Three mini-columns for the price of one...

CELTICS

The "Fire Doc!" chants started Friday night, one of those nightmare games for the Celtics, getting blown out by the Knicks at home.

This is what losing does. For you can call it rebuilding. You can call it a youth movement. You can say that better days are coming. But at some point it is what it is, as Bill Parcells always liked to say. It's losing. And Friday night it was at home, no less. To a bad team, no less.

And when that happens, the inevitable chants to fire the coach start. That's all part of the deal, too. No matter that Doc Rivers didn't assemble the roster. The coach is always the most visible scapegoat. So the "Fire Doc!" chants started.

Which changes the equation, of course.

When it's only November and you're coach is already under attack, each game becomes a referendum, and that's never good. Not with a young team that by definition is going to be inconsistent. Not with a young team when history has shown us that young teams don't win in the NBA. Not with young players who will tease you one minute, break your heart the next.

So here it is still November, and already this team has become a boat against the current, too many young players in an environment that's probably going to get worse before it gets better, due to a schedule that's only going to get more difficult.

What happens now?

That's the interesting question. Does Danny Ainge stay the course, when it's been his history not to? Are the Celtics still as enamored with their young players as they would like us to believe, or are the reports accurate from Peter Vecsey of the New York Post over the weekend, the ones that say they're very interested in Memphis's Pau Gasol?

Stay tuned.

For when the chants to fire a coach start in November, rest assured the team is on the fault line, no matter how many dancing girls they have , or T-shirts they give away.

URI

The Rams are more fun to watch, there's no question about that. They push the ball, and they play uptempo, a marked switch from the other Jim Baron teams at URI.

It's not the only change.

Baron's teams always have been marked by physical, in-your-face defense. It wasn't always pretty, certainly. But it was effective. Now the Rams are virtually the opposite, questionable defensively, hoping to outscore teams. They almost did it against Houston at home, losing in overtime at the buzzer. They did not do it Saturday, on the road at Boston College.

They also are young, a new team for a new style of play. Darrell Harris is the only senior, so this is the ultimate work in progress. As with all young teams, URI has to get better defensively. It also has to settle in, players finding their roles. It no doubt could use more size underneath.

But these Rams are worth paying attention to, not so much for what they are right now, but for what they one day can be.

PATRIOTS

This is all about expectations.

Here the Pats are 8-3, with a win over the NFC leading Bears, and still there's the sense that this team has yet to prove it. As if we can't really enjoy Sunday's win, if it's just another preliminary game before the real

ones start in January.

Are we really that spoiled?

Maybe.

The bar has been raised so high for the Pats that there's a certain sentiment out there that unless they get back to the Super Bowl they've somehow failed, the price they now pay for their three Super Bowl titles in five years. No matter that they've lost a slew of quality of players to injury the last couple of years, Junior Seau being the latest one Sunday. No matter that each loss is like a little blow to the body politic. We still expect them to be what they used to be.

In that sense, it's been a strange season. The season began with all the doubts about the receivers. Then it was the concern about Tom Brady, the sense that there was something a little off. Then just when you thought they were back on track they lost two in a row at home, the latter one to the Jets. On Sunday, they beat the Bears. Go figure.

Now there's only five games left in the regular season and the Pats are coming off their best win, one which now sends a message to the rest of the NFL that the Pats are not going to go quietly, that even in this strange season here they are 8-3, well positioned to be in the playoffs. It's no insignificant thing for any team, never mind one that's lost key people since last year, a team that keeps popping to the surface every time we think it's going under.

We shouldn't take this for granted.

No matter what the expectations are.

breynold@projo.com / (401) 277-7340