The New England Patriots looked like anything but an invincible machine last night at home against a mediocre Philadelphia Eagles squad. Tom Brady, who's played the role of Superman for most of the year, appeared decidedly mortal for much of the game, missing receivers with fair consistency and actually - gasp - getting sacked a few times. Meanwhile, Randy Moss found himself bracketed by two defenders for most of the night, and even when Brady did manage to thread a ball into him, didn't always secure it.

The Patriots, thankfully for them, have more than one weapon. With the Eagles taking Moss away, Brady leaned on slot receiver Wes Welker, who responded with a career-best 13 catches for 149 yards. Even so, Welker was kept out of the end-zone by the Eagles. The Patriots' scoring came largely courtesy of the running game, and cornerback Assante Samuel who picked off Eagles QB A.J. Feeley in the first quarter and ran it back for a score. The end result was a positive one for the Pats - a hard-fought 31-28 win.

It was a victory Tom Brady seemed less-than-enthused about afterward. The dashing quarterback said:

The goal is to win the game and we did that. I wish we could have played better. I wish everybody could have played better. We won so we can be happy.

These are the Pats, so, if they only win a game by three, it's like it doesn't even count for them. They have to torch a team by at least 30 before they'll be satisfied.

Give credit to the Eagles and Andy Reid - they figured out a formula for staying with the Patriots. Basically, you double-team Randy Moss, frustrating him, then on offense you take advantage of the Pats' zone defense with lots of in-routes. Everyone, it seems, plays that marshmallowy zone these days, which is eminently exploitable provided your quarterback doesn't have a lot of heat on him. A.J. Feeley had enough time to torch the Pats for 345 yards and 3 TDs - and might have sealed the deal had he not been picked off 3 times.

I know what I'd be thinking were I a fan of Green Bay or Dallas. "Hey, if A.J. Feeley can do that to the Pats, what can my QB do?" Romo already had his shot and failed, but Brett Favre hasn't, and Favre has the big-game experience Romo lacks (plus Favre doesn't have to hold for field goals which is good). And the Packers play the kind of aggressive, physical defense the Eagles play, and have the kind of pass rush that could conceivably throw Brady off-rhythm as Jim Johnson's blitzing Eagles did last night.

I'm not saying I'd necessarily pick the Packers over the Pats in a theoretical Super Bowl match-up - I'm just saying that, if any team in the NFL can beat the Pats even when they're on their game (as they clearly weren't last night), it would be wily old Number 4 and the Pack.