The Turning Point Of The Patriots Dynasty Through My Eyes

[PatsFans.com Article]

The Turning Point Of The Patriots Dynasty Through My Eyes
By: Russ Goldman

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[ctpatsfan77]

The Turning Point Of The Patriots Dynasty Through My Eyes
By: Russ Goldman

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS STORY​

The preview is wrong, but this article is worth reading. Bravo, Mr. Goldman!

 

[DarrylS]

The preview is wrong, but this article is worth reading. Bravo, Mr. Goldman!

Was trying to figure out if something happened to my brain

 

[LuRkeR1978]

I've never understood how the intentional safety was this 'revolutionary' decision when BB ripped it directly out of Parcell's book.

The Pats did just that against the Bengals in 1993 to secure the 7-2 victory. I was 15 and watching that game on my Grandmother's TV at the nursing home.

Cincinnati Bengals at New England Patriots - December 12th, 1993 - Pro-Football-Reference.com

 

[Mike the Brit]

I've never understood how the intentional safety was this 'revolutionary' decision when BB ripped it directly out of Parcell's book.

The Pats did just that against the Bengals in 1993 to secure the 7-2 victory. I was 15 and watching that game on my Grandmother's TV at the nursing home.

Cincinnati Bengals at New England Patriots - December 12th, 1993 - Pro-Football-Reference.com

You, sir, are HARD CORE -- which is good; we're going to need people like you this season!

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Not to mention, that game in question had one of the best MNF opening segments of all time.

"Thin air, no air, I don't care! Suck it up and play the game!"

 

[LuRkeR1978]

You, sir, are HARD CORE -- which is good; we're going to need people like you this season!

Thanks Mike! It probably helps that it was my 3rd game ever watching, and first experience of a Pats victory. I'd never been a fan until that season, as I started playing the game, and my coach suggested watching the Pats on Sundays to learn. When they ripped off 4 straight, and knocked the Phins out of the playoffs, I was hooked.

I suppose I could start posting more this season. I've had this message board open in a browser for the last 8 years, mine as well join in the fun.

Who knows, I might even hit 100 lol!

 

[Off The Grid]

I've never understood how the intentional safety was this 'revolutionary' decision when BB ripped it directly out of Parcell's book.

1 ~ Coaches've been taking intentional Safeties since The Beginning of Time...when they had a late lead.

2 ~ It was Bill II's Balls of Steel Safety when trailing that, yes, was Revolutionary.

The Legend of Iron Balls McGinity

But, yes, the Article was vapid, to put it kindly:

1 ~ Dynasties are forged from a Process of Events, not a single Incident.

2 ~ If this Dynasty had sprung from a single Event, then it certainly would've been Mad Bill's sudden, sweet, and shocking Expulsion of Terry Glenn, an Event which virtually every Fan greeted with Revulsion, Horror, & DisBelief.

3 ~ That Balls of Steel Moment was far more important in Setting The Course of This Dynasty even than Mo Lewis' hit on Drew Bledsoe...which merely accelerated the Process.

 

[Joker]

If you need Terry Glenn you'll find him rolled up in some tall grass somewhere...:sad:

 

[jmt57]

Great point OTG, though there was of course one other balls of steel moment: the starting quarterback decision, when both were healthy. The 'safe' decision that most coaches (especially one coming off a 5-11 season who had been fired after five years from his only other head coaching job) would have made was thankfully not the one that Belichick made.

Not only was it unpopular with most of the media, not only did it break the "unwritten" rule that you don't lose your job to an injury, but most significantly was that it implicitly ran counter to the owner and his boss: Kraft had just given Bledsoe a $103 million contract just a few months prior to that decision.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

The Patriot Dynasty ended, if it actually had ended, when WW dropped that pass/TB put the pass just out of catch-able range (depending on your point of view). It ended when Eli was in the grasp, heaved up a prayer and it was answered with that F***ing maddening helmet catch. If a "dynasty" is defined by winning SBs then in reality the Dynasty was over in 05 when (IMHO the one time the refs definitely jobbed us) against Denver and ended the three-peat possibility.

But I don't see "dynasty" as beginning and ending with winning SBs. Yes, you have to win a couple/can't be the runner up everytime. Yet think of this, the "dynasty" does not even start, maybe never even ever gets assigned to the Patriots, unless a fumble isn't ruled 'untucked' by a widely unknown and arguably improper rule (yes, the call was right). There are a few plays that could have easily gone against the Patriots that make them only 1 time SB winners and, likely, BB and TB aren't nearly as legendary. Yet if a "dynasty" requires that kind of arbitrary qualifications, the whole thing is a joke to begin with (it may be a joke anyways).
Over the last 12 years: 10 division championships/10 playoff appearances, one of the 2 non playoff years was 11 wins, 9 years with 11 victories or more, 8 years with at least one playoff victory, 7 AFC championship games played, 5 SB games played, 3 SB wins. The most recent played year was an AFC championship appearance. The most recent year before that was a SB appearance. THAT? is a "dynasty" ended?
In my view the Patriots are the the definition of the new dynasty, a Salary Cap era dynasty (something different than the dynsties of the past) and they still are. Look, they were never the 85 Bears where they were just sooooo much better than the competition that they made every other team look ridiculously flimsy. The Patriots were and are more about opportunity meets harder work/better planning/better preparation/better execution to beat out competition that frequently was as talented and sometimes more talented. They were/are about playing to their well honed strengths to overcome their obvious weaknesses (a fact which hits all teams in the Salary Cap era). The Patriots are still that team and the statistics largely prove that. And until such time they drop into mediocrity, unable to win 10 games, unable to make the playoffs, unable to continue to be right against the door of SB success, the Patriots "dynasty" is still going along (though I would agree slightly lesser because of the negative SB plays mentioned in the opening of this post).

 

[SB39]

I've never understood how the intentional safety was this 'revolutionary' decision when BB ripped it directly out of Parcell's book.

The Pats did just that against the Bengals in 1993 to secure the 7-2 victory. I was 15 and watching that game on my Grandmother's TV at the nursing home.

Cincinnati Bengals at New England Patriots - December 12th, 1993 - Pro-Football-Reference.com

I don't consider it revolutionary and we've all seen it before and since (including in this past Super Bowl) but geez, ya know, I can't think of any time other than the Broncos-Pats game where the team who was losing gave up the intentional safety.

 

[SB39]

Great point OTG, though there was of course one other balls of steel moment: the starting quarterback decision, when both were healthy. The 'safe' decision that most coaches (especially one coming off a 5-11 season who had been fired after five years from his only other head coaching job) would have made was thankfully not the one that Belichick made.

Not only was it unpopular with most of the media, not only did it break the "unwritten" rule that you don't lose your job to an injury, but most significantly was that it implicitly ran counter to the owner and his boss: Kraft had just given Bledsoe a $103 million contract just a few months prior to that decision.

I agree with this and I think very few people remember or recognize just how much tremendous pressure BB was to put Bledsoe in once he was healthy.