Two-minute Drill

Big Shows

1. Wes Welker — To paraphrase Drago's subtitles in Rocky IV, he is like a piece of iron. Another 10 catches for 105 yards in an inspirational effort.

2. Ty Warren — Six solo tackles. He poured his heart into this one and it showed, especially against the inside run.

3. Vince Wilfork — Has a pair of solos and three assists, raising a ruckus in the Carolina backfield right up until the moment a foot injury put him on the sidelines. Talk about a huge blow if he can't return.

No Shows

1. Shawn Springs — At least he was active, right? It's not so much he gave up the TD bomb to Steve Smith, it's more the way he pawned it off on Brandon Meriweather for being late with help over the top. Yes, Meriweather was late. But do you undress him to the media? A good locker-room guy doesn't.

2. Randy Moss - Had one catch for 16 yards and fumbled — not exactly the answer sought by Bill Belichick when he sent him home for being tardy Wednesday.

3. Nick Kaczur — Coincide or not? The offense started to click when Kaczur got hurt and rookie Sebastian Vollmer stepped in. Tom Brady will see Julius Peppers undressing Kaczur in nightmares for weeks.

Grading the Groups

Offense

Line (B) ... They get a "C" when Nick Kaczur was in there, and an "A" when Sebastian Vollmer took his place.

Running Backs (B) ... Sammy Morris' fumble spoils a solid week for this three-headed monster. Laurence Maroney was again serviceable against a below average defense, gaining 94 yards on 22 carries. Kevin Faulk was huge with 58 yards on 10 tries.

Receivers (D-) ... Wes Welker gets a 100. Ben Watson (3 catches, 37 yards) draws an 80. Chris Baker and Randy Moss get 40s and Julian Edelman earns a 60 (scaled up because he's a rookie with low expectations). That averages out to 64, and Welker's resilience delivers the bonus 2 points to barely pass these guys.

Quarterback (C) ... As pedestrian a performance as you'll get from Tom Brady, who hit 19 of 32 passes for 192 yards with a pick and a TD.

Defense

Line (C) ... Other than Ty Warren's play and a late sack by Jarvis Green, this group pretty much melted when Vince Wilfork left the game with a foot injury.

Linebackers (D-) ... Belichick passed on James Laurinaitis, Rey Maualuga and Clay Matthews for this? Pierre Woods, Gary Guyton, Junior Seau and Jerod Mayo. Did anybody make a play? Last time I looked, the Panthers, with a safety hovering in 8-man fronts all day, still cranked out 5.3 yards a carry.

Defensive Backs (C-) ... If Jake Delhomme, as pathetic as he is, was here, he would have thrown for 400 yards. Nobody covered well, not Shawn Springs or Leigh Bodden. Not Darius Butler or Brandon Meriweather. However, they did tackle pretty well today, and that was huge the way DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart (20 carries, 111 yards combined) had been slicing into the second level.

Coaching (C-) ... Brady and the New England Patriots were all out to beat a horrendous Carolina team with a coach (John Fox) that bumbled through the game — probably playing out the string until he's fired in January - and with a backup QB that couldn't throw it through one of those tires at the Topsfield Fair. If you're telling me the problems were fixed this week, I'm not buying it.

Was Tim Donaghy working here?

The Pats, who came in with 77 more penalty yards than their opponents on the year were hit for just four flags for 25 yards. Meanwhile, Carolina, one of the least penalized teams in football, got hit with nine penalties for 92 yards, including a game-changing, 30-yard pass interference penalty on James Anderson against Ben Watson that set up the first New England TD.

As embarrassingly bad as the phantom Watson interference was, the roughing the punter call, a 15-yarder that deserved to be 5 in the fourth quarter, was simply atrocious.

In addition, the officials missed badly on an incompletion to Wes Welker that was called a fumble - reversed on replay - a Leigh Bodden "interception" that was reversed and a clear touchback on the goalline that wasn't.

Tough, tough day for the boys in stripes, but one that energized the New England cause.

Measuring Mayo

New England's "best" linebacker, 2008 first-round pick Jerod Mayo was once again barely seen and absolutely not heard.

With Carolina running right at him, Mayo finished with five tackles — good for Carolina gains of 8, 8, 13, 6 and 1 yard. That means on the plays he made tackles, Carolina averaged 7.2 yards.

"We knew what they wanted to do and we knew what we wanted to do," said Mayo. "So we just had to go out there and execute and I think we did a pretty good job of that today."

Hurt or not, the time to re-calibrate on this guy is long past.

A vote for Randy

Randy Moss chose not to talk after his one-catch, one-fumble performance.

That didn't stop at least one teammate from having his back.

"As a person Randy is doing what he has to do to help this team win," said Kevin Faulk. "As for what other people think about him, I don't think that matters to him. As long as the guys in this locker room know that he's giving his all and that football is the No. 1 thing in his life, I don't think what other people think matters to him.

"He knows what he has to do for this football team, and he's doing it. Nobody in this organization is complaining about what he's doing."

Asked if he had any doubts about Moss giving his all, Faulk responded: "Never. He loves football too much, this is what he loves to do and nobody understands that."

But Panthers cornerback Chris Gamble told the Boston Globe something much different.

"We knew he was going to shut it down," Gamble told the Boston Globe. "That's what we wanted to do him. That's what we did. ... He'd just give up a lot ... Slow down, he's not going deep, not trying to run a route. You can tell, his body language."

Gamble later added: "I know everyone who plays against him, they can sense that. Once you get into him in the beginning of the game, he shuts it down a little bit."

John, you're nose is growing

Carolina coach John Fox did his best to cover for his jittery third-year quarterback Matt Moore when it came for his offense's problems with illegal shift penalties.

But, judging by the catatonic state of the Gillette Stadium gathering yesterday, it was pretty tough to buy Fox's explanation:

"I think a noisy road game stadium," hinted Fox at the problem.

The place was a church for three and a half quarters.

Five signs that the future is bright

1. Wes Welker continues to lift himself off the turf after every monster hit.

2. If you can run in December, life becomes a lot simpler in bad weather. The Pats put up a season-high 185 yards on 40 carries.

3. Tom Brady, who only targeted a listless Rand Moss four times, has come to the realization that the big money receiver is now pretty much unreliable.

4. Sometimes shaky Stephen Gostkowski knocked in a couple clutch kicks, from 48 and 47 yards in the fourth quarter, to put this one away.

5. The extended forecast for Sunday in Buffalo calls for only a 40 percent chance of a snow shower and 30 degree temperatures. For Western New York, that might as well be summer.

How they stack up

With the Jets and Miami each posting wins, the Patriots hold on to their one-game lead in the AFC East.

Here's how the contenders stack up right now:

Patriots (8-5, 3-2 division, 5-4 AFC) — host Jacksonville, at Buffalo and Houston.

Dolphins (7-6, 4-2 division, 5-4 AFC) — at Tennessee, host Pittsburgh and Houston.

Jets (7-6, 2-4 division, 5-5 AFC) — at Indy, host Atlanta and Cincinnati.

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