Does it haunt you thinking about 'COULD have''s?

Blowing the lead in AFC title against the Colts and the 2007 Super Bowl I have yet to recover from.

oldrover said:

You know what I'm talking about. Here's my take:

2001: yes
2002: no way
2003: yes
2004: yes
2005: no, didn't even make it to the AFC Championship
2006: COULD have... the Bears stunk.
2007: COULD have
2008: no way
2009: ditto
2010: see 2005
2011: COULD have
2012: no; we weren't close to beating the Ravens.

...realistically... that's 6 Lombardis instead of 3. Now... I'm thrilled with 3, and the last ten years of football have been AWESOME. But... 6?!?!? Wow. You know what I mean.

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"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past." - Thomas Jefferson

newenglandsports11 said:

2006- Had the Colts at home in the regular season, couldn't do it (Tommy sucked that game) which resulted in going to the noise pumping dome in Indy. Probably would've won if Doug Gabriel and Reche Caldwell weren't the worst receivers we've had since Vincent Brisby in 95'

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Even that would have been OK if the defense hadn't all been literally sick (norovirus is my guess). I remember 2-3 players being listed as questionable with "flu" in the days leading up to the game and an article from one of the beat writers at the same time saying that quite a few more not listed at all looked like "death warmed over". The reports of dehydration during the game fit in well with that.

Mike the Brit said:

As 2008. They were playing great football with Matt Cassel by the end of that season -- annihilated the Cardinals, for instance, who went to the Superbowl. If the Jets hadn't kept them out of the play-offs, who knows? I think they could have done a "Giants".

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Agreed. When they were eliminated on the final day I figured "oh well, they wouldn't have gotten far". Then I saw the "quality" of play in the AFC playoffs that year.

They would have been right in the mix if they had made the big dance.

newenglandsports11 said:

2005- If Tommy throws a TD instead of a pick and ensuing 99 yard return and we take the lead (the defense was playing well that game), then we get a home playoff game vs the Steelers

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Of course, it should have been our ball at our own 20 after that play. That was not a TD for Bailey, but Idiot Triplette demonstrated that he failed remedial geometry.

To be honest, 06' bothered me more then 07' because it was peyton and the colts.

When you think about it, were a handful of plays away from having 3 more championships

oldrover said:

You know what I'm talking about. Here's my take:

2001: yes
2002: no way
2003: yes
2004: yes
2005: no, didn't even make it to the AFC Championship
2006: COULD have... the Bears stunk.
2007: COULD have
2008: no way
2009: ditto
2010: see 2005
2011: COULD have
2012: no; we weren't close to beating the Ravens.

...realistically... that's 6 Lombardis instead of 3. Now... I'm thrilled with 3, and the last ten years of football have been AWESOME. But... 6?!?!? Wow. You know what I mean.

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LOL. Be happy with the ones you have.

Check your greed.

You won three close ones and lost 2 close ones...or more specifically, the team that you root for did. Any given regime goes to FIVE Super Bowls, and you have nothing to be "haunted" about and should count your blessings. Crazy things happen every year, including things to get the Patriots to the Super Bowl. See the tuck rule or Lee Evans not securing that Championship-winning pass in the endzone...ask the Raiders and Ravens about being haunted about those things.

Again, check your greed.

Haunted? Really?

Life's too short to be haunted by something beyond my control. Not happy with something? Find something else to be happy about.

I wouldn't say haunted. Every fan wants to see their team win and the more championships the better, but we can't go home happy all the time.

For some additional perspective, think about teams like the 15-1 Vikings ('98) who didn't make the SB, or the 15-1 Packers ('11) who couldn't even win a playoff game. Manning's Colts and Favre's Packers won one SB each despite having some very good teams over an extended period. Or the Warner/Faulk Rams, who were great for a shorter time period, but produced one championship.

Yes, I'd like to have seen the team win more than three titles, but that's still a terrific accomplishment. They've also been a playoff team for most of the last 12 years. And the years they missed the playoffs, they were in the hunt until the final week.

Maybe we won't see another championship for a long time. Or maybe they win the next two. Either way, I've enjoyed watching this team in the past and am looking forward to what they do in the future.

The 2010 Patriots....almost a forgotten season of the BB/Brady era.

This team SHOULD of went to the superbowl atleast, seriously....what happened?

Brady was an absolute stud this year. The defense was 8th in the league and McCourty was our best CB of the BB era. BJGE/Woody revived the ancient RB core of years past. We smashed the pathetic JEST 45-3 in the regular season. Then...

How did we let Sanchez do that to us? 3 TDs? Once that BJGE screen was picked off, everyone felt uneasy. This game was the prologue to the 2011 Patriots defense as well. McCourty's first bad game as a CB.

One of the least talked about personnel coaching blunders of the BB era: relegating rookie Gronk to blocking duties most of the game while Crumpler played a big receiving role.

This was the only season that BB/Brady pulled a Dungy/Manning. They were clearly the best team in football and choked in the first round.

Why is this thread allowed to exist?

oldrover said:

You know what I'm talking about. Here's my take:

2001: yes
2002: no way
2003: yes
2004: yes
2005: no, didn't even make it to the AFC Championship
2006: COULD have... the Bears stunk.
2007: COULD have
2008: no way
2009: ditto
2010: see 2005
2011: COULD have
2012: no; we weren't close to beating the Ravens.

...realistically... that's 6 Lombardis instead of 3. Now... I'm thrilled with 3, and the last ten years of football have been AWESOME. But... 6?!?!? Wow. You know what I mean.

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Agree with that. But the Pats could also just as easily have only 1 Lombardi....

rlcarr said:

Agreed. When they were eliminated on the final day I figured "oh well, they wouldn't have gotten far". Then I saw the "quality" of play in the AFC playoffs that year.

They would have been right in the mix if they had made the big dance.

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The 08 Pats were peaking at the right time, playing some of their best football at the very end of the season.

I don't think they were a Super Bowl team but I think they would have inflicted some damage there had they gotten in....

2006: we were a deion branch away

2007 still hurts, even now.

Mountain_Commando said:

Why is this thread allowed to exist?

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This thread will haunt me.

i could have been a millionaire if i picked a different scratch ticket

patsinthesnow said:

The 2010 Patriots....almost a forgotten season of the BB/Brady era.

This team SHOULD of went to the superbowl atleast, seriously....what happened?

Brady was an absolute stud this year. The defense was 8th in the league and McCourty was our best CB of the BB era. BJGE/Woody revived the ancient RB core of years past. We smashed the pathetic JEST 45-3 in the regular season. Then...

How did we let Sanchez do that to us? 3 TDs? Once that BJGE screen was picked off, everyone felt uneasy. This game was the prologue to the 2011 Patriots defense as well. McCourty's first bad game as a CB.

One of the least talked about personnel coaching blunders of the BB era: relegating rookie Gronk to blocking duties most of the game while Crumpler played a big receiving role.

This was the only season that BB/Brady pulled a Dungy/Manning. They were clearly the best team in football and choked in the first round.

Click to expand...

I was gonna say the 2010 season as well. They were easily the second best Patriots team after the 2007 squad. An incredibly dominant team, and that's with Gronk barely scratching his potential. Tom Brady deserved his MVP award all the way. (His hair was fabulous that year too)

Bounced by Mark Sanchez and the Jets at home... this actually hurts more than the Super Bowl losses.

oldrover said:

You know what I'm talking about. Here's my take:

2001: yes
2002: no way
2003: yes
2004: yes
2005: no, didn't even make it to the AFC Championship
2006: COULD have... the Bears stunk.
2007: COULD have
2008: no way
2009: ditto
2010: see 2005
2011: COULD have
2012: no; we weren't close to beating the Ravens.

...realistically... that's 6 Lombardis instead of 3. Now... I'm thrilled with 3, and the last ten years of football have been AWESOME. But... 6?!?!? Wow. You know what I mean.

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Certainly one way to look at it. The other is to think how fortunate the Pats were to get three. Consider:

2001: tuck rule, Vinatieri makes miracle 45-yard FG to tie it, should have lost that game to the Raiders, had 2 special teams TDs in Pittsburgh including a blocked FG return for a TD (how often does THAT happen?)

2003: lucky that Kasay kicked the ball out of bounds after Carolina scored to tie it at 29…Pats were without Rodney at that point, as he broke his arm…if the game goes to OT, it's no sure thing the Pats win that game

2004: that was a pretty solid run through the playoffs, no doubt

So you could say that the Pats SHOULD have 5 Lombardis, and COULD have 6, IMO. But you could also say that the Pats COULD only have 1 if they hadn't gotten a few breaks.

So 3 sounds probably about right I guess.

sure, a faceguarding call in 2006, when faceguarding didn't exist is a big "could have". I'm pretty sure that the Pats got the ole "we're sorry, bad call" letter from the NFL for than one.

then in 2007 we had the no holding call / helmet catch / no INT convergence

But some good things did come our way in 2001, with that so-so offense and so-so defense.