Pats Fans are not Spoiled

jmt57 said:

You could also look at it this way: is it realistic to expect the Patriots to keep on winning Super Bowls?

Is it correct to conclude that the Patriots underachieved - when in fact they may have actually been overachieving these past few years?

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Ian said:

That's the problem - this team continues to be great. It's not as if they finished 6-10 or 8-8. They had yet another great year and came up just short of another Super Bowl berth. In all honestly last year's team shouldn't have even gotten there but somehow managed to fight their way into that game but just couldn't finish. To answer your question about the '85 and '95 teams, fans honestly appreciated that more because they realized back then how hard it is to get there.

As for this year, if you look at the discussions earlier this season after a loss, some of the comments were a little reactionary and a little over the top. A lot of people tend to forget they're not going to win every game and that it's not how you start but how you finish. They were better at the end than they were when they started and while everyone is disappointed, it's hard not to appreciate how much this team grew over the season and it just came down to a couple of injuries that ultimately cost them. It's not like they had Gronk, Talib, etc. for the whole game against the Ravens. Those were two key losses along with the injury to Ridley that ultimately turned the game and made them one-dimensional. It's disappointing, but the people who are ready to crucify them with some of the comments I've seen is a little disheartening, especially considering the year they really had.

I'm disappointed too and can't understand why they didn't use Vereen and create mismatches in the passing game the way they did against the Texans. When you consider that with Gronk out and the Ravens likely to flood the middle, they were undermanned and needed to do something...so I have my own issues. As a result I'm O.K. with focusing on specific instances and debating them. It's the people who say "they suck and are never going to win another one" that are enough to make it a little unbearable at times. That doesn't really do anyone any good, and they've been too good for too long to warrant that.

I'm waiting for the first 7-9 season where people completely lose their minds...that should be really interesting

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Ian said:

That's the problem - this team continues to be great. It's not as if they finished 6-10 or 8-8. They had yet another great year and came up just short of another Super Bowl berth. In all honestly last year's team shouldn't have even gotten there but somehow managed to fight their way into that game but just couldn't finish. To answer your question about the '85 and '95 teams, fans honestly appreciated that more because they realized back then how hard it is to get there.

I'm waiting for the first 7-9 season where people completely lose their minds...that should be really interesting

Click to expand...