This Team Will be GREAT!

[Bostonian1962]

This team will be a great team folks. Brady WILL be Brady. He's soon to find out that his knee is better than ever, and he need not think about it. I had the same surgery.

What WR in the NFL went over the 100 reception mark for the last two years? Wes Welker. Guess what? Wes Welker will be playing for the Patriots this year. Am I the only one excited about Welker and Welker Lite on the field at the same time.

What LB lead the Patriots in tackles last year, and was the NFL's Defensive rookie of the year? Jerod Mayo. Guess what? Jerod Mayo will be playing for the Patriots this year.

We heard alot about the solid Atlanta offense leading into the game, and rightfully so. Did anybody notice that the Patriots, minus Mayo, Wilfolk, Butler, and Willhite, held them to 10 points? For those of us concerned about the defense, the early signs has been better than good, and will only get better.

For those that wondered if Fred Taylor still had it, are you not excited about what he's been bringing to the table?

The New England Patriots are going to be a dominant team as the year goes on. Alot of new parts can equal early growing pains, as can some of the injuries, but the new parts look collectively to be very good indeed. See me at the bye, and when the Pats are 5 and 2, or 6 and 1, we'll chat about it.

 

[QB12]

I'm encouraged that even now, while our defense is still finding its way, both our red zone defense, and our third-down defense are SIGNIFICANTLY better than last year.

QB12

 

[Bostonian1962]

I'm encouraged that even now, while our defense is still finding its way, both our red zone defense, and our third-down defense are SIGNIFICANTLY better than last year.

QB12

You and me both QB12. Trust me, I'm not one of those that is a homer, and just blindly says all is great.

The ONLY way I'll be wrong, is even more injuries. There could be some tweaks here and there (Nunn for Galloway?), but in the end, we are going to love this team.

 

[Patstopia]

The only thing holding us back right now is Brady. Once he gets straightened out well be golden!

If we had TD's instead of FG, all the games so far would have been cakewalks.

 

[BionicPatriot]

It's week 3. No, the team didn't suck like everyone here was saying last week over a L. Just like how they're not SB winners just because they win a week 3 game.

I'm still unsure about the defense. Can it stop being hurt? If Wilfork is out and we get one more injury, that's getting decimated. Can guys like D. Brugess show up? Can we get to the QB? We've shown inabilities to do these things this year, until we do I'm not sold. Happy the D is improving? Yes. Sold they're good enough? No, beat the Colts/Saints and we'll talk.

 

[BionicPatriot]

The only thing holding us back right now is Brady. Once he gets straightened out well be golden!

If we had TD's instead of FG, all the games so far would have been cakewalks.

Funny as it sounds, hard to refute this point. I said it last week. We're an onpoint Brady away from being undefeated.

 

[Patspsycho]

One game at a time, but things are starting to look good.

Ideally, I don't want Brady to bounce back too soon. I want them to be forced to rely on the running game, on grinding it out, because that worked so well for us during the dynasty years.

Then when he does come back, I hope we don't go back to the air attack exclusively, but stay with a balanced offense, not being afraid to grind it out.

Ideally, we peak in the month of December.. it's all about peaking at the right time.

 

[Bostonian1962]

One game at a time, but things are starting to look good.

Ideally, I don't want Brady to bounce back too soon. I want them to be forced to rely on the running game, on grinding it out, because that worked so well for us during the dynasty years.

Then when he does come back, I hope we don't go back to the air attack exclusively, but stay with a balanced offense, not being afraid to grind it out.

Ideally, we peak in the month of December.. it's all about peaking at the right time.

Peaking in December would be nice. Kind of the opposite of what happened in 2007.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

This team will be a great team folks. Brady WILL be Brady. He's soon to find out that his knee is better than ever, and he need not think about it. I had the same surgery.

What WR in the NFL went over the 100 reception mark for the last two years? Wes Welker. Guess what? Wes Welker will be playing for the Patriots this year. Am I the only one excited about Welker and Welker Lite on the field at the same time.

What LB lead the Patriots in tackles last year, and was the NFL's Defensive rookie of the year? Jerod Mayo. Guess what? Jerod Mayo will be playing for the Patriots this year.

We heard alot about the solid Atlanta offense leading into the game, and rightfully so. Did anybody notice that the Patriots, minus Mayo, Wilfolk, Butler, and Willhite, held them to 10 points? For those of us concerned about the defense, the early signs has been better than good, and will only get better.

For those that wondered if Fred Taylor still had it, are you not excited about what he's been bringing to the table?

The New England Patriots are going to be a dominant team as the year goes on. Alot of new parts can equal early growing pains, as can some of the injuries, but the new parts look collectively to be very good indeed. See me at the bye, and when the Pats are 5 and 2, or 6 and 1, we'll chat about it.

I respect your enthuism.

Everyone needs to relax. You can't get too high or too low. It's a long season. As we found out in 2007, winning and being dominant early on does not mean much if you can't win in the end. We have a tough game against baltimore next week and if we lose those who are too emotional will be ready to call it a season. It's a week to week league.

In a sense I am glad that the colts, giants and ravens are playing unbelievable football right now. I doubt that they (or any) team could keep it up for an entire season. It's good we are struggling a bit now because we have nowhere to go but up. peaking at the right time is important.

 

[ALP]

I respect your enthuism.

Everyone needs to relax. You can't get too high or too low. It's a long season. As we found out in 2007, winning and being dominant early on does not mean much if you can't win in the end. We have a tough game against baltimore next week and if we lose those who are too emotional will be ready to call it a season. It's a week to week league.

In a sense I am glad that the colts, giants and ravens are playing unbelievable football right now. I doubt that they (or any) team could keep it up for an entire season. It's good we are struggling a bit now because we have nowhere to go but up. peaking at the right time is important.

LOL, yea, after 07 we really shouldnt be too worried....would you rather start strong and sputter at the end? or vice verca?

ill take us starting slowly, and building an identity, rather than starting like 07, and than, when we get challenged, all we can do is that one thing and hope it works....

im liking this season, and with all the other teams doing this badly in the AFC (minus colts) i think we have a real chance of getting 1st seed in AFC

 

[5 Rings for Brady!!]

This team will be a great team folks. Brady WILL be Brady. He's soon to find out that his knee is better than ever, and he need not think about it. I had the same surgery.

What WR in the NFL went over the 100 reception mark for the last two years? Wes Welker. Guess what? Wes Welker will be playing for the Patriots this year. Am I the only one excited about Welker and Welker Lite on the field at the same time.

What LB lead the Patriots in tackles last year, and was the NFL's Defensive rookie of the year? Jerod Mayo. Guess what? Jerod Mayo will be playing for the Patriots this year.

We heard alot about the solid Atlanta offense leading into the game, and rightfully so. Did anybody notice that the Patriots, minus Mayo, Wilfolk, Butler, and Willhite, held them to 10 points? For those of us concerned about the defense, the early signs has been better than good, and will only get better.

For those that wondered if Fred Taylor still had it, are you not excited about what he's been bringing to the table?

The New England Patriots are going to be a dominant team as the year goes on. Alot of new parts can equal early growing pains, as can some of the injuries, but the new parts look collectively to be very good indeed. See me at the bye, and when the Pats are 5 and 2, or 6 and 1, we'll chat about it.

Pats looked very solid against the Jets with the exception of red zone execution and flat dominant against the Falcons for at least half the game.

And that includes every possible early season injury with the exception of #12. Although he got whacked in the pre season already.

The injury bug is a big concern this year but we overcame that in 2003 so it can be done.

Brady is not struggling quite as much as some say, it is more a combination of bad WR play and Brady not being in 2007 form yet. Every QB throws a few clunkers per game.

The big question is not whether Brady returns to form because that is simply a no brainer. The big question is can we keep up the solid play across the board with more and more glaring injuries? It can be done, we have seen it before.

If we get everybody healthy sometime this year we will be dangerous.

 

[NEPatriot]

This team is not going to be great until i see our O score 30+ pts and our D holds our opponents below 20 pts EVERY TIME.

 

[Patriot_in_NY]

The only thing holding us back right now is Brady. Once he gets straightened out well be golden!

If we had TD's instead of FG, all the games so far would have been cakewalks.

Brady and the O are VERY close....... We were a couple drops and a few bad passes from about 40-10 yesterday...... I have ZERO worries that the O won't be there within a few weeks.

D...... am pleasantly suprised. As much as I swear at the TV at the stuff open over the middle and the lack of pressure....... at the end of the day, I look at the stats and say "Damn, they didn't do to bad."

I do worry about the Ravens coming in, but for some reason, not as bad as a probably should.

 

[Satchboogie3]

One game at a time, but things are starting to look good.

Ideally, I don't want Brady to bounce back too soon. I want them to be forced to rely on the running game, on grinding it out, because that worked so well for us during the dynasty years.

Then when he does come back, I hope we don't go back to the air attack exclusively, but stay with a balanced offense, not being afraid to grind it out.

Ideally, we peak in the month of December.. it's all about peaking at the right time.

Holy crap, when will people learn. There really was no difference in offense between 04 and 07. We still ran the ball at about the same clip and actually had more ground production (4.1 y/c) in 07 than all but one year of this "previous" dynasty. The only difference was efficiency, some of the formations, and the fact that the passing game became as explosive as possible.

There were no problems with the 07 team. The only possible problems were on the defensive side of the ball. Show me a team that can consistently put up more points than the 07 team, even against great defenses and/or when having a "bad" day. It doesn't exist.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

im liking this season, and with all the other teams doing this badly in the AFC (minus colts) i think we have a real chance of getting 1st seed in AFC

except baltimore isn't exactly struggling and neither are the jets.

 

[Patspsycho]

Holy crap, when will people learn. There really was no difference in offense between 04 and 07. We still ran the ball at about the same clip and actually had more ground production (4.1 y/c) in 07 than all but one year of this "previous" dynasty. The only difference was efficiency, some of the formations, and the fact that the passing game became as explosive as possible.

There were no problems with the 07 team. The only possible problems were on the defensive side of the ball. Show me a team that can consistently put up more points than the 07 team, even against great defenses and/or when having a "bad" day. It doesn't exist.

With all due respect, in '04 we didn't even do half the shotgun formation we did in '07. If that's not over-relying on the shotgun, I don't know what is.

In '07 our running game was solid, yes, but we were a pass-first offense.

I wonder what the stats are on the lengths of the drives we did in '04 in contrast to '07. I'm betting the '04 drives were much longer.

 

[mayoclinic]

Holy crap, when will people learn. There really was no difference in offense between 04 and 07. We still ran the ball at about the same clip and actually had more ground production (4.1 y/c) in 07 than all but one year of this "previous" dynasty. The only difference was efficiency, some of the formations, and the fact that the passing game became as explosive as possible.

There were no problems with the 07 team. The only possible problems were on the defensive side of the ball. Show me a team that can consistently put up more points than the 07 team, even against great defenses and/or when having a "bad" day. It doesn't exist.

The two offenses were not at all alike. 2007 was a quick strike offense where we put lots of points on the board quickly with a vertical passing attack. We were pass-first, and we ran mostly out of the shotgun to allow Brady to read the defenses and isolate the open WR. Many of our games were decided by halftime, and much of our running game game after the game was out of reach and we were trying to chew up the clock.

2004 was a physical team featuring a pounding rushing attack with Corey Dillon and a balanced passing attack with Brady. The big strike capability was always there (as in the 2004 AFCCG against Pittsburgh) to keep people honest, but we had a ball-control oriented offense that wore opponents down, and often broke tight games open in the 4th quarter. We used a lot of play action and screens, and the shotgun was used selectively.

Really similar.

There were plenty of problems with the 2007 team. They were masked most of the season by the blitzkrieg offense, but they began to be exposed late in the season when teams started to adjust, and the games got close. We were lucky to escape against the Eagles and Ravens, and the Giants played us close. The problems were that we couldn't establish the run first (as opposed to running up yards when the game was out of reach), and our defense couldn't stop opponents when the game was close.

Flawed greatness is still flawed. Sorry to rain on your parade.

 

[mayoclinic]

This team is not going to be great until i see our O score 30+ pts and our D holds our opponents below 20 pts EVERY TIME.

If our O scores 30+ points and our D holds opponents below 20 pts EVERY TIME then we will indeed be great. Unfortunately, no team in the history of the NFL has ever come close to doing that, and no team probably ever will.

 

[mayoclinic]

In a sense I am glad that the colts, giants and ravens are playing unbelievable football right now. I doubt that they (or any) team could keep it up for an entire season. It's good we are struggling a bit now because we have nowhere to go but up. peaking at the right time is important.

:youtheman: Hallelujah.

 

[Chevy]

I look at these three games, and my (considerable) gut says "Welcome to 2001, Part 2".

Sprinkle in a little of that 2003 heart-attack and that's the season we're looking at.

A very gutsy team, some very gutsy calls, and a disappointing loss or two.

Top it all off with, as TB12 said, peaking at the right time.