Patriots Perfect, Go 16-0

Ok I was wrong. The game against the Giants yesterday did not turn out to be a glorified practice. The Giants came out inspired playing mistake free football for the entire first half. In the end the Giants could not keep up with the Pats and a costly interception led to Patriots touchdown and a 38-28 lead. Although Manning's 4th touchdown pass brought the score to within 3 points, the ensuing onsides kick was recovered by Vrabel.
There was scarcely a play that Brady wasn't knocked down or hurried and the Giants defense played a monster game until the 4th quarter. Not enough can be said about how collected Tom Brady is in the pocket, especially in the face of the pressure of the Giants rush. Comparisons to other great pocket passers do no justice, Brady is in a class of his own this season, not only breaking passing records, but more importantly leading his team to an undefeated season.
The Drops. Watson really spooked me on the first two series where he dropped two passes that he probably should have caught. Vrabel had the touchdown pass go through his hands, which, judging by Belichick's trust in him, has to be somewhat surprising. The play wound up being called back on an illegal formation penalty. I guess I have to mention Moss's drop the play before their record breaking touchdown reception. In reality it was a shoestring catch from 50 yards on a ball that he had to turn 180 and come back to, so its not one of those balls I would say, "Should have caught that", but because it was Moss, we expect him to catch everything. The biggest drop I must mention is by Burress, trying to one-hand catch a perfectly thrown Manning pass and instead the ball deflects out of bounds. And then the announcers blamed a poor throw on Manning!
Perfection. The last touchdown pass from Brady to Moss, even though it was not the Patriots last touchdown scored last night, was a triumphant event, not that it was the record breaker, but more of a symbol on the entire season. A perfectly thrown ball, caught in perfect stride, a perfect season.
Wind-up toys. I was surprised that no one mentioned the play of Kevin Faulk in the game. Two or three times Faulk took dump off passes from Brady and stretched them out to their limits and gained hard-fought first down yardage keeping drives alive. The announcers made note of Welker's expertise of finding the stakes, but you have to mention Faulks first down acumen. Like Welker, the first guy usually never takes Faulk down, and most of the yards are made after the catch.
TV. Because this was the first simulcast game on all networks since I can remember, I switched from Channel 4, 5 and 7 to find the best picture. I enjoyed the subdued tint from 5, but their annoying in game announcements would move the picture up and block some of the screen. Notably the scoreboard, which convinced me to try one of the other two stations. 7's colors were disturbingly bright, that hurt my eyes with vibrance. They are trying way too hard at 7. Channel 4's colors were less offensive and they winded up getting the call at my house, although I have to mention brief forays into the end of the WVU-Oklahoma overtime basketball game, the Celtics and Broken Trail on AMC.
Can't wait until the playoffs.