In an NFL season that is proving to be a wild and wide open crap shoot, the Patriots re-established themselves as one of the favorites in the NFL by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 39-26 in impressive fashion. Even before this game began it was notable — Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady are the only quarterbacks with two or more Super Bowl wins to face each other since 1985. And following a loss, Brady is 22-2 in his career. Make that 23-2 now, as Brady and nearly everybody else on the Patriots brought their A-game.
Brady threw three touchdown passes to rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski and ran one in himself, to go along with his 350 yards passing. He was fired up all game, between the lines and on the sideline, and it clearly got his team going. The Patriots defense, revitalized by the return of safety Patrick Chung, looked awesome. This group, whose starters average 25.5 years old, has turned in some fantastic performances for such a young crew — and yesterday was their finest. I think that inconsistency, as shown in the past two weeks by the Pats defense, will have to be expected as the norm as this group matures. But it’s scary to think about how good this group could be 1, 2, or 3 years down the road — especially when coupled with Tom Brady and the 1,100 draft picks the Pats have next year.
The damn Jets keep winning overtime games, which really stinks for the Patriots, but they’ll be ready for them when they meet again. Coupled with a Giants loss to the Cowboys, I think it’s fair to say any of the NFL’s elite teams can win or lose any week — making for one of the most interesting NFL season’s in recent memory. Tom and the defense certainly injected this one fan with an additional spark of hope last night.
In other news, I finally checked out Ben Affleck’s The Town yesterday. I was expecting it to be good, and it easily surpassed my expectations. I’d definitely check it out if you haven’t already.
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