Hate them or love them the New England Patriots are undefeated and proved that they are the dominate team in the NFL. If you thought either team was going to bench their starters here then you haven’t been keeping up. The Patriots definitely had an eye on that perfect regular season record of 16-0 and keeping their starters in was the only way to do so. The Giants were not going to slump over either as they came out strong by running through the New England defense and then setting up the passes.
Eli Manning had great numbers in this game and still remains hot or not. He can be like Peyton some games and then look like Ryan Leaf the next. He had 4 TDs with two going to super talented Plexico Burress who doesn’t get that media coverage even though he is just as talented as the big three: Owens, Moss, and Johnson. Brandon Jacobs also had some decent numbers running the ball as well.
What it came down to was the arm and leadership of Tom Brady who lead the team from a 12 point deficit to a 38-35 win. The Patriots scored three consecutive touchdowns to take the lead and seal the victory. There was also a bunch of records broken including Peyton’s touchdown record for a season and Jerry Rice’s touchdown reception record. Brady threw his 50th touchdown in the game and Moss caught his 22nd touchdown for the season. Oh and you can’t forget that undefeated season record matched only by the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
The Patriots would have won the Super Bowl last year if their receiving core wasn’t suspect and they surely upgraded by getting Moss, Welker, and Stallworth. People doubted if Moss could play at the same level but those people know nothing about the game. It was easy to see that Moss wanted to play for a winning team and he wasn’t even close to that in Oakland. Brady is already talented and combined with these weapons the offense just explodes. The only way to beat them is to outscore them and not too many teams have that fire power except the Colts, Cowboys, and Jaguars.
The only step the team has now is to win the Super Bowl and nothing else. Not winning the big game will tarnish the perfect regular season record a little because winning it would probably set them as one of the best if not the best teams in NFL history. The offense surely is one of the best but the defense is weak so that’s a debate for later.