Boston Massacre

The San Diego Chargers ended the New England Patriot's 21-game with a convincing 41-17 victory. Convincing to everybody it seems except of the national media. Numerous headlines point to the Patriots injuries as the reason for New Englands demise.

Nobody wants to talk about how well the Chargers played.

"Injuries finally caught up with the New England Patriots," read the opening line of Dave Goldberg's Associated Press gamer.

"Patriots coach Bill Belichick has proven to be a master of plotting the proper schemes to make up for injuries to key players.

"The way it looked yesterday, however, the loss of safety Rodney Harrison just may be too big an obstacle to overcome," said Karen Guregian of the Boston Globe.

Yep, the Patriots are the only team in the league dealing with injuries on Monday morning. Injuries only affect the Patriots. It is like the Patriots have become the Yankees of the NFL. Nobody ever beats them, they only beat themselves. It was not the Chargers defense that held New England scoreless in the second half. It was the Patriots not making the plays on offense.

Because of the injuries, of course.

Killer Instinct: The Chargers have shown, in each of the past two weeks, the killer instinct to put away teams when it gets a lead. San Diego would be 4-0 if they could have employed it during the first two weeks of the season.

Schedule stat: The Chargers next three opponents�Pittsburgh, Oakland, Philadelphia�will be coming off its bye week.

Stat of the Day: The Patriots had been undefeated at home for 1,012 days. Renee Zellweger would have to get married nine more times to reach those kind of numbers.

Bad Day for a King: The Patriots loss was so devastating for Sports Illustrated's Peter King, that most of his Monday Morning Quarterback talking about the Lions replay woes, despite being in Foxboro. King was obviously in mourning.

The good news is that the Chargers are number 2 in the Fine Fifteen.

Question of the Day: Where were Tom Brady's five layers of protection?

Gambling Panic of the Week: St. Louis coach Mike Martz was hospitalized during the week for a sinus infection. That sent gamblers into full anxiety mode as what appeared to be a St. Louis loss could have been anybody�s game if Martz was absent. Luckily, Martz was on the sidelines to ensure that his team underachieved outdoors once again.

Advice of the Week: You know things are going bad in St. Louis. When Martz told owner Georgia Frontiere that he had a sinus infection, the St. Louis owner suggested that her coach, "take a swim."

Why we love Martz: St. Louis attempted 62 passes and ran the ball 15 times. That should have St. Louis at 9-7 for years as long as Martz stays out of the ocean.

Looks can be deceiving: Do not be so quick to anoint Eli Messiah as the second coming, much like you would not want to write off his brother, Peyton for is previous two games. It is not like San Diego or St. Louis has much of a defensive secondary.

Jake the Snake: The Broncos are playing good football right now. AFC Championship Game good? Probably not.

Injury watch: When is Jeff Garcia due back for the Lions? Did you ever think there would be a day when your playoff hopes were hinged on Garcia? The best thing you can say about Joey Harrington is that he almost led his team to an upset. And he plays a mean piano.

Injury watch, part 2: Falcons quarterback Mike Vick is hurt again. The Chargers got the best of the deal that sent Vick for LaDainian Tomlinson. End of story.

Jets Football: Decided to spend some time to watch the Brook Bollinger experiment. First play we saw, the guy trips over his own feet. That was enough.

No Defense: Weren't most NFL experts talking up the Chiefs as a Super Bowl team two weeks ago? Looks like the Chiefs started their bye week a half early. We do not blame Dick Vermeil for crying.

Question of the week: How can you have a game south of the border that does not include Ron Mexico?

More Foreign Games: NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue called the Cardinals vs. 49ers game played in front of more than 100,000 Raiders fans, a complete success. Tagliabue said that there would be even more games play abroad in the upcoming years because, "American fans are not dumb enough to pay $50 to see two mediocre football teams."

Look for the NFC North to play its entire schedule in Canada.

The Man: Referee Ed Hochuli. Arms like Hulk Hogan and bi-lingual. Awesome combination. Not sure what he was talking about during that first penalty call, but we believe he called for a boycott of grapes.

Streak watch: The 1976 Buccaneers are getting mighty nervous that the Houston Texans might best their mark of futility.

Laugh if you want: Wideout Keenan McCardell is quickly closing in on 800 career receptions. A couple of injury-free season and he could be starring at 1,000 career receptions. Then Raiders fans would spam this site calling for him to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

McCardell was once cut from Bill Belichick�s team in Cleveland.

Quote of the Day:

"Marty-ball is dead. They legislated it out of the game."
--Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer after his team's 41-17 rout of the New England Patriots. Hail to the Air Schottenheimer era.