Certainly we are not rooting against the Patriots

It's not just on the defense, it's on everybody to stay with their man and not leave Buffon out to hang like he was on the Eto'o.Buffon can stop nearly everything, but he had no chance against Eto'o.It's not hard to stay with your man. It's definitely not a piece of cake, but it's definitely not rocket science.. Well Patriots fans, this is not the Patriots team that we have come to know over the past decade and maybe it is only fitting since the Pats started the decade with a Super Bowl victory in 2001 and now here we are on the brink of the year 2010 and maybe, just maybe, the decade of brilliance is over.Watching this team this season has been like watching a bachelor party emerge from a strip club after hours of debauchery. The Patriots were playing at the highest level in 2007 and somehow, we all got tricked into thinking that the return of Tom Terrific meant the return of that play and we couldn't have been more wrong.First off, I will reiterate the fact that these New England Patriots have not won a road game (other than the London game on neutral ground) all season. And I don't mean Patriot Place and the beautifully delicious smell coming from the Five Guys/Red Robin end of the plaza. Great, now I'm hungry...The first is that each week, we put up with press conferences that tell us nothing. I believe that Patriots fans are left jaded by the non-answers we are getting from the locker room, coaching staff, and beyond.Every day, we hear our high caliber of Boston coaches across the board telling us they have moved on from yesterday's game, they are thinking about today, tomorrow, next Sunday's game.

We are told by coaches and players that they had a bad game, things didn't come together, and every other excuse in the book and we are left to say "Oh, sure...he had a bad game...we'll win the next one" but what if we don'tAs the fans, and technically the consumer paying for and putting in the time on the team/player/city, we deserve more We deserve answers. And we deserve those answers before that player or coach moves onto another team and forgets all about Boston and we are left to use his name in vain for years to come.Certainly, we are not rooting against the Patriots. We love our team and always will but honestly, we need the staff to start thinking with the fan base in mind. It would be very nice to see Belichick making some of those fourth down calls with more than his ego on the line.

Hopefully, this ridiculous loss in Miami hits his ego hard enough that we can start to make that change.Which leads to my second major issue and that is the national view of this team. 2007 worked in his favor since he was being hammered for the most disgraceful acts in all of sports. Cheating in sports is the biggest scandal that can hit an athlete or coach.Look at Pete Rose (banned from the game and the Hall for life), Tim Donaghy (NBA referee found to be gambling on games), and all of the names from the steroids scandals. Many fans are chalking it up to good calls, bad luck on the plays, including myself at one point.

But should we start to consider that maybe 13 games into the season and 30-something years into coaching, that Belichick should know what he has on that field and know what the best decision is in just about every situation and now, numerous bad decisions into the season, we should be allowed to question thatIs it the complete absence of an offensive coordinator Very well could be, but "Charlie Weis ain't walkin' through that door folks" (probably for the better, eh Irish!), or is heI can't really see them throwing him in there with four games (plus playoffs.. hopefully) to go in the season Most fans would argue that the offense is not the problem. And while they are not the main problem, they are still an issue.Tom has had a good year this year, that I will say. It hasn't been terrific, it hasn't been immortal, it hasn't even put his name on the lips of anyone talking MVP. Wes Welker is right there with him and maybe even a bigger piece since he is the main key that is keeping this offense moving besides an occasional hook up on a long bomb to Randy Moss.The RB situation has been shaky all year and recently L-Mo has emerged as the main ingredient. Now, here is my main issue with the offense and it may be a key result of the defense being completely undependable.As pointed out by Patrick in this past week's 4SB Podcast , the Patriots have scored 328 points so far this season and 220 of those have come in the first half. For those of you who didn't go to an Ivy League School, that means that they have only scored 108 points in the second half, which is half of what they scored in the first half.