16-0

Regular-season perfection is only one meaningless Saturday-night game away. The Patriots will be hosted by the NY Giants, a game to be aired on CBS, NBC, and the NFL Network, tomorrow night. For the Giants, they may talk a big game, but they're banged up and have a wild-card playoff game to worry about next weekend. Their seed - #5 in the NFC - is locked; their opponent is set in stone. For the 15-0 Patriots, regular-season perfection is 4 quarters away, and it looks like they could easily pass against this Giants team as long as their O-Line comes up big, as it always does, and protects Brady from the team leader in sacks (the G-Men defense).

In January 2007, just when many Patriots fans began to wonder whether or not the Super Bowl run of Brady and Belichick was over unless a complete overhaul of the team occurred, our wonderful team owner Robert Kraft goes out and overhauls the entire team - another example of why it's great to have a billionaire fan as an owner. This is a team that wants a fourth (and fifth...and sixth) Super Bowl so badly that being within one darn 5-yard grab by Jabar Gaffney of the Super Bowl forced the team to look at how, exactly, they needed to improve to ensure they didn't suffer the same fate during the next postseason. Most owners and management groups would chalk it up to bad luck and just try to do well in the draft with what they're given.

The result? The best receiving corps in the league and a few key free agents. Sammy Morris, the team's rushing leader until he went down with a chest injury not to return this season, was averaging over 100 yards per game. Adalius Thomas came here from Baltimore to help the team's aging linebacker corps, and has been doing really well - and is especially needed now that Roosevelt Colvin is out for the season with a foot injury. And back to that receiving corps, coupled with the best QB in the league, the Patriots have a chance to set at least four more offensive records on Saturday. Most TD passes by a QB, most TD receptions by a player, most points by a team...there's at least one other, I'm sure of it.

I just love how everyone is criticizing the Patriots team because they are under the microscope more than any other, saying they'll have a tough time with the Colts, or how the Jaguars are hungry, or how Pittsburgh might regroup. Lest anyone forgets, the Patriots had an intensely tough schedule and will still likely come out of it with a couple of (admittedly key) injuries, and a 16-0 record. 19-0 is not too far off. It'll be easily the best team sports achievement of the decade, and that's saying a lot for the new NFL Dynasty.