[Alas Babylon!]

I heard the banged-up NE Pats will be getting back most of their banged up players in time for their 1st playoff game.

If so, it can make a BIG difference.

That’s why they’re ranked so high in this article.

[rlmorel]

The Pats problem is primarily their offensive line, where the only real hope they have is to get Vollmer back, and he is pretty good, but that is it (Except for a guy named Waddle they picked up only nine days before, a castoff from Detroit, they had to throw him in the game when Vollmer got injured, then he himself got injured, so they had a third/fourth string guy playing left tackle, two rookies and a second year guy on the line.)

Brady was able to function when he could pick a matchup with two receivers who had the capability to get open REALLY fast (Edelman and Amendola) and even after people started going down, I think he had one game where he averaged something like 2.1 seconds to get the ball in the air. Crazy.

But when he lost those guys, he has been taking a pounding. Not quite THIS bad...(Porn for people who want to see Brady have his head taken off!)...but constant enough.

Like most fans of most teams, I am always optimistic, but it won't be easy for the Pats, that is for sure.

[lepton]

I think there’s a pretty high chance of the Pats getting bounced the first game - mostly due to being out of sync, though KC matches up the best against them. If they make it through that, high chance to make the Super Bowl. The AFC has a lot of very flawed teams this year.

Arizona and Seattle are the hot and solid teams in the NFC. Carolina’s got a chance, though as has been pointed out, they’ve not really been hardened yet.