The 2009 Patriots: Like finding out there's no Santa Claus

[Absurdly Metro]

First let me say I don't need to be talked down from the ledge. I understand it is only week two and there's a lot of football still to be played. I have a lot of faith in the Hooded One and TFB to lead this team to the playoffs and hopefully to a fourth SB title THIS year.

That said, the only thing I can compare the 2009 Patriots season to so far is telling your kid there is no Santa Claus. Many of us believed this team was one of, if not the ONE elite team in the NFL coming out of the gates.

We believed Brady was back and would light it up again. We didn't necessarily think 2009 would be as prolific as 2007 but, with a couple years together, and Brady all the way back from his injury, we thought this offense was the best in the business (or at least on par with NO). We weren't realistically looking for another run at 19-0 (although we did dream about it sometimes) but we figured with Brady back and a revamped secondary there was no way this team wouldn't win more games than the Matt Cassel led, defensively deficient squad from a year ago.

Sure we bristled when BB threw Vrabel in to sweeten the pot on the KC deal. It felt wrong to us on some level. It seemed cold. It seemed like we didn't get enough in return. It seemed like BB somehow undervalued those assets. But what do we know? We're just fans. So we swallowed the kool-aid and told ourselves Vrabes was finished anyway. Washed up. Has been. Couldn't help us anymore. Thanks for the memories but BB knows best.

Then came the Seymour fiasco. Reminded us of another great Patriots rather ignominous exit from Foxboro back in 2003. Just like Vrabes before him, the RS situation just felt wrong to us on some level. It too seemed cold. It also seemed to weaken our chances to win this year in exchange for a better chance to keep winning in later years. We were skeptical. We wondered how the DL could afford to lose a player of Seymour's stature and ability. We wondered who the opposing coaches would have to game plan for now that Big Sey was gone. We wondered who would required double teams and still be able to collapse the pocket. But, like with Vrabel, we sucked it up and told ourselves Richard was dispensible too. Just another in a long line of parts in BB's mighty Patriot machine. Imminently replaceable just like all the others who've come and gone.

Oh well. It was finally time for some football! The kool-aid felt more potent than ever. So we drank some more and soon were overcome. It told us strange things. After all, Brady was back. The Patriot Messiah had risen from the dead and was coming back again in glory to smite his foes and tread them under his feet en route to another trip to the promised land. This Patriot offense would subdue our foes in the early part of the year to compensate for the young, revamped defense. This would buy some time for all of those new, young faces on defense to learn to play together and to gel. We were still a dominant team... or so we thought.

Then the Pats came out and stunk up the joint the first two weeks and shattered our little football fantasy. Please don't misunderstand. It's not that we've given up on the team, or the season, or BB, or TFB. It's not that we don't believe anymore.

It's just that like a little kid at Christmas our lofty expectations have met with a very different and difficult reality to start this season. Our sense of entitlement has been stripped away with full blown blunt force trauma.

So take it easy on us. We just found out there is no Santa Claus. It was only Rex Ryan in a big red suit.

 

[swheeler23]

What!!!!!!there's no santa

 

[Garbanza]

First let me say I don't need to be talked down from the ledge. I understand it is only week two and there's a lot of football still to be played. I have a lot of faith in the Hooded One and TFB to lead this team to the playoffs and hopefully to a fourth SB title THIS year.

That said, the only thing I can compare the 2009 Patriots season to so far is telling your kid there is no Santa Claus. Many of us believed this team was one of, if not the ONE elite team in the NFL coming out of the gates.

We believed Brady was back and would light it up again. We didn't necessarily think 2009 would be as prolific as 2007 but, with a couple years together, and Brady all the way back from his injury, we thought this offense was the best in the business (or at least on par with NO). We weren't realistically looking for another run at 19-0 (although we did dream about it sometimes) but we figured with Brady back and a revamped secondary there was no way this team wouldn't win more games than the Matt Cassel led, defensively deficient squad from a year ago.

Sure we bristled when BB threw Vrabel in to sweeten the pot on the KC deal. It felt wrong to us on some level. It seemed cold. It seemed like we didn't get enough in return. It seemed like BB somehow undervalued those assets. But what do we know? We're just fans. So we swallowed the kool-aid and told ourselves Vrabes was finished anyway. Washed up. Has been. Couldn't help us anymore. Thanks for the memories but BB knows best.

Then came the Seymour fiasco. Reminded us of another great Patriots rather ignominous exit from Foxboro back in 2003. Just like Vrabes before him, the RS situation just felt wrong to us on some level. It too seemed cold. It also seemed to weaken our chances to win this year in exchange for a better chance to keep winning in later years. We were skeptical. We wondered how the DL could afford to lose a player of Seymour's stature and ability. We wondered who the opposing coaches would have to game plan for now that Big Sey was gone. We wondered who would required double teams and still be able to collapse the pocket. But, like with Vrabel, we sucked it up and told ourselves Richard was dispensible too. Just another in a long line of parts in BB's mighty Patriot machine. Imminently replaceable just like all the others who've come and gone.

Oh well. It was finally time for some football! The kool-aid felt more potent than ever. So we drank some more and soon were overcome. It told us strange things. After all, Brady was back. The Patriot Messiah had risen from the dead and was coming back again in glory to smite his foes and tread them under his feet en route to another trip to the promised land. This Patriot offense would subdue our foes in the early part of the year to compensate for the young, revamped defense. This would buy some time for all of those new, young faces on defense to learn to play together and to gel. We were still a dominant team... or so we thought.

Then the Pats came out and stunk up the joint the first two weeks and shattered our little football fantasy. Please don't misunderstand. It's not that we've given up on the team, or the season, or BB, or TFB. It's not that we don't believe anymore.

It's just that like a little kid at Christmas our lofty expectations have met with a very different and difficult reality to start this season. Our sense of entitlement has been stripped away with full blown blunt force trauma.

So take it easy on us. We just found out there is no Santa Claus. It was only Rex Ryan in a big red suit.

Funny

Actually, I liken it more to a disppointing x-mas morning. There you are, hoping that Santa brought you that shiney red bike you wanted, and discovering that you got a set of encylopedia's instead.

 

[QuinielaBox]

Somebody moved our cheese. We just have to work a little harder to find it again. The NFL is not about the entitlement system. Some fans lose sight of that fact.

 

[NEPatriot]

The current Pats team is NOT the one everybody knows and respects.

1- How could we let somebody talk trash for months and get away with it?
2- BB is loosing his control. The media and fans NEVER question him for anything. I think that BB has made a lot of bad decisions.
3-We don't have any killer instinct any more.
4-Our half time adjustment is not as good as we think.
5-TB doesn't have good connection with his receivers.
6-Our coordinators are mediocre. Why do we change O COORDINATOR every 4 years?????

 

[TruthSeeker]

Very Interesting comments, and very well written. I have to agree with your comments, maybe not 100%, but I do agree somewhat. I think the 2007 team was built to win it all, all the stars were aligned, the vets still were productive important parts of the team. But I remember it as if it were yesterday, I believe after we beat Buffalo 52-7, Brady came out and said in essence, we are trying to destroy teams, I remember cringing after hearing that. We stopped being dominant after that game, and teams started being very physical and started beating up our offensive line, AND Brady. It's like Brady opened up his mouth, and the opponents were listening loud and clear, and said "We're not gonna take it anymore". Needless to say, one terrible SB later, after getting beat up again, I think THAT'S when we found out Santa didn't exist anymore. We have not been dominant since that Buffalo game (a few flashes of it last year with Cassel at the helm, the Denver game comes to mind).

Flash forward to this season, the vets we counted on to lead our team, Bruschi (my favorite Patriot), Vrabel, Seau, Harrison, Seymour, etc, all either declined in talent due to age or injury (or money situations like Seymour). Despite maybe not being productive, you can NOT replace that kind of veteran winning leadership so fast. The defense is in the middle of a makeover that may take a few years, the offensive line, can be punished and attacked, and there is no running game to speak of, despite some so-called quality backs. This forces a recovering Tom Brady, to attempt to come from behind too often, leaving him as a sitting duck in an empty backfield on most occasions. Super Bowl teams do not win like that. I held my breath many times, reading people's expectations or predictions of a 19-0 season, etc, yet all the time staring at one of the most difficult schedules in football.

I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom, the 2001 Pats went 0-2, 1-3, 5-5, before winning their last 9 games (regular season and playoffs) on the way to being SB Champs, it can be done, the precedence is there. But also, after watching sports for close to 45 years, I know that sports is very cyclical, Good teams win for a while, and then start to decline, and become average to poor teams, and with good management and leadership, come around again. I think of the 49'ers, on top of the football world winning 5 SB's in 14 years, and then disappearing for many years (10 years). This may be happening to our beloved Pats. I'm hoping for at least one more Championship for the BB/Brady connection, but if it doesn't happen, I wouldn't be shocked. Nor would I be suicidal, it's been an incredible run, our beloved Pats have been in 5 SB's in the last 14 years, 6 AFC Championship games, How can I complain ?

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Sure we bristled when BB threw Vrabel in to sweeten the pot on the KC deal. It felt wrong to us on some level. It seemed cold.

This is the part that's sort of nagging me. Every football team treats it like a business, there's no doubt. But the Patriots have been the most aggressively non-sentimental team in the NFL in the last several years. I think most of us have convinced ourselves that if this is the price of winning, so be it. Let the suckers be sentimental while we make the cold, calculated decisions that get us to the playoffs every year.

But if the cold calculation doesn't yeild results, instead it just leaves you, well, cold.

Two games in, we're not playing like a playoff caliber team, and the schedule is no picnic. But it's only two games. The team caught a huge break in the Buffalo game, and gave itself some breathing room. In some ways, this loss may turn out to be a blessing in disguise when all is said and done.

 

[Patstopia]

I remember back in 1999, I think, Bledsoe came out throwing and scored huge in the first 4 games. It looked like it was going to be a great year. As the season unfolded, it turned out not to be that great as we finished like 8-8. What this and many other seasons has taught me is not to judge a team this early in the season. How many times have you seen crappy starts for other teams that all of a sudden get it together for the stretch run. Its not how you start, it's how you finish that counts!

 

[Absurdly Metro]

Funny

Actually, I liken it more to a disppointing x-mas morning. There you are, hoping that Santa brought you that shiney red bike you wanted, and discovering that you got a set of encylopedia's instead.

Yeah that's a good analogy. Although I never got encyclopedias. It was usually clothes when you were hoping for expensive toys.

Somebody moved our cheese. We just have to work a little harder to find it again. The NFL is not about the entitlement system. Some fans lose sight of that fact.

It's easy to lose sight of it. My sense of entitlement wasn't so much because I thought the Pats wouldn't have to work and that other teams would roll over for us. Rather it was that I believed all the press clippings saying that we were much better than we obviously are and TB would suffer no (or very minimal) ill effects coming back from a year layoff etc. So once I made up my mind that's how it was, and how it would be, anyone writing or holding a contrary opinion was either an idiot or a hater. Looking back maybe they had some valid points that, had I been willing to listen, would have tempered my enthusiasm enough so that this kind of a poor start wouldn't have been such a shock. Oh well. Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

It's like putting your hand in your Chrismas stocking expecting all kinds of sweet goodies and finding out that Santa defecated in it instead.

Yikes!

 

[SHOWTIME15]

I remember back in 1999, I think, Bledsoe came out throwing and scored huge in the first 4 games. It looked like it was going to be a great year. As the season unfolded, it turned out not to be that great as we finished like 8-8. What this and many other seasons has taught me is not to judge a team this early in the season. How many times have you seen crappy starts for other teams that all of a sudden get it together for the stretch run. Its not how you start, it's how you finish that counts!

exactly. remember the giants in 07 and how they gave up 70 points on defense the first 3 or 4 games? it's just one game. if it's a trend, it is more worrisome.

 

[Absurdly Metro]

The current Pats team is NOT the one everybody knows and respects.

1- How could we let somebody talk trash for months and get away with it?
2- BB is loosing his control. The media and fans NEVER question him for anything. I think that BB has made a lot of bad decisions.
3-We don't have any killer instinct any more.
4-Our half time adjustment is not as good as we think.
5-TB doesn't have good connection with his receivers.
6-Our coordinators are mediocre. Why do we change O COORDINATOR every 4 years?????

Brother this is NOT what I was trying to say. I feel your pain though. Come in off of the ledge. Things will improve and even if they don't it's only a game and we Pats fans have had one of the greatest runs in the history of the game to enjoy.

 

[Absurdly Metro]

Flash forward to this season, the vets we counted on to lead our team, Bruschi (my favorite Patriot), Vrabel, Seau, Harrison, Seymour, etc, all either declined in talent due to age or injury (or money situations like Seymour). Despite maybe not being productive, you can NOT replace that kind of veteran winning leadership so fast. The defense is in the middle of a makeover that may take a few years, the offensive line, can be punished and attacked, and there is no running game to speak of, despite some so-called quality backs. This forces a recovering Tom Brady, to attempt to come from behind too often, leaving him as a sitting duck in an empty backfield on most occasions. Super Bowl teams do not win like that. I held my breath many times, reading people's expectations or predictions of a 19-0 season, etc, yet all the time staring at one of the most difficult schedules in football.

Thanks Scott. What you say is true. The signs were definitely there that this kind of start was a real possibility. Plenty of people on this board have cited how long it took Peyton to get back to normal after his knee surgery last year. Hard to see objectively through the rosey red homer glasses though. At least it was for me.

 

[Absurdly Metro]

This is the part that's sort of nagging me. Every football team treats it like a business, there's no doubt. But the Patriots have been the most aggressively non-sentimental team in the NFL in the last several years. I think most of us have convinced ourselves that if this is the price of winning, so be it. Let the suckers be sentimental while we make the cold, calculated decisions that get us to the playoffs every year.

But if the cold calculation doesn't yeild results, instead it just leaves you, well, cold.

Wow. So true. Hopefully it'll warm up in Foxboro this winter.

 

[Absurdly Metro]

I remember back in 1999, I think, Bledsoe came out throwing and scored huge in the first 4 games. It looked like it was going to be a great year. As the season unfolded, it turned out not to be that great as we finished like 8-8. What this and many other seasons has taught me is not to judge a team this early in the season. How many times have you seen crappy starts for other teams that all of a sudden get it together for the stretch run. Its not how you start, it's how you finish that counts!

exactly. remember the giants in 07 and how they gave up 70 points on defense the first 3 or 4 games? it's just one game. if it's a trend, it is more worrisome.

I think you guys are missing the point of the thread. I'm not saying the Pats suck this year or even that they suck right now. I'm saying that the first two weeks have been shocking for some of us simply because they have played out the exact opposite of the offensive juggernaut many of us thought we were going to see early this year. Most of us will be fine. We'll adjust our early expectations and move on. There's no doubt this team has the potential to be great and win it all. After all we have BB and TFB. They're just not the superpower we were hoping for out of the gates. That's not a wee bit disappointing for you?

 

[Oswlek]

exactly. remember the giants in 07 and how they gave up 70 points on defense the first 3 or 4 games? it's just one game. if it's a trend, it is more worrisome.

They allowed 70 points in their first 2 games.

This is the part that's sort of nagging me. Every football team treats it like a business, there's no doubt. But the Patriots have been the most aggressively non-sentimental team in the NFL in the last several years. I think most of us have convinced ourselves that if this is the price of winning, so be it. Let the suckers be sentimental while we make the cold, calculated decisions that get us to the playoffs every year.

But if the cold calculation doesn't yeild results, instead it just leaves you, well, cold.

You are buying what the media is selling. The Patriots jettison no more or less than any other team. They are just called "cold" because their players have a bit more notorioty due to winning super bowls.

The turnover on defense this offseason is essentially BB admitting that they have been lax in rebuilding and doing it all in one fell swoop. Hiccups will come, but early returns are quite good, considering the two players the defense has now been structured to spotlight (Mayo and Meriwether) have missed 2 and 1 game respectively.

 

[BradyManny]

Perhaps our expectations were too high. I went into this season expecting to steamroll teams, and there's no doubt, now, its going to be a grind. In 2007, we were so much infinitely better than the competition, I couldn't imagine this season being that much different - but it's clear there is much work left.

 

[rabthepat]

"Denial" is not a river in Egypt. It is a state of mind in Foxboro. The team blew a gasket in their Superbowl loss to the Giants. The Giants exposed the Pats offensive line woes and lack of running game. The rest of the league has picked up on this and the Pats have done nothing to counter it.

The 2009 Pats are no better than the 2008 Pats. Our easy schedule will get us about 10 wins.

 

[condon84]

Somebody moved our cheese. We just have to work a little harder to find it again. The NFL is not about the entitlement system. Some fans lose sight of that fact.

Very appropriate response. That was a great book.

Although I've been guilty of the "sense of entitlement" myself.

 

[BradyManny]

"Denial" is not a river in Egypt. It is a state of mind in Foxboro. The team blew a gasket in their Superbowl loss to the Giants. The Giants exposed the Pats offensive line woes and lack of running game. The rest of the league has picked up on this and the Pats have done nothing to counter it.

No.

The Giants won by destroying our OL with only 4 rushers. No other team can pull that off as far as I can see. The Jets won by blitzing and jamming the corners, very different strategy.

The team will have to work it out, but the talent is there, and there are still only a few teams in the league - at most - that have a chance to pull off the things the Giants and the Rex Ryan Jets have pulled off.

February 7th, 2010, Roger Goodell will hand another SB trophy to Belichick/Kraft/Brady. That's all I know. Whatever happens between now and then, it's all good.

 

[Oswlek]

No.

The Giants won by destroying our OL with only 4 rushers. No other team can pull that off as far as I can see. The Jets won by blitzing and jamming the corners, very different strategy.

The team will have to work it out, but the talent is there, and there are still only a few teams in the league - at most - that have a chance to pull off the things the Giants and the Rex Ryan Jets have pulled off.

February 7th, 2010, Roger Goodell will hand another SB trophy to Belichick/Kraft/Brady. That's all I know. Whatever happens between now and then, it's all good.

I also love how the Giants somehow managed to "expose" the lack of a running game despite NE running for 150+ in two close playoff games and then running for the most yardage since 1985 with the backup QB.

Perhaps the Giants just played better than NE?