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Five Things to Watch This Week - Week 13 (Game 12)

The Patriots play their twelfth game of the season against BYE the Indianapolis Colts at Gillette on Sunday December 4th at 1:00 PM.

Finally!  A 1 o'clock game!  This pleases me.  Hopefully I can watch the whole game without having to get off the couch.  That's pretty much all I want in my life these days... a little uninterrupted couch time.


Vince Young is not so good.

There's been some great battles between the Pats and Colts over the last decade... But this one isn't even going to be close.  Belichick is going to unleash the dogs with bees in their mouths.  He rarely misses an opportunity to rub an old rival's nose in it while they're down (see Pats vs. Redskins 10/28/07).

He's five unsung heroes of the Patriots 2011 season I'll be watching this week:

1) Aaron Hernandez - Quietly having an excellent season.  He's not getting in the end zone as much as Gronk (who is?), but he's been playing pretty darn well.  He's already caught as many balls as all of last season.

2) Deion Branch - Not a great receiver, but a really good fit for this team.  I'll bet he wishes he never left town.

3) Julian Edelman - Considering he wasn't a lock to even make the team earlier in the year, he's definitely making his presence felt the last few weeks.  He got a great shot in on Vince Young last week.

4) BenJarvus Green-Ellis - He may not always be part of the game plan, but he's been pretty consistent when called upon this year (OK, except for the Pittsburgh game.  But nobody had a good game that week).

5) Rob Ninkovich - He's become a real player this season.  It's been nice to watch his development.


Did Chad Ochocinco have a catch last week?

NO.

My prediction: Pats 52, Colts 7

Stay hydrated, my friends.


*****

This year, we're going to have regular contributions from Fake Bill Belichick for your reading pleasure.  Here's this week's selection from Fake Bill Belichick's "Tales From a Life in Football":

It's January 2004.  Playoffs.  We're about to face Indy at home.  Manning is absolutely on fire.  I think he ended up being co-MVP that year.  And I'm feeling more confident in my team than I've ever felt in my whole career.  I just knew we had it that year.

I skipped the Friday night coaches' meeting and went out to see "THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING".  That Viggo Mortensen is something special.  If you didn't like him in "A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE", we can't be friends.

Anyway, we won that game 24 to 14, but it wasn't even that close.  Ty ended up picking off Manning 3 times that game.

True story.

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