upstater1

I agree with this point of view. people forget all the times teams lost to the Patriots and players declared that the best team did not win.

It happened over and over again. Heck, Joey Porter talked trash 10x before he was right once. How can you credit him for that? A broken clock is right twice a day.

Remember Zach Piller? I could go on and on and on.

Jackson 2

Part of your premise seems contradictory: why aren't the Pats now able to play the disrespect card if, as you imply, teams truly do disrespect them now?

PatsFanSince74

You're kidding, right? That's sarcastic and you meant to put a at the end, right?

Who comprises the "They" who are "laughing at us?"

Other teams' players and coaches? I don't think so. If you're saying that other players and coaches are "laughing" at the Patriots, then tell us who and then tell us that you'd walk up to big Vincent or Tommy or Adalius or Randy or BB and say it to their faces without a 20 yard head start running in the opposite direction.

Other teams' fans? Maybe but WTF! Let them laugh their fool heads off. Most of them are idiots. Why do we care what the **** they think?

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Ricey

I think alot of it has to do with the players we have. Just take a look in the past when we needed to set a tone, we had players like Bryan Cox, Bruschi in his glory days, Rodney, Willie Mcg. Now take a look at our Defense now, there isnt alot of guys who have that "Im going to knock ur head off" attitude. Mayo/Warren/Sanders/Thomas, all these guys who are supposedly leaders on our D are pretty much quiet leaders.

It's all about attitude on Defense , just look at what the Jets are trying to do with their Defense. It's basically the same defense from last year(only real difference is Bart Scott) yet Rex and Bart brought over their mentality from the Ravens and it has trickled down to the rest of their team.

You want teams to fear you, well go out there and knock their heads off, simple as that. That's why out of all the players we lost...losing Rodney is the biggest one of all.

JMarr

I totally agree. I thought the defense held their own, but we are looking at a void in veteran leadership and swagger on defense that is a mile wide.

For every "chicken little" poster on this board, there are 3 Kool-Aide drinkers who go to the other extreme and are already annointing people like Merriweather and Mayo to the HOF.

Funny how there is rarely any ridicule for people who go overboard on their homerism (like saying that Patrick Chung is going to be the next Rodney for example), but whenever anyone makes a negative post about the BB or the Pats' FO they are immediatley called knee-jerk posters.

Just sayin, there are as many homeristic knee-jerk reactions on this board as there are negative ones.

Rob0729

I still look at the Super Bowl teams and the tone was set on defense, not offense. Teams like the Colts loathed playing the Pats because the Pats smacked their offense in the mouth.

I still don't mind the high powered offense if the Pats had a defense like they had in 2003 or even 2004. I think though the defense the last few years has been average at best and the offense has had to hide the problems on defense.

Defenses win championships. That rule hasn't changed. You look at all the winners of the Super Bowl in the last ten years and they all had great defenses except for the Colts who had a bad defense that got very good in the playoffs. The Pats offense created fear of the Pats in 2007, but not like in 2003 or 2004.

There has been some encouraging signs from this year's defense that the toughness is back (at least a bit). I think the loss of Mayo and the fact that Belichick and Pees may be holding some stuff back as some of the new guys get acclimated to the defense has made them less deceptive and agressive. It should be interesting to watch as the year develops. But the swagger of this team needs to come from the defense.

PATRIOTSFANINPA

Why would BB risk losing games by 'holding back' stuff and sacrificing games early because of it? - Lets face it,you are getting the defense you will see the rest of the year,the talent is what it is,I don't think the defense is all that horrid right now but I think you are seeing now the same you will see in december - Will the return of one player like Mayo make a big difference? - I don't know but our 3rd and long defense is simply BAD the first two games,The Jets and Bills consistently made first downs at 3rd and long.

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derF

So if I understand you correctly, what you're saying is that not being disrespected anymore is being disrespected, my thoughts exactly...at the very least the Pats can use it (no longer instilling fear around the league) as a goal/inspiration!

Rob0729

Why? Because if the players are still learning the system, adding wrinkles can hurt more than help. It was like Cassel last year, they put reigns on him early in the season to get him used to the speed of the game and reading defenses at the NFL level and then turned him loose in the second half of the season. That the way Belichick likes to do it.

I disagree that this is the defense you will see all year. It might not get much better, but as Belichick and Pees feels that newer players can take on more looks without being liabilities, they will expand the playbook. I think they have been vanilla by design right now and will become more exotic. There is plenty of prescidence of this (last year with Cassel and the offense, 2005 with the defense, etc.).

Disco Volante

2008: Tom Brady missed the entire season
2009: Tom Brady plays his first road game since 2007, still not nearly 100%

That's why.

Uh....yes.

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