Allow me 1,000 words of Schrute (as we all pause to remember when "The Office" was a funny sitcom) …

Fact: Any Patriots fan -- knowing that they would have no Ty Warren, no Leigh Bodden, virtually no Logan Mankins, six quarters from Kevin Faulk and nine catches from Randy Moss -- would have signed for a 6-2 record at the midway point of the season. 

Fact: What happened on Sunday in Cleveland is going to be fodder for a lot of "sky is falling" talk over the next six days. And that's probably about as fair as the, "this is the best team in the NFL" stuff we heard and read over the last week. Get used to really high highs and some shaky lows. This is going to be life with a young defense and an offense trying to find its legs in a Moss-less world. 

Fact: Wes Welker just isn't the same player without Moss. He's now the guy every defense is going to make sure to take away from Tom Brady instead of the guy Brady can lean on when Moss is taking two (and sometimes) three defenders out of the picture. The Browns jammed Welker at the line Sunday and always made sure he was accounted for. And it seems he has faced more double-teams in the last month than he did in the previous three years. But as an emergency left-footed extra-point kicker, you can do a lot worse.

Fact: You can easily make a case that A) Bill Belichick is the Coach of the Half Year and B) is doing his best "most with least" act since 2001. But let's be fair: Eric Mangini took him to the shed Sunday. If the Patriots beat a team with the best record in the NFL by 20 points with a QB starting his third NFL game making all kinds of plays and a seventh-round pick rushing for 184 yards, the word "genius" wouldn't be more than three words away from "Bill Belichick" in any story over the next 72 hours. How about if we throw in a defensive game plan that silenced one of the five best QB's in history and a couple of trick plays that hit? Judging by the reaction of the team (and other coaches) I'm guessing this is Mangini's favorite win of his coaching career. And I have no idea if Mike Holmgren is going to take over or not after this year but Mangini has done a good job with this team and I think he deserves another head-coaching job.

Fact: The Patriots were awful on Sunday, but it's better to be a team that lost by 20 on Nov. 7 than it is to be a team that won by 20 on Nov. 7 and celebrated like a studio audience when Oprah gives them all a car or something. Is there going to be a ring ceremony next week? Pretty sure Belichick isn't going to forget the sight of Brian Daboll rolling around on the ground or Mangini getting the Gatorade Shower with two minutes left. Something to remember if the Patriots are ever throwing the ball up 48-10 on the Browns sometime in the future.

Fact: There was no reason for Belichick to challenge the McCoy TD run in the third quarter. None. Even if he was convinced McCoy didn't get in he should've kept the flag in the sock. If he's right it's first-and-inches at the, what, six-inch line? You don't think Hillis gets in on four (and you know they weren't kicking a FG) shots from there? With six minutes left in the third quarter and looking at a 17-point deficit (if the challenge isn't overturned) timeouts are just too valuable to take a "hope they see something we don't" desperation challenge. 

Fact: The offensive line of the Browns wasn't much better than the offensive line of the Patriots. The difference was Colt McCoy was able to make plays when the pocket broke down and Tom Brady couldn't. The play before the (kind of) fumblerooski was a perfect illustration of how McCoy played Sunday. On a third-and-7, McCoy got away from Jonathan Wilhite and Tully Banta-Cain and rolled to his right and hit Josh Cribbs for a first-down catch. He gets sacked or throws it away it's a field goal at best. McCoy made plays like that all game Sunday. 

Fact: Brady was never comfortable from the start Sunday, missing Rob Gronkowski with a pair of lousy throws -- one at his feet, one behind him -- on the opening drive. There was missed communication with his receivers (he wasn't pleased with Aaron Hernandez after a first-half incompletion), some questionable play calls (a third-and-9 fade to the sideline looking for Danny Woodhead isn't exactly the best use of a 5-foot-8 running back) and some more of the short-armed throws we've seen from Brady over the last month or so (particularly in the first half). If you watched his reactions during the game or his postgame walkout during his press conference (and you're better than that, right Tom? Can we be adults and sit through four minutes of questions next time?) you know he's Level 1 pissed right now. The offense has been OK but timely since Moss left, and it caught up to them Sunday. They need Brady to be really good each week, and you saw what can happen when he isn't. Just not a lot of room for error anymore.

Fact: After listening to Bill Macatee for three and a half hours on Sunday I have made a pledge to at least try and appreciate Jim Nantz. I'll now happily live with an occasional pun and a couple of "Hello, friends!" in exchange for correct down-and-distance, at least a loose knowledge of the rules and the belief that the play-by-play guy has watched the teams play this year. 

Fact: This game will mean nothing about 30 seconds after the Steelers game begins, just like the Vikings game meant nothing when Hillis ran all over the Patriots defense on the opening drive. It's just how the NFL works.