New England "State of Mind"

I woke up with football on my mind. Instead of my normal "what am I going to wear today" daydream in the shower this morning, I ran my own Monday morning highlight reel, mostly with clips of the Patriots loss to the New York Jets. I'll admit that my outfit and timeliness may have suffered slightly because of this brain detour, but I figure that my intro to all of you would be worth it.

The Patriots had their first loss on the Jets field since 2000. It was the first time since 2006 that Brady didn’t score a touchdown. Obviously, I'm not feeling all warm and fuzzy inside about the reality of this.

I have been a New England Patriots fan since the age of 12, my first game in what was then Foxboro, against, you guessed it, the Jets. As I huddled with my cocoa, I decided that day; my future legal career could find a loophole where I'd end up the new owner of the Patriots Franchise. Lofty goals for a child, I’m certain, but I fell in love that day with a team and a game. As far back as I can remember in Pats football, there was one major rule; you hated the Jets (oh and the Chicago Bears for taking our Championship away from us in 1985) yes, I hold grudges, but I digress.

Maybe it's leftover Red Sox/Yankees animosity, or maybe we New Englanders just don't care much for the Empire State. I could be the only one actually annoyed by Jay-Z's New York anthem, and I love Jay-Z, but rules are rules, right? Bostonians and New Yorkers aren’t meant to be BFF’s.

Mostly under the previous reign of Mangini, the old rivalry has come back to life. The J-E-T-S seem to pick it up a bit more, when they play New England. I wanted the Pats to beat this team that had talked so recklessly all week about “embarrassment” and “kissing rings.” How very small of them, in my best Nene Leakes impersonation. I thought when you were the better team, that the talking takes place on the field. Unfortunately for the Patriots, that was exactly what happened.

I had only one thought after the game; the Patriots are going to be in trouble if they don't find any consistency on the field.

Tom Brady still has his passion for winning, but his accuracy is down. That was apparent Monday night and quickly became apparent yesterday. Giselle needs to give her man a pep talk and a hug. Other key players must step up; Tom Brady can no longer do it all. The key players I'm speaking of weren't given the opportunity to do exactly what they did Game 1. Kevin Falk, Benjamin Watson and Randy Moss, needed to have more opportunities in the game, instead Brady went to rookie Edelman and newcomer vet, Galloway repeatedly, much to my annoyance.

What remained a looming indicator over the past two games was that the team took tremendous losses in not just the veteran defense, but in the voices and leadership on the team. Seymour, Bruschi, Vrabel, Harrison and Hobbs were significant losses for the team as leaders, but the defense wasn’t our main issue yesterday, oddly, our offense was.

There were times yesterday where the Pats looked like they were all rookies still studying the playbook. I mean was our entire offense wearing an armband yesterday? At least they could make us fans feel like they know what they’re doing out there. Instead, they looked confused, frustrated and worse yet, sloppy. It’s been some time since I’ve seen a Belichick team looked as flawed.

The light at the end of the tunnel (there is one I swear) is that this isn't all bad news. So put down the shots of tequila, pull your patriots gear back out of the corner it was thrown in last night and let's all leave our bad attitudes behind. It's Week 2 in the NFL. We got to see how some new players fit into the process, as well as what didn’t work for them. We got to see real weaknesses within the team’s offense and defense. We got to see just how valuable work horses like Kevin Falk and Wes Welker are to our team. And now the team has a chance to pick up their Patriots pride which took many hits and many yellow flags yesterday, and rebuild this team.

Maybe this was all just one big test concocted by the mastermind Belichick to get the fight back in his team. I’m pretty sure that believing that will get me through to the game next Sunday, when the hometown favorite, Matt Ryan (Boston College) comes home and attempts to show why the Falcons are currently undefeated. I tend to believe, however, that they will see a completely different Patriots team, Belichick will guarantee that.

Submitted by Caprice.