E-Mail This Article to a Friend The Sox and Pats are on a collision course BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Patriots fans will soon have to decide whether to focus on their football team, or divvy up their attention with Terry Francona’s diamond demons in the coming months. And while Red Sox fans don’t want to ignore the world champs, a pennant race is seemingly at hand. As everyone knows, under those circumstances, everything else will have to wait. Indeed, dogs will go unfed, garbage will fester on the back porch, and gal pals and spouses will be relegated to second-fiddle status as the local nine make their charge for that long-awaited post-season glory.

Ordinarily, a recent history of post-season glory would automatically propel the local gridiron gauchos to above-the-fold status, but the New England landscape always has its "yes-but" scenarios. So even though the New England Patriots are coming off their second Super Bowl title in three years, the Red Sox fighting for a playoff berth still takes the upper berth. If local son John Forbes Kerry wins the highest office in the land, a Red Sox championship will still be bigger. And even if Osama is found, peace reigns in the Middle East, and the sun swallows up both Mercury and Venus, the local sports scene will still take precedence. Strange but true, but that’s what the prospect of the Pats and the Sox as simultaneous world champs would necessitate.

No autumn in recent memory has promised as much excitement for inhabitants of our area (other than hockey fans) as the upcoming nine weeks do. Breathless anticipation is an understatement, and hard-core fans and politicos will face their toughest test ever — a remote-control channel-jumping extravaganza focused on an 86-year curse and a potential NFL-record winning streak, with the battle for 270 electoral votes serving as a backdrop. All this after a stupendous Olympic Games that saw the Yankee Doodle Dandies collect over a hundred medals.

The battleground for fans’ attention will begin a week from Thursday, when the Patriots open the NFL season with a prime-time tilt against the Colts. Around 10 p.m., though, the Sox will be kicking off the first of four road games against the Mariners, so New England’s two pre-eminent sports franchises will go head-to-head for at least two full hours. Ten days later, the Sox will be wrapping up a crucial three-game series in the Bronx as the Pats take on the Cardinals in Phoenix — a game that could move New England to within a game of the all-time NFL record for consecutive victories (18, most recently set by the ’72-’73 Dolphins). And for golf aficionados, the final day of the Ryder Cup competition will take place that same afternoon. Fortunately, a week later the Patriots will enjoy their bye week when the Pinstripers and Red Sox tussle at Fenway Park for the finale of their regular-season 19-game match-up.

But then the real fun begins. If a 2-0 Patriots team heads to Buffalo on October 3 with the chance to tie the NFL win-streak record, they will be up against the Red Sox at Camden Yards for the regular-season finale. The way things are playing out, it’s very likely that something will still be at stake for the Olde Towne Team that final weekend. And a week later, should the Sox qualify for the post-season, they will likely be involved in game four of their best-of-five ALDS showdown while the Patriots gun for a place in the NFL record book against, appropriately enough, Miami.

Not to jump too far ahead of things, but you may want to give family members fair warning that on Halloween, you will be unavailable for tricks, treats, or anything resembling goblins or apple-bobbing, because there’s the potential for the Armageddon of all sports days in New England. Pace yourself imbibing-wise and get to your favorite gin joint early, because Sunday, October 31 could give the faithful a double-header of mythic proportions: at 4:15 p.m., New England will be at Pittsburgh for the first time since the 2002 AFC title game (perhaps for consecutive-win number 22), followed by game seven of the World Series at Fenway Park.

Stop hyperventilating, will ya? It’s far from a done deal, and it’s nine weeks away.

Yet imagine that scenario — win or lose — followed by the national elections two days later. And hold the phone, but the Boston Celtics open their 2004-’05 campaign the next night. (Thump! Back to reality, ladies and gents.)

The Patriots as presently constructed are in many ways a better team than the one that emerged victorious in Houston back in February. Adding a top-flight running back like Corey Dillon, getting an all-pro linebacker (Rosevelt Colvin) back from season-long injury, and filling some holes with wily draft picks make Bill Belichick’s crew a prohibitive favorite. When the team dominated the NFC runners-up Eagles in the first pre-season game, another Lombardi Trophy was already practically being buffed in preparation for season’s end. But when the Pats got annihilated, 31-3, by a fired-up Bengals team last week, it reminded the squad that no championship is preordained — especially in these parts. Heading this past Saturday into the hostile environs of Charlotte, North Carolina, home of the Panthers, didn’t appear to be the best remedy for a humbled and humiliated team, but New England ignored the passion of the Cats and their frothing-at-the-mouth fans, putting forth a solid performance — albeit a 20-17 loss — that showed the rest of the league that the Patriots are ready to begin the regular season. Only a dubious late-game interception by New England’s third-string QB gave Carolina the chance to take its first lead of the game, and the NFC champs ultimately converted the go-ahead score against a defense manned by folks who will be lucky to see their names posted on the 53-man roster filed with the league next Tuesday. Posting such an impressive showing in the absence of such key players as Ty Law, Troy Brown, and David Givens had to be particularly encouraging for the team’s staff. Following Thursday’s final exhibition game with vastly improved Jacksonville, the Patriots will be ready to kick up their heels against the Horseshoes in the Gillette Stadium opener a week later — an atmosphere that will be just as festive and circus-like as the venue’s opening was two years earlier. While Indianapolis will likely be coming in loaded for bear, the Patriots franchise that night will be unfurling its second championship banner, and no one has to remind Tony Dungy or Peyton Manning that their team hasn’t won in Foxborough since 1995. If the Patriots triumph, it will set into motion a media onslaught regarding the consecutive-win streak, even as the Red Sox continue their crucial road trip through the AL-West hinterlands.

Fans may differ as to when the turning point of the Sox’ season came. Still, the fact remains that since the team was 56-47 following a 4-3 loss in Minnesota, Boston moved into the favorable stretch of its schedule and got it done, going 20-6 over less-than-stellar competition. One can point to the day when the Red Sox stunned the Yanks, 11-10, in a game marred by the bench-clearing brawl and capped by Bill Mueller’s walk-off homer off Mariano Rivera in the ninth. Or one can focus in on the deadline-day trade that sent Nomar to Chicago’s North Side while a trio of less-than-household names came to the Hub. Whether the Garciaparra transaction was addition by subtraction, it’s hard to ignore that what is contagious is winning. The ledger that saw the Sox take on the D-Rays, White Sox, Jays, and Tigers over a three-week period played a big part not only in improving Boston’s record, but, combined with the Yanks’ tougher schedule, has brought the Sox all the way back to within five games of the AL East lead. Even more impressive in the Red Sox’ 20-of-26 stretch was the fact that of the six losses, four were by a single run, which highlights the fact that the team fought nearly every single contest to the bitter end.

The tougher defense that Orlando Cabrera, Dave Roberts, and Doug Mientkiewicz brought to town is certainly a big factor in the team’s improvement, but jubilant Sox fans should withhold judgment on the true talent and depth of this team until this critical stretch of games is complete. The Sox will see Anaheim, Texas, and Oakland uninterrupted over the next nine days. Dominating those wild-card contenders could not only provide a buffer in that race for the fourth playoff spot, but may even inch the team closer to the Yankees, who are battling their own inconsistencies. Still, the Bombers’ soft spot in the schedule happens now, and they won’t see another playoff contender in the opposing dugout until Boston comes to town September 17.

By then, the NFL season will be two weeks old, it’ll be Ryder Cup singles action live from Michigan, and all hell will be breaking loose in living rooms throughout New England when it comes time to switch on the tube.

In Phoenix, they’re watching the worst team in baseball wind down its season while one of the worst squads in the NFL will soon be taking the field for another dismal season. Not much hope in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Houston, Cincinnati, or Detroit either.

In Boston, we’ve got the opposite problem: two red-hot teams competing for our attention as perhaps the most dramatic autumn in local sports history begins to unfold.

I pity the poor Celtics.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com