Sweet Sixteen ... 27-24

Thursday night the Super Bowl champs put on a party, and continued where they left off in once again storybook fashion.

If the NFL was Hollywood, and the teams in the NFL were studios, the Patriots would be the studio with best screenwriters hands down. I mean we're talking Academy Award winning screenwriters here.

After finishing a meaningless 1-3 preseason, the Patriots took the field after a pre-game event filled with music superstars and the uncovering of the new Super Bowl banner. To make things even more exciting, the Pats opened their season against the team they beat to take the trip to the Promised Land.

From this writer's view I saw one heck of a game. It wasn't a perfect game, but it was a game that I'm sure some teams that have to match up against them will begin to think about the one question you have to ask yourself...

Are the 2004 Patriots better than the 2003 Patriots?

If I had to answer that question I would say it's too early to say, but if I was forced to answer I would say yes. Based on Thursday night's performance they must be scaring a lot of teams.

The Patriots are a gritty team, and they know how to pick it up when need be to get the win. Now as I said in week one of the preseason the Pats have depth, a great punter, a running back, and now they are boasting possibly one of the best 1,2,3 punches at the TE position. The Pats are a dangerous team, and if they can remain healthy and hungry this team will coast to the playoffs.

Offense

QB Tom Brady (26 of 38 335 yds. 3 TD's) played the best game I've ever seen from him, and I'm not talking from a stat perspective.

Two plays after the Pats had recovered a Colts fumble on the Pats one-yard line Brady found himself face with three and nine from their two-yard line. Brady took the snap from shotgun, stepped back as RB Corey Dillon (15 for 86 yds.) provided a key block that stopped one of two blitzing defenders. The second blitzer got a piece of Brady, but he shook off the attack, stepped back up into the pocket and threw a bullet to WR David Givens (4 for 80 yds.) for 20 yards.

He looked nothing like a QB with less than five years under his belt. Brady looked confident, and in control as he continued through the night threading the needle between defenders and floating 25 yard TD's passes into the hands his receivers.

RB Corey Dillon was one of the reasons for the QB, TE and WR's successes last night. Corey threw some HUGE blocks for Brady during the game, one of his blocks took the blitzer's feet right out from under him. Every time Corey touched the ball you could feel a difference in the air.

Dillon averaged 5.7 yards per carry, and broke a few for big runs including a 38 yarder that had the fans of Gillette chanting "Corey." To be honest I was hoping to see Corey score a rushing TD because it would have blown the roof off the stadium. Dillon's running game gave the Patriots a balanced offensive attack kept the Colts defense honest and committed to stopping the run. Once they became overly committed the Pats receiving corps found themselves getting open, and at times the word open was an understatement.

Even with the reality of being open a certain plays the Pats receiving cops still made some great catches when needed. TE Daniel Graham (7 for 57 yds. 1 TD) made a nice grab to pull in an eight-yard TD pass with a defender by his side.

As did WR Deion Branch (7 for 86 yds. 1 TD) on his 16-yard TD reception. Some critics will say that Graham's play picked up because the arrival of TE Ben Watson (2 for 16 yds.) has lit a fire under his ass.

TE Christan Fauria (1 for 5 yds.) saw some very limited time, but in my opinion it would be nice to see Fauria be able to play the FB position and pick up the blocks.

Right now the Pats have a double threat at TE, and Fauria's hands at FB would be a great asset. WR David Givens (4 for 80 yds.) converted some key down with receptions, while WR Deion Branch (7 for 86 yds. 1 TD) continued his ways as he led the pack. If WR Troy Brown comes back this corps could spread the receptions and defenses well.

Defense The defense at this time doesn't seem as strong as it did last year, but they seem to get it done when needed. Thursday night the run defense was soft and allowed Colts RB "Edge" James to carry the ball 30 times eating up 142 yards of real estate.

They also allowed James' understudy RB Dominic Rhodes (1 TD) to carry the ball 10 times for 42 yards. In addition, they also allowed QB Peyton Manning to run on fourth and one for 19 yards which set up a possible TD strike, but died when James had the ball knocked from him on first and 10 from the Pats 22 yard line by DE Ty Warren, and recovered by FS Eugene Wilson.

These big stops continued through the night as the Colts would drive down the field, and then guys like LB Tedy Bruschi (5T 1 INT) picked off a Manning pass on a second down play at the Pats six yard line.

Then to add insult to injury, the guy who stuffed their hopes in Indy last year on fourth and goal did the same this year.

LB Willie McGinest (6T 1 sack) blitzed Manning untouched late in the fourth sacking him for a 12-yard loss, and setting up a FG that had to be rushed because the Colts no longer had timeouts, but the Pats took the timeout, and at the time seemed like reverse psychology to me.

I guess it worked because seconds later K Mike Vanderjagt missed the 48-yard field goal giving the Pats their first win of the season.

SS Rodney Harrison (7T) had an emotional night. He was shaken up on the play after he tackled Manning out of bounds on his 19-yard dash. He also felt the wrath of the refs getting penalized five yards for illegal use of hands, three yards for encroachment, and a questionable defensive holding call that was declined.

Harrison was also vocal against the refs on almost every defensive holding penalty that is now being enforced this year -- a rule that I believe will cost some team out there a game this season.

The Pats and Colts were given some great field position after some of these calls, but it will happen this year and coaches will take note.

LB Roman Phifer lead the team with nine tackles DE Ty Warren and LB Tedy Bruschi each had five tackles.

Phifer leading the tackles reminded me of the year he had before the team released SS Lawyer Milloy when they claimed his numbers dropped off. Phifer led the team in tackles because the Pats were not able to stop the run at the line so his final number soared as teams continued to run week after week.

The secondary had CB Ty Law (1T) playing through some hamstring problems, second year men FS Eugene Wilson (3T) and CB Asante Samuel made some key plays, but they still gave up some big receptions across the middle something I'm sure will be worked on this week.

Special Teams

Special teams looked much better from their preseason performance, but as I said earlier this year P Josh Miller will be a key addition as he averaged 47.3 on three punts last night. WR Bethel Johnson returned five returns for 104 yards, while CB Tyrone Poole had six yards on his one return, but WR Deion Branch fumbled a punt he signaled fair catch away giving the Colts that last possession of the game in the fourth.

Coaching

The game plan out the gate with five wide outs once again confused the Colts defense, but staggered and stalled when the Pats made it in the red zone. At times I wondered about some of the coaching decisions like when they called a pass play on third and two when it was obvious that Dillon was beginning too heat up.

They also had to burn an unnecessary timeout when they couldn't get the subs in on time for the defense. Dungy had me thinking even more when they called a time out at 2:08 in the fourth knowing they were one timeout in the hole, and had the two minute warning approaching.

However, it is the first game, and once the coaches feel comfortable with their players abilities acceptations will be made.

Comments? Hit me up: Sinista1@msn.com