EXIT 16W = 16W

Perfection. Ice in the veins. Records galore. Undefeated. The Best Regular Season Team Ever. This is the story of your perfectly maaaah-velous 2007-8 New England Patriots.

After falling behind by 12 points in the 3rd Quarter to a surprisingly feisty crew of New York Football Giants, the Championship breeding came to the fore. With crystalline precision Tom Brady led the charge back hitting receivers like they were video game icons—Welker, Faulk, Stallworth, and, of course, Randy Moss. Hooking up on a dual-record 65-yard TD pass, they eclipsed the other Manning and Jerry Rice in one fell swoop. Fifty touchdowns, twenty-three touchdown receptions. Even Laurence Maroney scored two rushing touchdowns (although at times he couldn't get out of his own way) and Stephen Gostkowski looked as cool as Vinatieri ever did.

The ultimate 38-35 victory solidified the historic pedigree of this great team and put aside all the "SpyGate" silliness once and for all. Three more wins to the ultimate title: Greatest Team in NFL History. Period.

One Left For Perfection

It wasn't a satisfying win at all on Sunday—a tedious, sluggish 28-7 victory over the completely clueless Miami Dolphins. After a white-hot first quarter or so, including two more TDs from Brady to Moss, both squads sleepwalked through the remainder of the contest.

So, we are 15-0. We are on the verge of smashing 35 years of NFL history. No team has ever gotten this far in the regular season. We are poised to eviscerate the Exit 16W Giants. This Manning won't be in the game at any point. No let up on the pedal. This is the final regular-season exclamation point on SpyGate. Take your dumb rule and do you know what with it. Metro New York--close your eyes. This is not going to be pretty.

Revenge Bowl Fizzles

Wind, rain, cold, dank. Sounds like the setting for Act I, Scene I of Macbeth. And, come to think of it, there were some overtones of the Shakespearean type in SpyGateII. They just never materialized. At all.

This had to be one of the most boring Patriots contests in memory—and not the way the early season romps were boring. Oh, no, this was a whole new level of ennui. I mean we actually ran the ball!

Any game in which neither Tom Brady not Randy Moss touch pay dirt is unthinkable in this juggernaut year. Well, it happened. And they still won, 20-10 over the Garden State Jets. All the "offense" came from an interception TD run back, a short run after a blocked punt, and a field goal after a stalled drive. Yikes.

So, it was forgettable. They're still 14-0, only the second team in NFL history to reach that mark. And, given the "opponents" down the road, it's looking more and more like 16-0.

The Best Defense?

This is the best the NFL can muster? The Steelers' "#1 defense"? Well, so much for parity.

The New England Patriots remained undefeated (13-0), turning in a dominant second half to drub Pittsburgh 34-13--holding "Ben and the Big Mouths" to exactly "0" points over the last 30 minutes.

The "guarantee" by some low-life safety on the Steelers (I wouldn't give him the benefit of a mention), seemed pathetically irrelevant at game's end as Brady threw for 399 yards and 4 touchdowns—leaving him just 5 shy of breaking the all-tile mark of 49.

Randy Moss was again superb, snaring two more TD passes (numbers 18 and 19), putting him on pace to break Jerry Rice's all-time mark of 22.

The Patriots refused to yield to the Steeler blitz and continued throwing the ball (only 9 runs all day), and, when Moss was covered, let Wes Welker (1 TD) and Jabbar Gaffney (1 TD) do the honors. Benjamin Watson was also big on key plays.

All in all, the offense was in gear all day, while the defense found it's way in the second half. Bottom line: the NFL better find something better than the "#1 Defense" to beat this historic Patriots team.

DOZEN That Feel Good?

Winning the game itself is almost as rewarding as shutting up the national media that is salivating for a Patriots' loss. And win it they did, in spectacular fashion, in championship team fashion.

Trailing 24-20 with under a minute to play, The Pats laid it on the trash-yakking Ravens (who lest we forget are really the Cleveland Browns) with a Brady to Gaffney laser in the corner of the end zone that won it 27-24. It was supposed to be an in-route, Gaffney turned it out, Brady saw it. Bingo.

So many other key moments in this one. The missed 4th and 1 that was reprieved with the stupidest timeout in NFL history—as the Ravens D-Coordinator took the T just as Brady failed on the sneak. Wow. How about Mr. Un-Sung, Kevin Faulk, stripping Ed Reed of his interception and preventing a Baltimore score. Wow. Tom Brady scrambling for the first down on 4th and 6 in the last minute leading to the ultimate scoring play. Wow. Ben Watson stretching out to catch a B-B from Brady at mid-field on the final drive.

Not to mention the contribution of the running game—Moroney and Faulk running and catching, even Heath Evans running for a 1-yard TD.

So, Randy caught another TD as well, Tom got two more, and the so-called "blueprint" got smudged again. Truth be told, getting physical on the Pats and running down their old defense (literally) does make them seem somewhat vulnerable. But you have to have talent to execute a smart game plan. So far, no team has had enough. Bring on the Steelers.