Fan Panic

[goheels22002]

Holy crap, we need other teams fans to come in and give people a reality check...

Great post OP, and good luck to you guys this week, other than for us Pats fans, the game of the week for sure...

Reality. It's hard to take solace from a fan of a team that just did this:

Score: Pitt 25 - Pats 17
First Downs: Pitt 29 - Pats 19
3rd down efficiency : Pitt 63% - Pats 30%
Total Yards: Pitt: 427 - Pats 213
Total Offensive Plays: Pitt 78 - Pats 50
Time of Possession: Pitt 39:22 - Pats 20:38

The score doesn't reflect the complete and utter butt-whipping the Patriots took last week.

 

[everlong]

I don't get the uber-panic-people or uber-homer-people equally.

One one side you have people wanting to fire Bellichick and replace him with god knows what even through they won 14 games last year and will likely win 12+ this year. They think every other good team has perfect drafts and no flaws in the parity that is today's NFL.

On the other side there are no problems with the defense. Every blemish is just a speed bump that will be conquered. The receiving corps is fine, the secondary is fine, the DLine is fine........

Realistically this is a playoff team and there's probably a 50% chance they get a bye. It's also realistic to say that unless Brady and the offense are near perfect in any game in the playoffs the Patriots are going home that week. They're going to have to score 30+, stay patient with the running game, get a lead and then control the clock as to not expose the defense too badly.

Is it possible the defense improves? Of course. They were better at the end of last year than they are now. Will they get to championship level? Doubtful at best. People will call upon the ghost of the 2001 Patriots who jelled on defense. Look at the laundry list of that defense and there is no way you can draw a parallel.

They can get up to average or perhaps even above if Mayo returns to full health, Haynesworth plays up to his potential, Mccorty returns to last year's form and most importantly they find some solution in the middle of the field for coverage out of the safety and linebacker position. Currently they have none. Not impossible but a tall task.

Long term they have to take a hard look at how they are handling their player evaluations. They have to take a hard look at their coaching staff especially in the secondary where players do not seem to be progressing. They have to take a look at the scheme and ask does it work in today's NFL? Does bend but don't break equal bleeding to death?

Bill needs to name a DC and evaluate all of these things. I think he also needs to think about bringing in guys from other systems to challenge him and come up with new ideas. Teams aren't fooled with what the Pats are doing on either side of the ball any longer. It's really too bad they didn't bring Rob Ryan back to be the DC.

 

[JoeSixPat]

True, commentators and fans alike agree that they were actually worse.

That game was certainly an exception. I almost added that - that game was NOT as close as the score indicated.

If they were 6-1, the defense wouldn't have crapped the bed to cost the team 2 games, and the 1 loss could be considered by many to be an aberration that could be put behind the team since the offense would still have been able to overcome the defense except for the one blip. Since they are NOT 6-1, that's not the case.

So, yes, if the facts were different, the view of the facts would be different. That shouldn't really be a surprise.

Really?

You REALLY think that if the Patriots came into that game 6-0 (let's assume they beat the Bills - something I consider VERY doable) and then lost to Pittsburgh for their FIRST LOSS of the season after starting off UNDEFEATED fans would be panicking this much?

I agree this is a flawed team, but I find it tough to believe that this many Pats fans would be so incredibly down on the team if they just suffered their first loss of the season - even in the fashion that they did against the Steelers

Even as bad as they played, had they stolen a win against the Steelers as they could have - you think everyone would be this down on the team?

Wins and losses are not the sole way to judge a team. With just a few points more on offense in 2 games and a few points less on Defense this team could well be 7-0 and every bit as flawed, but very few players would be focused on all the negative as they seem to be right now.

You sure do have a funny way of looking at things sometimes.

 

[Deus Irae]

Really?

You REALLY think that if the Patriots came into that game 6-0 (let's assume they beat the Bills - something I consider VERY doable) and then lost to Pittsburgh for their FIRST LOSS of the season after starting off UNDEFEATED fans would be panicking this much?

I agree this is a flawed team, but I find it tough to believe that this many Pats fans would be so incredibly down on the team if they just suffered their first loss of the season - even in the fashion that they did against the Steelers?

You sure do have a funny way of looking at things sometimes.

You should probably have re-read what I wrote, because you completely missed it.

 

[JoeSixPat]

You should probably have re-read what I wrote, because you completely missed it.

No - I read it right the first time. You said that the team is NOT 6-1. They're 5-2 having played crappy defense in 2 games thus, the fan panic is warranted ...

I'm making the point that just a little bit here and there, in just one of two games - and you've got the reality of a 6-1 team being praised.

You're sarcastically suggesting that 6-1 is a far off fantasy world in which our defense would have had to play substantially differently and thus not subject to the panic and scorn of fans.

I certainly don't think this team is playing like a champion - but I also think many fans are over-reacting.

I think everyone can agree that if not for one loss, you'd not be seeing this sort of panic among fans - or at least I thought we could all agree about that.

 

[Deus Irae]

No - I read it right the first time. You said that the team is NOT 6-1. They're 5-2 having played crappy defense in 2 games thus, the fan panic is warranted ...

I'm making the point that just a little bit here and there, in just one of two games - and you've got the reality of a 6-1 team being praised.

You're sarcastically suggesting that 6-1 is a far off fantasy world in which our defense would have had to play substantially differently and thus not subject to the panic and scorn of fans.

I certainly don't think this team is playing like a champion - but I also think many fans are over-reacting.

I think everyone can agree that if not for one loss, you'd not be seeing this sort of panic among fans - or at least I thought we could all agree about that.

It's not one loss, it's two. And "just a little bit here and there", and the team is 4-3 with a loss to the Cowboys. Again, the reality is what the reality is. It's not as if this was the first game that the defense wet itself. It was just the worst outing. You're basically saying that if things were different than what they are, people would be looking at the team differently. That's not exactly shocking news.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I was going to come in here and make a quick "good game, good luck the rest of the way" type post. But I lingered a bit, and was strangely relieved to see that your boards our no different than ours after a loss. Which is to say: a handful of level heads taking the long view, and a handful of VERY vocal fans ready to cut and fire everybody.

I would urge those of you in the latter category to take a couple of steps back from the ledge, for the following reasons:

• You just lost a nearly meaningless midseason game. You've proven you can win in Pittsburgh over the years, so home field tiebreakers mean little. And despite all of the hype over this matchup over the last decade, the winner of this regular season game when Brady plays has never actually gone on to win the SB...you're actually better off *losing* in this regard.

• You're forgetting your own history. Not just '04, when you had a terrible loss at Pitt midseason and rebounded to win it all...but even last year, when you morphed from a nice team into a dominant one over the last half of the year. A lot can change in a *single* week in the NFL, let alone 9 weeks, and with your coaching staff I have little doubt that you'll address your defensive issues and improve significantly by the end of the year.

• You're forgetting NFL history. It's been a long, long time since there was a wire-to-wire juggernaut that won the Super Bowl without MAJOR problems or doubts at some points during their seasons. Last year GB sustained a ton of injuries and barely made the playoffs; in '08 Pitt featured one of the worst OLs to ever make a Super Bowl; in '07 the Giants nearly started 0-3 and nearly fired Coughlin; in '06 the Colts featured an almost historically bad run defense down the stretch...the list goes on, but the point here is that these problems were arguably much worse than your single, midseason 6 point loss.

• You don't need your defense to become dominant...you just need it to become competent on the back end. That's not a huge leap. With just an average defense, your team will be favorites to get back to the SB, because your offense is so explosive. (I have no doubt that BB will find schemes to counter the press coverage we deployed Sunday).

• Losing in Pittsburgh, when we're playing extremely well, and when we *surprise* you with a new scheme (hell, I was positively stunned with the press coverage!), is hardly something to go off the deep end over. If we meet again in the playoffs, I (along with a lot of other Steelers fans I imagine) will still be extremely nervous about it, because I know that BB will now have tape on Sunday's wrinkles, and will develop effective counters to them.

• Bad losses tend to overemphasize strengths and weaknesses when reality is somewhere in between. Yesterday's effort notwithstanding, the Patriots still have a dominant offense, and their defense will likely improve. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, still has significant issues in their OL and potentially their secondary to overcome, even if they appeared much improved and played extremely well yesterday.

• There's no true dominant team in the NFL this year. Everyone's flawed. Even Green Bay has major defensive issues. I don't think it's time for many teams to start conceding that they can't make serious noise come playoff time if they can get hot, let alone the Patriots.

Your fanbase is probably one of the few in the league that's as spoiled...er, not used to losing, as ours is. After losses, our posters want to fire Arians, Tomlin, and even Lebeau, gut the roster, and start over. We kill the front office for every missed pick, as if we're supposed to hit on every single one, and often prematurely ("Bustamalu" was Troy's nickname his first year LOL). Anything less than complete season long dominance is a massive disappointment, so we overreach with massive, categorical conclusions drawn from a single game.

So sadly it's not just you. (Fan Panic...Everybody's doing it! )



lillloyd

It's my forum and I'll cry if I want to!