Margin Displeases Patriots

The New England Patriots are unbeaten and unimpressed.

“We’re not even good yet,” strong safety Lawyer Milloy said after a 16-14 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night. “The way we’re winning games is not to our liking.”

The Patriots joined Tennessee as the only NFL teams with 3-0 records, yet their combined margin of victory is seven points. And, for the first time this season, they didn’t need Drew Bledsoe and Adam Vinatieri to lead them to victory in the final minute.

The quarterback and the kicker did their work earlier.

The score was 7-7 at halftime before Vinatieri kicked field goals of 38 and 19 yards in the third quarter and 41 yards in the fourth. Bledsoe completed 10 of 13 passes for 110 yards on those three drives.

“We can make things easier on ourselves. We can play better than we’ve played these first three games,” Bledsoe said. “To get where we want to be, we have to play closer to our potential.”

That’s what the Giants (1-2) did on defense. One week after losing, 50-21, to Washington, they trailed by only two points after Kent Graham’s second touchdown pass of the game, a one-yarder to Tiki Barber with 1:14 left.

Then Ben Coates recovered the onside kick and New England ran out the clock.

“Last week we were blown out,” Giant Coach Jim Fassel said. “This week we tried to control things. Our approach this week was better.”

The Patriots were under no illusions that the Giants would be the pushovers they were against the Redskins, who scored on their first three possessions. New England punted on its first three.

“I wasn’t anticipating scoring 50 points,” Patriot fullback Tony Carter said. “We knew it was going to be a rough game.”