The Patriots had a ridiculous season this year.  They won the Super Bowl for the second time in three years.  They won 15 games in a row and went 10-0 against teams with winning records. They also played some of the closest and most exciting games I’ve ever seen.  So what was the best part of the season?  The incredible run and great wins?  The amazingly entertaining games?  Or just all the incredible memories I have of the season?

Reasons why the 2003 Patriots may be the best team ever:

• Super Bowl XXXVIII Champions
• 17-2 Overall
• 15 Wins in a row
• 10-0 vs winning teams
• Beating both co-MVP’s not once but twice
• Beating Denver in Denver, Miami in Miami, and Indianapolis in Indianapolis
• Shutting out Dallas, Miami, and Buffalo
• Allowing only 22 points in their last 6 regular season home games
• Going 6-0 against teams that made the playoffs last year
• Doing all this with injuries to their best LBs, WRs, CB and OLs
• Never even trailing in a game from November 23rd until the Super Bowl
• Making the Colts punt for the first time in the playoffs after scoring on every drive the week before
• Making Peyton Manning throw his first interception of the playoffs, then intercepting three more
• The Patriots used a record high 45 different starters and still went 17-2

Reasons why the 2003 Patriots season may have been the most exciting ever:

• Winning ten games by 8 points or less
• Winning 4 games on last second scoring drives
• Beating the Jets 23-16 at home with an interception return for a TD in the final minutes by rookie Asante Samuel
• Defeating the Titans 38-30 at home with an 78 yard interception return by Ty Law in the final minutes to clinch the win
• Beating the Dolphins 19-13 in Miami in OT with an 92 yard pass to Troy Brown after blocking a Miami FG attempt to even make it to OT
• Beating the Broncos 30-26 on a winning TD with 30 seconds left after an intentional safety to save time
• Beating the Texans 23-20  in OT after coming back from a fourth quarter deficit to tie the game on a TD pass to Graham with seconds left in regulation
• Scoring on a kickoff return on the last second of the first half to regain momentum against the Colts
• Defeating the Colts 38-34 by stopping them from reaching the endzone on four consecutive plays from the two yard line
• Maintaing the shutout and matching 31-0 score against the Bills with the interception in the endzone in the final minutes
• Defeating the Titans 17-14 in the AFC Divisional Playoffs
• Defeating the Colts 24-14 in the AFC Championship game in the snow with 4 INTs
• Winning the most exciting Super Bowl ever 32-29 over the Panthers, with 37 points scored in the fourth quarter plus 24 points scored in the last 4 minutes of the first half

All the amazing memories this season brought me:

• Bob Kraft’s speech after the AFC Championship praising the fans for braving the various weather conditions and screaming until we had no voice left:
• The Patriots incredible 32-29 win over the Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII
• Throwing snow in the air after Tedy Bruschi’s touchdown against the Dolphins
• Going to four games in the snow
• Going to any game while the Patriots were on an incredible win streak, were the best team in the NFL, and everyone in the stadium was just full of happiness.
• Singing “let it snow” at the stadium and dancing in the stands to another Pats win.
• Watching the Patriots defeat co-MVP Peyton Manning in the AFC Championship Game in the snow, with 4 interceptions, after the Colts scored on every possession the previous week.
• Chanting “PUNT!!!” at the Colts in the AFC Championship game for their first punt of the playoffs, which proceeded to be snapped over the punter’s head.
• Watching the Patriots defeat the Tennessee Titans and co-MVP Steve McNair in the 5 degree weather in Foxboro in the playoffs.
• Watching as the Patriots made the most incredible goal line stand ever, stopping the Colts for four plays from a yard out to win the game, eventually earning them home field advantage.
• Watching the Patriots win 15 games in a row as a team.
• Watching the Patriots defeat former coach Bill Parcells in a 12-0 shutout.
• Watching the Patriots shutout three teams at home and give up no touchdowns for 4 straight home games.
• Screaming my lungs out for the defense to stop the other team, and then always seeing them do just that
• Did I mention throwing snow in the air at any of the four snow games?

The Game

This game, Super Bowl XXXVIII was one of the best games ever. It was absolutely insane. 37 points scored in the 4th quarter!!! This was a supposed to be a very defensive game and it was for a while. There were no points scored in the first 27 minutes of the game or in the third quarter as well. But it got down to the end of the game and the Panthers scored to make it 21-16. The Patriots drove down the field to try to put it away and give the Patriots a comfortable lead, but Brady got picked off in the endzone. The Panthers hit an 85 yard touchdown pass and took a 22-21 lead after failing on the 2 point conversion. But the Patriots drove right back down the field and scored on a touchdown pass to LB Mike Vrabel. The Patriots also got the two point conversion on a direct snap to Faulk, so the game was 29-22 all with 2:51 left in the game. But the Panthers were able to drive down the field again and tie the game with a pass to Ricky Proehl. This drive was helped by the fact that both the Patriots starting safeties were now out with injuries. Rodney Harrison and Eugene Wilson had been replaced by Chris Akins and rookie special teamer Shawn Mayer. Now the Pats were going to get the ball back with a score tied at 29 all and a 1:08 left. They got a little help with Kasey’s kick going out of bounds and the Patriots started at the 40. Brady made some huge passes to Brown, Graham, and Branch, including one that was called back, setting Vinatieri up for a 41 yard game winning field goal. And so, with Vinatieri’s kick, the Patriots were world champions once again, with a 32-29 victory.

The Win

This was another incredible win and concluded an amazing season. It feels a lot different than the win in Super Bowl XXXVI though. I think there’s a number of reason for that. For one thing, Super Bowl XXXVI was a terrific upset over a heavily favored Rams team. And also I was at that Super Bowl and I think that makes a huge difference. Being at the game not only gets you so much more involved in the game but it also is a much better way to watch it. On TV you’re not allowed to see the receivers down field at all. But I think mainly it’s that that season they had no respect unless they won that game. This game was just another part of the season. Just the 15th straight win in the bunch. It was important to get but they had an amazing season whether they won the game or not. And it was expected for them to win, rather than such a shocking Super Bowl win. But it marks the end of an amazing season where they won 15 in a row, won the world championship, and went 17-2 overall.

The Players

There were some amazing performances in this game. Just amazing. Tom Brady, obviously, had a great great game, completing 32 of 48 passes for 354 yards and 3 touchdowns. Then there’s Mike Vrabel, who had 4 tackes, 2 sacks, a forced fumble, and a touchdown catch! All the receivers came up huge, with Branch catching 10 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. Brown had 8 catches for 76 yards and had some huge catches on the final drive to get the winning field goal. Even Ken Walter managed to kick a 51 yard punt at one point in the game. But I think the best performers in the game were probably the offensive line. They were facing the best defensive line in the league and they held them to 0 sacks. They also were able to produce 127 rushing yards in the game. For the offensive line to be able to give Brady that kind of time that he had and to get all those rushing yards, was amazing.

How good?

How good were these Patriots? They won Super Bowl XXXVIII. They won 15 games in a row. They went 17-2 on the season. They were 10-0 against winning teams. The only team to win more games in a row were the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who were undefeated at 17-0. But they had a much easier schedule. The 2003 Patriots were 10-0 against winning teams and 6-0 against teams that were 10-6 or better. I would say one of the best teams of all time.

The future

The future looks great. I mean, what holes and problems do they have? You can always improve the offensive and defensive lines. And the linebackers are getting fairly old. The only other question is how much we’re willing to pay to keep Ty Law and if we try to upgrade at running back. But with Roosevelt Colvin coming back from injury next year and 4 picks in the first two rounds of next years draft, the team looks really good. The one thing to consider is that the Patriots were able to win the Super Bowl two years ago with a much less talented team. Belichick is that good of a coach that even with a less talented team they can win and with the draft picks they have the team should only be getting better. It’s really exciting.

Some quotes

Here are some interesting quotes I found in the Boston Globe after the Super Bowl.

“Here’s all you have to know about our team,” Belichick said. “We won all those games in a row, and not one person wants to take credit for it. Not one guy. Brady credits the offensive line. The coaches credit the players. Ty [Law] got three interceptions in the AFC Championship game, and he says the pressure from the defensive line made it possible. How cool is that?”

And here is a description of Belichick’s pregame speech. Belichick said something to the effect of, “Everybody’s talking about the how Panthers are similar to us. They’re not us. They’ll never be [expletive] us. They’ll never be champions. We’re the [expletive] champions, and the trophy is coming back where it belongs.”

Doesn’t it worry you that everyone is so confident about this Super Bowl for the Patriots?  It worries me because I remember all the Rams fans on the way to the game and how confident they were that the Rams would win.  There was not an ounce of doubt in their minds.  Not only did they expect a win, but they expected a blowout.  I just really hope that people aren’t too over confident and there’s not anything like that happening again.  But at least no one is expecting a blowout.

So when game time finally comes, these are the questions early on that I think will decide the game:

• Can the Patriots protect Brady from the Panthers pass rush?
• Can the Patriots run the ball effectively?
• Will the Patriots be able to stop the Panthers running game?
• How many interceptions will the Patriots get?
• Will the Panthers score at all on the Patriots?

Really I think the Patriots should be able to shut down the Panthers offense.  They have a great run defense and great pass defense.  I would not be surprised if the Panthers are held to 6 points or less.  The only problem is the same can be said for the Panthers defense.  I’m hoping the Patriots defense can create some turnovers and give the offense good field position to make it easier to score on that tough Carolina defense.  That is really the key.

This was an incredible season. The Patriots went 14-2 in the regular season, another 2-0 in the playoffs and they were undefeated (10-0) at home.  They are riding a 14 game win streak, which is the longest streak to end a season other than the 1972 Dolphins, who went undefeated.  I do have a few vivid memories from the season. The first is when the Patriots played the Colts during the regular season. And the Colts got down to the 2 yard line, down 4 points, needing to score a touchdown.  And somehow the Patriots stopped them four consecutive times.  The memory of Willie McGinest running into the backfield and tackling Edgerrin James is still pretty vivid in my mind.  The second memory is of the Dolphins game at Gillette in December.  There was a huge blizzard, none of the lots were plowed, and I had to walk 3+ miles to the stadium from where we parked.  We got there in the second quarter, and of course the stadium isn’t shoveled or anything either.  But then in the fourth quarter, right in front of me (my seats are on the goal line) Tedy Bruschi picks off a pass and runs 5 yards into the endzone and slides in on his knees.  And then all the fans started throwing snow in the air.  There was nothing more fun than that.  I really want to try to find the picture of Bruschi there on his knees in the endzone with the fans behind there throwing snow in the air.  The final great memory I have is after the AFC Championship game.  They presented the trophy to the team and Bob Kraft made a speech about how great the fans were and that this trophy was for them.  It was really awesome.

So now here we are at the second Super Bowl in three years and the third in 8.  Hard to believe that in the time I’ve been going to games no team has been to more Super Bowls.  Ok, that’s impossible to believe.  Especially since it’s not like they were a great team most of that time.  They were really pretty bad for a while in the early 90’s and late 90’s.  Anyway, this Super Bowl is a chance to really become one of those great teams in history.  Not just with 2 SB’s in three years but also what would be a 15 game winning streak.

A lot of people seem to think that the Patriots should easily win this game. I don’t think so.  I think this game will be tougher than the Colts or Titans games.  Because the Patriots match up well against teams with good offenses and just easily shut them down.  Against a team with a great defense, their offense becomes the key, and that makes things harder.  But in the games we’ve played against great defenses (Miami and Dallas) we won both 12-0.  I think with the Panthers offense vs the Patriots defense, there is a real chance that the Patriots could hold them scoreless.  At any rate, I don’t think game will be all that easy like some think, but I do still think the Patriots will win.  My prediction for the score is 17-6.  I can’t wait.

The Game - I was really excited about this game. It was wet and snowy and just beautiful weather for the game. I really thought the Patriots would beat the Colts in this game. All week people were talking about the Colts amazing offense, which scored 79 points in their first two playoff games. But I know that in the matchup of a good offense and a good defense the defense usually wins. And I remember that back in 2001, the Colts came in the third week having put up close to 80 points in their first two weeks and we beat them 44-13. The game today was much closer than it should have been. The Patriots had the ball in the red zone 7 times (7 times!!!) but they only got 1 touchdown out of it. Thankfully Vinatieri connected on all five of his field goal attempts and the Patriots won the game 24-14. But if we had just converted a few more touchdowns (we stalled on the three yard line so many times) it could have been a blowout.

My throat still hurts from screaming at the game. One thing you don’t realize about that sort of thing is how tiring it is. I was screaming so hard my whole body was shaking and by the end of the game I was exhausted. But I think hopefully we helped the defense. On the Colts first offensive drive Rodney Harrison intercepted Manning directly in front of my seats in the endzone. As the Patriots usually do, they took a lead, then sort of slowed down, got a little scare from the other team, and then had a defensive stand.

The Players - Who was the star of this game? There were a few, but the main star was Ty Law. Law had three interceptions of Manning. The first one was an incredible one handed catch where Ty Law had started out maybe 15 yards from where the ball was going. Law’s three interceptions were a huge part of stopping Manning and his offense. Law caught as many of Mannings passes as the guy he was covering, Marvin Harrison. Overall the Colts turned it over 5 times. Another huge star was Jarvis Green. Green, a second year player, had three sacks and multiple hurries on Manning. This was considerably impressive considering Green usually isn’t even a starter on the defense. Safeties Rodney Harrison and Eugene Wilson both made some great hits as well. On offense, Antowain Smith was clearly the star. He ran for 100 yards on 22 carries and broke some big gains during the game. Tom Brady put up decent numbers but was just unable to get it in the endzone so I can’t really say he played that well.

Super Bowl XXXVIII - So the Super Bowl is going to be the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots. Defense wins championships and now we have two great defenses playing each other for the championship. This kind of scares me because I know the Patriots can beat any offensive minded team since defense wins those matchups. But games with defensive teams are much tougher. I think the most comparable game this year may be the game with the Cowboys. The Cowboys had the #1 defense in the league (yardage wise at least) and an OK offense and we won 12-0. The Panthers probably have a more physical defense and certainly they are better on offense with much better running game. I think this game will be close but the Patriots have won their last 14 games so I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be able to win this one. As long as they don’t overlook the Panthers (no way Belichick will let them do that either) then they should go out and win. How is it possible they haven’t lost since September?

More thoughts - Some interesting things I found out about the Patriots 14 game win streak. Not only are they on this win streak, but they haven’t been behind in a game since Thanksgiving. That’s 7 games where they’ve never fallen behind at all. Also, the Patriots win streak is second all time in the NFL, the only team with a longer streak was the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins who went 17-0. Through each game the Patriots seem to get an early lead, and then just have to make some defensive stands at the end. Still it’s incredible to win 14 games in the NFL against so many good teams. The Patriots are now 9-0 against teams with winning records! Another stat is that Belichick is undefeated (5-0) in the playoffs as the Patriots head coach, as is Tom Brady. We’re going to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years!! And this time we’re actually expected to win. That part worries me. But the Patriots never ever overlook anyone and it’s not like they can look past this game or anything. Houston!!

So the Patriots edged out the Titans in freezing cold weather in Foxboro. And now next week the Patriots will play the Colts for the AFC Championship here in Foxboro. The game temperature was only 5 degrees but I wore 24 articles of clothing, including 5 layers on my legs and 6 layers on my upper body so I was actually fairly warm. I did end up losing my voice some by the the end of the Titans last drive that ended on fourth down.

So right now the four teams left are the Patriots, Colts, Eagles, and Panthers. The Rams lost in double overtime yesterday to the Panthers and today the Eagles beat the Packers in overtime. In the Rams game, at the end of regulation, the Rams were down in Carolina territory and chose to run the clock down and kick a field goal to tie rather than even try to throw in the endzone and win. Everytime I watch a Rams game I wonder, “how the hell is Mike Martz a head coach?” Decisions like that one, to not even try to win the game, are just baffling. It’s too bad because if the Rams made the super bowl there could have been some interesting matchups. A Rams Titans superbowl rematch, a Pats Rams superbowl rematch, or a Vermeil Rams reunion. Right now I’m not sure who I’d like to see when the NFC. I think I’d rather root for Carolina but I’d rather have the Patriots play the Eagles. If the Eagles and Patriots do make it, the Patriots would play all three playoff games against teams they already played and beat in the regular season, something I’m sure almost never happens. To beat three playoff teams twice each would leave no doubt that the Patriots are truly the best team. But unlike in 2001, everyone does think they’re the best team.

As for the game next week, watching the Colts today worried me. The Colts just easily ran over the Chiefs defense (or lack thereof) on every drive. The only drive where the Colts didn’t score was the end of the first half. And they were only held to a field goal once. They had 5 touchdowns and a field goal on 7 possessions. And it wasn’t even close either; the Colts receivers were wide wide open. And there was no pressure on Manning whatsoever. In the Patriots earlier game with the Colts, we won 38-34 on a last second goal line stand. However a huge part of the Colts scoring 34 points were the three turnovers the Patriots had. If we can play better football and not turn the ball over then this defense is good enough to keep the Colts to a manageable score. Still the Colts offense and Peyton Manning have been on fire for the first two games of the playoffs so it will be tough to stop them. This game definitely worries me.

The Game - This was an incredible game.  To come out and just move the ball at will on offense like that, and then to be able to completely shut down the Bills offense as well (I think Bledsoe had like 83 yards passing), is just incredible.  Here’s how ridiculous this game was: The Patriots had three touchdowns before Bledsoe had even completed a pass!!  And the Patriots won with a score of 31-0, exactly the score by which the Bills had beaten them at the start of the season.  This is one of those rare times when probably hundreds of people correctly predicted the score of the football game (something that the odds of doing are like one in a million).  In the second half, it almost looked like the Patriots were trying to play for that score.

A shutout - The defense made some great plays to get this shutout.  Their third shutout in their last four home games!  They hadn’t shutout a team since 96, now they shutout 3 in one season.  But there were some huge plays for this shutout.  I think one big thing some people probably missed was Bethel Johnson on kickoff coverage.  He chased a guy down from more than 15 yards behind to tackle him at the 18 and save the touchdown.  Which allowed the defense to come in and preserve the shutout.  And then of course there is the goal line stand at the end of the game.  The backups were all in playing and the Bills drive down to the two.  So most of the starters come back in to try to keep the shutout.  We can spot the Bills 98 yards and against our defense those last two will still be impossible.  And after a great fake by Brown (from my seats on the side of that endzone, I was shocked when the QB still had the ball), we got the interception and held the shutout.  What I thought was really incredible was that in a 31-0 game that was over in the first quarter and was being played in cold weather, almost all the fans were there to yell and scream during the final goal line stand.

The Playoffs - Home field advantage for the playoffs is going to make the Patriots very tough to beat in the first two games.  The Patriots were a great team this year home and away but at home they were amazing.  On offense, Brady did not throw any interceptions at home.  On defense, they only allowed one touchdown in their last 6 games.  They shutout their opponent in 3 of their last four games.  In their last 6 games, they gave up a total of 22 points, coming out to an average of just over 3 a game.  I would love to see both the offensive and defensive stats of the Patriots at home this season and see how they rate with home records of great teams from the past because I can’t imagine there are many teams that are better defensively at home.  Gillette Stadium will be rocking in two weeks for the playoffs and I can’t wait!

The Patriots are now the AFC East Division Champions!! And they have the #1 record in the AFC!!!  So ridiculous!

This game was so much fun.  It was hell to get there and it was pretty cold but it was tons of fun.  Let’s see, I left my apartment originally at 10:30 am (for a 4pm game!).  After about an hour I gave up on getting my car out of the snow and decided to catch the 1pm train.  I got home at 2 and left for the game at 3 for what is usually a 15 minute drive and then a 20 minute walk.  So we left at 3 and at 4:30 we were still driving stuck about 4 miles from the stadium.  Finally we found a store with a plowed lot and just parked there about 3 miles from the stadium, maybe a little more.  So I actually parked farther away than my old house was.  When we finally walked the 3 miles to the stadium you could see that most of the lots were covered in snow and the cars that were getting in were entering a lot that they were plowing right then.  So we got to the game for the end of the first half.

The game was awesome.  There weren’t too many fans there and there wasn’t much offense out on the field.  But it was pretty awesome when Brooks Bernard (the new punter) punted a ball out at the four.  Right in front of my endzone.  Then Fiedler tosses a pass out and Bruschi jumps up to get it.  Touchdown!! Awesome!  Fans started throwing big piles of snow in the air and it was the best TD celebration ever.  That was so much fun.  It looked like lots of little snow geysers or something and we continued on with it for like ten minutes.  Hopefully they showed it on TV.  Then a few plays later the Pats have fourth down and Brady comes out and Tom Brady (the QB) punts the ball and its downed on the one.  HOLY SHIT!  Tom Brady can punt now too.  So now the Dolphins are stuck on the one and everyone is screaming for a safety.  And some asshole fans in the endzone are throwing snowballs at the Dolphins, which is like, how dumb are you.  We’ve got them pinned on the one and you are throwing snowballs at them.  Finally on fourth down, Fiedler is brought down in the endzone for the safety.  12-0 Pats!  And more snow flying in the air.

So what is so ridiculous about this game?  Well the Pats shut out the Dolphins 12-0 (both their shutouts have been 12-0 this year).  The defense scored 9 of their 12 points proving what an incredible defense this is.  Look at what this defense has down the last four weeks.  The defense shut out Dallas and Miami at home.  On the road in Houston, they actually managed to push the Texans five yards back out of field goal range in OT to allow the offense to win it.  And of course against the Colts they wouldn’t give up the last yard to Manning and James on 4 tries to win it.  And against the Dolphins, not only a shutout but they score 9 points themselves.  Insane!

More random thoughts about the game…  We’ve always had a lot of fans of Vinatieri because he’s such a clutch kicker and won those playoff games and Super Bowl for us two years ago.  There’s even signs in the stadium for him.  And now the fans are really excited about having a new punter instead of Walter who couldn’t punt 20 yards.  So the biggest cheers come when Vinatieri or Walter enter the field  Our fans cheer for the punter and kicker!

The Patriots look really good. We’re 11-2 and we’ve already won our division.  With KC losing to Denver we now have the best record in the AFC by virtue of the conference record tiebreaker. So we’re in position to get home field advantage.  We’ve got two of the next three games at home and we’re guaranteed at least one home playoff game.  So awesome!

So this was a crazy game, which I arrived at 7 hours after I originally left.  It had the best celebrations ever and a shutout victory to seal the AFC East and give us the best record in the conference.  The stars of this game were Harrison coming up huge on defense as always along with Bruschi with the interception for the TD.

HOLY SHIT!!!!
completely unbelievable!

4 plays for the colts to get 1 yard and Ted Washington and Willie McGinest come up HUGE!
and Bethel Johnson’s 160 yds of kickoff returns whenever they needed it. that defense is absolutely incredible.

oh and ken walter sucks. an 18 yard punt??? with 3 minutes left?????
and what strange play calling and some odd throws by brady at the end.

This defense is absolutely incredible.  Amazing.  I don’t understand how that is possible.

Who would have thought that after going scoreless in their first games, the Patriots and Eagles would be on 8 and 7 game win streaks and be two of the favorites for the Super Bowl??

So after 9 games and so many injuries, the Patriots are 7-2.  What does this mean?  Well here is their remaining schedule:DALLAS
@Houston
@Indianapolis
MIAMI
@Jacksonville
NEW YORK JETS
BUFFALO

The Dallas and Indy games will be really tough but we have two weeks to prepare for Dallas and it’s a home night game so I think we should be able to pull out the win there.  I think there’s a very good chance that we could lose just one game the rest of the season and end the season at 13-3.  At the very worst, we go 4-3 and end up at 11-5.

So what sort of good and bad things do we have from this season so far?

Good:

• The Patriots are 7-2!!!
• Even with tons of injuries (this week playing without their best defensive player in Richard Seymour and still winning on Monday night in Denver) they are still winning
• The rookies and second year players are playing amazingly well so when the injured players start to come back this team will be very deep.
• Brady has proved consistently that he can throw the deep ball and as speedy Bethel Johnson improves, the Patriots will be able to stretch the field even more.
• The Patriots offensive line, playing with rookie Dan Koppen and former backup Tom Ashworth, has played extremely well.  They are giving Brady lots of time to throw and creating some decent holes for running.

Bad:

• Even at 7-2, if the season ended today, the Pats wouldn’t get a bye week.  In the AFC, the Chiefs are 8-0 an the Colts are 7-1.
• The Patriots are still struggling in the running game.  This week against Denver, they continued to try to run Antowain Smith, even though Kevin Faulk has been impressive lately, and came through especially in the last two minutes of the game.  Why continue using Smith when we have Faulk?
• The Patriots are still being killed by penalties, having 14 this week in Denver.

So what is the outlook for the rest of the season?  As the rest of the injured players come back, with Seymour, Johnson, Washington, and Patten coming back and Law and Brown hopefully getting up to 100% over the bye, the team will be much better and much deeper.  The Patriots need to come out strong against the Cowboys and Colts and can’t let up in their other games either.  Then the Patriots will need to start looking and hoping for the Chiefs and Colts to start losing some games so they can get a bye week.  But the outlook is very good.