This is the NFL we’re talking about, so keep your exuberance in check. At the start of this season, a road game at San Diego looked like a daunting task for the Patriots. Now, in the wake of the last few weeks, there are undoubtedly those of who see this game as a win.
Shame, shame, shame on you.
If Bill Belichick is a smart man – and he is – here is what he has been telling his team this week as the Pats prepare for a meeting with the Chargers: You ain’t done nothin’ yet. In most anything, what defines the very good from the pretty good is consistency, and the Patriots simply have not established that yet. Not these Pats, anyway. Not a mere five games into a season in which the Pats took more questions than they did into their previous five or six years combined.
So the Chargers are off to a poor start. Great. That should make you more concerned, not less.
.....
Let’s start with the most obvious: Philip Rivers is a good quarterback and the Patriots still have issues with the pass. There is the chance, we suppose, that we will someday look upon Devin McCourty and Kyle Arrington (or Darius Butler, or whomever) as we did Mike Haynes and Raymond Clayborn, but we’re not there yet. We’re not even remotely close. The Pats' defense still ranks at the bottom of the league on third down, so its success in that area in the Baltimore game must be regarded as an aberration.
At least until we get more evidence to the contrary.
