Beauty in Victory

AFC East Division leading New England Patriots reached the half-season mark at 6-2 with a 9-3 victory over the Cleveland Browns. Ron Borges looks at the "gutsy" victory.

Yesterday's gritty 9-3 victory over the Cleveland Browns at Razor Blade Field was a picture of what the broken but unbowed Patriots are about. With eight starters either out with injury or playing with some body part dented or cracked enough that they would be on disability leave if medical ethics didn't apply differently to football players than it does to the rest of the world, the Patriots have marched on because they are not about flash.

As much as Borges admires the guts and determination of Patriot LB Mike Vrabel and CB Ty Law, his colleague at the Boston Globe found the victory not aesthetically pleasing to his Park Avenue taste. Ryan must be suffering from the Yankee loss hangover when he asks:

Shouldn't a football team have a little responsibility to entertain its paying customers a little bit more than this?

Ryan a New Jersey native, interestingly notes one of the highlights of the afternoon.

There was even an appropriate application of the reviled Tuck Rule, this time in favor of the opposition.

Someone on Morrissey Boulevard ought to let Jersey Bob know that the Tuck Rule went in our favor. It is not reviled, but hailed in all regions outside of Oakland and in small circles of the condescending sportswriters. The same writers that tried to taint the 2001 SuperBowl Champions by telling fans that the Tuck Rule would be rescinded the following off-season. This was pure fiction as the NFL competition committee upheld the rule.

I bet Tom Brady can recite the following fine rule in his sleep.

Rule 3, Section 21, Article 2, Note 2 of the NFL rule book: "...any intentional forward movement of [the passer's] arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body."