Patriots Looking Like World Beaters But Keeping Eyes Fixed on Ultimate Goal

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Dec 17, 2010

Patriots Looking Like World Beaters But Keeping Eyes Fixed on Ultimate Goal It’s a five-game win streak with an exclamation point. Thirty-plus points in each contest. Zero turnovers. Eleven interceptions. At home, on the road, in wind and snow — this Patriots team is proving its ability at every turn. From quarterback Tom Brady to rookie cornerback Devin McCourty, there has been much to applaud.

But in Foxboro, a different sentiment remains.

Matt Light put it simply: “We got a long way to go.”

How often have we heard the players quote their coach, referencing how the “real” football starts in December? Brady joked about it earlier this season. Deion Branch spoke about it this week.

“This is the time to get everything geared up to head into the postseason, and I think you want to be clicking on all cylinders,” he said. Then came the real statement.

“I think we’re close,” Branch said, “but we’re not there yet.”

Not there yet.

It is the resounding statement that echoes far beyond the Foxboro zip code. Kevin Faulk, who made his first road trip to be on the sidelines with his teammates in Chicago, takes the message into our Watertown, Mass., studios. And he gave me a hard time this week about some of those statistics noted at the top.

“Don’t listen to that Benny,” he directed, after I noted BenJarvus Green-Ellis‘ good hands and perfection with the football. “There you go again,” was his half-joking response about the lack of turnovers committed by his teammates.

From their big picture responses, like Light’s, to the situational notes that Faulk expounded on, the basis of the belief is clear: It’s a long road and we are not at the end of it. But while the Patriots may not want to look beyond the Green Bay sign at the next intersection, it is looking more and more like the road to Dallas will roll through Foxboro.

Ever since that Monday night dismantling at Gillette, the Jets have faltered — painfully. And not just on the field — it has spilled right across the sideline. Stability won’t be easy to attain this weekend, either. Not with a trip to the Steel City on tap.

But to borrow a notion from Belichick’s notes, it’s not about the Jets or any other team in the league. The Patriots’ positioning has everything to do with the execution put forth by New England — on the field, on game day. A philosopher’s notes might put it this way: Control what you can control; don’t waste worry on all rest. For the 2010 Patriots, that control is only getting better.

Brady threw for a season-high 369 yards against the Bears. He is in a zone where statistics alone, many as there may be, cannot paint a complete picture. Branch and Wes Welker each totaled over 100 yards in Chicago, marking the first time this season two New England receivers have broken the three-digit mark. A young defense that was repeatedly questioned in the season’s early going has grown and developed before our eyes.

This Patriots team has endured the tests of injury, the arrivals and departures of teammates, and the antics of Mother Nature. Now, in the frigid December temperatures, they are turning up the heat. Here’s betting the seats in Foxboro stay warm well into the new year.

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