Miss the obvious

Meaning that ESPN is based in Connecticut and so clearly the insidiousness prevalent in that state has managed to warp even the most objective sports analysts' mental acuity. Thus, just because Peyton Manning threw a whopping two interceptions during the football game does not mean the New England Patriot's defense contained him.

Let's think about 4 things and then stop being dumb, for Capt. Evil made the right choice:

1. When Stephen Gostkowski made his last field goal I thought, "13 points is fewer than 14".

2. The Patriots were up by 17 points in the 4th quarter. How is a 6-3 team that blows this lead with no turnovers in the last 15 minutes better than a 9-0 team? Thanks anyway Trent Dilfer, and to a lesser extent, that kinda fat annoying guy with slick brown hair who gets a tiny bit of SportsCenter air time.

3. Bill Belichick was completely wrong to think his defense couldn't stop a Colts team that had dropped 4 touchdowns all game, their last 3 td drives averaging far less than 3 minutes, from scoring one more with (gasp!) two minutes to play! Sike.

4. The Patriots are 63+% on 4th down and 2 or fewer yards to go with Tom Brady as quarterback. Just make sure not to run it with 2 chances to get 2 yards, and ignore the fact that you have some guy named Randy Moss on your team.

The most important theme from tonight's game is not which quarterback chokes in the clutch, and which has superior talent and mental/emotional durability, as that has clearly been answered. It is simply that both of the following two teams-the New England Patriots or the Indianapolis Colts-might care about the rest of the regular season, but for far different reasons.

Enjoy playing in southern Ohio come January narfburglars.