So this is what my mother's basement looks like. Nothing like going to work in your tighty-whities, right?

Welcome to the web, Felger. Harry Sinden once told me he never read my stuff in the Boston Herald, where I worked for 19 years before today, because he was too busy wrapping his (bleeping) fish in it. When I told him his reaction was a little strong and that I always thought he had thicker skin than that, he snapped, ``What am I, a (bleeping) rhinoceros?'' Great line, but now Harry and the rest of you will have to find another way to defile my work. By the way, Harry: Long live the (bleeping) Herald.

In the meantime, I've retreated down here to the dark and damp, where mom should be arriving shortly with my meatloaf. I'll have more on the plan for me here later (the first report card comes tomorrow). But it's been far too long since I've generally spewed on the Patriots -- so we start with that here on Day 1 at WEEI.com.

There's probably no reason to panic over Tom Brady's sore foot, which knocked him out of last night's preseason atrocity in Tampa Bay. But three weeks of camp and two exhibitions have shown us that there should remain very legitimate concern over the backups behind him. Matt Cassel and Matt Gutierrez have instilled no confidence and rookie Kevin O'Connell is simply too raw and inexperienced to be trusted with the vice presidency.

Cassel left heads shaking again on his first pass last night, tossing the ball directly to linebacker Barrett Rudd on a third-down attempt to Randy Moss. Rudd just missed the interception on a pass that was
telegraphed from the time Cassel left the huddle. What did Cassel see on the play that made him think Moss was open? You're guess is as good as mine.

Cassel settled down thereafter, completing five consecutive short passes (three to Wes Welker, one to Moss and another to Kevin Faulk) before hitting Moss on a long in-cut just before the half. Cassel finished a respectable 6-of-10, but it's still hard to see how the performance was enough to convince anyone he's the answer.

Who is? Well, a lot of people will tell you very few teams around the league have adequate understudies and therefore you can't complain about the atrocious lack of depth behind Brady. But I don't think that holds water. In my estimation, there are no fewer than 20 teams (two-thirds of the league, that is) who have a better backup than the Pats' current situation.
 
Here's my list: Pittsburgh (Byron Leftwich), Cleveland (Brady Quinn), San Diego (Billy Volek), Dallas (Brad Johnson), Philadelphia (AJ Feeley), St. Louis (Trent Green), Tennessee (Kerry Collins), Buffalo (JP Losman), Arizona (Kurt Warner), Denver (Patrick Ramsey), Kansas City (Damon Huard), Atlanta (Chris Redman/Joey Harrington), Minnesota (Gus Frerotte), New Orleans (Mark Brunell), Indianapolis (Jim Sorgi), Chicago (Kyle Orton/Rex Grossman), New York Giants (David Carr), Washington (Todd Collins), San Francisco (Alex Smith/TJ O'Sullivan) and Tampa Bay (Chris Simms/Brian Griese).

Remember: I’m not saying I love the above quarterbacks. I'm not saying I want them leading my team. I'm saying that in a pinch, I'd take any one of them over what the Pats currently have. A lot of the players listed above may be well past their prime (Brunell, Johnson, Green, Huard, Warner, Collins) but they've also been in big games and led their teams deep into the playoffs. They'd be fine custodians. Others are failed first-rounders (Harrington, Losman, Carr) who are still young enough to improve under Belichick and still provide an upgrade over Cassel and company. Some on that list are borderline starters in their own right (Leftwich, Volek, Losman). Others have simply done marginally more than the Pats' understudies and therefore get the nod (hard to believe, but Sorgi, for example, has thrown 127 career passes despite never starting a game, completing 61 percent of those tosses with six touchdowns, one interception and a career rating of 90.4. Cassel, by comparison, has thrown 54 career passes, completing 56 percent of them with two touchdowns, two interceptions and a 71.8 rating).

Bottom line: It's hard to believe Bill Belichick has left the most important position on the field so barren behind Brady despite chances to add some decent depth. Hopefully, he's got something up his sleeve. Maybe we saw a target last night in Simms, who is said to be on the outs in Tampa. Something just sounds right about Simms completing the circle his father started with Belichick with the Giants all those years ago. Duante Culpepper, Kelly Holcomb and Vinny Testaverde also remain unsigned.

Overall, I disagree with the conventional wisdom that if Brady gets hurt the Pats are sunk. Sure, if Cassel, Gutierrrez or O'Connell are leading the way the Pats are in trouble. But with just a decent backup, it says here they're still a playoff team capable of winning games in January.

(Let me also take this time to get some ``Super Bowl hangover'' thoughts off my chest. I felt it was a legitimate issue even before the Pats played like they were out at Ybor City until 4 a.m. yesterday morning. For what it's worth, the Pats have a long and illustrious history of sucking in Tampa in the preseason. Look it up).

I know the Big Show boys have told us not to worry about the Pats' crushing defeat in Super Bowl XLII six months ago, which is good enough for most of you. After all, they say, the Pats lost the AFC Title game in 2006 and came back from that tough loss to go 18-0 in '07. They say this team doesn't suffer hangovers any more than they get swelled heads after victories - and it's certainly a valid point.

So is the fact that the Pats are simply better than the previous Super Bowl losers this decade that everyone wants to compare them to. Of the six teams that missed the playoffs the year after losing the Bowl (2001 Giants, 2002 Rams, 2003 Raiders, 2004 Panthers, 2005 Eagles and 2007 Bears), none had the experience, coaching or overall depth of the Pats.

A huge common denominator among those Super Bowl losers was the injury factor the subsequent season, and while that definitely bears watching in New England with Brady's foot at the top of the list, it's hard to imagine the Pats doing anything other than winning the AFC East for the sixth consecutive year. They're still loaded and the rest of the division is still weak (although the Jets sure have tried to close the gap). The Pats can be so hung over they're dry-heaving in the backyard at sunrise, and they'll still probably stumble into the postseason.

The question is what will they look like once they get there. In that fateful 2006 postseason, for example, the Pats' four regular season losses forced them to travel to San Diego for the divisional round and then back to Indy for a hot, 60-minute, indoor marathon in the RCA Dome. One more regular season win and that game would have been at Gillette and we all know the result would have been different. So if the ``hangover'' costs the Pats just one game in 2008, that's still potentially a big deal.

Beyond that, the biggest problem with comparing this season to last is that they are totally different animals, and the differences make this a much more challenging bounce-back season than 2007 ever was.

Start with the simple, obvious fact that the AFC title game isn't the Super Bowl, especially when you're 18-0 and a few minutes away from being called the greatest team in the history of the sport. The 2006 Pats overachieved to get to the conference title game in the first place, and if Chargers safety Marlon McCree (more on him later) had half a brain the Pats never would have made it to Indy. Once they got there, they wound up losing to a team that was playing better defense, was at home and didn't have to deal with cross-country travel in the postseason. There wasn't much shame in that loss, other than some bad clock management in the fourth quarter.

The 2007 Pats choked -- plain and simple. With the possible Red Sox exceptions of Game 6 in 1986 or the Pedro game in 2003, Super Bowl XLII was the single most devastating loss we've ever seen in any sport. Big difference between that and the 2006 finale.

There's also the manner in which the organization approached the offseason after each defeat. Last year, Belichick and Scott Pioli rightly acknowledged they didn't do enough to replace the receivers they had lost the previous season and that more talent was needed across the board. They then spent heavily to correct the error, upgrading the receiving corps with Welker, Donte Stallworth, Kelly Washington and, finally, the big fish Moss. They were aggressive filling other spots with running back Sammy Morris and tight end Kyle Brady. And, of course, they made a $20 million, Day 1 splurge on the top defensive name on the board, Adalius Thomas.

This year, the Pats went back to the bargain rack. They were able to resign Moss and retain Washington, but they didn't even put up a fight for Asante Samuel or Stallworth. Their free agent moves were, to be kind, uninspiring. Fernando Bryant, Jason Webster, Victor Hobson, Lewis Sanders, Marcus Pollard and Tank Williams all came at veteran minimum salaries. The Pats' biggest expenditures, if you can call them that, didn't come until after training camp started with Lamont Jordan ($850,000 plus incentives) and John Lynch ($1.5 million).

In short, the Pats hit the 2007 offseason with a purpose. In 2008, they merely hung on. Again, big difference.

Then there's the motivation. For all the heartburn Spygate caused the Krafts, it actually worked in Belichick's favor last season. Every day he was able to walk into his locker room and tell his players that the league felt they cheated their way to three titles. It was the ultimate ``no respect'' card, and no team plays that better than the Pats. Now that card is gone.
 
Add it all up and the 2007 Pats were a team on a mission. It started with the loss at Indianapolis, showed itself through free agency and kicked into high gear after Eric Mangini cried to the league office in September. The Pats weren’t satisfied to merely beat teams; they were out to dominate, to set records. They then withstood the intensity of perfection until, with history in the balance and the world watching, they suffered an unthinkable loss to an NFC wild card team that might not even make the playoffs this year. I just don't see how you can compare that to what happened in 2006.

Given their mettle, the Pats may very well overcome the Giants loss. Given their talent, the hangover could be nothing more than a side note.

Just don't tell me the Pats will be okay because they've been here before.

No one's been here before.

The solid progress of the Pats' young players on defense seemed to take a step back along with everything else last night. The most troubling development was second-year safety and 2007 first-round pick Brandon Meriweather leaving the game in the first half with an apparent leg injury. Elsewhere, Jerod Mayo had some trouble getting off blocks inside and Shawn Crable and Pierre Woods couldn't duplicate their play-making from the opener. Again, more on this in the report card tomorrow.

In a related story, it's hard not to like the thought of John Lynch playing for Belichick. We all know what he brings to the table and the Pats obviously think there a chance he can get past the neck/concussion issues that have felled him in the recent past. There doesn't appear to be much risk here.

But let's keep some perspective on what Lynch is at this point of his career.

Lynch turns 37 in September and the reason he was available in the first place is that his snaps were being cut down early in camp in Denver after he found himself behind the likes of McCree, of all people, in nickel and dime packages. This was following an offseason where he considered retirement only to change his mind at the behest of owner Pat Bowlen. Lynch hasn't had an interception in three years and has recorded only one sack during that time. I've always thought Mike Shanahan was a pretty good judge of talent. Would he just cast Lynch aside for nothing in return if he felt he still had something, anything, left in the tank? Hard to imagine.

Meanwhile, the loss of Tank Williams may be bigger than people realize. Belichick obviously had plans for him to play a hybrid role in the defense, working him almost exclusively at linebacker the first couple weeks of camp. Time will tell if Lynch is used similarly. Either way, by losing Williams, 28, and signing Lynch, the Pats got older and slower.

That's why the more important names to watch at safety remain Meriweather and James Sanders. The Pats need their legs.

Finally, here's the deal for me at WEEI.com.

I'll basically be writing twice a week during the football season. An expanded report card will be posted by Monday night following Sunday games. That time frame will be pushed back a bit if travel precludes me from re-watching the game on my super-duper, hi-def, DVR in a timely fashion -- or if the Wood (my wife) has taped some reality program over it.

Then, later in the week, I'll write a column based largely on your emails. I always got a ton of responses to the report card in the Herald and I expect the same here. But feel free to fire away on any topic you wish -- nothing is off limits. I know a lot of my readers have had a love-hate relationship with me over the years, and in this forum I'll give those in the latter category all the space they need. Have at it. I will also post some of these emails and their responses in video form. So if your missive is particularly good, you'll be a big shot on the (cyber) air.

Try and contain your excitement.

In closing, I hope to be hearing from you soon. If not, come on over to mom's house. I'm down in the basement.

Mike Felger can be reached at mfelger@weei.com. He can also be seen nightly on Mohegan Sun's Sports Tonight on Comcast Sportsnet.