TeamPats

With all the talk of our rollercoaster Offense and playcalling, let us not forget that this is McDaniels second year calling the plays and only Dean Pees's first. Our Defense has quietly given up the third fewest points in the NFL (and after Jax plays tonight we will likely be second and have given up the fewest in the AFC since we have only given up 4 more then them). Ironically enough the one team who will have given up fewer points then us will come into Foxboro next week.

My point is this, in Super Bowl teams of past it has always been our Defense that has been consistent while it was our Offense trying to find its identity up until December. This is nothing new guys and is in fact encouraging. There is no team in the NFL that can guarentee a consistent and powerful offense every week but you CAN on Defense. Let Brady and the gang have their ups and downs and figure out what works and what doesn't, it seems like every year that squad must find a new identity which is really what makes Brady so great, his ability to improvise and adapt. But for now, let's just tip our caps to Pees and Belichick for once again assembling one of the top Defenses in the country even with the absense of Harrison.

P.S. Hawkins you are as, if not more, important to this team then Seymour this year. Keep it up guys.

__________________
In front of his team after a 28-10 loss to the Packers in 2002, Belichick said: "We have a lot of smart guys in this room, but on the football field we play like a bunch of f------- morons. If you are one of the players flinching at the harshness of these words, you might as well begin packing. There is no way you are going to last as a New England Patriot."

OsloRhino

I have to agree with NEM.

You can have the best D in the world, but unless you can threaten to put points on the board, then you are going to win diddly squat.

I guarantee that neither Chicago nor Baltimore will be in the bowl this year as good a set of D's as they are.

I genuinely believe that if you can put 21 points on any team in the league, then you can win it all. Can the Pats put 21 on Indy? Yes. Can they put it on Denver? Not as of press.

Could they put it on Chicago? Yes. If "Da Bears" have any weakness, its that their D is overly aggressive, as Miami showed. Give Brady four seconds, and he'd be able to put Watson away more times than I could imagine. I also suspect that NE would give Dillon a lot of ball in order to eat up the clock.

Thomas Jones doesn't scare me in the least, and even our Secondary could do a job on their pass offence.

The Gr8est

As the saying goes " If you score you MIGHT win, but if the other team doesn't score, they CAN'T win."

Aqua4Ever04

I think that saying is totally cliche. Miami has the 2nd best defense in the NFL and is scoring points themselves. Meanwhile, the offense is still enept and it has left the Fins on life support at 4-6.