The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles are clearly the two best teams as well as the last two undefeated teams.
Until Sunday, the Indianapolis Colts could argue they fumbled away a victory in New England on opening night. But the Colts’ loss at home to Jacksonville dropped them from any midseason consideration as the league’s best.
The Patriots knocked out the unbeaten New York Jets and get a chance to put the 5-1 Pittsburgh Steelers in their place Sunday.
The Eagles already have handed the hot Minnesota Vikings their only loss.
The Patriots and Eagles both had the unusual experience of coming from behind to win on Sunday.
After five double-digit victories in which they never trailed in the second half, the Eagles needed overtime to beat the Cleveland Browns 34-31.
“We can all get excited during the highs, but the lows, they test you, they make you stronger,” coach Andy Reid said Monday. “I was impressed by what I saw.”
When the Jets took a 7-6 lead over the Patriots with 1 minute 55 seconds left in the first half, it was only the second time in 12 home games the Patriots have trailed. It lasted for 1:50.
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Because the Patriots and Eagles don’t meet in the regular season, only a Super Bowl can satisfy the question of who is better.
Until then, here are key stumbling blocks:
Patriots: at Pittsburgh on Sunday, at St. Louis Nov. 7, at Kansas City Nov. 22, Baltimore at home Nov. 28 and at the Jets Dec. 26.
Eagles: against Baltimore at home Sunday, at Pittsburgh Nov. 7, at the Giants Nov. 28, Green Bay at home Dec. 5 and at St. Louis Dec. 26.
Bucking Colts
Leave it to a level-headed center to lend perspective to an intrasquad squabble between Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and receiver Reggie Wayne.
Center Jeff Saturday explained Sunday’s confrontation Monday.
“You have to understand what we do for a living,” he said. “I get hit on every play, so for a guy to walk up and shove a guy is not really that big a deal.”
Toward the end of their 27-24 loss to Jacksonville, Wayne and Manning had a facemask-to-facemask disagreement and Wayne ended up shoving the surprised Manning. Receiver Brandon Stokley got between them. “I was just like, `Hey, hey, we don’t need that,'” Stokley said. “It’s one of those things that happens in the heat of battle. It looks like you’re in desperation mode and you’re going to lose, and it’s frustrating.”
Manning and Wayne weren’t commenting on Monday, but they apparently weren’t fighting either.
Tight end Marcus Pollard said such incidents aren’t that unusual.
“It happens, but I’ve never seen it happen to that extreme,” he said. “But if someone gets too close to me, I tell them they’ve got bad breath first.”
Humor helps
Atlanta coach Jim Mora used humor to salve the wound of the Falcons’ 56-10 drubbing by Kansas City.
“I’ve had to take all sharp objects out of the meeting rooms,” he said Monday. “But we’re going to be OK. We’re going home to momma. When things aren’t going good, is there any better place in the world to be than your mom’s house?”
Mora said Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil, a longtime friend, tried to comfort him after the game.
“He said, `Hey, I’m sorry,'” Mora said. “I said, `Hey, that might have been good for us. You might have just helped our football team.'”
The Falcons have suffered only two worse losses: 59-0 to the Los Angeles Rams in 1976 and 56-3 to Green Bay in their inaugural 1966 season.
It helps that the Falcons are still in first place in the NFC South with a 5-2 record. Humor might not work as well for the 1-5 Bears.
Crumbling Seahawks
Speaking of humor, a funny thing has happened to the Seattle Seahawks. They were 3-0, including two road wins, had allowed just 23 points in almost four games and were leading the Rams 27-10 at home two weeks ago with 8 minutes left. Then they allowed 23 more points in 11 minutes and lost that game in overtime, lost to New England a week ago and lost to Arizona Sunday.
More Moss
Randy Moss is expected to play a meaningful role for the Minnesota Vikings this weekend against the Giants, even without a fully healed right hamstring.
The Vikings started Moss on Sunday to keep his consecutive games streak alive at 102, but the wide receiver was limited to two snaps and did not catch a pass in Minnesota’s 20-3 victory over Tennessee.
“Hopefully he’ll progress more this week and we’ll be able to use him in an active role,” coach Mike Tice said. “I don’t anticipate he’ll be at speed enough to play his normal role, which is every play of the game and every situation.”
Tice said he didn’t know if his star would practice this week, but he indicated Moss could be useful inside the 20-yard line or on third downs against New York.
“We’re going to do what’s right for the rest of the season, and we’re going to do what’s right to get Randy Moss back as quickly as we can, playing at a Randy Moss level,” Tice said. “I’m not going to go around the rest of my career and use Randy Moss as a decoy, so we have to do what’s best for Randy because we need Randy to accomplish our goals.”
Unsung milestones
Jets running back Curtis Martin surpassed Jim Brown on the career rushing list Sunday and now stands seventh with 12,352 yards. Brown’s 12,312 yards was the NFL standard until Walter Payton broke it in 1984.
Jaguars receiver Jimmy Smith has caught 751 passes. He surpassed the 750 total of Michael Irvin and Charlie Joiner.
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Martin and Smith have compiled two of the quietest great careers in NFL history.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick, who as a Jets assistant observed Martin up close, said: “Pound for pound he is probably as strong as any player in the league. He has great quickness. He catches well. He picks up the blitz. He can run all the runs, but it is almost impossible to get him for negative yardage. He hardly ever loses yardage when he carries the ball. Even if things break down and it is not a clean play, it is still second-and-9.”
Leave it to Belichick’s defense to stuff Martin for a 3-yard loss on third-and-5 on the Jets’ final drive Sunday, setting up Chad Pennington’s failed fourth-down pass with 2:19 to play.
Simple formula
The Patriots have recorded a takeaway in 21 consecutive games. What a coincidence! They also have won 21 consecutive games. The last time the Patriots did not force a turnover was Sept. 28, 2003, their last loss, 20-17 to the Redskins.
Nutty draft
How does this happen? Jonathan Quinn, third-round draft choice. Craig Krenzel, fifth-round draft choice. Tom Brady, sixth-round draft choice.
With Brady as the starting quarterback, the Patriots have had 19 games decided by six points or fewer. They are 18-1.
Why they win
Randall Gay started for the Patriots Sunday at free safety in place of Eugene Wilson. Gay is a free-agent rookie from LSU who started only 16 games in college. So was there a reason he started on Sunday against the Jets?
“Not any that we are going to talk about,” Belichick said.
Gay covered Jets receiver Wayne Chrebet most of the day and helped hold him to one catch. Gay was double-teaming Chrebet on the Jets’ final play.
“It looked like he did a pretty good job,” Belichick said.
“He did an unbelievable job,” Patriots cornerback Ty Law said. “Coach Belichick is all about situations.”