Champs or Chumps?

Perhaps each football season is akin to the development of an individual as they grow up and mature. Each of the 16 games in a regular season is a unique experience with ups and downs that will define just how it will be remembered.

So perhaps the 2005 New England Patriots are in the pre-adolescence of their existence.

The Patriots took a large step towards finding their 2005 identity with a nail-biting 23-20 win over the Steelers on Sunday.

Sure, they’ve pulled a lot of stunts that should have got them sent to the principal’s office. But deep down, you know that “Pat” is a pretty good kid and that he comes through when a big math test is on the line or his room needs to be cleaned up.

After three games it looks as though this edition of the Pats must work a lot harder to find success than its predecessors. Maybe it’s stunts like the continuing trend of double-digit penalties or the three ill-timed turnovers. “Just who is this kid anyway?,” we asked ourselves as the first half ended with the Pats heading for a date in juvenile detention.

Pat could have blamed his issues on the fact that he had a few of his best buddies injured early. Besides Tom Brady, the player the Patriots could least afford to lose was Rodney Harrison. Already dealing with the loss of Tedy Bruschi (they miss his presence on big plays more than I would have imagined), Harrison took a stomach-churning shot to the knee that looks like a one-way ticket to the season-ending injured reserve list. Then after the veteran who protects the Franchise’s blind side, Matt Light, went down and you throw your hands up and say “Well, that’s it. This one is toast.”

But as they have done so many times before, the Patriots made key adjustments at halftime and in the third quarter. They began winning the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball against a physical Steelers team.

You realize, don’t you, that most teams don’t run out a scotch-taped secondary on the fly in an away game and live to tell about it? I mean, Gus Scott and Ellis Hobbs were running around back there and it didn’t look like a fire drill!

Somehow the Patriots disguise d the fact they had a paper-thin secondary and still won the ball game. And how in the world did this team also plug in two rookie offensive lineman and have them look like old pros with the game on the line in the second half? Even more amazing. Nick Kaczur and Logan Mankins were playing alongside each other on the Franchise’s blind side.

The adjustments to injury and adversity that the Patriots have made over the last few years seem to get both more incredulous and awe-inspiring as time moves on. I just hope you don’t take this surreal stuff for granted.

“Pat” could go either way as he heads into the teenage years of his 2005 season. He could take this clutch win and run with it and become the toast of his town upon his retirement during his elderly years. Or he could stumble, get mixed up with a bad crowd and live a life of “couldas, wouldas, shouldas.”

I’m betting that when all is said and done, we will be proud of Pat when we give him that gold watch at his retirement party in January.