Bill Belichick, this is your time to shine.

Or not.

An interesting scenario will play out in New England over the course of the next 15 games as the Patriots discover what life without Tom Brady is like.

Before Brady was injured, nothing worse than a 14-2 record seemed ordained for the Patriots. Now what?

Besides having the best quarterback in football and good talent to go with him, the Patriots also had the advantage of playing in an otherwise weak division. But that division seems to be improved this season with a stronger Buffalo and the addition of Brett Favre and free agents such as Alan Faneca with the New York Jets.

Now will test Belichick's true coaching genius. If the Patriots continue to win without Brady, Belichick will deserve the tributes that come his way. However, if the Patriots collapse, they'll have no one to blame but him.

Belichick made his bed long before Brady's ACL was torn last Sunday. First, he decided on a backup to Brady who hasn't started a game since high school. Then he compounded it by not playing him.

Even though the Patriots went 16-0 last season and were blowing teams out early and often (52-7 vs. Washington, 56-10 vs. Buffalo only the best examples), Belichick kept Brady in most of those games and gave his backup little chance to gain experience.

Cassel threw seven passes all of last season, three more than Byron Leftwich tossed in his relief of Ben Roethlisberger in the Steelers' 38-17 opening win against Houston. Perhaps if Belichick weren't so gung-ho on trying to prove his illegal taping had nothing to do with his team's performance and thus tried to blow all opponents away, he'd be better served by his new starting quarterback today.

Is it possible for Belichick to guide the Patriots to another good season even without their meal ticket? Others have done so. Bill Cowher lost his veteran starting quarterback in the second game of the 2004 season and was forced to go with a rookie the rest of the way. They did not lose a game until the AFC championship with Ben Roethlisberger (they also lost Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton at midseason).

The Steelers lost Terry Bradshaw to a neck injury in the fifth game of 1976 and started out 1-4. Chuck Noll had to turn to a rookie quarterback, Mike Kruczek. The Steelers won six in a row with Kruczek and did not lose another game until the AFC championship.

Even Belichick has a history here. He lost starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe to an injury in the second game of 2001 and had to go with Brady, a little-known sixth-round pick in his second season. Brady went 9-3 as a starter and then led his team to its first Super Bowl victory.

Perhaps Matt Cassel can pull something like that off. If he does, everyone will genuflect to Belichick. If it goes the other way, the legend will take another hit.

There are other ways teams cheat besides the Patriots' videotaping espionage. We blew the whistle on the crowd noise that was being amplified illegally in Indianapolis by the Colts three years ago, and they stopped doing it.

Here's another: Steelers players say privately that whenever they play in Cleveland, they almost always have problems with the communicator in the quarterback's helmet.

The system is used so a coach can call the plays without signaling them in or sending in a messenger guard. He merely barks the play call into the quarterback's helmet. A new rule this year allows the defense to have such a helmet, too.

Funny how they always crash in Cleveland, the players say. We were told to watch Ben Roethlisberger often looking at the plays on his wrist/forearm in Cleveland because the receiver on his helmet did not work, and his coach had to signal a play. It's one reason Steelers QBs have the plays on a sheet wrapped around their forearm.

The Steelers' odds of winning the Super Bowl dropped from 18-1 last Sunday morning to 10-1 today based not just on their overwhelming first victory. Most AFC teams' odds to win the Super Bowl shortened after Brady's injury.

Among the more interesting were the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers. The Colts' odds were 9-2 before the season to win the AFC. They lost at home to Chicago, and their odds today are better to win the AFC, at 3-1. The Chargers were 4-1 to win the AFC before they lost at home to Carolina. Today, they are 3-1. The Steelers are now third at 7-2 to win the AFC.

The Patriots were overwhelming 7-2 favorites to win the Super Bowl before Brady's injury. Today they are 20-1, 12th among NFL teams (the Steelers, at 10-1, are tied for fourth behind leader Dallas at 4-1). All odds are according to Bodog Sportsbook.

"The media has it correct that there never has been one injury, so early in the season, that has affected football and a team's chance of winning more than the Tom Brady injury,'' said Richard Gardner, Bodog Sportsbook manager. "That a team like Indianapolis can go out and play terrible at home and have their odds reduced because of one injury is unprecedented."

The George Clooney movie "Leatherheads" is out on DVD. It's a fun movie about old-time pro football, as played in the 1920s.

It's fiction, and I hope it does not ruin the chances of a movie being made on Dave Fleming's book about the Pottsville Maroons, "Breaker Boys," that was published last year. There's an option on the book to make the movie about the team from the Pennsylvania coal-mining town that won the NFL title in 1925 only to have it unjustly taken away and given to the Cardinals.

Steelers chairman Dan Rooney has voted in the past to give the title back to Pottsville, but there's not been much support around the league for it. A movie based on Fleming's excellent book might help that effort.