The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is back, hitting a big stride with their first playoff matchup in 14 years.

The high school menu is full as there’s reaction to Friday night’s football games and then a bunch more today.

Sunday the NFL returns but there’s no New England Patriots. Out of sight, out of mind?

They have the weekend off, but how are things really in Foxborough? Did Thursday night’s 38-24 sloppy win really

allay the fears that the Patriots might not be the Patriots this year?

The Patriots have scored 38 points in each of their last two games, yet afterward quarterback Tom Brady said ” So ultimately we need to score more points, and we had more opportunities out there. We scored 38, which is great, but we have more in us this week. ….I think we have more in us, and I think that’s what we’re looking at.”

That’s what the Indianapolis Colts should be saying, not the Patriots. Sometimes visiting general managers sit in the press box rather than a private box, and Colts GM Chris Ballard put on a show Thursday night, moaning, groaning and whining with every play, every call. Hadn’t seen such a performance since late Raiders GM Al Davis in the old Foxboro Stadium sardine can of a press box. The hand must go down on the counter and it must go down hard (boy, did it ever with Davis).

So you wonder if Ballard had any words for his coaches after the game. But Indy coach Frank Reich sounded like most visting coaches when the come to Gillette and lose.

“You can’t have the penalties, turnovers, and drops against a good team, against any team, especially on the road,” Reich said afterward.

Plus, sense the frustration in the always matter-of-fact Andrew Luck, back after a couple of years with his approapriate post game thoughts:

“Shoot, it’s been five times up here (for Luck), and I think it seems it’s almost like the story repeats itself five times,” he said, “and that’s not cool.”

And so it goes, the familiar refrain that opponents are just tired. We’ll see if Kansas City has that same feeling a week from Sunday night. Meanwhile, the Patriots had Julian Edelman back, and he made a small contribution. Rob Gronkowski played and made some catches but also made a huge mistake in not holding on to one.

“Mistakes like that,” Gronkowski said, “definitely put the offense down and give the other team a chance.”

Patriots receiver Chris Hogan did the same thing. You can perhaps chalk it up to the usualy Thursday Night Football Follies that we’ve seen the last few years.

The Patriot offense has shown what it is capable of the last couple of weeks, as Brady has noted.

“We have a good offensive line, we have a great quarterback,” running back James White, he of the 10 receptions Thursday, said. “We can do a lot of things. But we’ve got to go out there and do them, be on the same page, work hard, and don’t take opportunities for granted.”

But it’s time to not take this break opportunity for granted.

“We’ve had two games in five days,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Friday. “Everybody’s tired. … It definitely takes a couple of days I think for everybody to kind of unwind and get your feet back under you.”

Later, Patriots. Yankees-Red Sox will rule regionally for a few days and we’ve got locallly we’ve Nashua North vs. Bishop Guertin football at Stellos tonight.

Tom King can be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.