FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -The Patriots are 7-0. They’ve won every game by at least 17 points. Tom Brady is headed for a record-breaking season.
The only thing they’ve fallen short of is publicity.
On Monday, even coach Bill Belichick recognized that New England is not the biggest show in town.
“Let me start by congratulating the Red Sox on winning the American League and getting into the World Series,” he said. “This will continue to make an exciting week.”
While the Red Sox open the World Series at home Wednesday night, the Patriots certainly won’t be ignored when they play the Washington Redskins on Sunday in Foxborough.
Belichick declined to predict the outcome of the Series.
“My focus is on Washington and that’s where it needs to be,” he said. “They’re tough. They’ve won four and they could have easily won a couple more, so we’ll have our hands full. That’s all I’m worried about right now.”
Washington is 4-2 and has allowed an NFC-low 88 points. On Sunday, the Patriots beat Miami 49-28, dropping the Dolphins to 0-7 with 231 points allowed.
New England led 42-7 before defensive lapses and Jason Taylor’s touchdown return on an interception of backup quarterback Matt Cassell’s pass made the score 42-21 in the fourth quarter.
“Every player has bad plays and every coach has bad calls,” Belichick said. “We all have it. That’s part of the game. We have good ones and we have bad ones, so everybody is in the same boat there.”
After that interception, Belichick sent Brady back in the game. He immediately led a 59-yard, four-play drive that ended with his sixth touchdown pass of the game, a club record, and his 27th of the season. One week earlier, he set his personal best with five scoring passes.
Brady is on pace for 61 touchdown passes, 12 more than the NFL record set by Peyton Manning in 2004.
The Patriots already are off to their best start and, of course, can reach the midpoint of the season unbeaten with a win over the Redskins.
“I don’t think our record means anything as far as this week goes,” Belichick said. “We just try to take each week at face value, for what it is, where our team is, where our opponent is, how we can maximize the opportunity.”
He’d like to see better tackling than he saw in the second half, even though the outcome was decided by that point and more backups were playing.
“Tackling involves a lot of things and I think there’s multiple reasons for it and multiple guys involved in it,” Belichick said. “We have to coach it better, we have to tackle better. We just need to do a better job.
“We all make mistakes, me more than anybody,” he said. “Every player, there’s always things they can do better. They all made mistakes. There’s all things that they can learn from them.”
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