Sports this 'n' that

They say leopards don't change their spots. Six years and change after Spygate, and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick may be asked to defend himself again over allegations that the AFC East leaders may have used a little chicanery in beating lowly Houston on Sunday.

According to Yahoo!, Texans player Antonio Smith was reportedly suspicious of how the Patriots could've made such quick adjustments to the new defensive schemes the Texans employed during the first half. As was the case last week vs. Denver, New England had to come from behind to win, and have all but wrapped up the division. Buffalo is out of the divisional race after losing in overtime to Atlanta, and Miami hopped into second by beating the suddenly punchless Jets, who have now lost 3 straight.

Consider also this. The Patriots staged a similar comeback vs. Denver at home last week, but that was fraught with more obvious issues. The refs gave Rob Gronkowski a free pass when he intentionally slammed into a Denver defender before catching a touchdown pass, a make good for a game-ending no-call six nights prior at Carolina. Then, take a look at the box score of Sunday's game vs. Houston. Only three penalties were accepted, all against Houston. There is just no way the Patriots could go through the game without a yellow flag being called on them, is there? Of course there is. It's called, getting preferential treatment, still ongoing because of the whining of Tom Brady after the Carolina game. No one mentions that Brady sounded like he'd dropped an F-bomb on the air (part of the word was bleeped, making it a non-issue). The NFL has to make their poster boys happy, you know.

Meanwhile, there's a branch of the Sour Grapes Bunch opening in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, after the 2-time defending national champs lost to Auburn Saturday night. A bunch of inebriated idiots took to Twitter to make threats against Alabama placekicker Cade Foster, who missed three field goals, and was benched for the game's final play, a 57 yard attempt that went short right and was returned for a touchdown. No one, reportedly, went after Adam Griffith, who missed that fatal kick, insofar as we know. Those idiots get Dunce Caps for spewing hate without thinking things through.

Dunce Caps are in line for Jeff Triplette's crew of clowns who suddenly lost their brains at the end of Sunday's Giants-Redskins game. Washington's final drive was marked by the incompetence of the officials, who couldn't get the down markers right when they really needed them. NBC's Al Michaels was in shock. So was Washington coach Mike Shanahan, whose team is now out of the playoffs. To say that Washington was screwed stupid would be an understatement, if not so ironic.