A Writer's March ~ The Monday Analysis 3 October 2004

And the Patriots have tied a league record 18 straight - nearly losing it all in the great Northeast in Buffalo. But when it came crunch time, penalties and turnovers reigned high.

It seems that where ever and whenever these teams play, the winner needs to score 31 points, as the Patriots win a weird one in Buffalo, 31 - 17.

No one could hold on to the football in this game. Not the Bills, not the Patriots. Even referee Johnny Grier left in the first quarter with a foot injury. But when a game like this gets late, the better team, as usual, comes out a head.

The Patriots got their 18th straight victory, however, more importantly, they got a divisional win on the road to start the season 1-0 in the AFC East.

"Fortunately we had a few key plays at the right time," said head coach Bill Belichick. "This (Buffalo) is a tough place to play. Buffalo is a tough team. Now it is on to Miami."

The win was covered with sloppy plays on Special Teams, where a kickoff return from the Terrence McGee was run back for a touchdown, a punt from Buffalo was botched and turned into a 34 yard rushing gain to give the Bills first down, and 58-yard fake punt interception for a touchdown.

"We don't care anything about a record," snapped the God of Head Coaching. "We're just trying to win a game, trying to win another division game. You know, we got one, but we got Miami coming up, and we know they'll be tough. We won three games. That's it. There's nothing to really get caught up in."

''We don't really think about that,'' Richard Seymour echoed. ''I know we need to play better than we played today. It's not going to be good enough coming down the stretch.''

The win was capped off by a sack to Drew Bledsoe featuring Tedy Bruschi and Seymour. Bledsoe fumbled the ball and Seymour ran it back for a 68-yard touchdown. This finished off a bad day for Bledsoe.

''I was sitting at my locker for 10 minutes trying to figure it out and in the shower trying to figure it out ... `What can I do to make a change?''' Bledsoe said. ''We're making mistakes at the wrong time and especially against the defending world champs, you can't make mistakes like that.''

''A lot of sucking air,'' Seymour said laughing about his touchdown. ''I just kept running.''

Quarterback Tom Brady was 17 for 30 for 298 yards, 2 TDs (David Patten and Daniel Graham). Corey Dillon rushed for 79 yards on 19 carries and scored one touchdown.

"We got a long way to go in this season. We got a lot of football yet to play. We need to play better than we played today."

The Patriots host Miami at the Razor next week looking for either a fourth straight win or a 19th straight win this season. Depending how you look at it.

Eugene Wilson was named AFC Defensive Player of the Month of September. Wilson recorded 12 tackles, 2 INTs, a pass defended, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery to help the Patriots start 2-0. This is Wilson's first player of the month award. The last monthly defensive award for the Patriots was in December 2003 to Mike Vrabel...Rookie TE Ben Watson was placed in injured reserve with a knee injury stemming from play during the season opener against Indianapolis. He was inactive for Week 2 in Arizona...The Patriots signed veteran TE Jed Weaver, who was released from Denver in early September...WR Deion Branch and OL Adrian Klemm were both inactive for the game in Buffalo with knee and foot injuries, respectively...Patriots.com has undergone a makeover with a new web interface design...The Patriots have also launched their site in Chinese: http://cachewww.patriots.com/chinese/.

Reports out of the league office state that Denver violated salary cap regulations in the late 1990's, and will be fined $1 million, plus loss of a third round draft pick. The violation stems from player salary payment to be deferred with interest. The player's agent is also to be fined $100,000. Should Denver incur a second violation, they could be fined $5 million, plus the loss of a first round pick. The Denver Broncos won back to back Super Bowls in 1998 and 1999.

The Monday Analysis POWER Rankings

We're trimming down some of the undefeateds and winless.

1. New England (3-0). Count 'em three straight or 18 straight. Either way, the Patriots have not lost in over a calendar year.

2. Philly (4-0). I don't think the Eagles are interested in losing at all this year. And the addition of T.O. is panning out. Six of Donovan McNabb's nine TDs have gone to Owens.

3. Atlanta (4-0). The Mike Vick Show is turning out to be the Falcon Defensive Hour.

4. Seattle (3-0). A Bye week drops them a few, but I think there are better teams above them.

5. Indianapolis (3-1). Despite being slapped on opening night, Peyton and Co. have won three straight.

6. Jacksonville (3-1). Jack Del Rio has the Jags working better than they have since the very early days of Tom Coughlin.

7. NJ Jets (3-0). Big win in Miami, but I hating putting a Jersey team on this list.

8. NJ Giants (3-1). Tom Coughlin needs to keep winning to keep from being knocked off in Jersey.

9. Pittsburgh (3-1). Ben Roethlisberger had a nice debut, tossing 174 yards for 1 TD and a 101.1 rating.

10. Dallas (2-1). Bill Parcells said on 60 Minutes this week that players have taken swings at him. That intensity puts his teams on this list.

11. Minnesota (2-1). Bye week keeps them on this list.

12. Detroit (2-1). Bye week keeps them on this list, but on the Temporary 12 Spot.