Takes a licking and keeps on ticking

(Photo from Boston.com)

Wes Welker, of course. Welker, showing no ill effects from last week's brain-scrambling Ryan Clark hit, just put up some career highs yesterday and somehow - perhaps by sheer force of will - managed to scratch and claw out a victory for the Pats.

The general consensus seems to be that the game should not have been that hard. After all, Seattle came into it with a 2-10 record. And Matt Hasselbeck wasn't going to be starting. Then, after some issues defending against the frustratingly scampery (a new word I just made up) Seneca Wallace, perhaps we were longing for Hasselbeck after all.

Then, magical 2-point conversions and game-sealing turnovers and what have you and the Patriots are, once again, in a 3-way tie for first in the AFC East. This, I am fully aware, annoys the shit out of Jets and Dolphins fans. And likely the rest of the fans in the NFL who just wish the Patriots would go away already and were counting on that when Tom Brady's knee exploded.

But this is not the way of things.

Perhaps Lil' Matty Cassel has some fight in him after all. Though really, that sentence could change - and frequently does - by the week. Or perhaps he was just inspired by Billiam's steadfast desire to get the band back together and bring Rosie Colvin and Old Man River Junior Seau back to New England. And while seeing Tedy Bruschi leave the game made me shriek in horror (for real, I may have damaged the eardrums of other spectators), at least I knew there was someone there to step into the role of LB and the Pats wouldn't need to resort to dressing Mike Vrabel's pet bulldog in a jersey and siccing it on Wallace.

Perhaps that trick play is for next week.