Knee-Dom Stings: Are The Patriots Finished?

Well, chock up another regular season win for the Patriots.  That's an NFL record 20 straight.  This one came with a price:  the golden right arm of Tom Terrific.

Adam Schefter of NFL.com reports that Brady's season is over with a tear of his left ACL.  He threw a total of 11 passes in the game, completing 7, and showing that all the talks of being rusty after a 6 month layoff were laughable.

Let's assume this is true...we never know with the Patriots and their injury report anyway.  Where does this leave the Patriots this season?  Let's be honest with ourselves--losing Brady hurts the Pats big time, but is it the knockout blow that some people are already pinning on the Pats?  I am going to say unequivocally:  no.  Let's look at why:

Reason #1:  Strength of Schedule

The Patriots play the worst schedule in the NFL this season.  This is the NFL where parity is king, but the teams they play on the schedule this year played about .370-.380 ball last year.

Reason(s) #2:  Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, Lamont Jordan, Kevin Faulk

The Patriots running backs are a heavily underrated bunch.  They get lost in the pass-happy aerial assault that is Foxboro.  As has been shown time and again, New England can run the ball when it wants to.  Losing Brady shifts more of an emphasis to New England's running attack.  Balancing an offense has a wonderful effect upon making a team difficult to defend.

Reason #3:  We have seen this before...

Remember back to Week 2 of 2001:  the New York Jets came to Foxboro and were leading a game 10-3 very late in the 4th quarter.  Drew Bledsoe rolls out to his left, sees nothing and begins to run toward the sideline.  He crosses the line of scrimmage and gets to the sideline to meet Mo Lewis.  Mo Lewis strikes him directly in the sternum, collapsing Bledsoe's lung and causing internal bleeding, prompting the Chris Berman nickname:  "Drew Bledsoe Much He Needed a Tourniquet".

People forget that Bledsoe was the top overall pick in the 1993 draft and transformed New England into a perennial playoff contender.  Bledsoe was the golden boy of that franchise.  The same feelings that many Pats fans felt today are the same that we all felt back in 2001 as we heard the pop of Lewis meeting Bledsoe.  In trotted Tom Brady, a rookie who never took a snap in the NFL.  By the end of that season, the Patriots were 11-5.  They got all the way to the Super Bowl and beat the Rams in one of the more memorable Super Bowls there ever was.  Now Bledsoe is a forgotten man in New England.  Take away the injury, Bledsoe could well be one of the top quarterbacks of all time by the numbers.  We never would have heard of Brady.

Injuries are a time for chances.  Matt Cassell or Kevin O'Connell could be the next Tom Brady and it could happen right before our very eyes.  Give them a chance before the ship is left for dead.

Reason #4:  Randy Moss and Wes Welker

Randy Moss is a quarterback's best friend:  just ask Daunte Culpepper.  Moss demands a double team whenever he is on the field.  The funny thing is that he often times can beat that double team because he is a specimen.  The guy wants a ring.  He is running out of time.  He will give everything he has to help Cassell do the job.  Brady didn't have that when he went through this.  He did have a Wes Welker, and his name was Troy Brown.  Welker's numbers will take a hit, but he will still be the most integral part of that passing game.

Reason #5:  A Pro-Bowl Offensive Line

The left side of the New England Offensive Line all went to Hawaii last year.  They are monsters.  Brady didn't have that either.

All in all, let's compare 2001 to 2008:

Schedule:  Advantage 2008

Running Game:  Advantage 2008

Experience:  Advantage 2008

Receivers:  Advantage 2008

O-Line:  Advantage 2008

If Matt Cassell plays within himself, he will do just fine, and New England will do just fine.  He can try to be Tom Brady, just not the Tom Brady of today.  He needs to be the 2001 Tom Brady, a no-name kid out of California.

Only time will tell, but don't give up on a team that has a track record of doing this.  They are still loaded.  It won't be a high octane attack a'la last year, but the kitten can still purr.  Incidentally, that team back in 1972 that ran the table went through something like this too.  Bob Griese got injured early in the year and their backup took them the rest of the way.  It can be done.

And Belichik will find a way...