let the games begin!

so it's only mid-week. all eyes seem to be focused on Sunday night football as the Patriots & the Colts get ready to write another chapter in their rivalry. the thing that really worries me is that everyone is singing the praises of New England & everyone in sports knows that brings nothing but jinxes & bad karma. Peyton Manning is 1-7 in Foxboro & 1-5 against Tom Brady. the problem is that Peyton's one win in Foxboro & against Tom Brady came last year. it leaves me lacking the verbal swagger i had before last year's match up was played & became the disappointing precursor to the 2005 season, when the Patriots had no one but themselves to blame for going home without a fourth championship. they cannot afford to play sloppy ball this week against the Colts. they need to strike first, strike fast & get inside Peyton's head so that he starts throwing intersceptions. and they need to run run run against the weak Indy run defense. take advantage of the Patriots version of the Papi-Manny one-two punch of Dillon-Maroney.

though the game doesn't kick off until 8:15pm Sunday night, the pre-game show is already in full swing. the Patriots have seventeen players listed as questionable on their injury report & Tom Brady, who has been listed as probable for with a shoulder injury for two-and-a-half seasons now. that's Bill Belichick: man of mystery, genius disguised in a hoodie & track pants. how do the Colts answer? why, with their own injury report, listing, you guessed it: seventeen questionable players. apparently this is a head game beyond Peyton Manning. it's a new game of guess how many of our players will be available at game time & *now* see if you can set up a strategy to beat us!

at his Wednesday press conference, Belichick was quoted as saying:
"OK, we all know we have a real good football team coming in here Sunday night. We have a lot to get ready for. The Colts are pretty good at everything. They're well coached. Good in all three phases of the game. They can play from ahead, they can play from behind. They pretty much do everything they need to do. They're undefeated. It's a big challenge for us, and so we have two focuses - one is to get ready for the Colts and two is to keep improving, keep working on what we need to work on, so if it isn't about that, there's really not that much else to talk about this week."

Belichick answered a variety of questions on former Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri, now with the Colts. Asked Vinatieri's Patriots' legacy in his mind, Belichick said: "I think we all know what it is. He did a lot for this franchise, a lot for this team. I think we all know that."

Belichick was all business in this press conference. It was shorter than normal, and his answers were more clipped than usual.

i wasn't aware that it was possible for him to be shorter & more clipped than the tight-lipped head coach he already is!

now i just hope that this little snippet regarding Peyton's performance against the Broncos Touching All The Bases indeed holds true: Sure, Peyton Manning still looks like he cuts his hair with toenail clippers, but man, did ever expose that speedy and talented Denver defense today. Well done, Doofus Spawn of Archie. And thanks for getting it all out of your system this week.

i'm nervous. excited & hopeful... but nervous... i can't endure another game in Foxboro ending with a glowing Peyton face, arms pumped, white jersey still pristine as newly fallen snow... and no matter what he did in a Patriots uniform, i would love to see The Other Traitor fall flat on his face on the cold New England sod.