Where were the Patriots?

This is not the team from last year. The defense was horrible yesterday afternoon in Denver. It was like a nightmare that kept being repeated. One big play followed by Denver punching it in shortly after was repeated 3 times. The Broncos drove down the field for 97, 91, 80 and 74 yards in each of their touchdown drives. And that was all she wrote for this miserable performance by the depleted secondary.

"We didn't give up 70-yard plays," was how coach Bill Belichick described the team's improvement in the third quarter. -- cbs.sportsline.com

``We're lucky to be going to the bye week, because if we had to play next week, we'd be 3-4. That's just ridiculous to go out there and perform like that,'' linebacker Rosevelt Colvin said. ``Obviously, we have a lot of work to do. Those big plays are something we're not preventing right now. We have to play better, man.

``To give up 28 points in the first half, to just lay down, and to try and fight back in the end, we can't depend on Tom (Brady) to come back every week. We can't give up 28 points every week. We have to play defense. I don't even think we've held anyone to less than 20 points all year long. So we have to play better.'' -- boston herald -- In case you were wondering, the Patriots have not held anyone under 20 points this season.


The offense was just miserable as well. Except for the tail end of the third and most of the fourth quarter, the offense was nowhere to be seen (27:43 to 32:17 time of possession). Surprisingly, they almost tied it up (and I did believe they would do it, too). But they simply came up short in the end. How many passes were just dropped by the Patriots wide receivers (Brady was 24-46). Somebody put some stick-um on their hands.

Now I know what you're going to say. Injuries have finally caught up. The loss of Romeo and Weiss is having an effect. They have the worst starting schedule in NFL history. Etc... Well, those are all just excuses. And they didn't make those excuses last year. And I certainly hope I don't hear any such nonsense from the players this year.

BTW, next week is their bye. Hopefully, they improve their play and their outlook over the next two weeks.

''At 3-3, you're an average team," linebacker Mike Vrabel said. ''When you play good enough to win one and you get down, 28-3, the next, you're going to lose those games. You can't say, 'Well, we rallied back. We're an average football team." --boston globe

Patriots