The game: Broncos at Patriots
The beer: Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale
The result: 34–31
The commentary: Fred Kirsch on the Patriots.com live blog put it best after Blount’s fumble (the team’s third) when he wrote “I’m going to vomit.” (In Blount’s defense he appeared to be knocked out for a second. The strip sack was a great play by Von Miller. Ridley? People are nervous. Nervous. He looked like a dreidel on his fumble, his arms flailing about as he spun to the ground. Happy Chaka Khan!) And yet… it never occurred to me to change the channel or turn the TV off altogether. Tom Brady still had three quarters left (or so I underestimated at the time). And though no games are alike I remembered two others: last month’s against the Saints (win) and last season’s against the Niners (loss). How can you count these guys out? No way I’m not watching.

Pro Football Talk tried to have it both ways so you know it was good: “if [Brady] comes back from this one, he’ll be a legend” versus “Brady spread the ball among six different receivers, averaging a pedestrian 6.9 yards per attempt.” (It’s not quite “Terry Bradshaw Dead?”/“Terry Bradshaw Is Fine,” but what could be? I’d provide links but Florio & Co. have taken them down. It’s a good thing sports journalism isn’t really journalism.)

Belichick’s decision to defer in overtime—prioritizing favorable wind—confused everyone, including the captains on the field. You can see Ninkovich immediately signal that the Pats would receive until Belichick must have shouted “No, chowderheads, we’re kicking!” Put the ball in Manning’s hands? Are you crazy? I still don’t know if it was the right decision but everything turned out alright. I know nothing about football.

Welker being at fault (and most think he was) on the punt does not in any way validate Belichick replacing him with Amendola. That was and is a mistake, and it’s trendy around here, in a contrarian way, to say that Amendola isn’t “injury prone” just because he’s always injured. I am not making this up. It’s hard to say the Pats would have won more than eight of eleven games so far if Welker had still been here because that’s asking a lot, but on a loss-by-loss basis it’s possible that he would have made enough of a difference in any or all of them. Is he not worth six points against the Bengals? Three against the Jets (and not even that had the bullshit been avoided)? Four against the Panthers? Unless you’re an editor at PFT then it’s hard to bet against one more win. Or more.

Regardless, there’s a good chance the Pats win out. Texans tomorrow (blowout), Browns at home (blowout), a visit to Miami for the AFC Championship, a prime-time (for now) slobberknocker against the Ravens (the biggest challenge) and a light-contact practice session against whatever shitstorm is blowing in from Buffalo. Eleven wins is a disappointing finish. Twelve is likely. Thirteen is within reason. It’s good to root for the Pats, so long as the other team isn’t facing third and twenty-five.

Quick media notes: Collinsworth couldn’t stop talking about how he had never witnessed a team run this successfully against the Pats, which means he hadn’t seen them play in four years. It must be hard to watch the all-twenty-two from way up on that Sports Emmy high horse. And Zolak. The Showpony hadn’t yet removed his Burberry scarf after standing in the postgame press room for a good twenty minutes. Do cross-eyed people think plaid is a solid color?

Up next: No matter the result in Houston, here’s hoping the headlines don’t begin with “Field conditions mar.” Cheers!