Lets be honest we overachieved in a strange season

Going into the season we expected things to be very different.

1) Offense - We went into the season with Gronk injured, Hernandez in jail, Welker/Woodhead gone. But we thought our passing game would carry us. Amendola would replace WW, Vereen was as good or an upgrade over Woodhead, Sudfeld would hold the fort until Gronk comes back and one of KT/Dobson would step up. The run game would be fine.
-What happened was the opposite. Amendola struggled, Vereen was great when he played but was injured often, Sudfeld was a pre-season player and Dobson/KT/Boyce didn't do much. Edelman emerged (4th on the depth chart in pre-season), but this was not an elite offense with our lack of weapons. Even our run game was inconsistent (turnovers a problem)

2) Defense - We thought our front 7 would carry us and our secondary was an issue. Wilson should help, we haven't had a good safety since Rodney.
-They started out awesome. But we lost 2 all-pro's in Wilfork and Mayo. Tommy Kelly was out, Wilson didn't play, Spikes played injured, Hightower was inconsistent. Jones was very good and maybe a star in Collins. Our secondary turned out to be our strongpoint, McCourty was great, Talib/Dennard when healthy were great. The defense carried us, and none of us saw that coming.

What a crazy season.

Saying that if Wilfork/Mayo are healthy and regain form, we will have a top 10 defense. I expect to see some upgrade/changes in the offense. We're built for 2014

Yes they over achieved this season but only because the front office put them in such a bad position from the start. They had to over achieve considering what they were up against. In the end the season was a waste when the only goal in NE is supposed to be a SB. The front office needs to figure out how to load this team again and get Brady some help.

Some recent over achievers have won the Superbowls, as I do think they overachieved, I still am disappointed in their performance yesterday, they are better than that.

Agree with the overall sentiment. They did overachieve and in reality they had too many injuries to overcome. What's so disappointing his how they did not show up yesterday. There are currently APB's out for Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich and Danny Amendola.
None has been seen for the past 24 hours.

Think back through this season... a lot of entertainment value... the comebacks against the Saints, the Browns, the Broncos, the Dolphins...

...and losing so many people for so long...

...it really is a testament to all that they made it to the AFCCG. And although I put most of the blame for that loss on Belichick, he still got them 12 regular season wins and a playoff win.

If you were rooting for anyone besides the Seahawks and Broncos, you'd consider this one HECK of a year.

Yes, they absolutely overachieved. The season was assembled with scotch tape and bubble gum.

It irritated me quite a bit when yesterday morning on the ESPN pre-game show one of the local morons (I think it was Cris Carter) said "these 4 teams are the 4 teams we all expected at the beginning of the season to be here today."

THAT WAS 100% REVISIONIST HISTORY BULL****.

ESPN had the Patriots going 9-7. They were predicting Denver versus Cincy or Houston or Pittsburgh. IIRC, they didn't even have us winning the division.

oldrover said:

Think back through this season... a lot of entertainment value... the comebacks against the Saints, the Browns, the Broncos, the Dolphins...

...and losing so many people for so long...

...it really is a testament to all that they made it to the AFCCG. And although I put most of the blame for that loss on Belichick, he still got them 12 regular season wins and a playoff win.

If you were rooting for anyone besides the Seahawks and Broncos, you'd consider this one HECK of a year.

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It made for fantastic television!

Texxx said:

Yes they over achieved this season but only because the front office put them in such a bad position from the start. They had to over achieve considering what they were up against. In the end the season was a waste when the only goal in NE is supposed to be a SB. The front office needs to figure out how to load this team again and get Brady some help.

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BS

The front office put them into a position to win it all, and then after half the team went to Ir/Prison, the team STILL CAME WITHIN 1 GAME of the superbowl.

This isnt about the front office, its about a really ******* deep team, with one of the best coaches and QB's ever showing that when other teams lose 1 player and then lose 15 straight games, the patriots are a team that will give it everything they have got.

I hate that they laid an egg against a rival like Seyton, but I still stood up and clapped for this team for one hell of a performance this season. With everything that happened and the amount of adversity this team faced, even a well-coached team would have struggled to win their division let alone get to the AFCCG.

Like I said I won't be down on this group. They entertained me, and you can't ask for more than that as a fan.

WIth that said... yeah they overachieved this year but they won't be so fortunate next year if they stick with the status quo. Lots of work to do if the goal is to get Brady and Bill one more ring before the window shuts....

chasa said:

BS

The front office put them into a position to win it all, and then after half the team went to Ir/Prison, the team STILL CAME WITHIN 1 GAME of the superbowl.

This isnt about the front office, its about a really ******* deep team, with one of the best coaches and QB's ever showing that when other teams lose 1 player and then lose 15 straight games, the patriots are a team that will give it everything they have got.

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+1. What the Patriots did this year is mind blowing considering all the talent they lost. If most teams lost the amount of talent the Patriots did, they'd struggle to go 3-13. Hell, most teams don't even have the talent which the Patriots lost to injury/prison.

sb1 said:

Like I said I won't be down on this group. They entertained me, and you can't ask for more than that as a fan.

WIth that said... yeah they overachieved this year but they won't be so fortunate next year if they stick with the status quo. Lots of work to do if the goal is to get Brady and Bill one more ring before the window shuts....

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I am not saying they should stand pat, but I will say this:

If the Patriots stay healthy, they are the best team in football, bar none. I think Gronkowski + Mayo + Talib + Wilfork > 10 points.

SB39 said:

I am not saying they should stand pat, but I will say this:

If the Patriots stay healthy, they are the best team in football, bar none. I think Gronkowski + Mayo + Talib + Wilfork > 10 points.

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I agree with the overall sentiment of this thread, i.e., most true fans are happy with this team this year. This was a likable team that played hard, didn't beat themselves and won more than their share of close games. OTOH, I don't think this team is that talented, even with the IR guys back. They need another safety, another corner above Arrington on the depth chart, another DE (Ninkovich and Jones played almost every down this year), another TE, a split end, and a center. I'm not convinced Wilfork is going to be able to get back to last year's form (he didn't look good even before his injury). If that's true, then DT is also a need. Mankins, Amendola and Wilfork have cap numbers that are out of line with their performance, which limits their cap flexibility. Lots of challenges for BB and Co. this off-season, IMO.

We had a good year but its on to the next.

The Pats need to get another corner and try to keep talib to

we have to makes some offseason moves


just think


Talib

Brent grimes

dennard

that is a great secondary

We overachieved but unlike the other teams that overachieved, the 2007 Giants, 2010 Packers, 2011 Giants and 2012 Ravens we peaked a couple weeks too early. We were absolutely stellar against Indianapolis and back to mediocre yesterday.

Texxx said:

Yes they over achieved this season but only because the front office put them in such a bad position from the start. They had to over achieve considering what they were up against. In the end the season was a waste when the only goal in NE is supposed to be a SB. The front office needs to figure out how to load this team again and get Brady some help.

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The front office pinned those murdrs on Hernandez? Then they infected Gronk's arm, tore Vince's achilles and Mayo's chest muscle and broke Vereen's wrist!

Must be a tax dodge or something.

They ended up having to patch and scheme on both offense and defense, yet when Peyton was errorless and their D pinched off our running game, we were still moving toward the end somehow, only 10 points.

We could have won, but it would have required perfect play passing and running, because we just didn't have enough left to dominate on offense or defense.

Any other team would have faded out mid season with a "wait til next year." I'm damn proud of their effort.

It could have been a really bad year but somehow it was really an achievement. Again we had tremendous success at home, some incredible finishes and it almost seemed like we could find a way to a Superbowl win. Alas, reality got in the way. Heart can overcome a lot of shortcomings but ultimately you come up against a team that plays a near flawless game and the party is over.
I was a little disappointed that there seemed to be a missing spark yesterday; but someone had to win and someone had to lose and the Bronco's seemed possessed. I'm guessing that next year's team ends up being much different than we would predict today, that's life in the NFL but if we get this far again that would be pretty special.