, what, three TD receptions last season?)

And they just got thinner. Or, to put it another way...

Junior Seau's career is over. C'mon, you saw the close-up. That was nearly Joe Theismann-level ugly. The guy walked off the field with it covered from view. Can anyone say, "career-ending?" The final line on Seau says 1,735 tackles, 53 sacks. Football fans will miss him, and Patriots fans will more, although they hardly knew him...

On the plus side, the Patriots showed the best defense in football. This writer opined so last week; the win over Dah Bears should give these guys a well-earned reputation. The Pats' defense executed an excellently-called game plan throughout, pressuring the shaky Grossman for most of the 31 minutes, two seconds Chicago had the ball. And New Englanders have got to be taking heart in the stunning play of the long-infuriating Asante Samuel recently. Three picks? If he can keep this up...

Brady can run. All right, all right...in all statistic-speaking seriousness, most of Brady's career runs have been kneel-downs, now the domain of Vinny Testaverde. Brady has a pitiful 394 yards to show for his 220 career carries for a gaunt 1.8 average. But, hey, you've gotta give him props for the fake in his hilarious 11-yard run and subsequent Roy Williams-esque first-down celebration.

"I'll tell my kids one day I slipped Brian Urlacher," ran Brady's well-publicized quote after the game.

After the play, cameras caught Brady approaching the former University of New Mexico Lobo and saying something, probably along those lines. Urlacher was not amused.

Stephen Gostkowski will be OK. The much-maligned rookie kicker has been forced to step into the legend-sized shoes of Adam Vinatieri for the 2006 season. Until this game, Gostkowski has slowly won back a little confidence. Going into the Bears game, Gostkowski had just 14 field-goal attempts this season (he's currently ranked 27th in that category) and started the season succeeding on just 3-of-6. The young guy showed cool in Foxborough this past week, though, at the end of the first half. After the Bears' defense called a timeout to nullify Gostkowski's miffed attempt, the kicker placed the second one just well enough to nail the 52-yarder. He's now 8-of-9 since Week 5, folks.

You can throw away the numbers. Sure, the Pats are thin and a bit inconsistent (where was the running game?), but as the pundits say, "They know how to win." In a must-show, must-see, must-win game, the Patriots won, and you get the feeling they're just gearing up; after all, this team is now 26-5 in the last six weeks of the season.

No one, as they say, wants to face these guys in the playoffs. Just ask the Bears.

Follow the New England Patriots into the playoffs at RealFootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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