The Patriots beat the Bills 13-0 yesterday to improve their record to 11-5 and miss the playoffs!!  But unlike some complainers, I think its totally fair.  There are six AFC teams in the playoffs.  Of those six, the Patriots played four of them.  And what happened?  They lost to all four!  Looking at it another way, of the Patriots five losses, four were to playoff teams (the fifth was in OT to the Jets).  Of course had David Thomas not made that late hit, or Jabar Gaffney not dropped that pass, or Ben Watson not fumbled that ball, or Brandon Meriweather made that 3rd and 15 tackle in OT, we probably would have won another game or two and be in the playoffs as AFC East champions….

This season has been a testament to how good the Patriots are at identifying and developing players. They’ve played every game with their backup QB Matt Cassel, who was ridiculed in the preseason and had never started in college. They played many games with their fifth running back, BenJarvus Green-Ellis. They’ve been forced to start backup offensive lineman Mark LeVoir, backup tight ends Tyson Devree and Steven Spach, backup linebackers Gary Guyton, and Vince Redd.  They had to go out and sign Junior Seau and Rosie Colvin from retirement to come play on the team. And they’ve started games with rookies Jerod Mayo, Vince Redd, Gary Guyton, and Terence Wilhite on defense.  And for the most part, they’ve succeeded.  It shows how good they are at picking out players, and perhaps more importantly, how good they are at coaching them up, and putting them in a position to succeed in their system.

On another note, NFL.com has a video up of Belichick during the Patriots practices in California before the Oakland game, when he was wearing a wire. He’s getting advice from Moss on the Raiders D, joking with Mayo about buying new trucks (”thats first round money” Moss says), and checking on Matt Cassel.  Interesting insight into how practices go with Belichick.

Wow!  What a dominating performance by the Patriots.  They came out hard, pounding the ball with Lamont Jordan and Sammy Morris behind Russ Hochstein playing at full back. They continued with some great passing by Matt Cassel (345 yards, 3 TD’s) and a lot of great plays by the receivers, especially Jabar Gaffney.  But I think the highlight of this performance was the defense.  They held the Cardinals to at least seven 3&outs (I lost count), as well as two turnovers. At the end of the first quarter, the Cardinals had had 4 drives for a total of 0 yards. ZERO!

The Patriots sure do seem to be picking up steam heading into the end of the season.  Now they have to hope they can make it to the playoffs.  They need to win next week against Buffalo and have either (a) the Jets beat or tie the Dolphins to win the AFC East or (b) the Jaguars beat or tie the Ravens to grab the last wildcard spot.  If neither of those happens, the Patriots could be left out with an 11-5 record.  So let’s go Jets!!!!

A very tough win.  But a win.  The Patriots gave up 14 points early, but slowly crawled their way back.  And now we’re back in the race for the AFC East!