fatal flaw ... from day one, this edition of the new england patriots has been flawed ... something has been missing ... they've been consistently inconsistent and woeful as the visiting team ... but they've qualified for the postseason as the afc's #3 seed ... sadly they will now play their playoff games without their most productive offensive weapon, slot receiver wes welker ... non-contact injury ... torn acl/mcl ... 6-12 months recovery ... essentially the same injury tom brady suffered last season ... timing-wise, the difference is brady had reconstructive surgery in september ... welker's surgery will be in february

ironically, the 1st texan player to reach welker after he went down was safety bernard pollard ... the same bernard pollard whose tackle did in tom brady's knee ... after the game pollard commented "i heard wes yell out the same way i heard tom yell out ... it was the same yell ... it was terrible ... he went down right in front of me ... i saw his knee buckle, then I fell on him" ... patriots tight end ben watson commented "the sad part isn't so much the pain of the injury... it's the pain for wes ... if he's not able to play ... of not being able to do the thing he loves to do in the playoffs ... he's such a great competitor and valuable guy on the team"