Pats Lose to Vegas


1195486247It had to come sooner or later. Facing a fired-up opponent with an ingenious gameplan, and with a couple of key injuries making things difficult, the Patriots finally lost to Las Vegas while sporting a double-digit spread last night. Pushing the line up to 24 now seems like overkill, but when the House is losing it will stop at nothing.

The Pats other opponent, the Eagles, almost pulled off the upset to end all upsets, and their blueprint will certainly be followed—pressure the quarterback on defense, and throw, throw, throw on offense—but there aren’t too many teams left on the Patriots schedule who can pull that off.

Actually, there is one. Pittsburgh.

You could possibly throw the Giants into that mix, too, but at this point you can’t count on them for anything positive. The key, as always, was Philly’s ability to put pressure on Tom Brady. Anybody can try to throw it all over the yard, but few teams can bring heat like the Eagles.

Baltimore can, and will, try to get in Brady’s face, but can the Ravens score enough to stay with the Pats? Doubtful. It goes without saying that Dolphins will be overmatched, and the Jets game could enter Georgia Tech-Cumberland territory.

So, with the AFC East wrapped up, and a 3-game lead (tiebreaker included) on the Colts for homefield with 5 to play, the big thing for the Pats now is injuries. Randall Gay and Rosevelt Colvin left the game and Eugene Wilson has been down for a month. The Pats were playing so well that it was tempting to forget the loss of Sammy Morris, but his absence was certainly felt last night. Would the Pats skip out on a perfect season to get healthy?

We have maintained since the Cowboys game, that a perfect season is within reach and that it is a goal worth of achieving. It would serve not only as the ultimate payback to all those who questioned the team’s past success, but also validation that the 2000’s Patriots are the greatest NFL dynasty of the Super Bowl era. Last night’s game showed just what a difficult accomplishment that would be, but it also showed that this team can pull it off.

Now can we get that line back into the teens again? Some of us have for-amusement-purposes-only expenses to pay.