How does 73-0, Patriots, sound?
The Belichickmen are playing the Denver Broncos tonight in the latest Game of the Millennium and everything is going New England’s way. Again.
Could this be teed up any better? Could things be any easier for your New England Patriots?
Of all the playoff scenarios, the Patriots got the one they wanted. No Steelers this time. No Ray Rice. No Rex Ryan scheming. No elite quarterback on the other side.
None of that.
In order to advance to the AFC Championship game, all the Patriots have to do is beat a .500 team that was outscored by 81 points during the regular season. The Broncos are led by a clunky lefthanded quarterback who has started 15 NFL games.
I ask you this: Has any team ever advanced to the conference championship game without a single win against a team that finished over .500 during the regular season? That’s what the Patriots will achieve if (when) they win tonight. All they have to do is beat a team they routed on the road just four weeks ago; a team that couldn’t score more than 3 points in its crucial regular-season finale against the not-so-vaunted Chiefs.
It’s amazing. Now that the Colts have junked Bill Polian and maybe Peyton Manning, they should send Jeff Saturday to Foxborough to officially present their team logo to Bob Kraft. It is the New England Patriots who should be wearing horseshoes on the sides of their helmets. For sure, the 2011 Patriots are the luckiest team in NFL history. They have managed to go 13-3 with one of the worst defenses in NFL annals and no semblance of a running game. And now a free ticket to the Super Bowl is waiting for them at the will-call window at Lucas Oil (Can Boyd) Stadium.
They have won eight straight games. They have Tom Brady and one of the great offenses of all time. Their 2011 regular-season schedule featured more tomato cans than an Andy Warhol gallery, and they’re coming off a bye week in which several of their wounded warriors got healthy. They even went to the trouble of hiring Denver’s former head coach to run the scout team at Gillette this week. (Don’t you love the way Belichick flipped off the NFL, announcing the hiring of Josh McDaniels a half-hour after the Broncos’ shocking victory over the Steelers?)
I asked 98.5 FM midday sports talkers Andy Gresh and Scott Zolak if they could think of a single thing that is not going in favor of the Patriots this week, and they were speechless for the first time in the history of their program.
