The game: Jets at Patriots
The beer: Heavy Seas Mutiny Fleet Smoke on the Water Smoked Porter
The result: Win, 45–3
The commentary: There may have been a “godless chill of New England” in the air (New York Post columnists are so colorful!) but the hometown team was torching everything in sight. A new king reigns over the AFC East and it’s the same as the old one, despite what some loudmouth Jets might have had you believe. I actually enjoy Rex Ryan—he’s really funny and honest in a way that frightens beat writers. Boston sports-talk shitheads get all bent out of shape over supposed “disrespect” and now they’ll blather for a week about how we shut them up good. Get over your cross-eyed, Bledsoe-backup ass. Ryan is good for football because he should want to fucking win games, and he says so—would you rather he got all starry-eyed trying to scheme against Tully Banta-Cain? (All the same, I’m glad Bill Belichick is our coach.)

Regarding the game, there’s really not much to say that wasn’t clear from watching—it’s unbelievable how the Pats had their way with everything. I liked going into halftime with a twenty-one point lead but I’d seen teams come back too often against this defense so I wasn’t at all comfortable. But when Sanchez threw a perfect pass to Brando Spikes I knew it was all over but the shouting—I just didn’t yet know that it was truly, terrifically over.

I’ll admit I didn’t finish the entire Heavy Seas bomber. I was pretty all set following a marathon session of Murphy’s Stout and Rapscallion Lager at O’Neill’s Pub in Salem the day before, so much so that I fell asleep halfway through Dexter that night. And I was in pretty bad shape for most of yesterday until I had the bright idea to eat a sleeve of saltines in the middle of the afternoon, followed by leftover Thai food, a frozen burrito (baked instead of microwaved; it might take an hour but I’m no savage) and a huge glass of milk for dinner. Only in the second half was I able to to finally pop it open—don’t worry, I corked it and will finish tonight. It’s a really nice beer and luckily not too “smoked” (like other smoked ones I’ve had) because it might have made me barf all over myself. Like the Jets. Why do we drink? Because the Jets still suck. That’s why.

Up next: It’s a rematch of Super Bowl XX in Chicago. I’ve had no fear of the Bears ever since Brady juked an overrated Brian Urlacher out of his cleats a few years ago—throw in Jay Cutler and I expect a blowout that directly leads to the Bears missing the playoffs. Cheers!