Meditations on a 31-7 victory

Odds and ends, following Monday night's Patriot demolition of the Vikings...

• Several years ago, the Monday Night Football powers-that-be decided that just listing the starting lineups wasn't good enough - they had to actually take the field off-screen and allow each starter to introduce himself. Amusing once, this very quickly became tedious and obnoxious, as players would throw out nicknames of schools while attempting to present the best "attitude" that they could muster. This year, they've changed it a little, in that they allow one player for each unit to introduce himself and some of his teammates.
  
  Not an improvement.


• The combination of the Colts victory over Denver, and the Patriots victory over Minnesota, moved New England into the 2nd seed slot in the AFC. It also gave them the fabled "control over their own destiny." Indianapolis comes to Gillette Stadium on Sunday night. A Patriots win moves them into the top seed slot in the AFC. If they win out, they're number one, with a bye and homefield through the playoffs. Now that Denver's lost, the Patriots don't need any help to accomplish that.


• Three men in the broadcast booth sort of worked once, back in the 70s when Howard Cosell was still there. It hasn't worked since. The Dennis Miller experiment was a disaster. Apparently no one learned from it, leading to the painful presence of Tony Kornheiser on the MNF broadcast.


• Speaking of Kornheiser, we were treated - again - to a fundamental misunderstanding about the way the Patriots do business. "Here's their organization motto - they don't pay a lot of money and they are not sentimental." While the latter is basically true, the former is nonsense. It represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what's going on. Tom Brady is making a lot of money. Richard Seymour is making a lot of money. Adam Vinatieri was one of the highest paid kickers in the game for the past couple of years. Dan Koppen's now one of the highest paid centers. They pay up to the salary cap every year. Billy Yates, the 3rd string guard who played so well last night was signed to the highest practice squad contract ever earlier this year.
  
  What they don't do is over-pay for someone just because they've been good before. And they don't gut the bottom half of the roster to overpay the top half. I'm sure that they'd love to have kept David Givens, but Tennessee gave him stupid money. Substitute Deion Branch for David Givens and Seattle for Tennessee. And many others along the way.


• And while we're on the topic of mis-leading information - early in the second quarter they ran a scroll of people that have left New England in the last five years, labeled "Key departures," while Mike Tirico said "They keep winning championships, even with a great list of departures." Here's the list - see if you can tell what's wrong with it.
  
  Key departures:
  Charlie Weis
  Romeo Crennel
  Eric Mangini
  
  Offense:
  Drew Bledsoe
  Jermaine Wiggins
  Damien Woody
  Joe Andruzzi
  David Patten
  Adam Vinatieri
  Deion Branch
  David Givens
  
  Defense:
  Lawyer Milloy
  Ted Washington
  Ty Law
  Willie McGinest
  
  They have not yet won a championship without Charlie Weis. Or Romeo Crennel. Or Eric Mangini. Or Adam Vinatieri or Deion Branch or David Givens. Or Willie McGinest.
  
  And the idea that Jermaine Wiggins and David Patten and Joe Andruzzi represented "key departures" is just silly. Not that those guys didn't do a good job for New England, but they were just guys - fungible parts.
  
  That's not to say that they won't win championships without those people. I think that they're the best team in the NFL right now, and, while it's probably too strong to say that I expect them to win this year, it wouldn't surprise me at all. But they haven't done it yet without a bunch of those guys, and it's dishonest to say that they have, as ESPN did last night. I know, I know - just filling broadcast time. They could do it with truth, as opposed to lies...


• For all the talk about how dominant the Denver defense has been this year, they've allowed 9 fewer points than the Patriots through 7 games (while the Patriots have outscored them by 57). And of the 87 points that New England, 7 were on the punt return last night, and 7 were on the incredibly fluky McCareins TD in week 2.


• I wonder what the NFL record is for giving opponents their first loss of the season. The Patriots will have the opportunity on Sunday to knock their 3rd opponent from the ranks of the unbeaten, and, if the Bears keep winning, they could conceivably have a shot at 4. That's probably not a record, but I can't believe that it happens very often, either. And has anyone ever beaten two undefeated teams with at least 7 wins in the same season? The Patriots might have that chance... (But I doubt it - Chicago's got to go to New York twice in the next 3 weeks, and I suspect that one of those teams will beat them.)


• Looking at some numbers:
  
  
  

  NFL Standings - 10/31/2006

  Team	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	STRK	PF/G		PA/G		Diff		Pyth
  Chicago	7	0	0	1	221	69	Won 7	31.6	1	9.9	1	21.7	1	0.911	1
  San Diego	5	2	0	0.714	216	109	Won 1	30.9	2	15.6	6	15.3	2	0.797	2
  New England	6	1	0	0.857	167	87	Won 4	23.9	7	12.4	3	11.4	3	0.787	3
  Baltimore	5	2	0	0.714	145	91	Won 1	20.7	16	13	4	7.7	5	0.717	4
  Dallas	4	3	0	0.571	204	142	Won 1	29.1	4	20.3	12	8.9	4	0.674	5
  Denver	5	2	0	0.714	110	78	Lost 1	15.7	27	11.1	2	4.6	9	0.665	6
  NY Giants	5	2	0	0.714	180	134	Won 4	25.7	6	19.1	8	6.6	7	0.643	7
  Indianapolis	7	0	0	1	205	153	Won 7	29.3	3	21.9	21	7.4	6	0.642	8
  Jacksonville	4	3	0	0.571	138	107	Won 1	19.7	19	15.3	5	4.4	10	0.625	9
  Philadelphia	4	4	0	0.5	206	160	Lost 3	25.8	5	20	11	5.8	8	0.624	10
  New Orleans	5	2	0	0.714	167	145	Lost 1	23.9	7	20.7	16	3.1	11	0.57	11
  Atlanta	5	2	0	0.714	153	134	Won 2	21.9	12	19.1	8	2.7	12	0.566	12
  Cincinnati	4	3	0	0.571	155	142	Lost 1	22.1	11	20.3	12	1.9	13	0.544	13
  Pittsburgh	2	5	0	0.286	157	145	Lost 2	22.4	10	20.7	16	1.7	14	0.54	14
  Minnesota	4	3	0	0.571	127	126	Lost 1	18.1	22	18	7	0.1	15	0.504	15
  Kansas City	4	3	0	0.571	152	152	Won 2	21.7	13	21.7	20	0	16	0.5	16
  St. Louis	4	3	0	0.571	163	166	Lost 2	23.3	9	23.7	23	-0.4	17	0.491	17
  Green Bay	3	4	0	0.429	152	176	Won 2	21.7	13	25.1	27	-3.4	19	0.427	18
  Seattle	4	3	0	0.571	149	177	Lost 2	21.3	15	25.3	28	-4	20	0.415	19
  Carolina	4	4	0	0.5	137	163	Lost 2	17.1	24	20.4	15	-3.3	18	0.414	20
  NY Jets	4	4	0	0.5	160	193	Lost 1	20	17	24.1	24	-4.1	21	0.407	21
  Washington	2	5	0	0.286	140	171	Lost 3	20	17	24.4	25	-4.4	22	0.401	22
  Cleveland	2	5	0	0.286	108	139	Won 1	15.4	28	19.9	10	-4.4	22	0.376	23
  Miami	1	6	0	0.143	102	145	Lost 4	14.6	29	20.7	16	-6.1	24	0.331	24
  Detroit	1	6	0	0.143	132	189	Lost 1	18.9	21	27	31	-8.1	29	0.328	25
  Arizona	1	7	0	0.125	134	196	Lost 7	16.8	25	24.5	26	-7.8	27	0.319	26
  Houston	2	5	0	0.286	121	182	Lost 1	17.3	23	26	30	-8.7	30	0.307	27
  Buffalo	2	5	0	0.286	100	153	Lost 3	14.3	30	21.9	21	-7.6	25	0.299	28
  Tennessee	2	5	0	0.286	113	179	Won 2	16.1	26	25.6	29	-9.4	31	0.285	29
  Oakland	2	5	0	0.286	92	148	Won 2	13.1	31	21.1	19	-8	28	0.279	30
  Tampa Bay	2	5	0	0.286	88	142	Lost 1	12.6	32	20.3	12	-7.7	26	0.277	31
  San Francisco	2	5	0	0.286	134	235	Lost 2	19.1	20	33.6	32	-14.4	32	0.245	32

  
  The Bears have been unbelievable. The Chargers look better than the Colts everywhere except their record. The Patriots are 7th in points per game, 3rd in points allowed, 3rd in point differential and 3rd in overall record.