Fatalistic Football

The Patriots are 2-3-0. They absolutely could be 3-2-0. They should've won the opener against Miami. I mean, you've seen the Dolphins, right? They're 1-4-0 with a -75 point differential. That's worse than the Jets. (The Jets! Always good for perspective on the Fujita Sucking Scale.) In fact, (well, okay, fan fiction), the Patriots could be 4-1-0 if Nick Folk's 56-yard field goal attempt had been just about 8" to the left. Instead, they lost by just two points to the defending Super Bowl champions and some guy named Tom.

Would that make me feel any better about this Sunday's game against the actually in fact 4-1-0 Dallas Cowboys?

No. It would not.

Upsets do happen. But it's why they're called upsets. And they just don't happen that often, even if it seems like that's the case. It's that when they do, it's noteworthy. Hey! Did you see what just happened? Can you believe it?!?! Upsets are why the ?!?!? punctuation mark was invented. 

A Patriots win over the Cowboys this Sunday would definitely deserve the ?!?!?.

Granted, there's some recency bias involved here. I actually felt better about New England's fortunes after the loss to Tampa Bay than I did after the win over Houston. Maybe an emotional letdown by Patriots players after The Return should've been expected. Professional football players are human, too, and they had to have invested a significant amount of emotional capital in preparing for and playing against Tom Brady. 

Letdown probably isn't the right word for it; emotionally exhausted better describes where the coaches and players were last Sunday in Texas. 

So, maybe I should hang onto the fact the Patriots were down 22-9 and came all the way back to win.

Yeah, I know. Hard to say the Texans didn't have something to do with that. But good to know Belichick's mere presence on the other sideline can still make opposing coaches do absolutely indefensible things when all they need to do is punt.

Maybe I should remember thinking the Buccaneers and Brady would blow their doors off. I was sure Tom would throw for 8 TDs and hang a 50-burger on Belichick and the Pats. 

And that didn't happen.

Of course, what did happen had me wondering why I hadn't ordered that home defibrillator. 

Probably too late for this Sunday, too.

So, yeah, I'm feeling pretty fatalistic about this game with the Cowboys. A 20 point loss seems a lot more likely than a 20-19 win. It could make for a long, ugly afternoon but will that stop me from watching my pigskin heroes from opening kick to final gun? It will not! It's ride or die time, bitches! Go Pats!