Jolly old England

WEEK 7
The Pats have reached their bye week at 5-2 thanks to their drubbing of Tampa Bay in London. The final was 35-7 but it felt more like 60-7. The Patriots played two of the league's worst teams in consecutive weeks and beat them by a combined score of 94-7. That's about as convincing as it gets.

Yet all the Patriots have done is put themselves in good shape for four huge November games. Good shape. Not great. I can't remember four games in one month quite as big as this. It starts with a home game against the impossible to figure out Miami Wildcats (formerly the Dolphins). Then it's the game of the year: a Sunday night clash with the Colts. That's followed by a home game against the Jets with a chance to atone for the Week 2 loss and maybe put the Jets away. The Pats then close out the month with a trip to New Orleans for a Monday night matchup against the best the NFC has to offer. The Saints are unbeaten and unstoppable when on offense.

The Pats sit at 5-2. Good enough for first in the AFC East. 5-2, however, was the worst the Pats could do in the first seven games if they planned on being in a position to make some noise in the playoffs. A play here or there in the Jets or Broncos game and the Pats would be battling the Colts for top seed in the conference. Instead they are sitting at No. 4 right now. Go 2-2 in November and they will still be a playoff contender but with little room for error down the stretch. Go 3-1 or better and they will be in a strong position for a top seed. The real fun begins In November.

The real fun Sunday was seeing if Brady, without the snow, could continue to get closer and closer to being Tom Brady again. The answer was mostly yes. After throwing for six TDs last week, he tossed another three in Wembley. But he also had two picks. The result of sloppy passes. That can't happen in the next four games. The most encouraging part of the last two weeks was the play of the defense. Seven points allowed. Granted, the Titans and Bucs are playing terrible football but you still have to make the plays on defense and the Pats have been doing that. Especially the secondary.

All the pregame media talk focused on the benching last week of Adalius Thomas and Leigh Bodden and the cutting of Joey Galloway. The failures of Belichick. Bad free agent signings. Bad drafting. The talent pool is drying up without Scott Pioli. Belichick the coach has only Belichick the GM to blame. None of those stories mentioned the Patriots record over the last three years being better than any other team in the NFL. Maybe this week's stories will focus on the players who stepped up yesterday. Like WR Sam Aiken, a free agent from last season, who caught a 54-yard touchdown. Or Darius Butler who had a pick and was flying all around the field. Or Brandon Meriweather, who might turn out along with Jerod Mayo to be the core of the Pats D for years. The young defense has held its own through the first seven weeks. November will be a bigger test.

There's not much reason to spend a lot of time breaking down the last two games. The Pats played well against two weak teams resulting in two blowouts. That's what happened in '07 too. The difference in the '07 team (and the back-to-back title seasons) is that those teams also came up big against the best teams in the league. The next month will tell if this year's team can do that. It starts in two weeks against the Miami Wildcats. You couldn't ask for a better time for an extra week to prepare. If the Pats can't stop the wildcat offense with two weeks of planning and practicing then they never will. If they can, they will have some serious momentum heading into the game of the year.