By the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, the Patriots faced an 8-point deficit and were in jeopardy of suffering their most embarrassing loss of the season. But the team came to life at just the right time, turning to a no-huddle offense to score two touchdowns -- both on runs by Corey Dillon -- while the defense came up with three turnovers in the final seven minutes. Linebacker Mike Vrabel had two fourth-quarter interceptions, while linebacker Rosevelt Colvin had a key strip sack, which was recovered by lineman Mike Wright to set up the winning score.
The end result was a 28-21 victory that produced similar responses from Patriots players as the week before, following their victory over the Bears: It's good to win, but the performance will need to improve if the team is to reach its ultimate goal. And time is running out.
"You see it and you are concerned, you don't want to see those mistakes," said linebacker Tedy Bruschi after the team improved its record to 9-3. "We have to fix it before we get to games that can end seasons. It's crunch time now, it's December, and we've got to work on fixing these things now."
One major subplot to the victory was the loss of rookie running back Laurence Maroney, who left in the first quarter shortly after a 3-yard rush. The dynamic Maroney, one of the team's top playmakers, didn't return after the team reported he had the wind knocked out of him.
The Patriots improved to 20-5 in December since Bill Belichick became coach in 2000, and are now 23-4 against NFC foes over the last six seasons. Yesterday capped a three-game sweep of NFC North teams, but the Patriots get back to AFC play next Sunday in Miami, a game that quarterback Tom Brady was already pointing to late yesterday.
"This game this week is going to be very telling for us," said Brady, who was 27 of 38 for 305 yards and one interception. "It is always tough to play down there and this is a huge game for us. I would love to see us come out and play much better."
The Patriots were off from the start yesterday.
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