psychoPat

... those wins by ridiculous scores -- 56-10 over Buffalo, 52-7 over Washington, 49-28 over Miami -- those weren't occasions where the bloodthirsty Patriots disrespected the game and rubbed their opponents noses in it by playing to the gun.

Those were moments when the Patriots showed the game and the league some honor.

The kind of dominance New England showed in those games is fleeting. That kind of excellence is rare. To take a knee and take a pass on that level of greatness is a crime against football.

Follow me here ... while it's true that each game is its own entity, overall team performance is continuous. Meeting to practice to game, meeting to practice to game. It builds to a crescendo. Teams can't throttle down and then flip a switch and be back where they were. Backing off at the end Sunday will inevitably lead to backing off at the end during Monday film sessions or Friday special teams practice.

You back off, you lose. It's a guaran-freakin'-tee that the Patriots would have lost to the Eagles Sunday night if they hadn't brought with them the start-to-finish edge they honed over the first 10 games of the season.

"Hey man, 60-minute men," said corner Ellis Hobbs, piggybacking the Patriots' latest locker room theme Sunday night. "That's what it had to be in Indianapolis. That's what it had to be tonight. That's what it's going to have to be for the rest of the season."

"This is how it is playing in November and December," Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. "This is the NFL, and there are a lot of good teams out there. More importantly, there are a lot of good players. It's going to be close going down the stretch, believe me."

For too long, we've been told that what's inevitable for the Patriots is perfection. It's not.

What's inevitable is their descent into a circle of NFL hell that no team's ever visited. The Patriots are EXPECTED to win every one of their next eight games, win their fourth Super Bowl in seven years and then await their seeding in the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.) debate.

The culture of "ranking" that we live in doesn't allow for historical perspective. Instead, you're placed at the top on potential returns and then torn down if you don't live up to the premature pedestal you were put upon.

And if the Patriots are going to officially attain the status they've been unofficially given, they're going to have to do it with levels of scrutiny, intensity, resilience, sniping and celebration that no team has ever endured.

And if they DO happen to come out of the other side of this season with 19 wins, no losses and another Super Bowl, a long line of people will pointing to those blowouts of the Redskins, Dolphins and Bills as examples of the mentality the Patriots HAD to have so that they could do something no team with their resume ever approached.
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edited excerpts:
http://www.nbcsports.com/portal/site...extfmt=default

link cued by BSMW

SamBam39

wow. really good words to describe a number of things going on.
nice.

ClevTrev

psychoPat, thanks for posting this. As usual, Curran comes to the rescue with a rational article about what's going on with the Pats and the NFL. I recommend everyone who has any interest in professional football read this twice.

Here are my takes in my own words:

Rankings - an obligatory exercise done by the media to rate teams. It's meaningless in predicting head-to-head competition.

Scores - in the NFL, you score when you can. If you throttle back, you may never score again! Message: don't ever throttle back!

Point spreads - Done solely for the purpose of making money for the bookmakers. Sometimes they are meaningful, sometimes they inspire betting in an otherwise one-sided contest.

Media - those who crown potential champs before they deserve it, and those who rip down what they once built up when the champs falter. It's a self-feeding business that has nothing to do with common sense. Any of those toying with a perfect season are the current guilty parties.

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NYCPatsFan

Man! That felt good to read!! Thanks for posting it.

VJCPatriot

Nice read. He made some good points. The Patriots are 60 minute men. Throttling back against the Eagles or the Colts definitely would have led to a loss. This team never lets up. That's what makes them great.

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Buchanty

Great article - put that in context with Brady needing more time to gain experience with his new receivers and it all makes perfect sense.

The other take away I had was that the scrutiny, coverage, expectations and hype are only going to get worse. So we can expect exacerbated nitpicking, whining, criticism and disparagement in the weeks to come (after all these are all nasties that lie on the other side of the coin of attention).

I would still rather just have the Superbowl than the circus of the ridiculous that accompanies such unprecendented record setting. If it comes down to it I would even forsake MVP awards and pro-bowl selections for the 4th Lombardi.