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Monday, November 19, 2007

The Patriots will run it up and you will like it

This is just getting silly. It's like playing Madden on a difficulty level that's too easy or that friend or sibling of yours that always wants to play but no matter what, just gets buried. The Patriots are a force of nature these days as they proved last night with a 56-10 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, NY last night.

The Pats are now 10-0 while the Bills fall to 5-5. Buffalo had come in riding a four-game win-streak. New England had beat Buffalo 38-7 earlier in the season. Last night it was 35-7 at the half. Tom Brady and Randy Moss went to work early and often. Brady finished 31-for-39 for 373 yards and five touchdowns. Moss had ten catches for 128 yards and four touchdowns (all in the first half).

Any hope of a Buffalo win was quickly extinguished as J.P. Losman threw a pick on the first Bills possession and Randall Gay returned it 21 yards, deep into Buffalo territory (with a late-hit penalty putting it even closer). Laurence Maroney punched it in from six yards out, his first TD of the season. On the Pats next possession, Moss got open deep and caught a 43-yard pass in the end zone. The more amazing thing was that earlier in the drive, Donte' Stallworth dropped what would have been a long reception and later so did Moss. No worries though as straight cash homey delivered when it mattered most.

Buffalo answered with a prayer as Roscoe Parrish caught a 47-yard bomb from Losman to cut it to 14-7. Ellis Hobbs was in coverage, dove for the ball and missed, leaving Parrish wide open. It didn't matter as the Brady-to-Moss connection worked for three more touchdowns in the second quarter. Moss is simply unstoppable, many times he doesn't even do anything special. Brady just throws it to the end zone and Moss gets it around some helpless defensive backs.

Brady had his final touchdown on a 3-yard toss to Ben Watson to open the third quarter. The Bills went for a 52-yard field goal down 35 in the third quarter but hey, they made it. Kyle Eckel ran for a touchdown from a yard out before Hobbs added the final blow. He grabbed a Bills fumble that popped in the air along the sideline and ran 35 yards for the score.

Moss caught his 16th touchdown of the season, one shy of his career-high. With his 13th, he broke Stanley Morgan's Patriot record for a season. Brady now has 38 touchdowns and he is on pace for 59 (shattering Manning's record of 49). He broke Steve Grogan's franchise record for touchdown passes (182) as he currently sits with 185. Most impressive, Brady did it in 106 games while it took Grogan 149. Finally, Brady extended his NFL record of 10 straight games with three or more touchdown passes.

New England is a machine that cannot be stopped. The Eagles come to Gillette next Sunday night for the Patriots second of three straight primetime games. Philly shouldn't pose much of a threat as they're 5-5 and quarterback Donovan McNabb hurt his ankle in yesterday's game. He might not be able to go, leaving it in the hands of backup A.J. Feely (insert laugh track here). The biggest obstacle in the Patriots quest to 16-0 appeared to the Steelers but Pittsburgh somehow lost 19-16 in overtime yesterday to the Jets. The Patriots are the best team in the NFL by a wide margin. Right now, it doesn't appear that anyone can stop their march towards an unbeaten season.

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