Knee Jerk Reactions to Divisional Playoffs: Pats vs. Jacksonville:

Things to consider while wondering why CBS is only giving us three month worth of head's up to get ready for the Masters:

*So much for Fred Taylor and Mojo Drew beating the Pats with "Three Yards and a Cloud of Vulcanized Rubber Granules." This business of good running teams being built to win in the playoffs is the falsest, and most pervasive, myths in all of sports. Did we learn nothing from Antoine Smith?

*The Pats stayed with their base 3-4 virtually all game. They were lining Vince Wilfork head up on the center, but on run plays, the play side G was blocking down on him and opening holes. So on the last drive of the half, they moved VW to what they call "Roscoe Lena," where he moves to the A gap on whichever side they think the play is going. That produced the first 3 & out all game, as they stopped Drew a foot short of the first.

*Also a foot short? Garrard's intestines. Sorry. Truly I am.

*The collective hero of this game was the offensive line. Jacksonville's front seven is massive, and they're designed to stop the run. Things looked grim on the first play when John Henderson flat out overpowered Logan Mankins for the sack. But the rest of the night, Mankins kicked his gigantic ass. On one 1st down, Mankins took Henderson out of the play, jumped to the next level, threw a block on Daryl Smith, and freed Maroney for 6. That was typical of how the rest of the game went for the O-line. On the day, Henderson got the better of Logan a total of one play, putting him in tie with Mankins' shoelace.

*But by saying that, you're kind of admitting your taking Tom Brady for granted, which is probably true. A 92.9 completion percentage is insane. I don't hit the inside of the toilet with piss 92.9% of the time. Even when I sit. He threw exactly two balls out of 28 that hit the vulcanized rubber. One was a ball Ben Watson probably should've had. Another hit Wes Welker between the "8" and the "3." But that was the result of the Jim Nance/Phil Simms Kiss of Death as they had just finished talking about Brady's near perfection, and even he can't defeat the most powerful mush in all of broadcasting.

*But again with the O-line: On the two TD throws to Ben Watson, Brady spent so much time in the pocket he almost got called for a shot clock violation.

*Say what you want about Brady's play fake. Give him the Academy Award like he said in the postgame. Say it was made possible by the times they've direct-snapped it to Kevin Faulk for 2-point conversions (like the Super Bowl against Carolina). Credit the Boise St. "Statue of Liberty" play if you want. But I know that move came right from Rudy Galindo's Village People medley. Might as well 'fess up, Tom.

*One thing I love about the Patriots is that the kicker is made to feel like crap after he misses one. Gostkowski doesn't get the pat on the shoulder pads, no "You'll get the next one." He's just left to stand away from everyone else and wallow in his shame. You know if his teammates had their way, he'd have to flagellate himself like in some fundamentalist religious sect, or at the very least sit on a stool with a cone hat on his head that says "MISSED KICK." Stupid NFL Players Association.

*I know the league is trying to move merchandise, but how many of those leather jackets with the Jags logo on it did they preorder? Because my guess is Jack Del Rio was wearing the only one they've moved. He was a porkpie hat and a pair of fingerless gloves away from looking like he was going to go buy some turtles from Adrian at the pet store.

*With very few exceptions, when the Pats decide they're going to take a specific part of a teams arsenal away from them, they succeed. This game it was very obviously the run, but it was also, as it's been all year, the home run ball. So an OK QB like David Garrard looks like Johnny Unitas for long stretches of the game, because they left open the underneath stuff and the Matt Jones dig routes (like the one he hit on Randall Gay for 29 yards), but the Pats aren't going to lose a game to David Garrard short yardage throws, period.

*Contrast that with Jacksonville's defensive game plan. Obviously they looked over the list of Pats weapons and said they refuse to be killed by the Randy Moss candlestick, so Brady came after them with the Maroney wrench, the Watson pipe, the Stallworth rope and the Welker knife.

*The Jags played their base cover-2 and rolled the safety to Moss' side which put him basically in double coverage all game long. On his only catch, the 4th down 14 yarder, he ran an inside route instead of an end cut, which put him under the deep coverage. But that scheme leave a hanging middle safety alone to cover the rest of the field, which explains why Brady was way better at finding open guys than I am finding the toilet water.

*Welker gets the slight edge over Jones in the highly anticipated "Token White Receiver Bowl."

*Sack totals be damned, the Pats D-line had a tremendous game. On Garrard's fumble, Ty Warren pushed Maurice Williams into Garrard like Williams cleats were made by Wheelies. And on one play at the Pats 9, Richard Seymour rushed on Vince Manuai, dropped to spy Garrard as he stepped up into pocket, spun, tipped ball and chased down Jones-Drew to make the tackle. Orson Welles didn't do that much on "Citizen Kane." 90% of the credit for the low rushing total should go to the play of the front three.

*But the Patriots are simply not a great blizting team. I just don't think it's a priority for them. They play much better when they add one extra rusher, take their chances they'll beat their blocks, and cover with seven. Every time they send five or more if they don't get the sack, it's a completion.

*Still, they managed to put Garrard on the run a high percentage of the time, even without the extra rushers. But he showed me a Roethlisbergerian ability to roll away from pressure I didn't know he had. The man had more successful escapes than "Hogan's Heroes."

*The only part of the entire night more grotesque than Grady Jackson's gargantuan belly is the thought of David Caruso fathering a child with Elizabeth Berkeley.

*The Pats offense went almost entirely with 4 wide, single back sets, with the exception of the short yardage plays where they went into the "I", which for this team is like wearing throwback jerseys or leather helmets. But defenses are so spread out by the 4 wide they're running better out of this formation right now than they did earlier in the year when they ran behind with 2 TEs.

*Still it's not a coincidence that they get Kyle Brady back and they start ramming it down teams throats again.

*I don't know whether to keep trying to get the fans at Gillette to step up or just admit defeat. First, they still never, ever got loud. Second, back in the day, that guy in the Pats superhero costume with the Batman henchman mask never would've made it out of Shaefer Stadium alive. Nor should he.

*It's surprising that, given the results, they don't throw it to Maroney more often. We have to assume his hands aren't great because when he gets into space he's money. They threw him a screen on the opening drive, set up by great blocks by Dan Koppen (who might be the best center in league at bouncing outside) and Jabar Gaffney and Kool Aid did the rest by himself for 33 yards.

*Which is not to suggest he can't hit it in the middle either. Maroney is sticking his nose and and taking on tacklers like a 2004 Corey Dillon.

*Not that I was ever worried, but at 14-14 I did catch myself thinking "He don't know it's a show. He thinks it's a damn fight. Now let's finish this chump and get out of here." (That, by the way, is my second "Rocky" mention, which means if I make a reference to Rocky and Apollo hugging in the waves I automatically qualify for my Bill Simmons Fan Club card.)

*If there was a surprise in this game, it was the amount of playing time that went to Brandon Merriweather. The stats will be out in a day or two, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find out he took more snaps than in any game this year. I assume it was just in packages, but they weren't in dime packages all night, so I assume he's been bumped up to the nickel. On 3rd & 11, Merriweather blitzed up middle right into Garrard's face just before he got the ball away, which Nance credited to Asante Samuel. Some advice Brandon? If you want it to stop, you'll have to lose the dreds. Nance has him mind on the Masters. Did you know they're only three months away.