The 3-2 New England Patriots are in first place, and only one game back of the conference's best record. They're coming off a 43-17 blowout win over the Bengals, the league's last undefeated team and one thought by many to be the class of the NFL. Today, everything is fine. But depending on who you talked to last week, the Patriots were done and it was time for Tom Brady to retire.Brady clearly heard all the talk, and came out with a fire last night that we haven't seen in a while. But with a 7-0 lead during the Pats' second drive of the game, Brady threw one really bad pass behind Julian Edelman. It landed right in the hands of Cincinnati linebacker Emmanuel Lamar, who easily might have returned it the length of the field for a game-tying touchdown. Luckily for the Brady-Belichick dynasty, Lamar dropped the ball and New England was up 14-0 two plays later.
The Patriots offense sputtered a bit after that, failing to score on its next three drives and not getting into the endzone again until the second half. Had it been a 7-7 game, the Bengals would've had all the momentum and the final outcome might have been drastically different.
This morning the storylines surrounding Brady and the Patriots could easily be more of the gloom and doom we heard the previous week. But, thanks to that non-interception Brady is still a star, and New England can continue along the path to having the AFC East's best record for a 14th consecutive season while contending for another Super Bowl.
Do I actually believe all this? No. But it's fun to speculate and point out how ridiculous the media's overreactions are week to week.
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