FOXBORO - Steve Smith, DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart, Julius Peppers, Matt Moore?
The competition this afternoon (1 p.m.) at Gillette Stadium won't be wearing Carolina Panthers teal and black. Don't look down the hall to the visitors' locker room, you suddenly wobbling New England Patriots.
To find the enemy, just take a peek in the mirror.
The enemy, for the first time since Bill Belichick took over in 2000, is you.
Four weeks remain for the AFC East leaders, whose path to the postseason couldn't be clearer.
Avoid implosion, make the playoffs.
The Patriots, with Tom Brady questionable with finger/shoulder/rib issues and the locker-room atmosphere suspect, need to replace helmets with hard hats.
The engineers have planted the dynamite and Derrick Burgess, Randy Moss, Gary Guyton and Adalius Thomas located the detonator this week in the middle of Wednesday's storm.
"We have a lot of guys who work hard, and set a good example," said receiver Wes Welker last week. "And we need to have those guys continue to do that, bring some of these other guys along and make sure everybody's pulling on the same rope."
These other guys? How many of "these other guys" was Welker referring to? Therein lies the issue of New England's sudden tumble back to the pack.
Clearly, the focus of this football team lands on Welker, Brady, Ty Warren, Kevin Faulk and the remaining character guys in the home locker room if 2009, already a disappointment at 7-5, is to be salvaged.
The offense much backbone this endeavor. Other than Warren and Vince Wilfork on defense, who can you trust?
Like it or not, it falls on the offense to step up and lead the charge.
More specifically, the damage has to be done up front. All five offensive linemen started Super Bowl XLII. Three of them have at least one championship ring.
Character emanates from the trenches.
Belichick must trust his football instincts, not his personal loyalties, to find two serviceable tackles out of three candidates — Matt Light, Nick Kaczur and rookie Sebastian Vollmer.
When these guys stumble, the Patriots pay dearly, most often with Brady buckling under a steamroller hit.
All three have had their anonymous moments — a major accomplishment for the position — but each also at times has appeared overwhelmed, getting Brady roughed up.
"(Teams) did put some pressure on us in different ways," said Brady. "I think a lot of it, too, is poor execution by us, poor execution by our offense and not really doing the things that we're able to do."
Setting the tone is top priority with these guys.
But it has to be contagious.
All the off-field distractions will go a long way in weeding out the team guys from the me guys, something the veterans here during the Belichick reign - Willie McGinest, Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi et al. - excelled at.
The spotlight is now beating down on Jerod Mayo, Brandon Meriweather, Leigh Bodden and the new regime on defense.
Instead of rallying after Belichick's 4th-and-2 admission of doubt vs. Indy, they've self-destructed.
Yes, Drew Brees and New Orleans sped up the process, but not being able to stop Chad Henne was on the defense.
With Brady on the field, the Patriots should dominate Moore and the Panthers, as they did here with winless Tennessee and in London against Josh Johnson and the Tampa Bay Bucs.
"I actually think that we're all on the same page," said Sammy Morris.
Morris, Welker, all of us will know for sure around 4 p.m. today.
E-mail Hector Longo at hlongo@eagletribune.com.
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