No pizazz here

''This is a team that believes a lot in itself, you know, even if other people don't," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. ''You have to give all the credit in the world to the players, to come down here and beat a good football team.

''Every game is important, every win is important. I don't rank them, but it's certainly a good one."

Does this sound like a winning team? Does it sound like the Superbowl champs? No, but it does sound like Belichick being Belichick. This is the same speech he would give after every win if he could. No chest bashing, no egotism, no... pizazz. Nor will he allow his team to be egotistical, either.

''We've had doubters for a long time," Brady said. ''Like I said earlier in the week, you can keep betting against us, that's fine by us. We're just going to keep trying to go out and do the same things every week -- play hard, play tough, and play physical.

''Today was a better example of that. I think it showed some of the resiliency of the team. The guys really fought hard for this one, and we needed to fight hard because we were playing one of the best teams in the league."

It's amazing to me how Belichick can still sell his team on having "doubters". Does anyone out there really doubt this team is good? That they have a yearly shot at winning it all?

Patriots