POSTED 11:12 p.m. EST, November 18, 2007
PATS GO TOO FAR, AGAIN
With a bye during Week Ten and a close game against the Colts before that, it has been three weeks since we've seen the Ferrari among a flock of Fords that is the New England Patriots.
And it's clear to us that coach Bill Belichick still doesn't know, or care, if he laps the field 50 times.
Twice in the third quarter while sporting huge leads, the Patriots kept the field goal unit on the sidelines for a fourth down deep in the Bills' end. On the second occasion, the Pats were up 42-10 on the Buffalo 10 and New England faced fourth and one.
The groan of disapproval from the crowd at Ralph Wilson Stadium was barely audible over the comments of NBC's Al Michaels and John Madden, who seemed to see no problem with the maneuver.
We did, and we do. The Patriots are abusing their power, in our view, and they'd better hope that Earl Hickey is wrong about that whole karma thing.
We don't know whether it's karma or fate or just an innate sense of justice and fairness, but we've had a feeling for a couple of weeks now that something will happen to keep the Pats from getting to the Super Bowl or, when they do, someone like Brett Favre will find a way to chop down the beanstalk.
