FanHouse New England Patriots

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Patriots defense was supposed to be green this season minus seasoned fixtures like Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi. Even now, it is often considered a bunch of rookies getting baptized on each blitz.

Wrong.

New England started just one player with fewer than three years experience in its 27-21 victory over the Ravens on Sunday at Gillette Stadium -- and, actually, eight of the 11 starters are in at least their fifth pro season.

The Patriots' defensive starters average 6.4 seasons of NFL experience, with an average age of 27.9 years.

The idea that the Patriots overhauled their defense and turned to a baby-faced group is nonsense.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Plenty of Ravens and Patriots players wore pink on Sunday -- matching shoes and gloves -- in honor of breast cancer awareness. Myra Kraft, wife of Patriots owner Bob Kraft, noticed.

She stood on the Patriots sideline only minutes before kickoff as both teams stretched and styled nearby. It takes a real football player to pull off pink, we agreed.

"And I am so glad they are manly enough to help with this cause,'' she said. "I wasn't so sure they would actually do it.''

The Patriots then set out to ensure that their social conscious should never be confused with their football tenacity.

They did just that -- even in pink, the Patriots still pack a punch.

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The TV cameras caught Browns backup quarterback Brady Quinn yawning on the sideline. He's not the only one bored watching the Browns.

Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib became Jason Campbell's favorite receiver early on Sunday, picking off two passes before Campbell had completed more than one to any of his own receivers.

The Bears' Johnny Knox returned the second half kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown to take 28-21 lead over Lions, leaving Chicago fans asking, "Devin who?"

Those are among the observations in today's NFL live tweet. For more, follow along below or follow me on Twitter @MichaelDavSmith.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- As mere mortals, we're conditioned to believe life is easy for guys like Tom Brady. Fame, success, good looks, championship glory ... these things make it seem as if a dude is coasting through life, surfing the biggest waves with minimal effort, skiing on one ski.

But that isn't always the way, and anybody who tuned in around halftime of Sunday's Patriots-Falcons game saw a Tom Brady who wasn't real happy about the way things were going. New England's Golden Boy QB was openly screaming at teammates, clearly frustrated by his team's red zone failures and general inability so far this season to get into sync.

"I think I was just really into it," Brady would say later, by way of denial-drenched explanation. "Just trying to keep everybody focused. Football is a team game, and it's about everybody being on the same page."

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Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Mike Tomlin blog.

And suddenly, Bill Belichick is just another NFL coach. Apparently, it's a lot easier to be a genius when Tom Brady isn't coming back from a serious knee injury.

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The New England Patriots slipped back into the pack Sunday.

Yes, the Pats are a good team. No, they are no longer a dominant one. Their 16-9 loss to the Jets is more indicative that their dominance has ended than last season, when they missed the playoffs.

That was a "good'' miss -- they were 11-5 and could attribute their "failure'' to Tom Brady's absence. Now their failures are the result of the inevitable aging of their defense and an offense that, with injuries, had to rely Sunday on 37-year-old Joey Galloway and Julian Edelman, a rookie who played quarterback in college, to supplement Randy Moss at receiver.

It was, in fact, a day of change in the NFL.

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.(AP) -- Rex Ryan sent a message to the fans. His New York Jets delivered one of their own.

Rookie Mark Sanchez outplayed a Super Bowl champion quarterback and the Jets backed up their big talk, shutting down Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 16-9 on Sunday.

"We believe that we are the better team today,'' Ryan said. "We went out and showed it. I think our fans are huge in this victory.''

The New England Patriots and New York Jets are getting ready to punch each other in the face -- perhaps literally and figuratively -- and one player that won't be taking part in the festivities is Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker.

The team announced on its twitter feed that Welker is among the inactive players for Sunday's game at the Meadowlands.

If you didn't know better, you'd think that Sunday's Jets-Patriots game was for the AFC Championship. There has been an outsize amount of jabbering between the two rivals, most of it coming from the Jets, for a game that will leave one team at 1-1 with 14 games to play.

The latest and, presumably, final stage in the pregame yammering took place on the radio and Twitter Friday between Jets safety Kerry Rhodes and former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison. Earlier this week Rhodes said that the Jets didn't want to just beat the Patriots, they wanted to embarrass them. Harrison responded during a radio interview.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Rex Ryan says his phone incessantly rings. The calls come from inside and from outside of the National Football League. They tell him to cool it. Pipe down. Shut up.

"Oh, yeah, some of them think they know me," Ryan said "Some of them don't. I'm not going to change. I just try to fit myself, who I am, into this and the players wouldn't have it any other way. They know that would be phony. I tell it the way I see it. I'm comfortable with that."

Many are not.