The Herald: The Patriots are going to have to deal with yet another significant injury to a key player, as linebacker Adalius Thomas has a broken arm, according to sources... It’s not clear how long the injury will keep Thomas out of the lineup. ESPN.com reported that Thomas had a broken left forearm and was likely done for the year. Several other reports said he had a broken right arm and would be having surgery sometime this week.

Nothing is official yet. But based on how the rest of 2008 has gone for the Pats, is there anyone among us ready to assume anything less than the worst and that Thomas is done for the season? The Patriots were already the runaway choice for the uncoveted title of The NFL's Most Injured Team before Thomas went down. They've lost the league MVP, their defensive captain/spirtual leader, their top running back, their second running back, their third running back and as much as 40% of their offensive line. Since Thomas has been arguably (along with probably Ty Warren and Richard Seymour) their best defensive player this year, why would Cruel Fate not mock us by taking him off the board too?

But at the same time, saying the loss of Thomas will kill the Patriots chances is tantamount to admitting you quit watching this team the second Brady went down. Let other, lesser teams with mere mortals as coaches like Seattle, Dallas and Indy whine about injuries and use them as excuse. Bill Belichick will find a way. He'll plug Pierre Woods in at OLB, switch to the 4-3, activate Vince Redd off the practice squad and he'll contribute like his fellow undrafted rookies Gary Guyton and BenJarvus Green-Ellis. He'll re-sign a fully rested Rosie Colvin. He'll blow a conch shell which will cause Junior Seau to jump off his surfboard and report for duty. But he WILL solve this problem, I promise you.

There's a scene in "Apollo 13" when the astronauts who have had to overcome an onboard explosion, a lack of oxygen, dead fuel cells and have had to fly the spacecraft backwards, learn that there's a typhoon warning in the area where they need to land. When the meteorologist tells Ed Harris "It could miss them," he says "Only if their luck changes." But he also says that not only is the mission not a failure, on the contrary it's been NASA's finest hour. With the Patriots luck apparently not about to change, with the injury "bug" developing into a full blown epidemic and them still in first place in a position to put some distance between them and the rest of the division in the next two weeks, we're witnessing Belichick's finest hour.