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They Can Break All Those Who Break Even

The best measure of how thoroughly (and ridiculously) the Patriots dismantled the Broncos last night is this: as terrible as Tim Tebow was, and he was very terrible indeed, he had far from the worst night of any Bronco player. He might not have made the top (or bottom, depending on your point of view) five. That poor defensive back number 30, whose name I omit because I watched with the sound off. When he wasn't getting hurt, he was getting beat. Alleged superstar-in-the-making Von Miller had to start a fight to get a camera on him.

The massacre continued the oddest trend of New England's 2011 season. Against mediocrity, the Pats are invincible. As a friendly poster on sportsjournalists.com noted this morning, the Patriots now have an 8-0 record against teams which finished the season with .500 records.

The significance of this statistic escapes me. I strongly suspect it has none, except as a continuation of the Belichick era trend in which New England hardly ever loses games it REALLY shouldn't lose. But it's notable just for the big number of games. I know there's parity and all, but to play about half your games against .500 teams is a fluke so large it qualifies as an accomplishment.

posted by Michael Gee @ 9:12 AM