Patriots Party

The Pats took one with ease on Sunday, defeating division rival Miami Dolphins by a score of 20-10 at sold out Gillette stadium. The boys at the Bostonist satellite office in Foxboro have now defeated all three of their divisional foes, posting an early 3-0 record in the division, which is critical down the line for playoff scenarios.

This contest took an interesting turn late in the week, as the Patriots were planning to see Daunte Culpepper as the Dolphins quarterback, but on the day of the game, Culpepper was listed as the "third QB" and Joey "Heisman" Harrington was dubbed the starter. Confusing matters more, head coach Nick Saban has subsequently named Joey Harrington the starter going forward for Miami... but, Bostonist digresses.

While this one was one of the quicker and “more yawnier” contests of the season, the result, as usual, is all that matters. The Pats are now 4-1 on the heels of Sunday's victory, which was lead mightily by the defense, in particular, Asante Samuel. Samuel picked off 2 Joey Harrington passes and the Patriots defense recorded 1 sack.

Touchdown Tommy Brady was solid, as usual. Brady, who has had his problems with Miami (he is 6-4 against the 'Fins while 21-2 against the rest of the AFC East in his career), didn't have to do a lot in order to put his Patriots in a position to win. Brady completed 16 out of 29 passes for a total of 140 yards, and most importantly, 2 touchdowns. Running back Heath Evans caught a 1 yard touchdown pass while old reliable Troy Brown caught a 10 yard strike.

Most of the scoring in this one took place in the first half. The Patriots jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on 2 Stephen Gostkowski field goals (35 and 31 yards, respectively). With 7:49 remaining in the first half, Brady found Brown to put the Pats up 13-0. Miami attempted to make a bit of a comeback, shortening the Pats lead to 13-10 at the end of the first half, but the Pats came out in the second half and defensively shut out the Dolphins, and capped the scoring with 9:47 remaining in the 4th quarter on Brady's 1 yard strike to Evans.

This was a defensive-filled match up, and the Pats running game was held to its lowest total of the year with 79 yards rushing. But, what has become the trademark of Belichick's Patriots is that they do enough to win. And that's the bottom line, because BIll Belichick said so.

Sidenote - the Pats are on bye this coming week, which is good because maybe they can fix the dustbowl known as Gilette Stadium, which was in awful shape between the hashes on Sunday. Oh, and if you would like to see "the Rock" up close and personal, he is filming his next movie, "The Game Plan", through November 1st.

Check back later in the week for some more sports musings.