Patters

I don't believe for a second that BB thinks one game ahead, but he thinks it's vital for the players to think that way. I think BB was strategizing the season early on.

shmessy

It was all the 'Rope-a-Dope', baby!

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"They (Patriots) may be the greatest team ever" - Chris Mortenson, January 18, 2005 on espn.com

ClosingTime

Probably after his team stopped playing the Carolina's, Denver's, Indy's and San Diego's of the league and started playing the Bills, Jets and New Orleans.
A month and a half ago did you guys honestly think there was any chance that you would lose to any of those cupcakes besides KC?
And now you are elated?
I don't get it.

shmessy

The Bucanneers are cupcakes? Credibilty thy name is not Closingtime!

Timing is everything, Clementine. It's how you gel and play at the end, not the beginning or middle that is important.

Just ask the 15-1 regular season 2004 Steelers or the 2003 Chiefs (began season 9-0), George Foreman, Tom Dewey, the '78 Red Sox, Gary Coleman, KC and the Sunshine Band.......

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"They (Patriots) may be the greatest team ever" - Chris Mortenson, January 18, 2005 on espn.com

ClosingTime

It's also who you play, just ask those two "great" NFC North teams touting 9 and 6 game winning streaks. Guess no one realized those wins came against the Browns, Lions, Packers, SF, etc.

pats1

He had it figured out all along.

I'm serious. He's BB.

(Of course I write this as I'm faithfully dug into Lavin's 1st book)

mgcolby

Ah, have you paid attention?

We played the majority of the games this season with some variation of the following starters out for the game at these positions:

SS (7 different starters), RC, 2 ILB, DE

Offense
RT,LT,C,#2 #3#4 WR, #1 #2 #3 RB, #1 #2 TE

We have street free agents landing on the IR after all the other Backups got hurt.

We outright dominated the cupcakes like an elite team should, I was weary of the Jets and Bills game holding my reserve for the TB game but that showed all of us that our offense can beat any Defense in the league and Our D can shutdown an above average Run game and limit a great run game. Turn a blind eye if you want too but this defense is starting to do the things that made them so great over the past 2 years. Stop the run, get after the QB, force turnovers and make teams one dimensional. That is why we are all elated at beating the cupcakes. This team is one garbage time TD and one chin strap debacle away from not allowing a TD in its last 4 games. I don't know what team you root for but no team in the AFC should doubt this Patriots team.

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Hey, Bill you're wasting Brady's prime years......oh wait....
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gomezcat

I asked Miss Gcat as a joke and she said, "darling, don't you think he had it figured out from the beginning?". I deduce that my ramblings are subliminally sinking in.
My guess is that he has never been clueless about the season, rather that his hand has been forced by the circumstances. Letting the D off the leash seems to have been the big one for me, though.

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emoney_33

I don't believe there was a defining moment or player returning or leaving that made this team suddenly get it. It was a combination of a ton of things.

For most of the year the coaches had little faith in the defense, mostly the secondary and were taking the safer route with gameplanning and scheming because the guys they plugged in didn't give them confidence to consistently know where they should be etc...

With bruschi's return and gaining form, vrabel inside, colvin stepping up, seymour returning, wilfork upping his game. Hobbs solidifying the 2nd cb position and Stone/Hawkins (hawkins more so than stone) stepping in and solidifying to some degree the SS position, Wilson's job was made easier with a consistent veteran in Hawkins at safety so his game started to come back not having to worry about where his teammate was. The team started to gel, the players gained the coaches confidence, the front 7 started to play like it could, the coaches opened up the schemes with the faith in the defense to be where they needed to be.

A combination of several factors has, in my mind, brought this defense back to being able to put up a tough fight against any opponent

Tony Collins

Or ask the 1998 Broncos. Or 1990 Giants. Or 1984 49ers.

Or 2005 Colts.