November

By Eric Wilbur

2 minutes to read

The month started with a demoralizing loss to the Colts, then an embarrassing showing against the Jets a week later, both at home, in Foxborough.

Then the Bears and Patriots slugged it out in a good-old defensive gridiron showdown, and some of us started to look differently at this year’s edition of the New England football team.


That odd loss to Miami notwithstanding a few weeks back, the New England Patriots are primed to enter the NFL playoffs as perhaps the dark horse – at least where the national view is concerned, what else is new – to come out of the AFC. While everybody loves San Diego, with good reason, the two teams perhaps most likely to meet in the AFC Championship game just might be the Pats and Baltimore Ravens, for reasons of which we saw over Thanksgiving weekend.
Baltimore and New England are 1-2 in the AFC in regards to scoring defense, allowing an average of just 12.9 and 14.3 points per game, respectively. The Chargers are sixth, the next-highest team that is already guaranteed a playoff spot, with Miami, Denver, and Jacksonville mixed in between. The Colts are allowing 22.5 points per game, an Achilles heel that has it near the bottom of the league.
And now, with Rodney Harrison back, nobody is taking the Patriots lightly anymore, viewed all season long as a solid team hurt by injury and a lack of weapons. Defense matters most come January. And as good as Indy and San Diego might be come playoff time, it’s going to come down to New England and Baltimore fighting for the right to play in Miami.
In other news…

  • The Red Sox bid $51 million for the exclusive rights to negotiate with Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Red Sox fans try to decipher between gyroball, shuuto, and urban myth. In any case, whatever he throws looks good enough to spark Matsuzaka Mania. And the 30-day countdown clock begins.
  • Curt Schilling goes on Celebrity Jeopardy and flubs the question to “The San Francisco Treat.” Which, I guess is better than answering, “BALCO.”
  • The Celtics kick off the season with a 91-87 loss to the Hornets. By Dec. 29 they will be just 10-17…and two games out of first in the pathetic Atlantic Division.
  • Alfonso Soriano signs an eight-year, $136 million deal with the Chicago Cubs. And baseball’s offseason spending only gets more insane in the ensuing weeks.
  • Bret Saberhagen insists if he’s elected to the Hall of Fame that he will not accept in protest over Pete Rose’s omission in Cooperstown. Saberhagen was 167-117 for his career with a 3.34 ERA and two Cy Youngs, not exactly Hall-worthy, but what, you want a sure-fire inductee like Cal Ripken to make a stance like this? Fat chance.
  • ESPN’s Steve Philips claims that if the Red Sox are successful in trading Manny Ramirez, they would show interest in signing Barry Bonds. Obviously Steve’s darts are going a little haywire.
  • Curt Schilling tells a Rhode Island audience that Manny Ramirez does in fact want to be traded to another team.