Be cool or concerned? Reasons for New England Pats fans to be both

Matt Cassel hasn't exactly inspired confidence as the Pats backup quarterback. Chris Livingston/Icon SMI Don Banks's Mailbag Submit a comment or question to Don Banks. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Don Banks on Twitter

The Patriots haven't won a game since mid-January, Tom Brady has yet to play this preseason, and things are getting a little tense for the Team That Previously Could Not Lose. Making matters worse, New England just got embarrassed at Tampa Bay, on the very field it hopes to be playing on in February's Super Bowl.

But should Patriots fans be worried, or be chilling? Is this just the (yawn) meaninglessness of preseason, or could it portend the trouble that lays ahead in 2008 for Bill Belichick and his one-game-at-a-time bunch?

We give you all the reasons to be either concerned or cool about what's going down in Foxboro:

• Reason to worry: The Patriots' Super Bowl hopes rest ever so lightly on the state of Brady's sore right foot. Or on any other of his body parts that happen to be balky at any particular moment. Let's admit the obvious: Without Mr. Indispensable in the pocket, the Patriots are just another team in the AFC East. And maybe a second- or third-place one at that.

Have you seen New England's offense with reserve quarterbacks Matt Cassel, Kevin O'Connell and Matt Gutierrez running the show the past two weeks? Brutal. The three men-who-wouldn't-be-Tom have combined to complete 29-of-58 (50 percent) for 262 yards, with four interceptions and no touchdown passes. They've led 23 drives, and produced two touchdowns and four Stephen Gostkowski field goals. And Cassel had first-team receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker at his disposal Sunday night in Tampa Bay, so don't tell me he was forced to play with his fellow scrubs.

Add it all up and it's enough to get Vinny Testaverde on speed dial. Let's not forget that the last time Belichick had to rely upon anyone but Brady to start a game at quarterback for New England, he was 5-13 in his Patriots tenure and fighting off talk that his job was in jeopardy. How much does Brady mean to his team? Everything. Those are the facts, Jack.

• Reason to chill: The Patriots are playing it ultra-cautious with Brady's foot because they can afford to and because they know they don't have much of a safety net behind him. It's entirely possible that New England could sit Brady the entire preseason schedule to ensure him being ready to go for the Sept. 7 opener against visiting Kansas City. Don't forget, the Patriots went the same route last year with Moss and his preseason hamstring injury and that one worked out OK.

The good news about Brady's sore foot is he has confirmed it's not the same ankle injury that plagued him in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl last winter. So we're not talking about a chronic, lingering issue here. At this point in his career, with the continuity that exists between him and his receivers this year, I'm confident Brady could roll out of bed on the morning of the season opener and play an efficient and productive game.

Exhibition game action, or no exhibition game action, Brady has made 127 consecutive starts when it matters, in the regular season and the playoffs. Let's let him miss one before the sky starts falling in Foxboro.

• Reason to worry: The machine-like Patriots may be on a 19-game regular-season winning streak dating to Week 15 of 2006, but the reality is they've lost the past three times they've taken the field since improving to 18-0 in last January's AFC title game. Losing can become a habit in this league just as easily as winning can, and you don't want to play around with your mojo too much lest it cruelly turn on you.

Is it possible New England's crushing Super Bowl loss to the upstart Giants punctured the sense of invincibility that had surrounded Belichick's team? Say what you will about the supposed Super Bowl loser syndrome, but seven of the last 10 teams to lose the big game didn't even make the playoffs the following season. That's not a trend to dismiss out of hand. Teams can struggle with the mental funk that a Super Bowl letdown creates, perhaps even the mentally tough Patriots. We know this: No team has ever had a more painful loss to recover from. When you're 18-0 and lose the last one, you're in uncharted waters the next season.

• Reason to chill: Yes, the Patriots have looked undeniably bad in going 0-2 this preseason. But it's just the preseason, and no head coach in the league plays these games less to win than Belichick, who considers the August schedule to be a necessary evil. He purposely takes a vanilla-as-possible approach on both offense and defense, and is maniacal about not giving the Patriots' regular-season opponents too much to work with in terms of their scouting. To make the deduction that because Tampa Bay sliced up New England's defense for 234 yards in the first half on Sunday, teams in the regular season will be able to do the same would be pure fallacy.

For some perspective, consider that New England went 2-2 in the preseason last year prior to its record-breaking 18-1 run. In fact, since 2004, New England's most recent Super Bowl-winning season, the Patriots have gone 1-3, 2-2, 2-2 and 2-2 in August (7-9 overall), before flipping the switch to on and rolling to a 60-15 (.800) mark in the regular season and playoffs thereafter. Can a team's preseason performance set the tone for the regular season? Yes. Has it done so in New England lately? Not by a long shot.