tombonneau
In the Starting Line-Up
- Joined
- May 27, 2005
- Messages
- 3,541
- Reaction score
- 377
I have not seen a team like NE so completely destroy the opposing team on a consistent basis in a long time. I think the early 90s Cowboys come close. It was not a question of if the Cowboys would beat you, the question was by how much. When you saw the Boys on your teams schedule, you basically knew it was an L.
I remember watching those games and thinking, “Man, no one is going to beat the Cowboys. This sucks.”
Now since then, there have been some good dominant teams. The late 90s Broncos coming closest to those Cowboys teams.
But I don’t think there has been a team with the aura of invincibility that this Pats team has. Again, the question isn’t are they going to beat you. It’s by how much.
To me, I think this psychological edge is a big reason why the Pats are scoring so many points. It’s getting to the point where I’m sure lesser teams in the back of their mind are just going to be thinking “Ok, hopefully they won’t beat us too badly.”
I mean really, if you are any other team other than the Colts, you are thinking in order to beat this team we have to:
A) Play our A game and make ZERO mistakes
B) Hope they turn the ball over 5 times
C) Score off all those turnovers
That’s it. That’s your game plan. And I think a lot of that mentality is coming from NE showing no mercy and not calling off the dogs. They are literally scoring at will.
And when other teams see that, and see them scoring 48 and 52 points like it’s nothing, it has to be psychologically demoralizing when you all of a sudden are down 14-0. Because you’ve seen it before and you know they aren’t going to let up and let your D get some cheap 3-and-outs and let you sneak back into the game. It’s not gonna happen.
So to me, I think all this talk of running up the score is serving to create a very real psychological edge for this team. And I’m all for it.
I remember watching those games and thinking, “Man, no one is going to beat the Cowboys. This sucks.”
Now since then, there have been some good dominant teams. The late 90s Broncos coming closest to those Cowboys teams.
But I don’t think there has been a team with the aura of invincibility that this Pats team has. Again, the question isn’t are they going to beat you. It’s by how much.
To me, I think this psychological edge is a big reason why the Pats are scoring so many points. It’s getting to the point where I’m sure lesser teams in the back of their mind are just going to be thinking “Ok, hopefully they won’t beat us too badly.”
I mean really, if you are any other team other than the Colts, you are thinking in order to beat this team we have to:
A) Play our A game and make ZERO mistakes
B) Hope they turn the ball over 5 times
C) Score off all those turnovers
That’s it. That’s your game plan. And I think a lot of that mentality is coming from NE showing no mercy and not calling off the dogs. They are literally scoring at will.
And when other teams see that, and see them scoring 48 and 52 points like it’s nothing, it has to be psychologically demoralizing when you all of a sudden are down 14-0. Because you’ve seen it before and you know they aren’t going to let up and let your D get some cheap 3-and-outs and let you sneak back into the game. It’s not gonna happen.
So to me, I think all this talk of running up the score is serving to create a very real psychological edge for this team. And I’m all for it.