Still looking for key win

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Hey, it’s always fun to pick on the Little Sisters of the Poor.

But now it’s time for the New England Patriots to get ready for the big boys, because those are the games that can define them, especially at this time of year.

At least that’s what Patriots coach Bill Belichick always tells his team, and right now is no exception.

“Coach always says the season starts after Thanksgiving,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said after Sunday’s 17-point whipping of the regressing New York Jets, “and Thanksgiving’s Thursday, so we’ve got six regular season games left.

“So I’m glad we’re playing this kind of football. The defense is getting a lot of turnovers for us. We’re getting the ball in the red area. We’re just still doing a few things that are hurting us, but even with those things, we’ve made some improvements there.”

Indeed, you can’t minimize the importance of Sunday’s win over the Jets, because it basically enhances the Patriots’ hold on the AFC East and gives them another conference win. They have three tough conference losses – the Jets, Broncos and Colts. They don’t want any more.

As Brady said, “We’ve really had three bad second halves, which is why we’ve had three losses.”

So where does next Monday night’s game fit in? The Patriots own wins over Buffalo, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, New York, Tennessee and Tampa Bay. Not exactly the iron of the league, with a combined record of 26-43 (before Tennessee played Houston Monday night). What the Pats could use to enhance their reputation is a signature win.

Signing on the dotted line against the Saints would fit the bill perfectly.

“I’m not trying to pay attention to the standings,” Patriots cornerback Leigh Bodden said. “We just got to pay attention to us. I remember in Cleveland we were kind of in the playoff hunt, but we had to hope other teams lost because we didn’t take care of our business. So, that’s something that teams want to do, and you just want to take care of your business and not worry about what anybody else is doing. You just continue to win and everything will take care of itself.”

Belichick concurred.

“Right now, we’re just thinking about New Orleans,” he said. “That’s the only thing we can do anything about. Every week, we come in here and there will be a surprise for us, like there has been in the last 11 games in the season, that will happen every week.

“One week, we are cheering for one team to win and the next week we’ll be cheering for the same team to lose the next week because the standings will change and things will happen. Really, I don’t get caught up in that too much. I don’t think our team does. Right now, what we need to focus on is what we’re doing, the team we are playing, New Orleans.”

A team Belichick apparently holds high regard for.

“I don’t think there is any better team in football than New Orleans,” he said. “That’s a plateful right there. Let everybody else worry about their own problems. We’ve got enough of ours.”

Most of those problems include injuries to the offensive line (no Matt Light, no Stephen Neal), lack of depth at running back (no Fred Taylor, no Sammy Morris) and searching for that third receiver to take charge. But the Patriots seem to have weathered most of the storms that have hit them this season.

But the Saints could pack the most punch. All three of those New England losses Brady referred to have been on the road.

“That’s another important thing because we’re on the road,” Bodden said. “Say you do make it to the playoffs and you don’t get home field advantage, then that’s one thing you’re going to have to do is win on the road. So it’s definitely important to win on the road and get that under your belt and try to play good away.

“Sometimes it’s hard because your fans aren’t behind you, you don’t have your fans. At times you have an edge when your fans are not behind you (gearing up to fight the adversity). But it’s hard to start off fast when you’re away because of the crowd. That’s one thing we need to do is start fast and finish fast.”

If you want to put added importance on conference and division games, the Miami game on Dec. 6 might be more important than the Saints game. But in the grand scheme of things, this Patriot team can win enough games to perhaps satisfy the hunch here that they are one of the AFC’s top two teams.

“The attitude is just about us,” Bodden said. “It’s about paying attention to us and trying to win these division games, putting it in guys’ heads. I think we have enough veterans on this team that know and have been around. They know that we have to take care of business and you have to win the AFC games.

“We just have to continue to keep that in our mind and not worry about anything else.”

Lately, the Patriots have given others enough to worry about (see Wes Welker). That’s what good teams do.