Winning Ugly

The Patriots held on tonight for a 31-27 win over the Pack, and while the win may have been ugly, it was still important. With four teams in the division tied at 10-4, the Patriots -- with the win tonight -- just need to pull off one of the next two against Buffalo or Miami to clinch the division, home field advantage through the playoffs, and a first round bye.

A loss, and the story would have been different.

So while the Pats made quite a few mistakes tonight and were charged with some questionable and some legit penalties, hopefully they will learn from this game and realize what it is going to take to win against good teams.

One of the pluses you can take out of this game is that the Pats scored 31 points against one of the league's best defenses -- one that was only giving up 14 points a game. And anyone who watched this game will surely remember this 71-yard kickoff return by O-Lineman Dan Connolly. The negative side was that their defense gave up 27 against a back up QB (who played well) and a team not known for throwing a lot of points on the board.

While the Pats walked away with the win and a 12-2 record...Coach Bill did not look happy at the post game press conference. That bodes well for the rest of the season.