Did a coin toss decide our season?

[shmessy]

Funny how people read what they want to read. The very first part of my post said:



Why is pointing out something that happened, A FACT, considered a "whine"? There are lots of reasons why the team is in the position it is in, all of them controllable but the coin toss.

Perhaps if your thread title used the word "affect" instead of "decide", people would have understood your hidden meaning better.

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

It's OK in my opinion to note that a coin toss was one of the events that shaped our season, but to say it "decided" the season is wrong.

Did you read the title of the thead...its not a statement, its a question....

 

[shmessy]

Did you read the title of the thead...its not a statement, its a question....

Oh yeah, the magic question mark!

Is VA Pats Fan a crook?

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

Perhaps if your thread title used the word "affect" instead of "decide", people would have understood your hidden meaning better.

Does anyone know the meaning of a question mark? HELLO????


Of course the coin toss "affected" our season, thats not debatable. The question was...DID IT DECIDE OUR SEASON?


Sheesh...READ!!!

 

[shmessy]

Does anyone know the meaning of a question mark? HELLO????


Of course the coin toss "affected" our season, thats not debatable. The question was...DID IT DECIDE OUR SEASON?


Sheesh...READ!!!

Refer to Post #23.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

No one thing determined this season. There's like a zillion things like the coin toss that just didn't go our way that half the time you could expect it to go the other way. Injuries, drops, bad penalties, teams not losing certain games, and the list goes on. If a team breaks the IR record, goes 11-5, and still misses the playoffs, you know they are snakebitten. That would be us this year.

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

Refer to Post #23.

You mean the one you edited after you called me that?

 

[shmessy]

You mean the one you edited after you called me that?

Yeah, I put in the winking smiley face after calling you a crook? - - because, unlike you, I believe the question mark isn't enough when someone is throwing %hit up against the wall to see if it sticks.

I'm pulling your chain here, but the point is that merely putting a question mark after some statement doesn't mean that you are not seen as backing that statement. Journalists use that crapola all the time when they passively aggressively ask someone a tough question that they don't have the nerve to say themselves - -i.e. "It has been written about you that....."

If you bring up a point, back it up and stand by your point - - don't get intimidated and say "Oh, I was only kidding, or just asking a question I heard from someone else, etc".

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

Yeah, I put in the winking smiley face after calling you a "crook" - - because, unlike you, I believe the question mark isn't enough when someone is throwing %hit up against the wall to see if it sticks.

So, your claim is the reading comprehension in this forum is so low, people don't know that "This season was decided by a coin toss", a declarative sentence, is no different then "Did a coin toss decide our season?", an interrogative statement?

 

[Fencer]

There are lots of reasons why we are fighting for our playoff lives right now, injuries, not being able to get off the field on 3rd down, etc.

but to have the "luck of a coin toss" figure so heavily in the picture..

stinks!

Two words, that have probably been said many times before in this thread:

Snow Bowl

 

[shmessy]

So, your claim is the reading comprehension in this forum is so low, people don't know that "This season was decided by a coin toss", a declarative sentence, is no different then "Did a coin toss decide our season?", an interrogative statement?

No my claim is that, either YOU don't know what a question mark means, or you are trying to be too cutesie by half. People with very high reading comprehension levels tend to value the English language and punctuation.

But then aren't you the guy who hates America and puppy dogs?

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

Yeah, I put in the winking smiley face after calling you a crook? - - because, unlike you, I believe the question mark isn't enough when someone is throwing %hit up against the wall to see if it sticks.

I'm pulling your chain here, but the point is that merely putting a question mark after some statement doesn't mean that you are not seen as backing that statement. Journalists use that crapola all the time when they passively aggressively ask someone a tough question that they don't have the nerve to say themselves - -i.e. "It has been written about you that....."

If you bring up a point, back it up and stand by your point - - don't get intimidated and say "Oh, I was only kidding, or just asking a question I heard from someone else, etc".

Where did I say I was kidding? I stood by my point and continue to. You however, have edited your posts multiple times and now claim to be "pulling my chain".

" don't get intimidated and say "Oh, I was only kidding"

practice what you preach?

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

No my claim is that, either YOU don't know what a question mark means, or you are trying to be too cutesie by half. People with very high reading comprehension levels tend to value the English language and punctuation.

But then aren't you the guy who hates America and puppy dogs?

maybe your just wrong?

 

[jsho]

There is no justification to blame a coin toss. Your defense still has to make the stop. We let them drive down field, and convert a 3rd and 15. Look at some of the other ot games this year. The Giants and Panthers last night each got one possession with the ball. The Eagles and Bengals went 15 minutes without a score. So losing a coin toss is irrelevant when you don’t continue to play.

 

[shmessy]

maybe your just wrong?

Anyone who knows the English language knows the difference between the words "affect" and "decide". It's very simple.

Putting a cutesie little question mark after it doesn't change that.

There's nothing more to discuss. If you have any more desire to learn the English language and proper grammar - - just PM me and I'll be happy to give you a short tutorial when I can find the time. Otherwise, by all means, feel free to continue the original point you were trying to make in this thread. Honestly, it's a very valid topic. Most folks here disagree with the point you (seemed?) to be making - - but that's good, it stirs up debate.

No one is telling you to stifle, we're just openly disagreeing with the question marked/half-eyes closed title statement.

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

Anyone who knows the English language knows the difference between the words "affect" and "decide". It's very simple.

Putting a cutesie little question mark after it doesn't change that.

As I said in an earlier post, the coin toss certainly "affected" our season. I know the difference. I was not being cutesy or anything else when I ASKED, did a coin toss decide our season.

It was a very deliberate question. Stop trying to think your so smart you can even divine what I was supposed to post to make you happy.

 

[Deus Irae]

Oh come on. You're actually comparing losing a coin toss and having the ability to take the field with 11 men against the opponent's 11 men with getting hit by lightning?

Are you really?

You're the one who made the ridiculous destiny comment, not me.

 

[SpiderFox53]

Perhaps if your thread title used the word "affect" instead of "decide", people would have understood your hidden meaning better.

Perhaps if people here would actually read instead of skimming and jumping on another person for what they THINK is there, we wouldn't have poster dropping like flies and this place going to the dogs.

 

[JoeSixPat]

The O.P. made a completely valid point. Despite all the "San Diego/Pittsburgh" type replies, had that coin toss gone the other way, this team might well be 11-4 right now, and that third down would never have happened.

Yes - and that coin flip came at a critical time.

But there's lots of other "coin flip" moments in the course of a game and a season that can affect the outcome of a game - and often they go unnoticed.

So I tend to look at this as a situation where, for every bad luck moment a team has plenty of good luck moments as well.

The bottom line for the Patriots championship teams is that they usually played well enough to take luck out of the mix - so I don't lament a season where they didn't do quite enough to remove Lady Luck from the equation.

In other words, it is what it is.

 

[Va_Pats_Fan]

Yes - and that coin flip came at a critical time.

But there's lots of other "coin flip" moments in the course of a game and a season that can affect the outcome of a game - and often they go unnoticed.

So I tend to look at this as a situation where, for every bad luck moment a team has plenty of good luck moments as well.

The bottom line for the Patriots championship teams is that they usually played well enough to take luck out of the mix - so I don't lament a season where they didn't do quite enough to remove Lady Luck from the equation.

In other words, it is what it is.

The point I was driving at, and most have missed, is that almost every "bad" luck moment could of been changed by playing smarter, better, harder, etc. In this one case, there was nothing the Pats could of done to influence the outcome of that coin toss. No amount of football skill or preparedness can make a heads a tails.