Is it 2009 all over again ?

[RDS11]

Since the Mankins trade, I've noticed a few things that reminded me of the 2009 season :

1) Trade of an impact player a few weeks before the season (Seymour in 2009, Mankins in 2014)
2) The retirement of some of the leaders (Bruschi & Harrison in 2009, Scar in 2014)
3) Inability to adjust at halftime
4) The team doesn't play well on the road

and to a lesser degree (the season is still early) :
5) un-impactful draft class

We all know how that season ended up, with a stinker against the Ravens in which Flacco only needed to attempt 10 passes. Given our inability to stop the run so far, that's also seem to be a recurring trend.

In 2009, neither McDaniels nor Patricia were coordinators, so I'm not inclined on blaming these 2 for the lack of success so far (the coaching staff as a whole hasn't been great, but I don't think the blame should be attributed to the coordinators only). In 2009, the team lacked leaders and it allowed some bad apples like Adelius Thomas to wreck the team chemistry some more. And frankly with Mankins gone, I don't know who are the leaders on this 2014 team.

Listening to the opening ESPN's pregame show on Monday, and Dilfer said something to the effect that it's well known within the NFL that some team do not play to win a Super Bowl, they are just happy to contend for a spot in the tournament. At first, I thought he was thinking about teams like the Bengals and the Cards. But then he mentioned the Mankins trade, and that it might help the Pats in the long run, but it's impossible they are a better team now without Mankins than with him in the lineup. I don't think Mankins would make such a difference (the team wouldn't be 3-1 with him) but I wonder if this will have an impact on future UFA...would Revis have selected the Pats knowing that the team was okay with pushing some chips in the future, and not trying to field the best possible team this year ?

 

[mayoclinic]

I alluded to some of this in a thread that I started all of 5 minutes before yours:

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england...hreads/the-basic-problem-as-i-see-it.1112429/

 

[juny]

They have to show more heart in these poor games too. It reminds of the A Football Life episode w/ BB talking to Brady during a beatdown from the Saints. BB knew at that time those Pats weren't made of championship material.

The season is still somewhat young and hopefully they can steer the ship right.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

The one reason I can't call this 2009 is that there's no obvious locker-room poison the way there was that year with Afailius Thomas (among others, but he was by far the most noticeable one, and worse, the Patriots couldn't do anything about it).

No doubt there are some problems with this team, but I don't think there's anything that fundamentally wrong with this team from a cohesion/spirit standpoint.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

I think the OP is, for the most part, right, especially re Revis, but there is one important difference between now and 2009: Brady is five years older in a job where each year after 35 represents a very big leap and for which the average retirement age for an SB era QB in the HOF is 37.5.