by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
It may seem like a bit of a comedown after last Sunday’s tense battle between playoff contenders, but this weekend’s match-up with the 2-9 Detroit Lions in Foxboro is no less significant to the playoff futures of the New England Patriots.
The Patriots must win to stay at pace with both San Diego [...]

By Bill Barnwell, Football Outsiders – special to BSMW Patriots Game Day
Surely, there’s got to be someone left on Detroit Lions’ President and General Manager Matt Millen’s side. D.J. Gallo probably doesn’t want Millen to be fired. Well, and Ted Thompson. Actually, you can do a whole NFL Network commercial parody around that with NFC [...]

by Greg Doyle
greg@bostonsportsmedia.com
Yes, there were turnovers. Five of them. That’s not good. But does it correlate into otherwise bad play? No, not necessarily. Because the Patriots did play a good game Sunday and beat another good team. It was a tough, physical game and players did cough the ball up on both sides. But the [...]

by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
There. Now the Patriots have beaten a good team.
In spite of themselves.
The Patriots defense responded to five turnovers by the New England offense by forcing four of its own to lead the Pats to a crucial late-season 17-13 win over the NFC-leading Chicago Bears on Gillette Stadium’s brand new, surprisingly lifelike carpet tonight. [...]

by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
The Patriots welcome the 9-1 Chicago Bears to a re-floored Gillette this afternoon for a game that many believe will tell the tale on New England’s Super Bowl hopes for this season. Let’s see what the morning papers think.
Over at the Globe, Mike Reiss reminds us that there are sometimes bigger things than [...]

by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
So this is the time of year that I start thinking about things like playoff seedings, and this morning I learned that if the playoffs started today, the Patriots would host the Kansas City Chiefs* on Wild Card Weekend.
*Up until this morning, this read ‘Denver Broncos’, but that was before the Chiefs beat [...]

by Greg Doyle
Greg@bostonsportsmedia.com
Now that is more like it. It would be tempting, even valid, to somewhat dismiss the Patriots dominating 35-0 win over Green Bay this past Sunday. Afterall, Green Bay played a dreadful game and barely mustered any opposition at all. But that wouldn’t be fair to the Patriots. A close look at the [...]

by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
Alan Greenberg was right!
Matt Cassel DID play quarterback against the Packers today.
Thankfully, Cassel was not in there to relieve an ailing Tom Brady, as Greenberg fretted might happen this week. Rather, Cassel played only to mop up what was left of the Green Bay Packers after Brady and the Patriots suddenly got very [...]

by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
If you’re anything like me, you’re not sure if you’re looking forward to this afternoon’s Pats-Packers tilt or not. After all, the Patriots are in their worst dip in a year, with two discouraging performances in a row, and the thought of another Sunday like the previous two make me a little gun [...]

By Bill Barnwell, Football Outsiders – special to BSMW Patriots Game Day
Expatriots
When the Invisible Turf Monster caused David Givens and his ACL to part ways last week, I was shocked to even discover that David Givens still existed; while Tennessee appears to be a black hole for all success and notoriety right now (unless you [...]

by Scott Benson
scott@bostonsportsmedia.com
This week, the Patriots travel to Lambeau Field in Green Bay for a intra-conference matchup with Brett Favre and the Packers.
A win is imperative.
New England badly needs one after a horrendous two-week slump that has seen the Pats fall back to the pack in not only their conference but in their own division [...]

Well, this was certainly an unpleasant, ugly game to look back at it. Having slogged through the tapes, not much positive can be found yet again this week. It was simply the second poor performance in a row for the Patriots and that has to be somewhat worrisome. Every team is entitled to a slump, [...]