Patriot Games - On to Round Two!

The just keep on truckin’, don’t they. The defending World Champs, the New England Patriots, masterfully disassembled the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday at Gillette stadium in Bostonist's satellite office in Foxboro, 28-3. The Pats advanced through the Wild Card round of the National Football League’s playoffs, and are awaiting the results of Sunday's games which will determine whether they will travel to Denver to face the Broncos, or Indianapolis for a rematch with good old Peyton Manning.

New England's fearless leader was again on top of his game (probably still miffed at the fact he only finished 3rd in MVP voting this week), throwing 3 Touchdown Passes and completing 15 of 27 passes for 201 yards. As per Brady usual, he spread the ball around to seven receivers, throwing TD passes to Troy Brown (who saw action also as a defensive back), David Givens, and Ben Watson. The last touchdown happened on the 1st play of the 4th quarter when Asante Samuel intercepted Byron Leftwich and took it 73 yards for the score.

While Brady and the offense were effective, the Pats Defense was simply awesome. Two words: Willie McGinest. The Pats Defensive End / Linebacker set an NFL playoff record with 4.5 sacks of Jaguars quarterback Leftwich. McGinest added another feather to his cap, as his 4.5 sacks give him 16 for his career and that is an NFL postseason record.

The rest of the Pats D was just as ferocious, as they held the Jags to 3 points, and more importantly, only 87 yards on the ground. Leftwich was running for his life most of the day, sacked a total of 6 times and hit on many others.

Although the Pats only lead 7-3 at the end of the first half, this one had a feel to it that 7 might be all that they would need to win this one. The Pats dominated the field position game in the first half, and on their 1st drive of the second half they made a 12 play 81 yard statement drive, taking almost 7 minutes off the clock and finishing it off with a touchdown. From that point on, Jacksonville's season was on the brink, and it showed that they couldn't handle the New England pressure, AND the New England weather. The next New England Drive resulted in a touchdown when Brady found Ben Watson running freely down the middle of the field. Watson, who broke several tackles and scampered 73 yards, willed himself into the end zone, and the champs took a commanding 21-3 lead.

Can they do it, yet again? Who will it be against? Bostonist will be watching.