Check out Peter King's original Monday Morning Quarterback, a closer look at how the Patriots decided to sign RB Corey Dillon.

Every week there is carnage in the NFL. Not the injury kind of carnage, but the disastrous kind. Unbeaten Atlanta losing at home to the Lions. The No. 1 defense in the league, Seattle, giving up a touchdown, touchdown, field goal and touchdown to St. Louis in the last nine minutes of a game that appeared to be safely tucked away. Some people's darkhorse Super Bowl contender, the Saints, losing to winless teams in consecutive weeks. Four good teams, minimum, have a blatant hiccup every week.

That's what makes the Patriots of this era so special. They don't hiccup nearly as much as the other very good teams in the league. In the four-and-a-quarter-season run of Bill Belichick, they've had winning streaks of 12 (straddling the 2001 and '02 seasons) and 19 (current, which is the NFL record.) They're clutch -- they've won eight in a row in overtime. They're money -- they're 30-0 since 2000 when leading after three quarters.

What continues to impress me is that they have smart players who get it. They want to win. Some players say, "I just want to win. And I'll sacrifice a few bucks to do it.'' At least six Patriots have proven this in the last year and a half. Tom Brady saw Peyton Manning and Chad Pennington get $58 million in new bonus money before this season. They've combined to win no Super Bowls. Brady's won two. He could have been a prima donna and said, "Hey, I ain't playing for $5.5 million this year. That's Jon Kitna money. Pay me.'' He said nothing. He played. Left tackle Matt Light left postseason money on the table last week when he signed a new deal averaging $4 million-plus per year. So did Tedy Bruschi. These guys know they're in a special place in time, and they're not going to screw it up.

I give Bill Belichick his due in Sports Illustrated this week on the terrific coaching job he's been doing (surprise!), and I urge you to read it if you want to know how a very good team stays very good. But the other piece of this puzzle is personnel acquisition. In interviews last week before and after the win over Miami, five of those questioned mentioned vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli by name. He's one of the best scouts in the league, obviously, and just as obvious is how much Belichick trusts him. In Michael Holley's recently released book on the inner workings of the Patriots, he tells a story from last spring's draft of a loud disagreement between Belichick and Pioli about a player. Belichick wanted him, Pioli didn't. Pioli said he'd be more trouble than he'd be worth. Belichick bought it. They didn't draft Player X. And I heard last week that Player X isn't playing for the team that picked him and he's in his team's doghouse.

"The way they look for football players here is important,'' Bruschi told me. "Scott and Bill are on the same page with what they want. It's like, if you're a defensive lineman, they don't care if you can press 400 pounds. They care if you can press a guard.'' There's a lesson in this, somewhere, for the rest of the league.

THREE QUESTIONS WITH ...

Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens, whose new team might be ready to come off the three-straight-NFC-Championship-Game-loss schneid this fall:

MMQBTE: Yankees or Red Sox?

Owens: "Yankees. I love Sheffield. He's my kind of player."

MMQBTE: When you thought you were going to Baltimore, did you say, "God, please don't send me to play with Kyle Boller?''

Owens: "No. I knew I wasn't going to go there. I felt like we had a good case with the league. The players union hadn't done their due diligence as far as processing the right papers. Otherwise, they wouldn't have filed a grievance on my behalf."

MMQBTE: Do you feel you get a fair shake from the majority of the white media covering the NFL, or are they out to see you fail?

Owens: "I listen to a lot of commentaries. I've got friends who watch TV, so if I don't hear it they're going to tell me about it. Like when you came to training camp at Lehigh this summer. I wasn't all that gung-ho about talking to you. But I sucked it up. I did it. I don't have a problem facing anyone who's been talking about me."

FROM THE E-MAIL BAG

Much discussion about injuries, and then even about my massive coffee consumption.

NOW THIS IS A GOOD POINT, BILL. From Bill Leafe of Johnson City, N.Y.: "Has anyone calculated the early season injury rate for players who held out for at least part of training camp versus those who didn't? It seems high?''

Coaches always make this same point, Bill. And you can see a few guys who get hurt every year who were camp holdouts. You're getting into an area that a factophile like Tom Coughlin may be monitoring, but I'm not.

YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT DAVID BOSTON, BUT NOT THAT RIGHT. From Scott Ridgely of Winston-Salem, N.C.: "Saw your list of 10 most devastating injuries. How can David Boston not be included? I'm assuming you've seen the Dolphins' 'offense,' if you can really call it that."

Scott, there's no question Boston was a significant loss, but his absence has played only a minor role in the Dolphins stinking. I tried to make those 10 lost players [in SI this week as a sidebar to my NFL injuries story] the guys who have most affected their teams' fortunes over the first quarter of the season.

	MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

GLENN IS LOOKING OUT FOR ME. From Glenn Swan, of New York City: "I read every column you write with much excitement but one thing I need to point out to you. As much as I enjoy reading about all the great eatings you experience including all the great coffeenerdness stuff, I fear for your health. I feel pretty certain that you're headed for that dreaded heart bypass surgery I went through with my Dad. Would you at least try cutting back on all the artery-clogging food and start drinking the lattes with skim milk. I mean, four grande lattes one day last week. I wasn't even thinking about the espresso shots, dude. I was thinking about all that milk in your system. Your heart must be pretty pissed off. My life would be less fulfilled if you were no longer around to write your columns.''

Thank you, Glenn. I have tried on many occasions to switch to the skim lattes, but it takes all the pleasure out of them. If a doctor told me to quit the whole milk lattes, I would have to quit my fix altogether. But your letter has made me think about the error of my milky ways, and I'm going to eat more carefully. Thanks.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? From Paul Kasischke of Chicago: "Please give me your thoughts on the following interesting statistic after four weeks of the NFL: The top five defensive teams, Seattle, Denver, Miami, Washington, and Pittsburgh have a combined record of 10-9. The top five offensive teams, Minnesota, Indianapolis, New England, Philadelphia and Dallas, have a combined record of 14-3. Why in the world are offensive teams running the table so far in 2004?''

First of all, stats change with the wind at this time of year, so don't take anything as gospel. In time, the best defenses will win out. And it's like Bruschi said after the Patriots had two goal-line stands and held Miami pointless late in their 24-10 win Sunday: "You guys judge defenses by yards, or the league does. Not us. Did they score? Did they get in the end zone? That's how I judge a great defense.''

TWO (FOR TUESDAY) THINGS I THINK I THINK

1. I think the most stunning stat of month one in the NFL is this: The Jets and Giants are 8-1.

2. I think I'd like to ask all you Titans fans what you think of the Eddie George whacking now. Chris Brown, through five games, is two full yards ahead of George's average carry in his aggregate final three Tennessee seasons.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week.