Was there any doubt? The Patriots, good as they are, and now with the increased motivation of having the rest of the world hate them? Belichick, who is the smartest coach in the world anyway, now with the incentive to prove it? The wagons have been circled. You're either with us or against us. And the San Diego Chargers, who fancied themselves one of the elite teams in the NFL, got their butts handed to them.

Coach will spend some time looking at the (legally acquired) tapes of this game, and somewhere along the line, he'll find something to criticize and improve. As laypeople, we have no idea what that might be. It's probably not the offense, where Brady was 25/31, with three touchdowns, and where the running game looked solid. It's not the defense; they bothered Charger QB Philip Rivers all night, and left superstar LaDainian Tomlinson wondering why he even bothered making the trip east. And it sure as hell isn't coaching.

The Pats started off with a businesslike, crisp, perfect drive down the field for a touchdown on their first possession. The TV people informed us that Charger coach Norv Turner had written down all his plays on paper, if not scribbled upside-down on his stomach, so the Patriots couldn't spy on them. Apparently, Play #1 was "Rivers Interception". It's almost not fair that Belichick gets to coach against guys like Turner.

They didn't convert that interception, but their next drive featured Brady hitting Randy Moss for a TD. 14-0, and there goes San Diego's ground game. It was 24-0 at halftime (Adalius Thomas' interception was a particularly awesome highlight), and the TV people reported that Norv Turner said the Chargers had New England right where they wanted them. This may have been the exact moment that the Pats were signing Belichick to a long-term extension.

San Diego put together a good drive and a score right after halftime, but Brady and Moss answered right back. 31-7. San Diego scored again, then stripped the ball from Ellis Hobbs on the ensuing kickoff, and it looked like they might make a game out of it. But the defense sacked Rivers twice, almost picking him up and throwing him back, and that was the end of that threat. Sammy Morris scored the insurance TD, and the second straight 38-14 win is in the books.

The whole time, Coach looked as animated and as happy on the sidelines as anyone's ever seen him. After the game, he made it a point to thank the fans for their support. And the players seemed especially happy that they could hand Bill a blowout win, in the week where every hater in creation has crawled out of the woodwork to question his coaching abilities. Wagons. Circled. Next week: Buffalo hunting.

Meanwhile, at Fenway, the stage was set perfectly. Rivera struggling in the ninth. Sox down by one. Bases loaded. Ortiz at the plate. Should have turned off the TV right then and there and imagined the ending.

Image from the Santa Fe Trail Historic Byway, not to be confused with the Errol Flynn/Ronald Reagan classic Santa Fe Trail (1940).