Thoughts on Week 11

After week 11, we found out a couple of things about the Patriots' chances of running the table:

1. The Colts are cooked. Unless Peyton learns to become the 2006 Tom Brady in the next 5 weeks, they may be one and done in the playoffs.

2. The Jets got some mojo back this weekend by beating the Steelers. What does that mean for their showdown with the Patriots? Only that when the 80th point is scored by the Patriots, there will be some angry cheap shots and pushing. Picture Ralphie in Christmas Story when he's beating up Scott Fargas and crying and swearing the whole time. The only difference here is that Scott Fargas will win ("He has yellow eyes!").

3. The Ravens' defense doesn't look like it can stay with the Patriots offense at all and that's not even considering the Kyle Boller vs NE defense factor. Boller is Tony Eason reborn. And unfortunately for them McNair isn't able to fill in as Steve Grogan and pull off a naked bootleg to save the day.

4. The Steelers are emotionally drained, which is why they lost. That is the spin coming from the sportswriters who are still holding out hope (albeit a small hope) that they can strike down the Patriots (which of course would make them more powerful than they could possibly imagine). That's right. The only thing that would make these Patriots even stronger is a random loss. But it won't be coming from these Steelers. The "send exotic blitzes to get to brady" thing doesnt work if you dont have freeney AND mathis on your line.

5. The Giants have a winning record so they'll still be mentioned as a possible challenge in week 16. I don't think the Giants are any better than the Bills.


Elsewhere the day after Week 11:

• The Buffalo News on the anti-christ Bill Belichick: This may come as a blow to his stadium-sized ego, but Belichick didn't become a genius until an injury knocked Drew Bledsoe out of the lineup in 2001, opening the door for Brady. Belichick was a sub-.500 coach before the emergence of Touchdown Tommy. Thanks Scott for that great analysis. I'm surprised no one has brought that up before. Of course they feel a little stupid when someone reminds them that Belichick's defensive gameplan from the Giants Superbowl XXV win sits behind glass in Canton. I'm just guessing but I don't know that the hall of fame is littered with defensive gameplans.

• The "how can we keep Brady from winning the MVP" movement keeps taking new turns. This week it's "let's give to to Moss and T.O. because they are the biggest difference makers on those teams." This typically leads to the idea that Brady wasn't that good but now looks great because of Moss. In MVP debates this is what drives me the most crazy. If you're for Moss being MVP, don't you look at what he's done the last few years, then see what he's doing this year and say "well he got to play with Tom Brady" more than the other way around? I'd be fine with a co-MVP for Brady and Moss, because they're both going to set records at their position, but don't even try to tell me T.O. is an MVP. I'll take the ultimate warrior Brett "Beowulf" Favre over T.O. first. Eventually this will be a moot point because T.O. isn't going to match Moss' season output and Brady will have provided the best season at QB in the history of the game (just ask John Madden).

• Get ready for a ton of "Brian Westbrook is the most underrated player in the NFL" stories this week. You know Sal Paolantonio will be taking copious notes to bring him back to earth in his next edition of overrated/underrated players/team ever/now.

• The Buffalo News story by Scott Potniak is the only column I could find this morning berating Belichick for running up the score (by the way did anyone else notice Wes Welker fair catching the ball in the 4th quarter when he had no one within 15 yards of him? It's things like that that are not noticed by the typical media hack, but is part of what is really done to be conservative for the sake of sportsmanship. Brady was already out of the game).

• McNabb's status for next Sunday's game against the Evil Patriots is uncertain. Everyone involved should just make it certain and have him take the week off. It's going to be ugly. And McNabb will not give you a chance to win. Let's remember that the Eagles are #3 on the Belichick Hit List after the Jets and Chargers. They want their rings back because the Patriots cheated.

• Rodney Harrison continued his entertaining "fly in out nowhere off-camera to deliver a death blow after the play is already whistled dead" moves last night. I counted 4 on the night and again I probably missed a couple.

• I really hope they re-sign Moss in the off-season. But even if they don't, they'll franchise him and pay Asante Samuel. And then they'll trade down in the draft so that some badly managed team, lets call them the Giants, will jump at the chance to get Darren McFadden with the Patriots #1 pick. Then the Patriots will get several picks, which will turn into corners, and linebackers, and running backs, oh my.

• If the Broncos somehow win their division and make it to round 2, Patriots fans will be nervous. No matter how awful they are, they will always scare us. I'd rather play the Steelers or Chargers than the Broncos.
  

Tomorrow, I expect the media hacks to file new condemnations of the Patriots because they didn't have time from the night game. And if they don't there is always Gregg Easterbrook to pick apart. I'll try to bring in an expert to dispute his astronomy lectures as well.