Krause: Patriots snacking on Humble Pie

FOXBOROUGH – Humble Pie was a pretty good rock band in the early 1970s whose biggest claim to fame might have been the fact that two of the genre’s luminaries – Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton – formed its backbone.These days, though, Humble Pie is more than just a trivia question. It’s this year’s “official” mantra of the New England Patriots.That much became guaranteed last week when linebacker Adalius Thomas gave all his teammates T-shirts that said “I eat it” on the front ? and “Humble Pie” on the back.This was just too good to pass up. You don’t let a great slogan like that die in a week. So now, the Patriots – as is their wont – are referring to it early and often.They certainly did it Sunday – after their 34-17 snoozer over the Cleveland Browns – and they certainly had good reason to. They didn’t exactly stink out the joint, per se, but of their five season-opening victories, this one left a lot of room for humility.One supposes it stood to reason. They were practically flawless from weeks 1 through 4, and perhaps a letdown was in order.They impressed the pants off all football aficionados everywhere – to the point where the dreaded “run the table” drumbeat began. This not only set coach Bill Belichick off a few weeks ago, but it set former Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Bob Kuechenberg – a part of the only NFL team ever TO run the table – off too, calling such talk ridiculous and premature (among other things).After yesterday, neither Kuechenberg nor Belichick needs to worry as much. The win was nice, but it also proved the Pats are capable of laying at least a partial egg. Do that against the Dallas Cowboys next week, and they may be looking at a loss ? perhaps.”I don’t know,” quarterback Tom Brady said. “We’ll have to see what happens. I don’t know a thing about them. I haven’t been paying attention.”This, of course, is New England’s other mantra: Take it one game at a time and concentrate on yourself. It must be tough to choose which mantras you use at what times.It was also inevitable that the Pats might slip a little because of the positioning of the Browns on their schedule ? sandwiched, as it was, between last week’s Monday Night coming-out party in Cincinnati and next week’s possible battle of unbeatens in Dallas.That doesn’t cut it with the Pats, though. All they know is that they beat a team they were supposed to beat, and made enough mistakes to be certain the coach will be on the warpath later today when they see the films.”He (Belichick) was already starting in on me,” said linebacker Junior Seau, who made the Patriots’ struggles a little easier to bear by picking off two passes. “He was already saying something in my ear as we were leaving the field.”He could have been telling Seau to stop being a hot dog (the 18-year-veteran did his best Manny Ramirez impression after picking off his second pass). Or – as is Belichick’s wont – he might have found the one play Seau goofed up on and reminded him of it ? to keep him humble.”We’re all humble in there,” Seau said. “That’s the team culture. It’s all about ‘We.’ There’s no ‘I’ and ‘you.'”There was more humble pie. When asked how he’d assess safety Rodney Harrison’s return to the field, Belichick said, “It was good to have him out there. We probably could have done without the penalties.”Harrison, who played well, got a blatant face-masking penalty.And Brady, who looks more and more like a mirror image of his coach in terms of his quest for perfection and his willingness to spew clichés during interviews, also agreed that Belichick wouldn’t have to look far to find something to grouse about.”Nope,” he said, “not this week. It’ll be easy to find stuff to get on us about.”Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.