Pats v. Titans

The Patriots are playing a home game on very unfamiliar turf. Two weeks after avenging a 0-31 first-game loss to Buffalo with a 31-0 last-game win over Buffalo, the Patriots are overdogs. Wait, that's not a word. They're whatever is over an underdog. So unfamiliar is it to be favored in a matchup, that we then fans don't know what to call them. We're encouraged every time somebody picks the Titans to win, because that's a story we know: the "No Respect Patriots" turning the world upside down like so many Continentals under the command of General George Belichek, er... Washington.

Welcome, Patriots nation, to a new way to win. Command and control. Conquest. Domination. We identify the enemy. We study his habits. We challenge him to enter our icy fortress, then laugh him all the way back to Tennessee or wherever, vanquished but not ashamed. I mean, is there any shame in losing to the best team on earth? No, but the hard facts of winter will be felt elsewhere, but not New England. Here, we play to win, and victory is our middle name.