Soul_Survivor88
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....The Season Continues (Week 9 and 10)
If the Patriots can win 24-20 at Indianapolis, in the Permanent Hearing Loss Dome, against Peyton Manning, then nobody will beat them this season. If they can commit a franchise-record 10 penalties for 146 yards ... give up 112 rushing yards to Joseph Addai, trail at the end of the first, second and third quarters and late into the fourth, and still win, then nobody will beat them this season. And if Brady can double his interception total in one game and still leave the field with a 9-0 record, then nobody will beat them this season.
- Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN November 5, 2008
You don't go into a game with the goal of being undefeated. You prepare yourself to play well, and assume that your preparation and execution will lead you to victory. Coach Belichick had drilled this concept into his team throughout the season: One game at a time. One play at a time. Don't incite the opposition.Never look back. Going into Week 9, the Patriots resisted pondering their place in football history, even though they had already thrashed eight other teams by an unprecedented average of 30 points per game. And they kept themselves from lingering over the aftershocks of Spygate, as they prepared themselves to go up against the Colts in Indianapolis.
The viewership of the Week 6 game between the Patriots and Cowboys had been the most for a regular-season game in 10 years. And now Week 9 was being touted as another buzz-worthy matchup, perhaps the most anticipated game of the entire regular season. The Colts — the defending Super Bowl champions and the Patriots’ most bitter rival — had already beaten the Pats the last three times they played, including the AFC championship game in the 2006 season. Yet this matchup was unique. The Colts and Patriots were the only two teams left in the League who were still unbeaten. This would be the first time in NFL history that two unbeaten teams with seven or more wins had met (Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman dubbed it “Super Bowl XLI ½”) An estimated 32 million people would later tune in to watch the upcoming game in its final half hour.
For large chunks of the afternoon, the Colts held the lead throughout the game. But the Patriots rallied from a 20-10 fourth-quarter deficit to clinch the game, 24-20. In the process, they were able to overcome a franchise-record 146 yards in penalties and a 10-point deficit with 9:42 to play. “This is the first time [all season] we were in a ballgame late," said Brady, “There wasn't any loss of confidence or determination.” Junior Seau added, “We were going against a hostile crowd, an undefeated team. We take our hats off to them. But we still played well enough to win.” And once again, the Patriots sent a powerful message to the rest of the league: If we cannot overpower you (the Patriots had won their previous eight games by at least 17 points and hadn't scored fewer than 34 points in a game) then we will grind it out to overcome you. We can win at home or on the road. We can play some of our worst football and then recover in time to play some of our best. “Some victories do feel better than others, yes,” said Tedy Bruschi. “This one was one of those that you'll remember. It was a big one...”
After overcoming the Colts in Super Bowl XLI ½, the Patriots came off from a bye week to win their 10th straight game by routing their division rival, the Buffalo Bill, 56-10. It was the ninth time in 10 games New England won by more than 17 points and the ninth time it scored more than 34 points. They also did it against a Buffalo team that came in 5-4 with four straight wins, scoring five touchdowns on their first seven offensive possessions and getting the eighth on a turnover. If Spygate was bad for Bill Belichick, who was fined $500,000 (approximately 12 percent of his estimated $4.2 million annual salary), it turned out to be far worse for Buffalo. Belichick was more determined than ever to demonstrate that his team had no need to break the rules. So after their bye week, he drove his players even harder to drive up the scoring. "Coach says he puts you out there to score when you touch it," Brady said. "He doesn't put you out there to punt." The 56 points were the most by a road team since 1973. And the 46 points was the worst margin of defeat for Buffalo, three points worse than a loss to Baltimore in 1970.
Brady, meanwhile, with his five touchdown passes against the Bills, not only grabbed another franchise record— his 185 career touchdowns put him three ahead of Steve Grogan— but extended his NFL record streak of consecutive games with at least three touchdown passes to 10. Four of Brady’s touchdown passes were thrown to Moss— and all of those in the first half. Late in the game, NBC analyst John Madden made an amazing observation about Brady: “Tom Brady is playing better than Joe Montana ever did," said Madden, late in the game.” "There's no higher complement," added booth-mate Al Michaels. "Madden's words could not have been better timed," writes Kerry Byrne of Coldhardfootballfacts.com, "He probably didn't know this when he made that statement, but sometime in the first quarter those comparisons between Brady and Montana earned quite a bit of statistical validity." It was during the game that Brady reached a passer rating of 92.891, surpassing Montana on the career passer rating list (among players with 1,500 pass attempts, which is the minimum to qualify for official NFL records)
As the Patriots returned from their Week 10 bye, it was growing increasingly difficult to dismiss the possibility of achieving an undefeated season. The Pats were 10–0 with six more games to finish the season. Yet there were good reasons that only one team in post-AFL/ NFL merger history, the 1972 Dolphins, had ever progressed through an entire season without suffering a single loss. No matter how good any professional football team may be, it has to square off weekly against an opposing team made up of elite athletes. The 1972 Dolphins played a 14-game regular-season schedule. Their final record, including Super Bowl VII, was 17– 0. To exceed that accomplishment by two wins, particularly in the era of the salary cap and the competitive balance it breeds, would border on impossible!
Going undefeated is not easy.
To go undefeated a team needs to be good and it needs to be lucky
And luck is precisely what the Patriots received in their next couple of games!
If the Patriots can win 24-20 at Indianapolis, in the Permanent Hearing Loss Dome, against Peyton Manning, then nobody will beat them this season. If they can commit a franchise-record 10 penalties for 146 yards ... give up 112 rushing yards to Joseph Addai, trail at the end of the first, second and third quarters and late into the fourth, and still win, then nobody will beat them this season. And if Brady can double his interception total in one game and still leave the field with a 9-0 record, then nobody will beat them this season.
- Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN November 5, 2008
You don't go into a game with the goal of being undefeated. You prepare yourself to play well, and assume that your preparation and execution will lead you to victory. Coach Belichick had drilled this concept into his team throughout the season: One game at a time. One play at a time. Don't incite the opposition.Never look back. Going into Week 9, the Patriots resisted pondering their place in football history, even though they had already thrashed eight other teams by an unprecedented average of 30 points per game. And they kept themselves from lingering over the aftershocks of Spygate, as they prepared themselves to go up against the Colts in Indianapolis.
The viewership of the Week 6 game between the Patriots and Cowboys had been the most for a regular-season game in 10 years. And now Week 9 was being touted as another buzz-worthy matchup, perhaps the most anticipated game of the entire regular season. The Colts — the defending Super Bowl champions and the Patriots’ most bitter rival — had already beaten the Pats the last three times they played, including the AFC championship game in the 2006 season. Yet this matchup was unique. The Colts and Patriots were the only two teams left in the League who were still unbeaten. This would be the first time in NFL history that two unbeaten teams with seven or more wins had met (Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman dubbed it “Super Bowl XLI ½”) An estimated 32 million people would later tune in to watch the upcoming game in its final half hour.
For large chunks of the afternoon, the Colts held the lead throughout the game. But the Patriots rallied from a 20-10 fourth-quarter deficit to clinch the game, 24-20. In the process, they were able to overcome a franchise-record 146 yards in penalties and a 10-point deficit with 9:42 to play. “This is the first time [all season] we were in a ballgame late," said Brady, “There wasn't any loss of confidence or determination.” Junior Seau added, “We were going against a hostile crowd, an undefeated team. We take our hats off to them. But we still played well enough to win.” And once again, the Patriots sent a powerful message to the rest of the league: If we cannot overpower you (the Patriots had won their previous eight games by at least 17 points and hadn't scored fewer than 34 points in a game) then we will grind it out to overcome you. We can win at home or on the road. We can play some of our worst football and then recover in time to play some of our best. “Some victories do feel better than others, yes,” said Tedy Bruschi. “This one was one of those that you'll remember. It was a big one...”
After overcoming the Colts in Super Bowl XLI ½, the Patriots came off from a bye week to win their 10th straight game by routing their division rival, the Buffalo Bill, 56-10. It was the ninth time in 10 games New England won by more than 17 points and the ninth time it scored more than 34 points. They also did it against a Buffalo team that came in 5-4 with four straight wins, scoring five touchdowns on their first seven offensive possessions and getting the eighth on a turnover. If Spygate was bad for Bill Belichick, who was fined $500,000 (approximately 12 percent of his estimated $4.2 million annual salary), it turned out to be far worse for Buffalo. Belichick was more determined than ever to demonstrate that his team had no need to break the rules. So after their bye week, he drove his players even harder to drive up the scoring. "Coach says he puts you out there to score when you touch it," Brady said. "He doesn't put you out there to punt." The 56 points were the most by a road team since 1973. And the 46 points was the worst margin of defeat for Buffalo, three points worse than a loss to Baltimore in 1970.
Brady, meanwhile, with his five touchdown passes against the Bills, not only grabbed another franchise record— his 185 career touchdowns put him three ahead of Steve Grogan— but extended his NFL record streak of consecutive games with at least three touchdown passes to 10. Four of Brady’s touchdown passes were thrown to Moss— and all of those in the first half. Late in the game, NBC analyst John Madden made an amazing observation about Brady: “Tom Brady is playing better than Joe Montana ever did," said Madden, late in the game.” "There's no higher complement," added booth-mate Al Michaels. "Madden's words could not have been better timed," writes Kerry Byrne of Coldhardfootballfacts.com, "He probably didn't know this when he made that statement, but sometime in the first quarter those comparisons between Brady and Montana earned quite a bit of statistical validity." It was during the game that Brady reached a passer rating of 92.891, surpassing Montana on the career passer rating list (among players with 1,500 pass attempts, which is the minimum to qualify for official NFL records)
As the Patriots returned from their Week 10 bye, it was growing increasingly difficult to dismiss the possibility of achieving an undefeated season. The Pats were 10–0 with six more games to finish the season. Yet there were good reasons that only one team in post-AFL/ NFL merger history, the 1972 Dolphins, had ever progressed through an entire season without suffering a single loss. No matter how good any professional football team may be, it has to square off weekly against an opposing team made up of elite athletes. The 1972 Dolphins played a 14-game regular-season schedule. Their final record, including Super Bowl VII, was 17– 0. To exceed that accomplishment by two wins, particularly in the era of the salary cap and the competitive balance it breeds, would border on impossible!
Going undefeated is not easy.
To go undefeated a team needs to be good and it needs to be lucky
And luck is precisely what the Patriots received in their next couple of games!
