PatriotFan77

Amid the tide of naysayers, I personally think the Pats are in a very good spot right now.
- They are in the driver's seat in the AFC East. Any Pats win/Jets loss from here on out secures the division.

- They have a very real chance of securing the #1 seed in the AFC yet again. They have a very winnable schedule remaining while the Texans are down to their 3rd string QB, the Steelers have a road trip to San Fran, and the Ravens finish in Cincy who nearly beat them in Baltimore.

- They are blowing out bad teams. KC 34-3, Philly 38-20, Indy 31-24. Yes the Indy game was a blowout. 31-3 until @ 10 min left in the 4th is a blowout. The rest of the game was a lack of focus, which leads me to my next point.

- This team has not peaked, and they are hungry. They haven't played a complete 60 minute game all year. They have another month to work on it, and who plays better in December than the Pats? The conditions for a superb playoff push are excellent.

- They have lost 3 games by a combined total of 15 points. The stars aligned for the Bills, who the Pats were dominating by 21 at one point, and it took 4 Brady INTs for them to eke out a win in Buffalo. The Steelers played (peaked?) great football, dominated even, shut down the offense, passed all over the defense, and still only won by a TD. And it took yet another Eli miracle drive for the Giants to escape Foxboro with a win. The Pats have never been out of a game this season. The patchwork, much maligned Defense is tops in the AFC in forcing turnovers.

This time last year the Pats were 10-2, had been blown out in Cleveland, hadn't swept the Jets, had given up MORE points defensively thru 12 games than this season....and probably peaked with the 45-3 win over the NYJ the following week. As great as last regular season was , there have been improvements this year. There have been regressions too I'm sure. Brady's INT totals for one. Woodhead's production, etc. Taken all together and this season isn't much different than last year at this point. Of course we are all hoping for different results in January, and at this point I feel better about the Pats chances. Part of that is also a wide open AFC, no one is dominant like the Packers (or the Patriots of 2010). It truly is about whoever gets hot in December this year and the Pats have just much chance as anyone else.

Keyser Söze

This team has a lot to prove, I wont get excited until they show me they wont **** the bed in the playoff yet again.

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PatsFanSince74

Thanks. We need more "Glass if half full," "Look at the silver lining" posts on this board. I think any of the 9--3 AFC teams could put it together to get to Indy in February. Get hot and stay hot at the right time and get a lucky break or a bounce or two when it counts.

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It is what it is. It wasn't what it wasn't.

randomk1

That point about losing by only 15 points is a good one but we were hardly competitive vs the steelers. I think the 2010 Packers never lost by more than 3 points or something so atleast that's a somewhat encouraging sign.

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Three out of Four. Back-to-back.

BradyManny

I largely agree.

Offensively, we need to be more consistent - but looking at numbers, we're essentially up there with the Packers and Saints.

Defensively, we are what we are. We are not an elite defense. Our defense does not do the offense favors by yielding 8 minute, 15 play drives. But if it holds team to field goals, it is enough to keep us in any game.

That means any opponent, including the Packers, Saints, Ravens, Steelers or any team that we may now fear.

To me, there is little worry in how this season transpires. We are not going to be favored if we go into Pittsburgh or Baltimore. We are not going to be favored if we face the Saints or Packers in the Super Bowl.

I find this comforting, to be honest.

This season - for right or wrong, and I tend to think its wrong to build a team this way - will fall squarely on the offense's ability to overcome elite defenses in the cold months of January & February, outdoors, in inclement weather. No Super Bowl team that I can think of has truly done that. Unfortunately, that is the likely path to the SB for an AFC team. Fortunately, no other AFC team is without enough flaw to feel any more secure in their postseason fate.

So far, even Brady, Manning and Rodgers all won their rings without putting up 30+ points every playoff game.

But I will enjoy the ride and see if the Patriots can pull it off. They have just as much right as any AFC team to hope they will be representing the conference in the Super Bowl at this point.

PatriotFan77

I agree, the Steelers dominated that game and it really seemed like they put everything they had into beating the Pats that day. They brought their A game, and still could not totally overwhelm the Pats. They scored FG's, instead of TDs, somewhat of a testament to the Pats Red Zone defense which has been pretty good this year. It certainly wasn't a drubbing, like the Ravens put on the Steelers in week 1, or like what the Steelers did to the Bungles yesterday. They aren't head and shoulders above the Pats, merely better that day.

BradyManny

If the refs don't F up that TD call on the Gronk catch, and the Steelers get the ball back with 4 minutes left, I sense we might've ended up winning that game.

PatriotFan77

Which speaks to one of my points. As much as some posters on this board want to hang the Defense and spout "one and done", the Pats have been in every loss down to the wire. The defense is good enough to win or at least have a chance to win.

Metaphors

I'm inclined to agree with you...

I see the Pats finishing 12-4, losing the final Hoyer-led game to Buffalo with Brady, Welker, Wilfork and a handful of others getting some well-deserved time off. With the final 2 games at home, this scenario would mean the Pats wouldn't see an airport for over a month. Kind of the opposite of the 2006 scenario where the Pats finished with 2 roadies and had to travel to SD and Indy in the playoffs.

I see this happening because Houston is likely to enter week #17 one game behind the Pats and losing the tiebreaker (beating Indy twice kills your SOV). That results in an interesting situation for the Jets. The Titans and Texans play in week #17 with the Texans likely locked into the #3 seed. In addition, a Titans win would give them the #6 seed ahead of the Jets (conference record) and a return date to Houston in the WC round. Seeing a rematch the next week, the Texans rest starters and play vanilla...essentially conceding the game to the Titans and eliminating the Jets. So if I'm the Jets, I'm looking at winning out to avoid that situation from happening.