Prisco: Pats still team to beat - New England Patriots Forums

***pats1*** · 08-21-2006, 10:02 PM

http://cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9612861/rss

Quote:

AFC East preview: Don't believe Patriots on wane

Aug. 21, 2006
By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Pete your opinion!

For some reason, we love to pick apart sports dynasties, waiting for them to come unraveled.

It happens with all the great teams. Eventually, they stop being great, and as they slowly move from top, the vultures move in, tearing the carcass to shreds, bit by bit.

This spring and summer it has become trendy to do that to the New England Patriots, searching for ways to convince oneself that they are no longer the same team that won three Super Bowls in the past five years, the team that won the AFC East in 2005.

Too much attrition, the doubters say. And they've had too many coaching losses the past couple of years.

Moreover, the Miami Dolphins are coming fast, winning their last six games in 2005, acquiring a franchise quarterback in Daunte Culpepper to go with their hot head coach Nick Saban.

This looked to be the right time to seize the AFC East from the Patriots.

It all sounds good, but it's not true.

...

I've seen a few different spellings of Gostkowski so far, but not this one:

Quote:

Biggest offseason move: Letting Vinatieri go in free agency is a risky move. But the Patriots didn't want to overpay to keep him. They will go with either veteran Martin Gramatica or rookie Stephen Gratkowski.

***DaBruinz*** · 08-21-2006, 10:14 PM

Prisco seems to have forgotten that the Patriots re-signed Chad Brown. Good article though.

Also, I think that Prisco over-looked O'Callaghan, who has a very good chance of earning some big extra money.

scott99 · 08-21-2006, 10:14 PM

Interesting. Sure us Pats fans can considered homers sometimes, but if you look at it logically, there's no reason to believe we won't be better than last year, a year in which we were ravaged with injuries and had the 3rd toughest schedule. With a considerably easier schedule, and a bunch of guys returning from season ending injuries to come back and be starters again (Light, Koppen, Harrison), there is no reason to believe we won't win at least 12 games. If you look at last year, it was pretty cut and dry, major injuries to key guys and a brutal schedule, period. The schedule part should be easier, and if (A MAJOR IF) we can stay healthy, there's no reason to believe that we won't be AT LEAST Super Bowl contenders. P.S., we have Tom Brady & Bill Belichick.

italian pat patriot · 08-22-2006, 08:20 AM

Gratkowski ?

we took another kicker ?