How was the beating a good thing? Let us count the ways:
It gives coach Bill Belichick a bigger hammer. Any time the fellas get full of themselves, admiring those Super Bowl rings, the coach can dig out the Bengals films. Instant humble pie. Sort of like Ben Affleck throwing a tape of "Gigli" into the VCR every time he finds himself admiring the Oscar on his mantel.
It was also a wake-up call. The Patriots were reminded that they're going to confront a lot of fired-up players on the other side of the ball.
The win streak ends without actually ending. Perfect. Nobody goes 12 months without a loss. But this one didn't count.
The "setting 'em up" factor. The Bengals actually think they can beat the Patriots now and this no doubt will serve the Flying Elvises well when the overconfident Bengals come to Gillette Stadium Dec. 12.
Naturally, Belichick won't sign on to any of the above. The coach was in a predictably crabby mood when the players reported back to work yesterday morning and had nothing good to say about what transpired in Ohio over the weekend.
Asked if anything good came out of the game, Belichick made one of those Nancy Kerrigan ("What stinks in here?") faces and said, "Not much."
Does he think the drubbing got their attention?
"I would hope that game got somebody's attention," he said. "We'll find out. We've got to walk before we run and right now we're crawling. There wasn't anything about that game that looked good.
"Am I concerned about it? I can't imagine after watching that how you could not be concerned about it."
Belichick made a lot of references to "basics" and "fundamentals."
Allow veteran linebacker Tedy Bruschi to translate:
"When he talks about basics and fundamentals, that means we're going to hit this week," said Bruschi.
All of the Patriots are prepared for a rugged week of practice. They've already viewed the horror film of the Saturday night slaughter, so now it's time to get ready for the Panthers in Carolina (Super Bowl Rematch -- "This time it doesn't count") Saturday night. Traditionally, the third exhibition game is the one teams actually (almost) try to win.
