Matt
Last night, my favorite team on the planet, the New England Patriots lost 34 to 31 to the New York Jets to fall out of first place in the AFC East the latest in the season in seemingly a decade. That isn't true, but it sure feels like it because they've been dominant for so long.
Lost in the sadness over the Pats losing is something bizarre. The game last night was probably the most I've enjoyed watching the Patriots in years. With Tom Brady and a fully healthy of offense and defense, we're a wrecking crew that is favored in every game and wins most of them in convincing fashion (Super Bowl? What Super Bowl?). Most of my enjoyment last year was taken from the fact that I could say I'd been a fan of an undefeated team for 15 years and that they were so clearly the most dominant team in the NFL.
But games weren't close, and as I always said when I was younger, one of the main reasons I loved the Pats, the Pacers, and the Mariners was because they were "cardiac kids," a term I crafted to signify that every game they played went down to the wire and made me feel like dying a little bit, but in that good way only sporting events make you feel.
Last night the cardiac kids were back, and I loved every second of it. We had Matt Cassel have his best game as a pro, we had all kinds of young players step up because pretty much all of the Patriots starters were dying, and we had one of the best finishes of the season with Cassel to Moss with 1 second left in the game to tie it up (immediately followed by me jumping and spinning and pretty much acting like I was chugging coffee while on a pogo stick for a minute straight as Jason, Hannah, and Amy frantically looked for cover).
It's about the most fun I've had watching the Pats in forever, even though we lost. All I know is, we can beat anyone and we can lose to anyone, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Also, to those Jets fans who were claiming that proves that they're the class of the AFC East and that the game signified a changing of the guard in the division, I have this to say to you - you were playing our JV squad. When we're not starting backups at 4 key defensive positions and the most key offensive position, then you can talk.
However, I really want to say that Matt looked like the man last night. 400 yards passing, 3 TD's, no INT's and 62 yards rushing? First time in history that someone threw for 400 yards and ran for 60+. Incredibly impressive. Although that montage mid game of Brady deep balls made me yearn for him, especially after watching Matt overthrow Moss twice in the game with his patented "uncatchable line drive" deep ball. But that's okay. We're the cardiac kids - deep balls aren't in our repetoire this year.