Viva Las Vegas

I get it if you don’t have any sympathy for me on this. I’m rooting for the Patriots, after all. With Brady under center, there’s a nearly four in five chance New England will take the W. And the Patriots have nine straight openers. The last time they lost a Week 1 game? 2003. In Buffalo.

I’ll readily stipulate to the intellectual construct that none of those past ten season starters will have anything to do with today’s tilt in western New York; nor does the fact that New England has won 18 of the last 19 games against Buffalo. All of those games are individual events with no impact on each other. Post hoc ergo propter hoc, know what I’m saying?

Past Patriots dominance will mean nothing at 1:00pm today.

My belief in the lines set by Vegas is well documented and yet the overwhelming “bet the mortgage on the Patriots” position of pigskin pundits and bobbleheads has me nervous.

Fate loves the underdog.

It doesn’t help that the only game from the preseason that sticks in my mind is the meltdown in Motor City. Maybe it’s thoughts of Buffalo’s D-Line and the echoes of Detroit’s dominant front four that conjures images of turnovers and defeat.

Then there’s the unknown. There’s always the unknown but there’s even more unknown than usual this year. Fourteen rookies. Fourteen! Seven undrafted! There’s Danny Amendola and the Welker Referendum. Is Amendola fragile? I had thought this judgment unfair and then he’s missing preseason action and his name shows up on the first injury report of the season. Will Amendola prove the doubters wrong? Will Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower make the second year leap? Does Shane Vereen give us a reason to ask, "Danny who?" Will Dane Fletcher and rookie Jamie Collins be able to defend the middle of the field? Does the defense as a unit improve? Are rookies Kenbrell Thompkins, Josh Boyce and Zach Sudfeld ready for their close ups?

We don’t have much longer to wait to get the answers to those questions.

And yes, I’m hoping Vegas is right about this one.