We start this edition of “In The Red Zone” with head coach Bill Belichick and the audio from his weekly radio appearance on WEEI in Boston.  Glenn Ordway, the host of “The Big Show” along with Pete Sheppard, Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie talk with the coach about the game in Buffalo and the next opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Tom Brady suprassed Steve Grogan as the franchise’s all-time leader in touchdown passes.  With the five he threw Sunday night against the Bills he now has 185 in career.  Grogan had 182.

The team also set a franchise record for most touchdowns in a season with 54 scores.  The scary part is that there are six games left, four of which are at home.

The Boston Globe ran a story on Sunday by Bob Hohler about Patriots running back Kyle Eckel entitled “Troubled Waters“.   The article deals with Eckel’s time playing football for the Naval Academy and his post-graduation expulsion from the Navy.  It isn’t a full out character assassination but it isn’t a flattering profile either.

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Starting on Thursday night the NFL Network will start its second season of broadcasting games with Bryant Gumbel and Cris Collinsworth on the call for the holiday game. From Thanksgiving until the end the season the NFLN will carry 8 games live in primetime on Thursdays and Saturdays.

The only problem with the NFLN is that some cable operators do not offer the network. While others have the network but it is only available to customers who subscribe to the digital channel tier or an all sports programming tier that cost extra each month.

And for rabid NFL fans and fans of the teams in the games the NFLN is covering this is a problem. Ever since ESPN got involved in carrying NFL games, first on Sundays and now on Mondays, those cable only broadcast games have been available to over the air (OTA) stations in the visiting and home teams (as long as the game was sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff) primary market.

Since most of the country receives ESPN on basic or expanded basic cable tiers this hasn’t been much of a problem unless you don’t subscribe to cable or a satellite service.

With the NFLN only being in 38 million homes in the U.S. those cable only broadcasts are also made available to OTA stations (your local network affiliates) in the primary markets of the visiting and home teams.

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Here is a look at how the former UConn players fared in last week’s NBA action. The look is a day late and I apologize for that.

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UConn’s freshman sensation Maya Moore may have to get a bigger dorm room by the end of this year.

On Monday afternoon, the Big East Conference announced it’s first weekly women’s basketball awards and Moore took home the Freshman of the Week award.

All Moore did was average 26 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4 steals and 2.5 blocks in UConn’s two wins and her first collegiate games last week. She had 21 in the season opener against Stony Brook and 31 against Holy Cross. She also shot 78.6% (22-28) from the floor.

Her double-double in the season opener was the first by a freshman since Ann Strother at the start of the 2002-2003 season. She is also the first UConn freshman to score 20 points in back-to-back games.

In a shocking final outcome, nobody voted for Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz garnered enough votes to win the 2007 AL MVP.

Sorry about that, I guess that was all a dream as ARod is in fact your 2007 AL MVP. The surprising part though is that it was not unanimous as the two writers from Detroit both put Magglio Ordonez first ahead of ARod.

The MVP award was ARod’s third, his second with the Yankees. He won it back in 2003 with the Rangers, and in 2005 with the Yankees. Having won it in the odd numbered years, ARod should win it again in 2009.

ARod had a monster year for the Yankees and is probably the main reason why they were able to rebound from their poor start. He hit .314 with 54 home runs and 156 RBIs and 143 runs scored.

ARod finished with 328 points. Ordonez was second with 258 points, Vladimir Guerrero from the Angels was third with 203 points. David Ortiz and Mike Lowell of the Red Sox rounded out the top 5 with 177 and 126 points respectively.

Woooohoooooooo!!! This report comes from Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

Free-agent third baseman Mike Lowell has agreed in principle to the framework of a three-year deal to return to the Red Sox, major league baseball sources close to the negotiations have confirmed.

Lowell, 33, tested the free-agent waters, and may have received at least one four-year offer from another undisclosed team, but in the end the Sox third baseman elected to stay where he was most comfortable. Sources indicate that the three year deal is worth in the $36-$38 million range.

The Red Sox had placed a deadline of today for Lowell to make up his mind. If Lowell had passed on the Sox offer, which remained pretty close to the original offer they made the World Series MVP, they were ready to begin implementing their Plan B.

The Sox have now re-signed both of their major free-agents – Curt Schilling, who agreed to a one-year deal for $8 million and $5 million in incentives. The Sox could now entertain a deal for outfielder Coco Crisp sometimes between now and the winter meetings in December.

I think we are all glad we didn’t have to get to Plan B, which only the Red Sox know about. This is a good signing for the Red Sox and I am sure in the end Lowell got a fair deal. Obviously if he didn’t, he would have gone elsewhere.

The pieces are starting to fall into place for the Red Sox now. We still need to replace or re-sign Mike Timlin, Doug Mirabelli, Eric Hinske. But other than that, the core of the roster looks to remain the same. As the article states, Coco could be dealt, maybe for a backup catcher, although Coco should command more than that via a trade.

ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting the Boston Red Sox and Mike Lowell are finalizing a 3 year contract worth $37.5 million.  Sox and Dawgs will have more as this progresses.

Former Boston Red Sox shortstop and 2007 Gold Glove winner Orlando Cabrera was traded on Monday by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to the Chicago White Sox for two-time 18-game winner John Garland.

Cabrera, signed with the Angels as a free agent after spending the last two months of 2004 with the Red Sox and helping the team win their first World Series since 1918.  Last season, his third in LA, Cabrera hit .301 with 35 doubles, eight home runs, 86 RBIs and a career-high 101 runs with the Angels last year. He had a career-high 192 hits.  He also won his second Gold Glove.

Garland, a right handed starter, won 18 games in both 2005 and 2006 went 10-13 with a 4.23 ERA last season.  Garland was a member of the White Sox 2005 World Series championship team.

As per the usual lately, the links are on the light side for Red Sox news from the Boston area papers. There is really nothing new to report on the Mike Lowell front. The two sides are talking but nothing is really getting done at all.

The construction at Fenway Park found itself on the news last night as there was a small fire in the morning on Sunday that was ignited by sparks from a welder’s torch. The only thing that was damaged was material that was going to be thrown away so there was no actual damage to the ballpark itself.

So while we wait for our daily Lowell update, let’s take a look at the headlines grabbing your eyes in the Boston area papers.

Lowell still awaits 4-year offer [Boston Globe]

Japanese not rolling Dice [Boston Herald]

Harmless Fenway fire ignites quipsters [Boston Globe]

Raw video of the fire. [KDKA]

For more headlines and stories, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Providence Journal, and Hartford Courant websites.

In a touching moment before last night’s shellacking of the Buffalo Bills by the New England Patriots, a taped message from Bills injured player Kevin Everett was played on the scoreboard.

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