Brady, Belichick, and the playoffs

[BradyManny]

So, I just went to youtube and watched the Patriots final drive from SB42.

Why, you ask? Is this poster really that masochistic, I bet you're wondering...Is he having a good day and wanted to ruin it, or a bad one that he wanted to drive even further south?

Frankly, I wanted to watch it b/c I wanted to be reminded of what we're playing for - and what we, as fans, and the Patriots as a team, do not want to feel again.

I was reading the Bird-Magic book by Jackie MacMullan and it struck me how Magic forced himself to stay in his hotel and watch Bostonians celebrate around him after the C's beat LA in '84.

It got me thinking about the life and death nature of playoffs, the stakes of it all, and just how seriously we all take these games.

Which led me to an encouraging, albeit depressing thought: every time the Patriots have lost in the playoffs, it has been a catastrophic event in which several forces have conspired to undo the Patriots, with seemingly nothing going in their favor.

The Denver game, it took an insane PI call, brutal fumbles, Brady's terrible INT to Bailey and the ensuing logic & physics defying call by the ref on Watson's tackle.

The Colts game, it took more crap refereeing, an insane comeback by Manning, the flu, a terrible personnel mishap on the sideline & Reche Caldwell dropping a ball with no one around him.

The Giants game. Well, don't get me started. We all know about this one.

Brady & BB are 14-3 in the playoffs together. And all 3 of their losses were chaotic-WTF-just-happened events that took flukes, bad refereeing, boneheaded plays, etc., etc. to occur. You could argue several of their wins had all those things going in their favor - and they did, but that's just the thing. The law of averages applies, and with those averages, the Patriots are still 14-3 in the playoffs. The team is flawed, one could say - but it has been in all 17 of those playoff games, and its been much more flawed for the majority of them - and yet they remain 14-3 in that time.

I like our chances in the postseason, with or without Welker, and I highly doubt we go quietly and go without a fight. If we do, it will be the first time in Brady & BB's collective history together.

 

[BradyManny]

To put even more simply:

Brady and Belichick have been to the playoffs 6 times together. They won a ring 3 of those times. The other 3 times, crazy-ass-shyt occurred to prevent said ring.

 

[RyanP421]

Great post man. I too like our chances this year.

We are all very critical of our Pats as we have been so spoiled that we EXPECT greatness. But I really do like our chances this year, and I think Brady said it perfectly when he said the offense will have no choice but to evolve without our slot machine (Welker). Baltimore really doesn't know what to expect from the NE offense.

Anytime you have the Belichick-Brady combo, you're always in it...

 

[aluminum seats]

Spot on. I was thinking about this the other day. You could distill it even further: 6 trips to the playoffs, two plays away from 5 Super Bowls, and in the Denver game, every bad thing you can imagine happening happened. (Seriously, if you can, go back and watch that game again--Denver was doing NOTHING in that game.)

So yeah.....new chapters are always being written (and &%!#! about Welker!! GRRRRRRRRRR.....) but it's the track record and historic brilliance of Brady and Belichick that makes you say, hey, you never know........

 

[emoney_33]

:rocker::rocker:

 

[PatsFanSince74]

To put even more simply:

Brady and Belichick have been to the playoffs 6 times together. They won a ring 3 of those times. The other 3 times, crazy-ass-shyt occurred to prevent said ring.

As a die-hard Pats fan, I agree with you, but, of course, the Raiders feel that crazy-ass-**** happened in the tuck game, the Panthers feel that crazy-ass-**** happened when the idiot kicked OB after they tied SB XXXVIII, the Eagles feel that crazy-ass-**** happened when Donovan puked in the huddle during SB XXXIX and Kurt Warner still believes he lost SB XXXVI because Matt Walsh taped his walkthrough (kidding on the latter).

In other words, there's a lot of crazy-ass-**** in the NFL, which is why winning even one SB is so damn hard and such a big deal (just ask the 15 teams that haven't done that yet). Some people who just started following this team and this League in the 00's, might never really understand that.

 

[Mountain_Commando]

I like the spirit of the post, but looking at Brady-BB's caliber and the law of averages as the only variables is oversimplification. Yes, we do have the greatest QB and coach of all time, and yes our only 3 playoff losses have been in arguably correlated with (though not necessarily caused due to) wtf moments. But we got to those 17 playoff games and 4 SB appearances and 3 rings DUE to having a great all round team, not despite it. I am the biggest homer and kool-aidaholic you'll find, and in Bill I still trust, but even I acknowledge that this team may simply not be of SB winning caliber.

Now does that automatically write off a Lombardi for us? Of course not. As nearly everyone knows, peaking at the right time is key. It seemed we were at that point after the JAX game. The jury is out after the Texans game, with chicken little's far outnumbering the optimists (especially due to Welker's injury). Point being, it will take excellent football in offense/defence/ST/coaching first, and then a little bit of luck to bring home the Lombardi.

With that said, I'm excited about the playoffs. Lets go Pats!

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

That could be a bad thing though. All the things we did well in the SB years we haven't done in the last 3 playoffs and who knows if we'll do it well this year.

SB42 - Several chances to pick off Eli to end the game and blew it. Those plays are made in '01-'04 there's no doubt. Not to mention being able to protect Brady regardless of what defense you face.

'06 AFCC - Again, a chance to put the team away with just one first down. This one you could definitely argue though with the defense depleted and bogus officiating - that was truly out of our hands.

'05 @ Denver - Extremely careless with the ball, way too many turnovers. Adam V missing a short FG. Never happened in '01-'04. Bad officiating yes, but you deserve to lose when you turn it over 4 times and miss chip shot FG's.