It’s not been smooth sailing this season for the New England Patriots, with quarterback god Tom Brady out all season suffering a knee injury and NFL neophyte Matt Cassel standing in, despite the fact that until this season he hadn’t started a game since high school, mired in the shadows of USC Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart during his college football career. Yesterday the team also announced that Laurence Maroney, the talented and aggressive running back, would be put on the injured reserve list.

After humiliating defeats against the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers, the Patriots finally seemed to coalesce as a team last night though, crushing the Denver Broncos with a 41-7 victory. But Rodney Harrison and Sammy Morris went down in the process.

According to the Providence Journal:

The emotional of leader of the Patriots, Rodney Harrison, had to be carted off the field at the end of the third quarter with a knee injury, cheers from the Gillette Stadium crowd raining down on him as he was riding off. Harrison gave a brief wave of recognition, appearing as though he was fighting back tears.

Harrison may have been waving goodbye. The 15-year veteran is in the last year of his contract with New England, and at 35 years old, it may be too much for him to come back from another season-ending injury. Harrison missed much of the 2005 season after tearing all three major ligaments in his knee against the Steelers.

"We'll have to see how that is. It doesn't look too good," Bill Belichick said of Harrison's injury after the game.

Harrison, who still holds the Western Illinois University record for career tackle and tackles in a game, played for the San Diego Chargers from 1994 to 2002 but has since played for the Patriots. In 2005, he suffered a series of injuries which ended his season. The following year, he was again injured. Sammy Morris's injury does not appear serious. With the seemingly terminally injured Harrison, Maroney, and Brady out this season, the Patriots will need to reconfigure its strategy and work to keep up team morale. Luckily, with players like Randy Moss and kicker Stephen Gostkowski, the Patriots will still be a team to watch, as demonstrated by their gargantuan victory against the Broncos last night.