Rob Ninkovich News

A win is a win. There were some ugly bits and there were some good bits. It was ugly because our overall yardage was abysmal and 4th quarter third down conversions were almost non existent.

Amazing thing here ... The Patriots had six sacks today, which is two more than the season high they set against these Bills in Week 1. In fact, in 11 of their previous 12 games, New England had been held to two or fewer sacks.

The last time we saw Vince Wilfork [ stats ] on a football field, the scene and lasting image certainly was not a comforting one.

After every defense miscue, every bust that left a receiver wide open to lope downfield, Patriots [ team stats ] defenders have repeated the same refrain with the hope of fixing it: "Back to basics." Last Sunday, that's where coach Bill Belichick took the defense.

The Patriots knew something needed to change in their secondary after last week's loss in Miami, and they did not take long to make it.

New England Patriots players comment on their 20-10 win over the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, December 13, 2009.

In an under-the-radar move, the Patriots have signed an under-the-radar contributor to a contract extension.

The New England Patriots return to Gillette Stadium to face the Carolina Panthers for the first time since the 2005 season.

WR/QB Isaiah Stanback continues to make strides at two positions. Plus, news and notes from the Friday locker room and practice.

Sean Payton and Bill Belichick , the two men trying to figure out how to beat each other Monday night, have never faced one another as NFL head coaches.

While the early games progress, we'll take a look at an important and overlooked part of the Patriots that coach Bill Belichick raved about this week.

Rob Ninkovich was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2006 as a promising linebacker out of Purdue.

New England's defense needs to come up big for the Patriots to have a prayer against the unbeaten Saints.

The New England Patriots will face the 10-0 New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football from the Louisiana Superdome this week.

The Patriots, it seems, are getting healthy this week. Only three players did not practice today, and there were other promising signs, too.

Welcome to SportsNation! On Thursday, ESPNBoston.com will host a chat to take your questions on the New England Patriots-New York Jets game this weekend.

Monique Walker passes along the list of players not present at this afternoon's practice: Fred Taylor, Rob Ninkovich, Steve Neal, Tully Banta-Cain, and Jarvis Green.

That was certainly an impressive statistic after eight games, but we all knew it wouldn't hold any substance until seeing how they stood up to Peyton Manning.

One of the side stories to come out of the tremendous game in Indianapolis last night was the idea that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick did not have faith in his defense, which led to his decision to go for it on fourth down in a situation where most other coaches would have punted.

UPDATE, 12:46 3rd quarter: Ninkovich's return is questionable. Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich went down at the 3:20 mark in the 2nd quarter.