In football, poor weather should be the great equalizer.  It should slow down a fast defense, limit options on offense, and make field goals a nightmare.  On a slick and sloppy track, one would’ve expected Chris Johnson and the Titans to run wild against the New England defense.  Phil Simms even thought the game would be close into the fourth quarter.  And while Johnson did his best to save the day (128 yards on 17 carries), he couldn’t make up for 5 Tennessee turnovers.

It was thrilling to watch New England put everything together in the second quarter.  Everything started clicking.  The running game was gaining consistent yardage, including Maroney appearing to run hard.  Tom Brady was in sync with his receivers and throwing bullets.  The defense forced turnovers that led to quick scores.  But then it all hit me; Tennessee is really bad.  You would’ve thought a team that went 13-3 last season had started out this year 0-5 by some misfortune or bad luck.  Nope, they just look awful.  Besides their thoroughly depleted secondary, they have talent.  Injuries aside, they brought back 20 of 22 starters.  I’m not sure if the snow had that much of an effect on them, or if it was mostly in their heads.  The fact that a botched reverse that resulted in a 22-yard loss and a fumble was one of their only two completions all day speaks volumes about their performance.

New England’s performance on the other hand, shows how far this team has come.  The Titans still may be awful, but in that weather 59 points is still impressive.  Without Fred Taylor and Sammy Morris, the three remaining running backs stepped up their games.  Maroney still danced a bit, but the snow afforded him the time to find the holes and rack up the yards.  BenJarvus Green-Ellis continues to show why they couldn’t cut him back in camp.  He is a hard-nosed, downhill runner that gets the job done.  And Kevin Faulk, his screen pass that he took to the house ran like clockwork.  I don’t think we need to waste space reviewing all the marks Brady and the team set, seeing as CBS did it for most of the second half yesterday.

On defense, you have to be encouraged by the development of Brandon Meriweather and Brandon McGowan.  While I am a huge supporter of James Sanders, he may have lost his starting spot permanently to McGowan.  McGowan has a knack to be around the ball, lay on the big hit, and force the turnovers.  Meriweather is also playing a bit more recklessly and applying pressure to opposing receivers.  The secondary played way too soft last week in Denver, and made sure not to make that same mistake this week.  They played tight coverage and forced Collins to be perfect, which his box score will show he was far from.

Some other highlights from an impressive win…Kevin Faulk celebrating his touchdown, have you ever seen a player so happy to get in the end zone?…Sebastian Vollmer was anything but a liability at left tackle, looked strong and had no flags thrown his way…Randy Moss jogging at the start of the flea flicker, then turning on the jets…Laurence Maroney saluting the crowd after his touchdown, even after they’ve been slowly turning on him for weeks…Darius Butler stepping up to solidify the corner opposite Bodden…Julian Edelman’s continued development, Sam Aiken seeing some action besides special teams, and Joey Galloway inactive for the third straight week…Am I the only one excited to see snow reaching New England in October?

One final note, thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Jasper Howard.  the UConn starting cornerback was killed in an on-campus stabbing Saturday night.  Once again we need to hear about senseless violence taking a life too soon.  Rest in peace Jasper.