Sunday's good news was that the New England Patriots (10-2) defeated the Cincinnati Bengals (3-8), 26-20. The bad news was that starting rookie tackle Will Campbell suffered an MCL sprain and will likely miss several weeks.

When a key player goes down, it becomes easy to panic. Patriots fans, however, should not worry about Campbell's absence. Analysis of the situation indicates that things are manageable. Here's why.

Top playoff seeding is still within reach

The Patriots have five more regular-season games. If they take care of the weak teams — Giants, Jets and Dolphins — they will finish with 13 wins and stellar seeding.

Campbell's presence would be useful, but it is far from necessary to beat those teams. Thus, if Campbell misses the rest of the regular season but returns for the

See Full Page