The New England Patriots are 16-0. How do you feel about it?

Cafe Society
41

Quick reply to the OP about how I feel about this Pats squad.

If I am remembering correctly, weren’t the Pats the ones that made news by being introduced as a team before Super Bowl XXXVI? Isn’t this the team that has been called the consummate “team” because players are swapped in an out as needed and never complain? Isn’t this the team where superstars go and abandon their egos for the sake of the team?

So why is Brady playing in the last minutes of games where the Pats are up by more than two scores? Why is Brady throwing lobs into double and triple teams just to force a TD pass to Moss so they can both get “theirs?” Doesn’t it seem like this team has slowly let their success get to them? I think it has.

Everything taken into account, I think you have to admit this team is the villain of the NFL. They’ve become the Yankees, if not for the exact same reasons. Winning is a large part of the hatred, but it’s more than that. But truth be told, I’m glad the league has that villain again. It was getting boring harboring a hatred for the Cowboys. Sports need villains. So I admit, I hate the Patriots, and I love them for it.

42

I want the Dolphins to eat it, too, but not from these guys. The Hoodie is such a scumbag that when you add the smugness in I won’t be able to bear his insufferable ass next year.

Why couldn’t it have been a team with a human coach?

43

Massachusetts approves of gay marriage.

The BoSox win the World Series.

The Pats have an undefeated season.

Who says God hates fags?

44

Here’s a hint, dearie: No one calls them the BoSox.

As a Bostonian, I’m feeling pretty good about it. My only fear is the police state that this city will become should they win the Bowl.

45

This was far and away the most impressive regular season ever put together by any team in a major American sport.

Maybe the Chicago Bulls going 72-10 is the only thing that comes close.

Easiest division in football? Fuck it. I’ll grant you that. They beat 4 division winners, and two more playoff teams, and a game against Cleveland who was on the doorstep. Yup, they’re 6-0 against playoff teams. You pretty much can’t play better than that. Miami’s undefeated 14 game season isn’t even in the same stratosphere.

You want to poke holes because they haven’t been a dominant run team, or great against the run?

Show me any team ever who could run, pass, defend the run, and defend the pass. . .a team that played all aspects of the game great every week. The Pats are the most efficient DVOA team ever since they started keeping track, and while their games still counted, it wasn’t even close.

Eagles, Giants, and Ravens all had games where they played way over the heads, and still lost to the Pats. Teams showed up week after week to beat them, and still fell.

So, what’s the take if they lose a snowy game in New England to a Jags or Indy team that comes in playing tough?

To me, you can’t write-off a regular season like that because of losing one game at the wrong time. In the US, we’re all about the “championship”. You go 8-1 against playoff teams, that’s still better than the Cowboys or Colts or Packers is going to be able to say. It’s just you had worse timing.

That said, I don’t think they’re going to lose. They’re going to wind up 19-0, and anyone who refuses to recognize that as the best football team ever is just hating on perfection.

46

WHAT?!!

Everyone calls them the bosox.

There are 670,000 Google hits, and the first two sites are the official website of the boston red sox, and the official red sox booster club.

The Boston Herald has 514,000 hits in their archive for “bosox”.

47

I’m happy for them, and wish that ESPN would quit showing drug-addled Mercury Morris every five minutes- he’s stupid, not funny. The '72 Dolphins played one of the easiest schedules in NFL history and no matter what Morris says, the Pats going 19-0 would wipe the Dolphins out of the discussion, due to two extra games and an infinitely harder schedule. Of course, the Pats must win it all- let’s not forget, the Seattle Mariners a few years back set the baseball record for wins in a season, then lost in the first round of the playoffs.

And again, kudos to the great Randy Moss for telling off the media who questioned the Pats “wasting” a fourth round pick on him before the season started- this will go down as one of the greatest trades in sports history, no matter what happens in the future. So Art Shell and an offensive coordiantor who was running a bed and breakfast thought Moss was done, huh? well, what are those geniuses doing today?

48

If the Pats make it to the Super Bowl (to the hard core fans, don’t get your panties in a wad over the “if”), I’m going to have my Tom Brady voodoo doll and pins ready. Even though I’m a lover of all things football, I don’t care about their 16-0. Why? I don’t have a clue. If Belichick can keep TO from screwing up due to his social retardedness, I’ll gladly give credit where credit is due. Maybe it’s because I’m on the other side of the country that I could care less about the Pats. Or maybe it’s because I can’t stand Brady as a human being.

Whoever up there said it’s nice to have a fresh villian in the NFL is right methinks. :slight_smile:

49

I cheer for the Chargers. I think it’s great that the Patriots went undefeated. If you had told me a year ago I’d be saying that, I’d have called you crazy. But they’re fun to watch, and after everybody lost their minds about the videotaping deal I’ve been enjoying them winning all these games. Plus, watching the Ravens melt down was hilarious. It almost helps to erase the memory of the Chargers melting down against the Pats last year :). I usually only catch a game or two at a bar each year. This year it was the Ravens game, last year it was the Arizona game against the Bears. Too much fun.

I also think it’s great for the league to have a dominant team like this. You get to watch the game played at the highest level, and you get the possibility of great upsets. These are probably my two favourite things about sports. When the Colts were 13-0, it was great when the Chargers beat them, as the highlight of a mediocre season. It was great for the Steelers to win that playoff game against them too; their Super Bowl is a much better story the way it unfolded, and the Colts championship was more fun last year than it would have been in '05.

So these playoffs are guaranteed to either be the coronation of one of the greatest teams of all time, or to include an all-time great upset. And the chances of the Pats losing is actually not very small. They’re going to have to beat something like Pitt, Indy, and Dallas. What are they, 4 to 1 favourites in those games? If so, they’re 50-50 to win the Super Bowl. Not a lock by any means.

50

Maybe in Frisco and Philly, but not here in Beantown.

51

Yeah, Philly is where the Boston Herald comes from.

I grew up in Maine. First 19 years of my life. It’s not Boston, but it’s huge Red Sox country, and everyone called them either the Sox or the BoSox.

52

Belichick has been running up the scores when he can. Few pretend otherwise.

Because Moss is often open even when he has triple coverage. Brady just has to throw it higher than the DB’s can jump.

As to their low rushing totals, they take advantage of their depth at WR (and compensate for losing Sammy Morris, btw) by using screen and crossing passes to the TE’s and Welker instead. Brady’s interception rate is so low that it’s just as reliable a way to move the chains. Belichick may have learned that as a boy from watching Unitas and Mackey, for what that’s worth.

There’s a lot of jealousy involved, sure - but the jealousy of the Yankees (and, increasingly, the Red Sox and other high-income teams) is due to financial disparities that don’t exist in the NFL. The Pats have become dominant within the same strictures that all the other teams are faced with, so jealousy of them on the part of other teams and their fans is based on the knowledge that they themselves just aren’t as good or as smart. That isn’t villainy as such, even though it’s human nature to project and misread one’s own jealousy as seeing character defects in the object of that jealousy instead. IOW, get over it.
BTW, the term “Bosox” is not used in Boston. There is rarely a possibility of confusing them with the Chicago team when the name “Sox” is used.

53

I didn’t see any throws to Moss in the Giants game that were as obviously going for the record as nice guys Dungy and Manning throwing 10 screen passes to Reggie Wayne in a row to get him the yardage title.

54

It’s OK to call them the Sox. But BoSox? That’s a beatin’.

And really, you’re using the Herald as a cite? Might as well consult the National Enquirer. :wink:

55

That is a fantastic quote. It sums up perfectly my feelings about the Patriot haters.

hehheh.

56

Well, thanks. :slight_smile:

There was an old basketball coach who used to say about his *own * habit of running up the score, “If they don’t like it, let 'em get better.”

57

I hope the Pats go 19-0 because I love watching something historic. However, I will amend my hope if and when they play the Packers in the Super Bowl.

58

What do you have against Brady, for crying out loud? Belichick I can understand, but Brady?!

Would it help if he were doing a few of those “pointless pep talks” like Peyton Manning?

59

Settle down, Robby. I’m not casting a spell on your boy. As a football player, he’s a great quarterback. Does he compare to Joe Montana? I personally don’t think so, but again, that’s my opinion. As a human being and a man? Eh, I think he’s a POS, as does his ex I’m sure.

60

It would be pretty hard for any team who throws the ball like 70% of the time to have a large number of rushing yards per game- the Pats unimpressive rushing stats are due to a small number of rushes, not ability.

And Dolphins vs. Pats would be like the SNL sketch where Micheal Jordan joins a 40’s era basketball team pre-integration, and is dunking all over Gavin O’Herlihy, Miller Godbaum and the like.

As for the Dolphins, as someone said upthread, their not losing was more an anomaly than dominace.