Hey, Patriots, give us one more _ with feeling.
It's a new week and a new start for the defending Super Bowl champions, who were blown out by Kansas City in their opener, 42-27. That's the most points New England has surrendered in the Bill Belichick era, and Alex Smith badly outplayed Tom Brady.
That said, writing off the Patriots is just plain foolish. After all, they were on the wrong end of a 41-14 pounding by the Chiefs in Week 4 of the 2014 season, and people were questioning whether both Belichick and Brady were kaput.
All New England did was come back and finish the season on a 10-2 run, winning every game except Week 13 at Lambeau Field and a meaningless finale against Buffalo, then go on to win the Super Bowl.
So New Orleans will have its hands full in playing host to the agitated Patriots on Sunday, especially with New England getting 10 days of rest and the Saints, who lost to the Vikings on Monday night, coming off a short week.
Then again, all that extra time isn't always welcome.
"It's probably easier when you're getting right back to work," Brady said Monday during his weekly interview on sports radio WEEI. "It actually kind of sucked having three extra days to think about it and rewatch the game.
"The good thing about football season, when it's Sunday to Sunday, is (on) Monday you kind of watch it and then by Tuesday you're already moving on to the next team. I've kind of moved on to the next team, but we haven't really done that formally as a team. We're doing that today."
It's worth noting that the Patriots, who will be on the road for the next two weeks, are having their artificial turf replaced at Gillette Stadium while they're gone. It was good enough to pass NFL muster for the opener, but it's not up to the team's standards.
