If you needed to win just ONE game...

I spend a lot of time on OrangeMane.com. They're a fun bunch. Either that or I'm suffering from self inflicted Stockholm syndrome. Anyway we were talking about the 2008 vs 2009 Pats and it got me to thinking:

If you needed to win ONE game. Super Bowl vs the NFC rep. Would you go with the 2008 Patriots or 2009 Patriots with all players healthy EXCEPT Cassel starts in 2008 and Brady starts in 2009?

To me it's easily the 2008 Pats. Showed a thousand times more heart than the 2009 squad showed. But it may not be as easy for you all to say.

2008 roster (starters):

QB Cassel
RB Maroney/Faulk
WR Randy Moss
WR Wes Welker
WR Jabar Gaffney
TE Ben Watson
LT Matt Light
LG Logan Mankins
C Dan Koppen
RG Steve Neal
RT Nick Kaczur

DE Richard Seymour
DE Ty Warren
NT Vince Wilfork
LB Tedy Bruschi
LB Jerod Mayo
LB Adalius Thomas
LB Mike Vrabel
LCB Deltha O'Neal
RCB Ellis Hobbs
SS Brandon Meriweather
FS James Sanders

2009 roster (starters)

QB Brady
RB Morris/Faulk
WR Randy Moss
WR Wes Welker
TE Ben Watson
TE Chris Baker
LT Matt Light
LG Logan Mankins
C Dan Koppen
RG Steve Neal
RT Nick Kaczur

DE Jarvis Green
DE Ty Warren
NT Vince Wilfork
LB Gary Guyton
LB Jerod Mayo
LB Tully Banta-Cain
LB Adalius Thomas
LCB Shawn Springs
RCB Leigh Bodden
SS Brandon Meriweather
FS Brandon McGowan

I agree with you. The 08 team was really good despite missing Brady. The 09 team was pretty damn bad despite having him. Clone these guys and put them on a neutral playing site and the 08 team wins by 20.

Elijah said:

I agree with you. The 08 team was really good despite missing Brady. The 09 team was pretty damn bad despite having him. Clone these guys and put them on a neutral playing site and the 08 team wins by 20.

Click to expand...

Agreed. It's so easy to see the impact of veteran leadership looking at the two teams. No Bruschi, Vrabel, Seymour to keep nutcases like Adalius Thomas (and to some extent Randy but that was more about 2010) reigned in

IIRC, the 2008 team would've been playing the Cardinals in the SB, a team they destroyed late in the season. Although Arizona might've had their season tied up before playing the Patriots.

I remember seeing Matt Lienhert (sp) on the sideline. He was like making more money sitting on the bench for that one game than Cassel would make starting for the year.

I would never take any team over a Tommy LomBrady led team.

Yea it's too bad Broadway Bart couldn't lead the Jests to a win when we needed them. I don't know how the Pats would've done in the postseason but I so bad wanted to see that team play more games. Not like the 2009 team

1960Pats said:

I would never take any team over a Tommy LomBrady led team.

Click to expand...

I like the sentiment but I might take Ryan Tannehill and the Crimson Tide over Tom Brady leading the Point of View Elementary School Panthers. There's definitely a limit

the 08 team was more consistent in it could beat bad and average teams but not good ones.

09 got beat more but it had the potentially to beat good teams.

I can never choose any team without Brady at the helm if he is an available option. So with all the advantages of the 2008 team, I'm still choosing the 2009 team . . . especially if I only needed to win one game. Have we not seen Brady will his team to victory before?

I remember the 2009 defense failing us far too many times in the fourth quarter of an away game to put trust into the 2009 team as a whole

I'm trying to figure out why Broncos fans would be interested in discussing that, or why you would be interested in discussing it with them.

aluminum seats said:

I'm trying to figure out why Broncos fans would be interested in discussing that, or why you would be interested in discussing it with them.

Click to expand...

Manning HGH turned to Brady v Manning turned to 2008 Brady-less Pats vs 2011 Manning-less Colts. And I like to hear from people who don't pretty much agree with everything I say. I have to actually argue in favor of the Patriots there. Here I'm just preachin to the choir

A Defiant Goose said:

Yea it's too bad Broadway Bart couldn't lead the Jests to a win when we needed them. I don't know how the Pats would've done in the postseason but I so bad wanted to see that team play more games. Not like the 2009 team

Click to expand...

I think they would have been out in the first round. People overrate that team because of the schedule they faced. With Brady, they had the potential to go to the Super Bowl. With Cassel? My guess would be out in the Wild Card round.

KontradictioN said:

I think they would have been out in the first round. People overrate that team because of the schedule they faced. With Brady, they had the potential to go to the Super Bowl. With Cassel? My guess would be out in the Wild Card round.

Click to expand...

I agree I don't think they would have made it too far, especially not past Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. But for sentimental purposes, I really loved that team and wanted just one more week of them. I still remember that Thursday Night Football last second pass to Moss against the Jets. One of my favorite Pats plays of the BB/Brady era

A Defiant Goose said:

I agree I don't think they would have made it too far, especially not past Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. But for sentimental purposes, I really loved that team and wanted just one more week of them. I still remember that Thursday Night Football last second pass to Moss against the Jets. One of my favorite Pats plays of the BB/Brady era

Click to expand...

That was a good game. I was watching it with my roommate at the time at a sports bar. I got pissed off, left, and went home. Then got the score on the ESPN bottom line when the Pats were coming back and rushed back out to the same bar again. I think, in a head to head match-up, the 2008 Pats probably beat the 2009 Pats. That 2009 team was just bad all over the place and Brady was still a little shaky in his recovery.

The '09 team had a lot of injuries. Welker was banged up all season, Moss was hurt, and the game we remember most was played without Welker while Brady had broken ribs and fingers. Yes, they underperformed and had attitude issues, but that putrid playoff game taints that overall, Tom Brady was the number 1 ranked QB on football outsiders due to playing a historically difficult schedule of defenses. As I recall, the '08 team with Cassell got absolutely pasted against playoff-level opponents. I'll take the Brady team.

If i need to win one game I'll take a healthy 2007 patriots team.

chasa said:

If i need to win one game I'll take a healthy 2007 patriots team.

Click to expand...

well no ****

You have to completely throw away the 2011 Colts, they are not comparable to the 2008 Pats. The Colts had months to come up with a replacement. They chose Curtis Painter and 40 year old Kerry Collins. We had no choice but to start Cassell. And if we didn't have Cassell, we had who? Cause I can't remember.

If Brady remained healthy, they were going to pummel Pittsburgh that year on the way to the Superbowl. The Cardinals had no chance. Funny that Brady's injury helped the Big Ben get through again. I was so pissed off about that for years.

Thanks to "I was blocked into him, yet managed to get up and walk three steps" Pollard, we'll never know.

That team was coming off an 18-1 season, and went downhill to an 11-5 record, which for that year, caused us to miss the playoffs. And they were playing great at the end, turns out the Jets losing to the Dolphins cost us the season. The Jets, again, cost us the season. With Brett Favre, who, it was later announced, had an injury being withheld from the weekly reports.

How many infractions can a Patriots fan count on one finger that the Pats have been called to the carpet for, compared to the Jets? Repeat offenders? Not if you wear Green and White.

A Defiant Goose said:

Yea it's too bad Broadway Bart couldn't lead the Jests to a win when we needed them. I don't know how the Pats would've done in the postseason but I so bad wanted to see that team play more games. Not like the 2009 team

Click to expand...

The one thing people forget is that the 2008 team suffered a 2015-like war of attrition down the home stretch.