Pats and Present

Now I don't know about the rest of you Pats fans out there, but this season has been a fun ride. Sunday's late comeback win over the lowly Seahawks lead by (Gulp!) Seneca Wallace is case-in-point. Typical of this Pats season the perceived strength with the lose of Brady the "Bend and then Break" Pats D looked lost at times and couldn't stop the pass. Now I know this is the NFL and every team has talent, but Deion "F'n" Branch shouldn't be torching your secondary; unless this is 2003 and Tom Brady is sporting a playoff beard. The lose of Bruschi will hurt the Pats run D immensely, but honestly he wasn't much of a factor this year in the pass game. Not that Junior or Rosie are washed up, but I don't see them contributing much to the pass D either. Although it was good to have them once Teddy went down with what looked like a nasty knee injury. Another huge hit was the shoulder injury to Vinny Wilfork. This one could be devastating. I consider Vinny the catalyst of this D, because when he's stopping the run and eating up double and triple teams the Pats D rolls. Ty Warren missed his third game as well; LeKevan Smith is only going to take you so far. Ohh, James Sanders went down too, so we got that going for us.

On the bright side Brandon Merriweather, who was the draft pick that came to the Pats in return for Deion Branch, showed some clutch. I really think this guy is going to be a big play maker. I just wish he had picked-off Eli back in February so we could have started the Hall-O-Fame talk. The offense lead by Cassel and Wes Welker continued to make big plays and keep the Pats in this game. Anyone else think Welker deserves some MVP mention?

For now the Pats destiny lies in others hands. The Jets or Dolphins win their next three and they're in. The Pats have to win and take care of business in the next three at Oakland, home vs. Arizona, and at the Bills. All three of these are games the Pats should win, but do they have enough bullets left in the chamber?