In fairness to Losman on that play, the ball was knocked out of his hands by a Pat.
Put me in the ‘I don’t have a problem with this’ camp.
Yeah, they’re mad about Spygate. They feel they’ve got something to prove, and by God, they’re proving it. If that’s what they want to do, I’d say it’s up to other teams to stop 'em.
It certainly clarifies the question of whether assorted other teams should consider themselves to be Super Bowl contenders. If the Pats are blowing you away like so much pocket lint, then you’re not. And if you later get squeezed out of the playoffs on tiebreak, then so what? The purpose of the playoffs is to pick the NFL champion, and it wasn’t going to be you. Such is life.
Whether it’s smart or not for the Pats to pursue this course, I don’t know. If I were Belichick, my main worry would be what happens if Tom Brady gets hurt, and I’d be putting in my backup QB when I was 30 points ahead. But that’s his decision to make, and he probably knows best.
I think there’s a lot of other coaches in the league that, had they the team the Pats do, still would not run up the score the way Belichick’s been doing. Tony Dungee comes to mind, Landry, Grant, Parcells, Walsh, heck, almost everyone comes to mind. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing. Yes, I can see how you want your team to stay honed. But c’mon, there’s more to it than that. The coach is pissed about Spygate, he’s using it to motivate his team, us against the world and they’re cocking off. Well, good for them, it’s a helluva team, arguable the best ever but when they do start to decline a lot of other teams are going to absolutely tee off on them and lets hope there’s no complaining when they’re getting their due. My guess is that when that day comes, when continued dominance is no longer assured, Belichick will certainly retire rather than face the unpleasantness.
What Belichick’s doing isn’t wrong or even hard to understand, but it’s hardly admirable. He displays elements of being paranoid and vindictive and has been quick to sever old friendships/ associations. He’s seemingly playing outside the brotherhood of NFL coaches but that’s his perogative. I’m of a mind though that many, many coaches have won with a lot more class.
To sum up … it’s not the Patriot’s job to make sure they don’t score.
The 2004 Colts had a 3 game stretch (4 if you include the Titans game on 12/5/04) where they beat their opponents with pretty lopsided scores. They didn’t have a perfect season that year, and they weren’t up to the level of the 2007 Pats, but, running up the score or not, they were not holding back. If they did have a team as good as the 2007 Pats that year I suspect that they would have won many more of their games with just such lopsided results.
11/14/04 Houston Texans W 49-14
11/21/04 Chicago Bears W 41-10 -Away
11/25/04 Detroit Lions W 41-9 -Away
(12/05/04 Tennessee Titans W 51-24)
If Tony Dungy wasn’t such a Charlie Church, he’d do the exact same thing, and he should shoulder some of the blame for his jabs at Belichick after the video tape incident- I thought Christians were above such things. I’ve watched many a Colt blowout and can’t recall ever seeing Jim Sorgi in before the last two minutes. And why would you want to send your running back up the middle three times in a row three series in a row to get the hell knocked out of him? Dick Jauron had no problem with it, Joe Gibbs had no issue, so I don’t see why the fucking media has to come in and defend people who don’t want or need defending. Assholes asking the same fucking questions, trying to provoke a rant/tirade, and get pissed off when they don’t get it- and they wonder why Moss routinely shuns them?
And the Colts are in no current position to run up the score on anybody…
I agree. Preventing the other team from scoring is not done by whining about it on Monday morning.
I’m proud to be a Vikings fan, because they never run up the score. Why, at time the offense is so gentlemanly they don’t score at all. That’s class.
Also, if I’m a fan paying three figures to see a game, I want to get my three and a half hours worth- I sure as hell don’t want to see second string QB handing off to third string RB the entire second half.
What if the Pats were up 52-7 against the Bills midway through the 4th and decided to disregard any risk to the starters and just keep on throwing in a few 2 minute drills with a few onside kicks, racking up another quick 21 to finish the game? Is that ok, or is there a line to be drawn somewhere?
Personally, I would love it. That’s just how I play the Madden. If I’ve got the ball and one second left in the game and a 60 point lead, I’m still throwing the Hail Mary.
When the Pats decided to chill out, put in the 2nd string QB and keep handing it off to Evans, Evans was running it up 14 yards no problem. These weren’t fancy plays, he was running right up the middle. If the Bills can’t stop that then the only thing left is for the Pats to kneel on every play. And that’s for pussies.
Maybe they could have just punted on first down. And ask the ref to spot the Bills an extra 30, just to give them a chance.
Geez, you’d think it was the first time one NFL team ever kicked the shit out of another one.
… Looks at DKW’s location…
That’s right, people Charleston Southern and Northern Colorado are indeed Division I!
Go 'Bows… I mean Go Warriors! 
(I’m shooting the UH-Boise game this weekend).
yards or points?
You know, for all this talk about running up the score, don’t forget that the Pats got knocked out the playoffs last year after blowing a 21-3 lead over the Colts. So the Pats don’t have to look at ancient history to realize that big leads don’t mean a whole lot in the NFL.
Disclaimer: I am a big Patriots fan, and this season has been a thing of beauty. Also, I think the whole spygate issue has been overblown. I think every team does it, but the league decided to crack down and make an example out of the Patriots during the first game of the season. It’s not like they were even trying to hide anything. They didn’t make excuses, and they took the substantial penalties imposed by the league without complaint.
I should be flattered here - first you guys compared this year’s Bills to the team that made the Super Bowl four years in a row, now you’re comparing them to last year’s champion Colts. If they’d had their starting running back Sunday and hadn’t changed QBs three times in the last month, they’d be comparable to the '72 Dolphins.
What a surprise!
Alas, to be persecuted so unjustly - and all for the mere triviality of flagrantly breaking the rules. When will it all end?
Which, of course, makes it not cheating.
Whaddaya want, a medal? I agree that their championships aren’t “tainted,” and I agree similar things go on. I think it conferred little advantage. But the Pats get warned about this repeatedly and kept doing it, so please, spare me the complaints about being singled out.
Considering Tom Brady is leading my team to the Fantasy promise land, I say they aren’t running up the score enough!
HubZilla - Ummmm…I was actually referring to Michigan’s season opener against Appalachian State. Y’know, that rather highly publicized game where we all heard over and over and over how insanely crazy it was that the #5 TEAM IN THE NATION (I could throw in a beef about the silliness of preseason rankings, but that’s more of a hijack than I’m willing to attempt) lost to a tiny measly lowly Division I-AA team?
Yeah. Kinda silly in retrospect, huh? (Starta new Pit thread if you want to keep discussing this.)
And I personally don’t give a rip where UH finishes this season…they’re not national championship material and anyone can see it. Just glad our true believers have something to cheer about for a change.
Yeah, I’m happy benching my starters when I’m 30 ahead until the crushed team starts stacking the box and blitzing their corners every down, then it’s: “Alright fuckers, I didn’t know it was going to be like that”, and the beat down commences.