Patriots Steamroll Broncos

Well, my reverse jinx from yesterday worked, just like I knew it would. And you all thought that I was actually picking against the Patriots? On a serious note, though, was that the Denver Broncos or the Denver Broncettes because that team looked like a bunch of pansies out there. Have they ever heard of holding on to the ball? Listen, when you turn the ball over five times, you pretty much deserve to lose 41-7 and that's exactly what happened.

And just like I suggested in my column from yesterday, isn't it more fun when the Patriots are running up the score as opposed to getting demolished by mediocre teams like the Dolphins and Chargers? Anyway, here are a few thoughts on last nights game as I try to come up with some good Jeopardy questions for the Patriots-Rams game next Sunday.

• This game featured the rare Rodney Harrison Hat Trick: he committed an unneccessary roughness penalty, drew a retaliatory unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and suffered a season-ending quad injury. With his contract up at the end of this year and a long road to recoery ahead of him, this may very well be the end of the Rodney HGHarrison era in New England and the NFL.

• For everyone worried about Randy Moss turning into Terrel Owens, Moss was seen standing on the sidelines cheering on the defense, getting the crowd going and was throwing his body around on the field like Wes Welker does.

• With the return of the Patriots offense last night, we also saw the return of Bob Kraft's blue shirt with the white collar. It's good to know that the world is spinning correctly again.

• I think the fat guy dressed as a Viking got more air time than Jay Cutler's finger.

• What's the story with all of the sacks allowed by the Patriots? Last night they gave up six sacks and have given up 26 already this year. Last year they only gave up 21. While Cassel takes entirely too long to get rid of the ball, there were also times that it seemed like the defense just blew right by our offensive line.

• I've come to the conclusion that Benjamin Watson isn't very good. Yeah, he makes some decent plays and is a good blocker but what's with all of the dropped passes? You know how some companies donate money to a worthy cause when a pitcher strikes someone out or a quarterback throws a touchdown? There has to be somone out there that would sponsor Watson's dropped passes. It would go something like this: Cassel drops back, he's looking for Moss deep, Cassel still in the pocket, dumps the pass over to Watson in the flat, ooohhhhh, he dropped it. And that dropped pass is brought to you by Crazy Glue, the official glue of the New England Patriots. That would work, right?

• The obvious key to this game was the turnover difference but the Patriots' ability to rush the ball last night was also key. For the game, they had 257 yards rushing, most by a New England team in 15 years. Sammy Morris ran for 138 yards in the first half alone before leaving with an injury. Which leads me to Laurence Maroney who was placed on Injured Reserve before the game and is done for the season. In fact, I hope he's done with the Patriots for good. Here's a guy with all the talent in the world, is faster than 98.7 percent of the people out there but is just awful at reading the run. Last night was a perfect example of what can happen when a running back finds an open hole and just slams into it. On some of his runs, Morris wasn't even getting touched until he was already five yards upfield. That sort of thing can't be taught- it's just an instinct and Maroney will never have it. I don't care if we have to bring back Antowain Smith, I don't want to see Maroney in the backfield again.

• I'm glad that Tony Kornheiser was there to announce this game last night. I had no idea that Matt Cassel isn't Tom Brady. For that matter, who knew that Jay Cutler wasn't John Elway? I thought they were the same person? If anyone can tell me what Kornheiser's role is on Monday Night Football I would really appreciate it.

So it's on to the suddenly rejuvinated St. Louis Rams next week in Foxboro. It will be interesting to see if the Patriots can use this game as a launching pad for the rest of the year or if we'll see more of the same up and down play we've witnessed through the first six weeks of the season.

Bill Belicheat Hearts Rodney HGHarrison

I have to admit that I was mildly surprised to hear that 35-year old Rodney HGHarrison was coming back for his 15th year of NFL action as a safety for the New England Patriots. I had no doubt that he wanted to play. I was just surprised that Bill Belicheat would want him back after he was constantly frustrated by HGHarrison's (lack of) on field play last year.

“Everyone’s asking me about retirement," said Harrison. "I don’t know what to say about it. I haven’t said anything publicly about wanting to retire or anything like that. I’m very hungry to get back to working out and be a part of this team, and try to win another championship.”

I for one, am glad he's coming back because no one likes late hits more than me. I just wish he'd make his late hits a little less obvious. I mean, if he were any later on some of his hits, he'd have to hit some of the guys as they walked back to the huddle. And it's always fun to root for a guy that everyone outside of New England hates. Heck, after last year, there are even some people in New England who hate him.

After missing the first four games last year and changing his last name to HGHarrison, he managed to have 70 tackles, 56 of which were solo, two sacks, one forced fumble and one interception. I don't know if they keep track of this type of thing or not but I would be interested to see how many penalties he got last year, too. My guess is at least 20 and that's a low estimate.

My concern with HGHarrison coming back is that he's down right old for an NFL defensive player, especially considering that the entire defensive unit is aging pretty quickly. Let's also keep in mind that since joining the Patriots, he's played in a lot of regular season and postseason games and has been injury prone the last three years. And if you saw his tackling in the last half of the year, it was also apparent that he's not on any type of steroids, which may not be a good thing for him because he looked like he was constantly beat to the ball, out muscled on some plays and run over by power backs coming up the middle. But I guess all the late hitting evens things out a bit.

Just as a side note on HGHarrison, it's interesting that all the news reports I've heard on Rodney's return have failed to mention that he missed the first four games last year because of his drug suspension. When confronted with the issue of his own HGH use in training camp last year, Rodney admitted his use, apologized, served his suspension, paid his fine, asked for forgiveness and moved on. Just wondering what Roger Clemens would be doing right now if he took a similar path with this steroid scandal. He could have gone the Andy Petite route and admitted he tried it a few times and didn't like it and then never used it again. Instead, Clemens has now dragged his own name through the mud and now his wife's name, as well. I just thought it was interesting that Harrison admitted the truth and it's worked out for him just fine. By all accounts, Clemens has pretty much screwed himself over the last few months and now one has to wonder if he'll ever be elected to the Hall of Fame. Kind of ironic for a guy we thought would be debating which hat to wear on his Cooperstown plaque. Turns out, he may never have a Cooperstown plaque.