Roche: Show The Pats Some Love
I know the Patriots-Colts game came down to basically the final play as Peyton Manning tossed a last-minute interception. New England pulled out a 31-28 win. Yes, it was tighter than it should have been.
However, the bottom line is that your New England Patriots are 8-2.
I think it's time for Patriots fans to put aside any fears and fully commit to your team. These guys are good and getting better.
They have beaten some of the top teams in the NFL: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis. They lost to their AFC East rival the NY Jets. The rematch is two games away at Gillette Stadium.
Their one bad loss? A 34-14 loss November 7th at Cleveland. That loss bothers me, but not for the reason you might think. I simply think this young team(especially on defense) had a bad day at the office. Emotionally and physically they did not show up. The Browns, who were motivated by a head coach(Eric Mangini) who desperately wanted to beat his mentor(Bill Belichick), took it to the Patriots all day.
You know what? It happens.
Believe it or not, these guys are human. You certainly don't like to see it, but it can happen. What do you do? You respond the next time you play. They did. To the tune of 39-26 at Pittsburgh.
Time to let that Cleveland loss go.
The Patriots are playing better each week. They don't make too many mistakes. They stay away from dumb penalties and they make enough plays in all three phases of the game to win.
I think this is exactly what you wanted out of this defense as the season rolled along. Are they better after 10 games than they were on opening day? Absolutely. Will they keep getting better? Who knows, but they certainly are positioned to do so. The kids keep improving. Hernandez, Gronkowski, and Woodhead on offense. McCourty, Spikes, Cunningham, Chung, Deaderick, Brown, Arrington, and Prior on defense. Mesko and Tate on special teams.
What does this all mean? It means they are among the elite of the NFL as we hit Thanksgiving and they have a chance to do some damage in the postseason. However, they are still young.
A loss at Detroit? It would be disappointing, but it wouldn't stun me. It also wouldn't change how I feel about this team.
These New England Patriots are for real and with Belichick and Brady leading the way.......it could be a whole lot of fun come January.
