Breaking News: Pats Win

The Patriots escaped with a three point victory against the Eagles last night. They're now 11-0 and played about as poorly a game as they've played all year. For most of the game, Tom Brady was in shot gun formation, giving the Eagles defense a pretty good idea that he was going to throw it. I don't think you need to be a genius defensive coordinator to figure that one out. The Eagles defense hit Brady as hard as I've ever seen him hit. This should be a good wake-up call for any of the Patriots who think that they can just show up and win by 25 points every game. The Eagles played a good game and almost came away with a W. Apparently, being close now counts in horseshoes and losses to the Patriots.

Here are my thoughts about last nights game:

∙ I'm not sure I agree with Bill Belicheat's game plan to let the Eagles cover the spread. I think he may have bet money on the Eagles to help pay off the $500,000 fine for videotaping signals. Don't expect Belicheat to be so nice when the Patriots play the Jets next month.

∙ This was only the second time all season that Tom Brady was still playing when the game ended.

∙ Laurence Maroney might be a fraud. He somehow managed to not make it onto the field in the first half. When he does play, he's usually running side to side or trying to start and stop too frequently. The Patriots had two running plays in the first half (one on a Brady scramble) and 16 for the entire game. If the defense knows you're throwing 95 percent of the time, I would think you should be able to hold a team to less than 31 points.

∙ When Brady breaks the single season touchdown record, they should put an asterisk next to it that denotes how many touchdown passes Randy Moss had taken away on phanton pass interfence calls. The number is at three right now. On last night's penalty there was a good five yards between Moss and the defender. I think that penalty was payback for Moss stealing the referees lunch money in grade school.

∙ I didn't realize the Patriots still employed a field goal kicker. However, I did notice that he might not be very good.

∙ I'm sure that a lot will be said about the play of A.J. Feeley of the Eagles and how he should replace McNabb as the QB in Philly. I wouldn't get too excited about a career backup throwing three interceptions and losing a close game. Although, it does seem as though McNabb is always hurt this time of year. At least it saves him from having those embarassing dry-heave moments in big games.

∙ Is business so bad that Bob Kraft can only afford one dress shirt? Seriously, every time they show him, he's wearing the same shirt.

∙ The hardest hit that Rodney HGHarrison delivered was a head-numbing play on Ellis Hobbs. Unfortunately, Hobbs also plays for the Patriots and he never came back on the field. I also enjoyed watching HGHarrison trying to tackle one of the Eagles in the end zone, about five seconds after he had already scored and the extra point unit was coming onto the field. I would never condone drug use but HGHarrison might need to start looking into some other type of supplement.

∙ I think that Keith Olberman is the dumbest person alive. What happened to the days of showing a recap of each game and some of the best plays of the day at halftime? Now we have to listen to that fraud wax poetic about a punter from a team that probably won't even make the playoffs?

∙ Apparently there are only 2 more episodes of Heroes left this season, just in case you missed one of their 942 commercials.

∙ Did the receivers for the Patriots make a bet to see who could drop the most passes last night? I think Randy Moss may have won the bet.

∙ I don't understand why NBC broadcasts Petyon Manning commercials in New England. A homeless guy in Boston wouldn't take that junk if Manning were giving it away and he personally delivered it under the bridge where said homeless guy lives.

∙ Statistically, this wasn't a very good game for Brady. He only threw one TD, which is fine if you're Kyle Boller, but he had at least three TDs in each of the first 10 games. However, Brady needed to have a game like this where he was hit frequently, rushed and forced out of the pocket. Even in the win at Indianapolis, Brady had a lot of time in the pocket. And the Philly defense was good all game, not just on one or two series. I am a little concerned that, even in the second half, our offensive line couldn't make any adjustments to give him more time.

∙ Next up is Baltimore and I give the Ravens no chance of winning this game unless Belicheat is going to cash in on a huge wager on Baltimore to win.