Conventional "Wisdom"
 

1) The AFC South is the best division in football.

Ignoring intra-division games (every division is by definition .500 against itself), the AFC South is 11-2. Sounds impressive. Who was that against?

Atlanta (3 times)
Tampa Bay (2 times)
New Orleans (2 times)
Carolina
Denver (2 times)
Kansas City (2 times)
Miami

So 8 of those 13 games were played against the NFC South...the division where bad teams go to die. Plus a sucky, underachieving Denver team. Plus a sucky, overachieving KC team. Plus a sucky, unachieving Miami team. Yeeesh!

2) The Patriots are a one-dimensional passing team.

They sure do seem to be passing a lot on the highlight clips. How do they compare to other teams?

Team ATT/G
==== =====
1 GB 41.2
2 NO 41.2
3 BAL 39.3
4 CIN 37.3
5 STL 36.9
...
18 NE 33.1

Hmmmmm, maybe the Pats just don't run effectively then. So let's compare them to the Steelers...every sports jockey's favorite smash-mouth team:

Team ATT/G YDS/ATT
==== ===== =======
2 PIT 33.5 4.7
5 NE 32 4.2

The Pats run almost as much. But what about that 1/2 yard difference per attempt? Let's isolate just the primary ballcarriers to filter out the statistical noise:

Player(s) ATT/G YDS/ATT
======= ===== =======
Morris/Maroney 20.7 4.6
Parker/Davenport 28.6 4.7

So the Pats run just as much as the Steelers. And they have similar success running with their key backs (ignoring reverses, kneel-downs, etc.). But the Steelers are a strong, confident running team and the Pats are unwilling and unable to run? Seriously?

3) The Pats run up the score on obviously beaten opponents.

The Pats are winning by over 3 TDs per game. How could they not be running up the score? Let's look at the Pats' TD drives that started in the 4th quarter and see if they look suspicious:

GAME TIME SCORE PASSES RUSHES
==== ==== ===== ====== ======
at Jets 6:02 31-14 2 6
SD 13:25 31-14 6 10
at CIN 9:04 27-13 6 3
CLE 14:10 20-10 6 3
at DAL 14:34 31-24 1 3
at DAL 3:45 41-27 2 5
at MIA 10:30 42-21 3 2

Based on the comebacks we've seen to date, you still have to play with 10 minutes left regardless of the score. The Pats tried to throttle down on the Miami game, but the Dolphins didn't cooperate. The Jets and Dallas TDs might be suspect, but the Pats basically just ran the ball to run out the clock. They just happened to reach the end zone before time ran out. Contrary to what some have reported, the Pats couldn't have run out the Dallas game by taking a knee (Timeout #3 by DAL at 01:48 stopped the clock).

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

HOLY CRAP that's a phenomenal post. GREAT job. Thanks for the insight and the time and work. Newbie of the F-ing YEAR.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

good logical post.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

Excellent. Good to see someone actually back up their arguments after some of the garbage articles we've seen today!

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

As opposed to this garbage on Extremeskins.com, your homeboard where you go to insult the fans here, along with your fellow clown blriesenbeck07.

Here's your post:

Run along, troll. There are a lot of quality posters on that site. It's just too bad that you decided not to be one here.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

Have I not tried being logical?

read some of my posts on here.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

Now now, take that to another thread. Don't hijack this excellent statistical logic in favor of ripping an opposing teams poster.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

I've read them. If you truly want to talk football and are annoyed by some of the less hospitable posters here (and I don't blame you for that), just use the ignore function. There's no need, however, to go attacking an entire forum based upon a handful of people behaving like idiots. As I said, your forum has a lot of quality posters. Be a positive ambassador for it.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

No worries. The Pats are pretty polarizing at this point so emotions can sometimes get the best of us. Best way to get around that is to take a step back and separate the facts from the perceptions (theme of this thread).

Every team fights this to some degree. "The Skins are a bunch of high priced free agent busts that can't play as a team." That ignores the good young talent the Skins have on both sides of the ball that they can build around. Definitely a team on the upswing.

Re: Conventional "Wisdom"
 

The Redskins are in the same boat as the Patriots, in a way. Everyone hates the Patriots because they win, and everyone hates the Redskins because they 'win' the offseason'. Both situations piss off the opposition. The main difference between the two teams seems to be that Kraft learned his lesson from the disaster of interfering too much during the Parcells era, and Snyder has not yet learned that lesson. If Snyder would stop giving away draft picks like they were candy on Halloween, Washington could become a quality team in very little time.