FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

• It seems like every week is now a referendum on the Patriots, as if here it is almost the middle of October and we still have no idea what this team is.

Last week it was whether they could bounce back from the debacle against Miami.

Tomorrow is another one. On the road. In what has almost become a must game for the Chargers. A game in which, on the surface anyways, the Pats seem to be swimming against the current.

Whatever happens, though, it’s another look at this team that’s still a mystery, this team we still know very little about, in this season that is so different than it was a year ago.

• If Josh Beckett is really over his oblique problem, the Sox beat Tampa Bay.

• But if Tampa Bay wins, do we call them mavericks?

• Or will it be simply karma, one of those years where the baseball gods seem to be sitting on the Rays’ shoulders?

• Memo to O. J.: Are you now going to subcontract out the search for the real killers?

• Quiz of the Week: Eight players on the Red Sox playoff roster for this series were drafted by the Red Sox. How many can you name? (Answer near the bottom of the column.)

• Line of the Week comes from Rays’ outfielder Eric Hinske, on his first trip into the Tropicana Dome in 2002 with the Blue Jays: “The infield stinks, the ceiling is white, and there were two people in the stands.”

• Line of the Week II comes from Fox baseball analyst Tim McCarver, who called Manny’s behavior with the Red Sox “despicable.”

• It’s just a matter of time before the Bengals’ locker room is designated as a crime scene, right?

• The Angels’ Mike Scioscia turned over-managing into an art form in the Sox series.

• Unless you think a suicide squeeze in a tie game was a sound move, Bunky.

• There’s no truth to the rumor that the new move Flash of Genius is about the McCain campaign.

• Or that Manny’s new defense is he’s always been a maverick.

• Or that the new movie How To Lose Friends And Alienate People is the Scott Boras story.

• ESPN’s Harold Reynolds — no relation, if you’re scoring at home — said on WEEI the other day that Jon Lester is the best pitcher in baseball.

• Every season there seems to be a new designated nitwit in the NFL, and Plaxico Burress is the leader in the clubhouse this year.

• But if you have “Pacman” Jones in the pool, you shouldn’t worry; it’s only October.

• Then there’s the guy who just figured out he’s got more money in his office football pool this week than he now does in his 401(k).

• Jules Cohen, the Providence native who won the New England amateur tennis title in 1954 and who once won the R.I. state title 10 years in a row, has been named to the New England tennis Hall of Fame.

• LaDainian Tomlinson is on the way down.

• Kudos to URI’s Derek Cassidy, who was a rollout QB for two years and now has the best passing stats in the Colonial Athletic Association.

• Facebook makes your whole life like junior high school.

• It’s only a matter of time before the financial crisis impacts professional sports, which have been playing with Monopoly money for years now.

• Is there a better pitching twosome in baseball than Beckett and Lester?

• And have we ever had two Rhode Islanders on the same team in a playoff game, like we have with Rocco Baldelli and Dan Wheeler on the Rays? You tell me.

• The new movie Flash of Genius is very well done, and Greg Kinnear is excellent in it.

• You know the Rays need a new stadium when there are rules for balls that get hit into the catwalks.

• If Mike D’Antoni can inject some life into the woeful Knicks, he should immediately go into the Hall of Fame.

• Either that, or be hired by this state to inject some life into an economy that’s already raised a white flag.

• You know things are bad around here when even the lawyers are complaining there’s no work.

• The Sporting News college basketball magazine has South Kingstown’s Erik Murphy of St. Mark’s school as a high honorable mention high school All-American, and Smithfield’s Mike Marra of Northfield-Mount Hermon as a honorable mention All-American.

• Zen Question of the Week: Do you think Manny’s worried about his 401(k)?

• Edward Wright is a writer who deserves a wider audience, and his new novel Damnation Falls is excellent.

• Quiz answer: Jon Lester. Manny Delcarmen. Justin Masterson. Jonathan Papelbon. Jed Lowrie. Dustin Pedroia. Kevin Youkilis. Jacoby Ellsbury.

• Memo to everyone who thinks presidential debates are boring. What did you expect, Dancing With The Stars?

• Both Joe Torre and Terry Francona project a certain calm, no small thing over a 162-game season.

• If you’re not old enough to remember Ernie Davis, go see the new movie The Express and get a little football history lesson.

• The Sporting News also has Jimmy Baron as the best shooter in the A-10, and five Big East teams in the top 25.

• If my 401(k) account goes any lower, I’ll owe it money.

breynold@projo.com