Joe Gibbs knows what he faces when he takes his Washington Redskins to Foxborough today.
"You could look forever and I don't think you're going to find a weakness," Gibbs says of the Patriots, who are 7-0 and totally dominant thus far in the season.
That's normally the standard pregame coaching platitude.
Not right now. In their unbeaten run, Bill Belichick's Patriots haven't scored fewer than 34 points in a game; haven't won by less than 17; and quarterback Tom Brady is on track to set all sorts of records. His 27 touchdown passes extrapolate to 62 for the season, which would shatter Peyton Manning's record of 49, set two seasons ago.
In other games today, Detroit is at Chicago; Oakland at Tennessee; the New York Giants play Miami in London; Cleveland at St. Louis; Philadelphia at Minnesota; Pittsburgh at Cincinnati; Indianapolis at Carolina; Buffalo at the New York Jets; Houston at San Diego; Jacksonville at Tampa Bay; and New Orleans at San Francisco.
Green Bay is at Denver on Monday night.
Brady insists Manning isn't on his mind. Nor do he and his teammates want to talk about Peyton and the unbeaten Colts, who they face next week in their second "Game of the Century" this season; the first was the 48-27 win in Dallas two weeks ago.
Normally the Redskins would seem like a tough test. They are 4-2, third in the strong NFC East, behind the Cowboys and Giants and seemingly primed for a playoff run. They are especially tough on defense, allowing just over 14 points a game and ranking fifth in yardage allowed.
On the other hand, they aren't close to the Patriots on offense, a situation not helped by multiple injuries on the offensive line.
Beyond that, Belichick is showing no mercy to his opponents, presumably upset by what he views as an anti-New England bias around the NFL stemming from the early-season episode in which the team was caught taping the New York Jets' signals from the sidelines. He was fined US$500,000 for that, the team was fined US$250,000 and lost a first-round draft choice.
Last week, New England took a 42-7 halftime lead over winless Miami. But after a mini-comeback by the Dolphins in the second half, Belichick reinserted Brady to throw his sixth touchdown pass of the game. The coach insists that's because he felt the Dolphins were closing in. But they were within only 21 points after backup Matt Cassel threw an interception for a score.
Neither Cassel nor Matt Guttierez is likely to see the field today. But there's a chance Richard Seymour could. The Patriots' best defensive lineman practiced this week for the first time after being on the physically unable to perform list with a knee injury.
That's all New England's opponents need.
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