No, they're not invincible. But they definitely know what they're doing.
Looking back, those first 10 Patriots games, with the exception, of course, of the Colts game, were a joke, a travesty, a mockery of football. It was fun, sure, and they certainly had us all swooning over the ridiculous numbers, whether it was Tom Brady's touchdown passes, Randy Moss's touchdown catches, the halftime point totals, or the record-breaking point spreads. But, c'mon, we all knew it wasn't NFL reality.
Saturday night, now that was NFL reality.
Saturday night's game against the aggressive, determined, angry, and very well-coached Jacksonville Jaguars was Game 7 of the actual Patriots' NFL season, the one that lets us know if New England really does have the right stuff, the legitimate makeup of a Super Bowl champion. Those first 10 games, again with the obvious exception of the Nov. 4 conquest of the Colts, were for the stat people. These last seven games have been for the realists among us.
What we saw at Gillette Stadium Saturday night was a continuation of a scenario that began the night of Nov. 25, when the Philadelphia Eagles, going nowhere and playing without Donovan McNabb, brought honor to themselves and the game by making the Patriots earn a 31-28 decision. Led by backup quarterback A.J. Feeley, the Eagles put a major scare into the Patriots before Brady & Co. were able to restore order.
The Patriots have not had an easy game since, not even against the atrocious Miami Dolphins, who kept them off the scoreboard for the entire second half.
For seven weeks in a row, the opponents have brought, at worst, an A-minus game. Enemy offensive coordinators have emptied playbooks. Enemy defensive coordinators have done everything short of sneaking 12th, 13th, and 14th men onto the field. Inspired individuals have done things no one thought they could do.
Each week, it seems, the Patriots have been in trouble. Each week there was reason to wonder if, you know, this was the week when it all would come crashing down, the week when Don Shula and the understandably proud and defensive '72 Dolphins could exhale.
But the Patriots have won them all, and now they are 17-0.
We now know that, yes, the Patriots are vulnerable, especially on defense. "Stifling" is not a word that comes to mind when describing New England's defense in this second season. Teams move the football on them, sometimes in disturbingly large chunks of FieldTurf, and that continued Saturday night.
The Jaguars took the opening kickoff and moved a rather effortless 80 yards in nine efficient plays to grab a 7-0 lead. The Jags later would go a frightening 95 yards in 11 plays for another score. A third long march, this one good for 86 yards, resulted in a field goal. Two-hundred sixty-one yards in three possessions? That's when a defensive coordinator needs to start sending out résumés.
Ty Warren strip-sacked David Garrard to set up a Patriots touchdown, but Garrard seldom was pressured seriously after that. And there no longer can be any doubt the Patriots might have to deviate from the annual policy of drafting the proverbial Best Player Available in order to secure the First Available Linebacker. Aging LBs Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau were tortured in pass coverage, while Bruschi continues to have problems locking up runners he would have swallowed a few years ago. Adalius Thomas only occasionally has earned the money. I might as well say it: aside from the estimable Mike Vrabel, the New England backers are wheezing to the finish line.
And yet . . . the weekly story line remains the same. The defense can't stop anybody until it absolutely, positively must do so. Somehow or other, it continually gets the big pick, the big stop, or whatever is necessary to secure the W.
For the record, Jacksonville never got into the end zone in the second half.
Ah, but however vulnerable the Patriots are on defense, there are no comparable questions on offense, especially now that Laurence Maroney has been successfully incorporated into the mix. I rather doubt there will be any repeats of the Ravens game, when Brady threw the ball on 34 consecutive plays. Saturday night the Patriots ran it 29 times and threw it 28. The Patriots ran it for 145 yards against a team that was said to be death on the run.
The Jaguars bloodied the Patriots a bit, but let the record show the Patriots didn't blink. The offense imposed its will on the Jaguars from start to finish. The Jags never really stopped the Patriots, not once. The Patriots never turned it over, and by the time they finally had to punt, there were 32 seconds remaining and New England was in possession of an 11-point lead.
If you're a glass half-empty person, you say the Patriots are on borrowed time. We all know they exhausted every bit of permissible luck in that one possession against Baltimore, and we can see the defense has some basic problems. If you're a glass half-full person, you say that they are the certified masters of Knowing How To Win, and that in Brady they have an all-time player at the peak of his powers.
You could say the same about Peyton Manning. But that's another story, an Indy story, and we know the sad ending. The Patriots' saga goes on.
Expect the Chargers to bring another A game. Expect the Patriots to match it.
Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.
