Patriots with or without Welker.
They may get by Baltimore but unfortunately they can't win in San Diego who is waiting to play the winner of the Ravens/Patriots Wild Card game...Regardless who wins the Jets/Bengals Game that winner goes to Indy to play the top seeded Colts.
However should the Jets and Ravens both win then the 6th seeded Ravens would travel to Indy and the fifth seeded Jets trek out to San Diego. This is not that far fetched of a scenario, in fact I don't see anyway The Bengals can stop The Jets running game and move the ball themselves against the NFL's best defense..
Bottom line as far as Welker goes. Sure he will be missed but Julian Edelman is nearly a carbon copy of the undersized but shifty and quick Welker (Ok Edelman is taller). He is as able a replacement as The Patriots could hope to have available. Last year he was the QB in Kent St's Option offense. Like Welker he can take a lickin and keep on tickin.
Some good news for The Pats:
QB Tom Brady (finger on right hand/right shoulder/ribs), WR Julian Edelman (forearm), DE Jarvis Green (knee), T Nick Kaczur (shoulder), CB Shawn Springs (knee), DE Ty Warren (ankle), TE Benjamin Watson (knee), DL Vince Wilfork (foot) all had full participation in practice today.
2009 All Pro and six year veteran NT Vince Wilfork reacting to QB Tom Brady winning Comeback Player of the Year: "He is the best QB I have ever been around. When you see how hard he works, it is hard for you not to work hard."
Ravens LB Ray Lewis on how the loss of Patriots WR Wes Welker impacts his preparation: “It doesn’t change a bit how we prepare. If you look at Julian Edelman, he’s in the mold of Wes Welker. He’s not Wes Welker, but he has a great chemistry with Tom Brady.”
Edelman is about four inches taller than Welker and has been a QB for much of his football career. He's not the best slot receiver in the game, but he will surprise a lot of casual fans that don't follow the game that closely.
In the end you can talk about Welker/Edelman all you want but for real it's time for Randy Moss to step up and have a big game regardless of the coverage and the Pats Defense to shut down 2nd year RB Ray Rice..That is where Wilfolk, Ty Warren and Jarvis Green come in..
Alas - while I give The Ravens a shot Sunday I expect the Pats to make it 9-0 at Foxboro this season only to end their season against the red hot Chargers the following week at Balmy Qualcomm Stadium.
Best game of the year shapes up to be AFC Title game if it's Chargers at Colts. A real test for both teams..Better than the Super Bowl shapes up to be.
wil.