Can we stop freaking out?

This team always thrives after some kind of adversity; whether its a tough loss, a scandal, or general trolling from the media, "They hate their coach". When the team feels disrespected, they get that extra edge which fuels their focus and determination and gives them the underdog mentality that Brady and Belichick seem to love. This was a tough loss. The first loss in almost a year. But if it burns a fire under the team and propels them to another Lombardi, lets take it.

In the span of an hour, the Pats lost their stranglehold on a bye and lost their best (and only) offensive weapon for the year. It was stunning and devastating. Miraculously, Gronk appears to be OK, so people are feeling better now. Late Sunday night though, between the loss, the way it was lost (refs), Gronk's injury, this insane string of injuries, and all the crap we went through this offseason, I just sat there in the dark wondering why in the hell I invest my time in this. It was pretty bleak. I'm feeling better now, all is well, but I can understand some of the emotional rants after that debacle.

Freaking out over losing Gronk is understandable.

Freaking out over losing the 1st game of the year after Tday in overtime to a tough defense that is 9-2 is absurd.

If this team has everyone healthy (save Lewis) on Jan 10 they will win the SB again

ausbacker said:

Freaking out? I just watched an NFL officiating crew openly fix the result of a supposed contest after the Patriots and their star QB spent an offseason needlessly defending their integrity because a couple of butthurt *****es and a corrupt commissioner got their panties in a knot.

I can't wait to see the NFL's Patriots hatchet job in the meadowlands later this season.

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Aus, my reaction was the same during the game. I was absolutely LIVID at how EVERY SINGLE CALL late in that game went against NE. How the refs flagged Gronk and Jackson and Chung for things they let Denver get away with (and worse).

But I don't think it's a fix job.

From (Offensive, Defensive, and Special Teams Penalties - 2015 - NFL Penalty Stats Tracker - List/Statistics/Data of NFL Penalties - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015): New England is 18th in the league in penalties called against them, with 74. They are just 10 penalties above the 32nd team in the league (Pittsburgh, at 64), but 35 behind the league leader (Tampa at 109). The Patriots have the fewest defensive penalties called against them in the entire league, at 19. They are 6th in special teams penalties (blocks in the back, etc.), but that's partly a function of how many times they force the other team to punt, so they get more chances for those kinds of penalties than other teams do.

So it doesn't appear to be an open conspiracy. Or at least, the numbers don't suggest it.

I don't know exactly what's going on - I think it's more than just simple incompetence. I think they have been told to look out for Gronk, and so they're calling stuff on him they just don't on other players. If you take away Gronk's 6 OPI penalties (I think that's the number), the Patriots fall to 29th in the league in total penalties called against them, just 4 above Pittsburgh. So again, the numbers don't suggest an NFL conspiracy against them.

Even though it sure as hell feels like one.

And no, I don't trust the NFL. At all.

Freaking out is a hallmark of this board.. from the draft(BB does not know what he is doing), signing FA's(why did they sign that guy when they could have signed this guy), moving on from binkies(we are now officially doomed) to personnel decisions(BB is an idiot)...

Look the body of evidence and how well everyone else is doing in this league.. thank god this venue did not exist in the early 90's...

Best 2 defenders out (Collins and Hightower)
2 of the top 3 receivers out (Edelman and Amendola)
Gronk out for the last few series
#3 CB out


Still took blatant ref bias and a muffed punt for them to get to OT and more ref bias in OT to win (no holding called on Talib and then no holding called on Davis who held McCourty who had a chance to make a tackle on the TD)

Pats win by 14-17 points with Collins, Hightower, Edelman and Amendola.

Must suck for Denver to realize if they see the Pat again in the playoffs and they are healthier that even blatant ref bias won't help them.

The game threads are pathetic, but I don't think the general board is "freaking out" at all.

DShero said:

Early last year after week 4 we were all doom and gloom about our team and yet our GOAT coach and GOAT QB proved us wrong again and won a fourth Super Bowl.

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Speak for yourself.

JMC00 said:

Best 2 defenders out (Collins and Hightower)
2 of the top 3 receivers out (Edelman and Amendola)
Gronk out for the last few series
#3 CB out


Still took blatant ref bias and a muffed punt for them to get to OT and more ref bias in OT to win (no holding called on Talib and then no holding called on Davis who held McCourty who had a chance to make a tackle on the TD)

Pats win by 14-17 points with Collins, Hightower, Edelman and Amendola.

Must suck for Denver to realize if they see the Pat again in the playoffs and they are healthier that even blatant ref bias won't help them.

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They are *****ing about Ward and Sylvester being out.

robertweathers said:

They are *****ing about Ward and Sylvester being out.

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Even with them playing it doesn't change my opinion. Both were on the field when the Pats went 50 yards in 4 plays and scored.

DShero said:

Early last year after week 4 we were all doom and gloom about our team and yet our GOAT coach and GOAT QB proved us wrong again and won a fourth Super Bowl. Yes we have a lot of injured players but we are (lucky?) the injuries happened when they did. We have a positive outlook on most of our injured players and they should be ready for the playoffs. I don't even care if we have the 6th seed. WE know we are better than every team out there and can beat them on their field, our field, a field made out of spaghetti, it doesn't matter. I think we can go 4-1 the rest of the way (AT WORST) but if we don't it really doesn't matter. We are the best team in the LEAGUE with our best players available and it's not even close.

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we need the 2 seed, but hopefully the one seed.. HFA will be huge to get the repeat. I don't care about the one loss other than how it impacted the potential seed in BOTH directions. (It was quite a swing in standings on a game blown and/or a game that should have been a win.)

PS: You are right about the injuries. They do suck, but we can still get HFA with our guys mostly coming back by playoffs, some even somewhat rested. (Gronk perhaps)

As others have said if they were freaking out over gronk that is totally understandable. You lose gronk and your sb chances take such a drastic hit. I'm still annoyed over the loss, but knowing gronk will be fine keeps me on the sb train.

DShero said:

Exactly. We are not even close to full strength. (70%)? and we almost beat an 8-2 team in their house. And they had to be helped extensively by the officials. This is why I am not worried. If the NFL is dumb enough to do another screw job on national TV during the playoffs then that's their own fault, and it WILL NOT be received well, considering how even patriots haters received this latest screw job.

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I hope the NFL is not dumb enough to screw them in the playoffs, but I don't have any confidence in that. I would have thought the commissioner would not have been dumb enough to lie about Brady's testimony in his ruling of the appeal, but once the judge made the testimony public, we learned he blatantly lied. He lied about his testimony and then used that lie to find him guilty. It's despicable and he was not held accountable for it. So why would I expect fairness in a playoff game after watching Sunday night's game?

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... Let's face it, the league is corrupt and they have a vendetta against the Patriots. These are facts. I was hoping it wouldn't affect the officiating, but Sunday's game wasn't bad luck or a coincidence.

DShero said:

...Yes we have a lot of injured players but we are (lucky?) the injuries happened when they did. We have a positive outlook on most of our injured players and they should be ready for the playoffs.

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If this were true, I'd feel much better about it. Much.

Most of the injured players will not be back for the playoffs. Develin, Roberts, Fletcher, Johnson, Brown, Solder, Dobson, Lewis, Wendell, Gibson.

This board has rose colored glasses about Edelman's productive return. He might be able to heal up and play again this year, and even then, at what level? This injury is notoriously unpredictable for duration. We can only hope and pray. Amendola, Hightower, Gronk, all have weakened knees.

Collins, Coleman, Amendola, Hightower, Gronk, and Williams will probably be back at some point in the season; all are either Out, Doubtful, or Questionable against the Eagles. Going into this week, the Pats injury list is the longest in the league.

What's truly remarkable is that ALL of the other teams with lengthy IR lists have losing records. The Ravens (14), Giants (10), Redskins (10), and Pats (10) are the teams with double digit lists.
The Steelers, Bills, Lions, and Eagles have 8 or 9.

The other strong teams are like this:
Denver: 2
Cincinnati: 2
Carolina: 3
Arizona: 5
Green Bay: 5
Minnesota: 6

Another amazing, almost incomprehensible coaching and GM'ing job by the Pats.

I'm not worried about the Patriots being good enough to win the Super Bowl this season

I am however a little concerned about goodell's refs doing everything possible to prevent it from happening

DShero said:

I'm just tired of the negativity after a loss. Yes we all know we didn't lose that game. The refs won it for the Broncos. But it DOESN'T MATTER. We will be okay.

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The optimism is nice and there a lot of people who aren't freaking out, but are justifiably pissed! That game may not matter in the end, but you don't know that yet. Those refs could've screwed the Pats out of HFA throughout the playoffs and IMO that does matter.

But wait, freaking out about something I'm emotionally invested in but which has no real bearing on my life is how I avoid freaking out about an upcoming deadline!

And I have an upcoming deadline, and I'm not nearly done the book!

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Thanks a lot, OP.

betterthanthealternative said:

Most of the injured players will not be back for the playoffs. Develin, Roberts, Fletcher, Johnson, Brown, Solder, Dobson, Lewis, Wendell, Gibson.

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Develin, Roberts, Fletcher, and Gibson never played 1 snap of the regular season.

Johnson and Wendell barely played before going on IR

As for Dobson is really that big of a lose once Amendola is back with LaFell and Martin playing? One was the last time you saw Dobson do what Martin did in the game Sunday, which was getting open deep and make a clutch big time play. Sucks because the biased refs through a ******** flag to bail the broncos out.

Solder, Lewis and Brown are the significant ones

ausbacker said:

Freaking out? I just watched an NFL officiating crew openly fix the result of a supposed contest after the Patriots and their star QB spent an offseason needlessly defending their integrity because a couple of butthurt *****es and a corrupt commissioner got their panties in a knot.

I can't wait to see the NFL's Patriots hatchet job in the meadowlands later this season.

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You sound convinced. Why will you continue watching the product? Just curious.