Felger wrote a fine piece.
What I wanted to talk about was Manning's Boasting, however. It is tasteless and not supported by the facts. His undefeated teams is the most flawed undefeated team I have ever seen!
* Every team has flaws this year. I was at the Colts game and I thought right up until theball went thru Faulk's hands into June's the Patriots were going to tie it up and I thought if they just played a little better on O throughout they could have won the game. The Colts D isn't that good.
But that ball that went thru Faulk's hand in the SB years would have been caught or if that was the other teams pass, would have been caught by Bruschi. Our Patriots have struggled against tha best teams the last 2 years. They beat the Steeler's in week 3 but that was before they went on thier role. They lost to the Colts and Bronco's both years.
After the Vikes win(I went to that game too) I was hoping it was the start of a reversal of this "trend", but the loss to da Dolts after the earlier loss to the Horses would show against the top teams the Patriots are still struggling. Even though they had thier chances against da Dolts, when the Patriots were riding high they capitalized on those chances. Doesn't mean they can't get better. The question is do the Patriots currently have the players to pull off the same result the Steelers did last year when they went on thier roll. It's possible. The remaining schedule is:
Sun 11/12/2006 1:00 PM vs Jets
Sun 11/19/2006 1:00 PM @ Packers
Sun 11/26/2006 1:00 PM vs Bears
Sun 12/3/2006 1:00 PM vs Lions
Sun 12/10/2006 1:00 PM @ Dolphins
Sun 12/17/2006 1:00 PM vs Texans
Sun 12/24/2006 1:00 PM @ Jaguars
Sun 12/31/2006 1:00 PM @ Titans
The Patriots could win every one of those games and still not be overly tested if you believe the Bears are overrated and leave the team not tested by the best the rest of the year. The best teams are still in the AFC. Two years of losing to da Dolts, Horses and getting thumped by even the Chargers the last few times the Patriots have played them may mean the Patriots aren't quite a top team currently. I don't mean to sound doom and gloom, but it is what it is and we are what we are. Every team has flaws. Are the Patriots flaws more exploitable than the other top AFC teams? "Today" it would seem so. Give it to the Colts. They have beaten the Bronco's and Patriots on thier fields. That's what the Patriots did in thier Super Bowl years.