Can the Pats do right for Brady at this critical juncture?

Danger Zone said:

Thats a tough one.

I do know I never, ever, ever want to be without a true #1 CB again.

But god, the Moss years were just a thing of beauty (to say nothing of what if Brady had an elite wr too comeuppance)

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I would love it if Brady had Johnson, Green, etc... but those guys aren't available, Jackson isn't anywhere near that conversation. Revis impacts every defensive snap and like Moss is a first Ballot Hall of famer, for me it is no question at all, I would take Revis every time.

Ivan said:

I would love it if Brady had Johnson, Green, etc... but those guys aren't available, Jackson isn't anywhere near that conversation. Revis impacts every defensive snap and like Moss is a first Ballot Hall of famer, for me it is no question at all, I would take Revis every time.

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I would too if it left us without a true #1 cb. But 24 million is a LOT of money to pay 1 player.

Deus Irae said:

Just this century:

Peyton Manning's only SB win was with a team that was a great offense and ordinary defense (#2 offense, #23 defense)

The 2007 Giants were #14 in offense and #17 in defense

The 2011 Giants were #9 in offense and #25 in defense


The myth of "defense wins championships" is just that. It's a myth. Teams win championships, and not always the best teams. Lucky/hot teams sometimes beat the best teams.

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I do agree that the best team doesn't always win. But I still have yet to see a team with an all-world offense singlehandedly carry them all the way to a title even with an ordinary defense. I suspect I never will....

Regarding 2006, I would say the defense carried Manning and his 77 passer rating in the playoffs to the title. Once Bob Sanders got healthy the difference in that D was like night and day.

2007 is a textbook example of how easy it is for great offenses to get shut down by great defense in a championship. The Giants defense did get hot toward the end of that season iirc. The 2011 Giants also beat a team that had a good offense and a putrid defense. Not surprisingly, said putrid defense couldn't make a stop when they needed to.

sb1 said:

I do agree that the best team doesn't always win. But I still have yet to see a team with an all-world offense singlehandedly carry them all the way to a title even with an ordinary defense. I suspect I never will....

Regarding 2006, I would say the defense carried Manning and his 77 passer rating in the playoffs to the title. Once Bob Sanders got healthy the difference in that D was like night and day.

2007 is a textbook example of how easy it is for great offenses to get shut down by great defense in a championship. The Giants defense did get hot toward the end of that season iirc. The 2011 Giants also beat a team that had a good offense and a putrid defense. Not surprisingly, said putrid defense couldn't make a stop when they needed to.

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Or 2013...

sb1 said:

I do agree that the best team doesn't always win. But I still have yet to see a team with an all-world offense singlehandedly carry them all the way to a title even with an ordinary defense. I suspect I never will....

Regarding 2006, I would say the defense carried Manning and his 77 passer rating in the playoffs to the title. Once Bob Sanders got healthy the difference in that D was like night and day.

2007 is a textbook example of how easy it is for great offenses to get shut down by great defense in a championship. The Giants defense did get hot toward the end of that season iirc. The 2011 Giants also beat a team that had a good offense and a putrid defense. Not surprisingly, said putrid defense couldn't make a stop when they needed to.

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Bob Sanders gets way too much credit for Indy's 2006 SB. What changed in the playoffs is Indy getting lucky and facing two inept passing offenses the first two weeks, allowing them to sell out entirely against the run with their front seven. It also helped that neither Herm nor Billick seemed to recognize this fact at all, KC not doing play action on first down a single time all game. Then the SB was against the awful Rex Grossman. Indy faced one competent offense and was eaten up until the RBs started dropping and Neal got hurt.

As for 2011, no matter what team lost, it was going to be a team with a good offense and a putrid defense. And stops are much harder to come by at the end of games than most Pats fans seem to realize. 2001, 2003 and 2004 all demonstrate this, as did 2007 (for both teams).

sb1 said:

I do agree that the best team doesn't always win. But I still have yet to see a team with an all-world offense singlehandedly carry them all the way to a title even with an ordinary defense. I suspect I never will....

Regarding 2006, I would say the defense carried Manning and his 77 passer rating in the playoffs to the title. Once Bob Sanders got healthy the difference in that D was like night and day.

2007 is a textbook example of how easy it is for great offenses to get shut down by great defense in a championship. The Giants defense did get hot toward the end of that season iirc. The 2011 Giants also beat a team that had a good offense and a putrid defense. Not surprisingly, said putrid defense couldn't make a stop when they needed to.

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No offense, but you don't get to point to the defense numbers and ignore the offense numbers. It sure as hell wasn't the Patriots defense that won the 2003 Super Bowl against the Panthers, for example (32-29 final score), and the Steelers put 27 points on the board in 2004.

I love the old NFL, with power running games butting up against strong defenses. But the notion that defenses can win championships, but offenses don't, is simply not true.

Deus Irae said:

No offense, but you don't get to point to the defense numbers and ignore the offense numbers. It sure as hell wasn't the Patriots defense that won the 2003 Super Bowl against the Panthers, for example (32-29 final score), and the Steelers put 27 points on the board in 2004.

I love the old NFL, with power running games butting up against strong defenses. But the notion that defenses can win championships, but offenses don't, is simply not true.

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The Pats D was dominating that game for much of the first half before losing 2 key members of the secondary.

Galeb said:

The Pats D was dominating that game for much of the first half before losing 2 key members of the secondary.

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The Patriots offense won the game. The Patriots defense got lit up. Hell, we can just flip this for 2007 and 2011:

The Pats O scored to give the team the lead in the 4th quarter both times. It was the defense that cost the games. The offense was good enough.

Galeb said:

The Pats D was dominating that game for much of the first half before losing 2 key members of the secondary.

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They lost Geno on the long TD and Rodney on Carolina's final drive. Neither losses had anything to do with Carolina's offensive turnaround. What happened is that the Cats started running more jump balls and their receivers outmuscled NE's DBs.