Doin’ Da Math
Say what you will about the fact that the records and impressive numbers that the Patriots are amassing are being done against lower tier teams. Comment about how the 4 teams that they have played and massacred have a combined record of 4-12. The fact remains, if you play teams that are not playing well you should be killing them. Compared to the 2002 (3-0 start) and 2004 (eventual 6-0 start) seasons when the team got off to fast starts this time around the team is really racking up some statistically impressive wins.
Even someone who is as mathematically challenged as me finds this an easy place to extrapolate the potential totals that could be generated come seasons end. Algebra is our friend, as Tom Hanks explained to the kid in the movie Big. “If Larry Bird scores 10 points in the first quarter, how many will he score in the whole game?” So if the Patriots can do this or that in 4 games, what will we see come December 30th? Let’s lets break out the TI-30’s and have a look.
De Defense
Through 4 games the team has allowed 48 points. Over 16 games that comes to a total of 192 points allowed. This would easily surpass the two best years that the team has had in a 16 game season. (238 in 2003 and 237 in 2006). Not quite an NFL record, but close.
Dandy Offense
Through 4 games the team has scored 148 points. Drawn out for the full season that would come to 592 points. That would be a new NFL Record. It would also shatter the team record for a single season scoring of 441 points set in 1980 by more than a third.
Dos Exis
(Here the dos exis refers to two X's as in the roman numerals XX or twenty.)
Given that the team is on pace to score more and allow less, it should come as no surprise that they are also heading in the direction of having the greatest average margin of victory ever. In each game they have won by more than 20 points. To put it another way, the average margin of victory alone would represent more points than the Patriots have scored in any their seasons with the exception of the top 5.
Doubling Down
The M brothers, Maroney and Morris, are cranking out some decent yardage. While neither one is anywhere near to being on pace to set an NFL record, BOTH are on pace to get over 1,000 yards.
Morris is on pace to register 1,072 while
Maroney is on target to get 1,008.
If memory serves a 1,000 yard tandem has only happened once in the history of the NFL. And never with a team that had an accompanying QB like this…..Oh, by the way the team that had the 2 guys rush for 1,000+ in the same season? The 1972 Miami Dolphins, the ONLY team to go undefeated in a season.
I will pause while you assimilate that information and chills run up and down your spine.
Da Prince
Tom Brady, of course as the director of this meteoric offense would need to have a fairly stellar season. So far his paces include...
TD Passes:52 (NFL Record)
Interceptions: 8
Passing yards: 4472 yards (would actually be second most in team history behind the ’94 production of 4,555 by Bledsoe)
Passing attempts would be a respectable 480.
Pass Completions would be an incredible 380. It is incredible when you consider that in 1994 Bledsoe needed 691 attempts to complete 400 passes.
But the really amazing result would be found in….
Dandy Randy
At his current rate Randy Moss is on pace to shatter the 3 main season receiving marks of the team and some NFL marks.
He is set to catch the ball 124 times, 25% more than the team mark held by Troy Brown.
He is on pace to score 28 TDs this season. This would only more than double the current mark of 12 held by Stanley Morgan. It would also break Jerry Rice's NFL record of 22.
But most frighteningly is the yardage that he would achieve: 2,020.
Yes you read correctly. Moss in on pace to gain more than 2,000 yards through the air. Again this would break a Rice record, 1,848 yards.
All told you would have an offense with more than 6,500 total yards that will be keeping the defense off the field for large chunks of time. In effect the offense will be making or allowing the defense to stay fresh and rested.
Oh, and don’t forget that what the team has accomplished on defense has been done without our most dominant defensive lineman, Richard Seymour and the leader of the secondary, Rodney Harrison.
In most seasons it seems that the team is losing leaders by the week. This season we might be gaining leaders by the week getting stronger and stronger as the year wears on.
And remember that players like Moss, Stallworth, Adalius Thomas and Meriweather whom have been added to the team are just beginning to find their feet in the system. What will happen when they really get integrated and begin to hit their full potential?
Can the Patriots run the table? Can they maintain the pace that they have set forth this far?
I am not sure that I care. Dare to say that nothing we imagined in the off-season has prepared us for what we are seeing or what we will see. What I do know is that we are watching a frighteningly fun team. Make sure you catch the show each and every week. Because there will come a time when you will want to tell your grandchildren about the time that YOUR team had the greatest offense of all time.
Game points
Dazzling
Is it me, or has Randy Moss gotten more amazing in HOW he catches his touchdowns each week. The first catch showed masterful awareness of the field as he went high in the sky to catch the ball over the defender and then spun around in mid flight to ensure that he was able to come down with both feet in bounds. Every catch is made with the hands, never the body. (the complete antithesis of Reche Caldwell) While watching his acrobatics, it is hard to now imagine life without Moss on the team.
Dread-Zone Defense
Well, the string continues. Six times this season teams have ventured into our red zone and 6 times they have scored. Not it I is true that in this last game the Bengals came right to the edge of the red-zone, our 20 yard line, and then were turned away with an interception. And twice in this game the striped ones were stopped short of the twenty and had to settle for field goals. So in once sense there is no problem.
But what of the time when we need, NEED to stop that drive when they get inside, say, the 10? Will the team be able to do it?
Darn it!
Well each week, the team is once again forced to punt the ball. As in it happens about once a week. So far the Patriots offense has had to punt a grant total of 5 times in 4 games. In other words, the Patriots are scoring on a lot of drives.
Even if some of these players fall off the paces that they are currently setting, we should be in for some amazing sights this season.
Until next week,
when we look at the results of the Cleveland Browns game.
Please stop by the New England Patriots Archive
Erdoboy
Go Pats
