Sometimes in sports, a moment occurs just perfectly so that the difference between two teams becomes so stark that a light bulb turns on over the head of every fan watching. For example: During the 13 inning regular season thriller between the Red Sox and the Yankees, fans saw Derek Jeter take a face plant into the stands at the exact same moment that Nomar was sitting in the dugout sulking. Apparently Theo Epstein saw the contrast too, since Nomar was wearing a Cubs uniform shortly thereafter.
Anyone who watched the undefeated Seattle Seahawks play on Sunday immediately after watching the undefeated New England Patriots play may have picked up on another contrast, though not quite as stark. Fans who watched both games saw exactly why the Patriots have won a league record 19 straight games and are headed for another Super Bowl, and why the Seahawks are headed for another early playoff loss, despite the fast start.
The Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins by a score of 24-10 on Sunday to move to 4-0 and remain one of three undefeated teams in the NFL, joined by the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Jets. In doing so, the Pats also surpassed the consecutive win record of eighteen, last accomplished by the '97-'98 Denver Broncos. Right now, the Patriots are the best team in professional sports. Basically, (and yes, "Inside the NFL" knows that saying this in Boston is virtually suicide, especially in October) the Patriots are very much like the Yankees teams that won all those World Series in the late nineties.
They simply find ways to win. They hold leads. They come from behind. They can win in shootouts, as they did against the Indianapolis Colts in Week One of this season, or they can win in the trenches with outstanding defense, as they did against the Dallas Cowboys last season when they won 12-0 in win number six of the streak. Whatever needs to get done happens. Try to think of any weakness on the Patriots' team. Last year, you might have been able to say that their running attack was weak. Now they have workhorse Corey Dillon to round out the most balanced offense in football. It's tough to find a chink in the armor.
And enough of this nonsense about Tom Brady not being as good as Peyton Manning, Daunte Culpepper, or Donovan McNabb. If the best quarterback were the guy who could throw the ball the hardest, then Ryan Leaf would be leading the Chargers to the Super Bowl this year and Joe Montana would be selling scones in a San Francisco coffee shop. Great quarterbacks are team leaders who make the plays in the clutch. No one does that like Brady.
As the Patriots game ended, the Seahawks were ten minutes into smacking around the St. Louis Rams. They looked great across the board, much like the Pats have. The offense was running on all cylinders, with Shaun Alexander running well and Matt Hasselbeck shredding apart the Ram's secondary. The defense was flying to the ball and forcing turnovers.
Then, to the chagrin of gamblers who had already been spending their perceived winnings from Seattle's easy coverage of the spread, the Seahawks totally imploded, giving up seventeen unanswered points in the fourth quarter before losing to the Rams in overtime.
A little digression devoted to the Rams front office: Fire Mike Martz. Whether the Rams happened to win or not, Martz is still a complete moron. The Rams win when Marshall Faulk runs the ball. Stephen Jackson looks like he could work out too, whatever. They lose when they get pass-happy and throw the ball fifty times a game. Don't think that just because the Seahawks jumped ship in the last few minutes that Martz's stubbornly idiotic strategy of forgetting about the running game will work again.
Looking at that game, one gets a great picture of why Seattle isn't New England. Koren Robinson dropped several huge passes in open space. When's the last time a Patriots receiver dropped a ball in space? Never.
One could argue that Seattle is more talented than the Pats. That argument could probably be made for the Eagles too, or the Minnesota Vikings, or the Colts, but the fact remains that all these teams make big mistakes, like every team, and the Patriots always seem to play mistake-free football when the game is on the line.
Seattle will try to bounce back this week against the Pats in what should be a great game. But if last week was any indication, the match-up will highlight the difference between the Pats and every other talented team in the league. The Pats will do the little things, the Seahawks won't, and the champs will move the streak to twenty.
