FOXBORO -- In the days before the Patriots play at Denver,
slender rays of optimism find their way through clouds of inevitable
doom.
By the time the team boards the plane, hope is propped up by ifs -- if
the Pats don't turn the ball over, if the plane ride isn't too bumpy, if
the crowd and the altitude and Rick Upchurch or John Elway or Rod Smith
or Clinton Portis doesn't go nuts, then the Patriots could win.
Usually, it's futile. So many tumblers have to fall into place. Few do.
Maybe that's why they've won once (2000) in their last 12 visits to
Denver dating back to 1968.
Monday night, the Patriots play at Denver once again. It's not a game
they could win. It's one they should win.
The Patriots have won six of seven and four in a row. No defense in the
league is playing better overall. No offense protects as fervently. Few
-- if any -- play better on special teams.
Then there's Denver. The Broncos have lost three of four. They've also
lost their top two quarterbacks (Jake Plummer and Steve Beuerlein) and
linebackers John Mobley and Ian Gold to injury. They've also lost a
whole lot of confidence. They are 5-3 and reeling. The Patriots should
win. Easily.
When this was pointed out to Bill Belichick yesterday, his face crinkled.
"You're kidding me," Belichick said. "Well, that's the same thing people
were saying a couple of weeks ago against us. This guy's out, that guy's
out. Maybe they ought to just save the plane fare."
Parroting the head coach was linebacker Mike Vrabel.
"That's a good football team, man," warned Vrabel. "Good defense over
there. (Consider) what's happened to us. You can't think that if other
teams have injuries they won't be playing just as good. Do we think
we're the only team that can play with a couple of injuries? It will be
a tough game on Monday and everybody knows that."
Belichick and Vrabel make a solid point. The Pats haven't cornered the
market on resiliency. But we aren't talking about Denver's backup
quarterback playing on Monday. We are talking about the backup's backup
-- Danny Kannel. And he's not very good. In the Broncos' 26-6 loss to
Baltimore on Sunday, Kanell was 16 of 31 for 114 yards with two
interceptions.
Belichick, who as head coach of the Browns, once subjected the nation to
Todd Philcox as a starting NFL quarterback, knows better than most that
quarterbacks who aren't very good have a way of hampering a team.
If Kanell isn't a quivering, mumbling bundle of panic by halftime,
Belichick himself will be irked.
Mike Shanahan was offered up as the great mitigating circumstance.
"The key to it is Mike Shanahan," Belichick said of the Broncos' head
coach and offensive smart guy. "Talk about offense in the NFL, nobody's
done more on a consistent basis year after year than he has. It doesn't
matter who the running back is, quarterback is, line is. He does a great
job year after year."
The Denver defense, which will feel the sting of being without Patriots
killer Mobley this week, was another evil vision Belichick conjured.
"They give you more problems than any other team in the league
defensively, and if you can't score you can't win," said Belichick. "It
doesn't make any difference where you play. If you don't get any points
you won't win any games."
And who, pray tell, is likelier to get blanked; the Kanell-led Broncos
or the Pats? Come, come now.
"As we all know, it doesn't correlate as often as you'd think," Pats
quarterback Tom Brady said of the paper mismatch. "We've been that
wounded animal before, too. They have great coaches, they play well at
home and they play good defense. It won't matter too much who's out
there. They're all professional football players, and I don't say that
sarcastically. They're all good."
In successive weeks, the Pats have beaten Steve McNair and the Titans,
Tiki Barber and the Giants, Ricky Williams and the Dolphins and a
beat-up Browns team. Three out of four impressive wins ain't bad. Now
they have Portis, Kanell and the Broncos.
This is not a throwaway game. If Denver wins, the 5-3 Broncos draw even
with the Pats record-wise. And you know how those things play out in
January.
So many times the Patriots have gone to Denver, lost and had the defeat
dismissed with a "What did you expect?" shrug. This time, the patsies
won't fly to Denver. They're already there. And shame on New England if
it doesn't take care of business.
