Chowdaheads - Sitting on Frog One: Manning up: Pats help unstopable Colts to win

A few quick notes on what was, for anyone other than Patriots fans, a pretty entertaining football game last night. The Pats in a matter of 5 turnovers fell from a possible #1 seed to #3 and are now behind the Colts and Broncos with the head to head tie breaker looming large, in the 27-20 loss at home.

Not to be one of these "we were the better team" guys, but when you turn the ball over 5 times to the Colts and commit 8 penalties, most of which resulted in a 1st down, you lose by 50 not 7. The Colts were the better team last night but they have done little to shake fears from the national media that they won't become cold month choke artists as in past years.

The loss was especially disappointing in that not only did Tom Brady tie a career high with 4 picks, but that almost all of them came from ill advised throws down field, a few of which were tipped into Colt hands. 3 of the INTs actually came on 1st down, begging the question, "why are they throwing on 1st down against a defense that can't stop my 80-year-old neighbor?"

The fact that makes this a surprisingly easy pill to swallow is this: The Colts and Pats will most likely do this again in a few months and it will be in Indy...Where the Patriots have won a lot and where the Colts have no problem blowing the game. Brady is 10-0 in a dome and 10-1 in the playoffs...So UB likes their chances. Winning this game may have made things easier for the Pats but they still have to get the job done against the Colts and/or Denver in January if they want to think about a championship...That fact hasn't changed.

Then there was the return of Adam Vinatieri...Like Drew Bledsoe, Lawyer Milloy and Ty Law before them, the fans gave Adam a warm welcome to start the game and were all over him once the first whistle blew...UB longs for the days of retirement ceremonies for Mr. Clutch but what's done is done and he's a Colt...And Mr. Clutch was apparently rattled about his return to Foxboro. Despite the Sox hat (left) AV was only 2 for 4 with costly shanks that were shocking to just about everyone watching...UB'd still rather not see Adam with the game on the line come the January rematch...

The potential loss of Rodney Harrison for any length of time was the biggest killer. His exit on the 1st Colt drive was a monster swing in favor of Indy and left the Pats with 2 backup safetys...Who knows when he'll be back...So it's on to a Week 10 matchup against the crappy Jets at home...Pats need to come out strong and get back on track to get ahead of Denver for the #2 seed...