Looking at the Schedule

[Leave No Doubt]

Did the AC systems fail? I've never heard anyone report that.

A few degrees warmer? That would be 72-75 degrees and we wouldn't be talking about this.

I'm not talking about hydrating...I'm talking about super-hydrating. That is what athletes do before playing in hot/humid conditions and takes a number of days to accomplish. You don't do that before every game because the water weight can make you sluggish (kinda like the Colts in the first half of that game...hmmmmm). You super-hydrate so that you sweat off the water weight and avoid dehydration, which is a leading cause of muscle cramps.

Again, the situation is long over. Nothing will change the game result and nothing short of a direct admission of guilt will taint the victory. You can believe what you want obviously, but saying there was no monkey business by the Colts that day is like me saying that Belichick misinterpretted the rule on videotaping from the sidelines.

Interesting! I've always thought Polian messed with the heat and we've had some great jokes about it too, but I never thought it was a huge deal as far as being something terribly wrong. I just don't like Polian or anything Colt-related so when our Pats lost it was easy to lash out at him for possibly jacking the heat, but in reality it reminded me of the Red Auerbach stories from the old Garden

*Outstanding schedule analysis Metaphors; thank you for all your contributions here. Awesome stuff as always.

 

[BRiZ]

check out who SD plays before us. Carolina, Denver, Jets, Oakland, and Miami. Borderline putrid Qbs and WRs. When we stroll into town with Moss, CJ, Welker, Watson, Maroney, Faulk, and Brady they wont know what hit them! Me thinks we are gunna beat them down.

 

[Leave No Doubt]

check out who SD plays before us. Carolina, Denver, Jets, Oakland, and Miami. Borderline putrid Qbs and WRs. When we stroll into town with Moss, CJ, Welker, Watson, Maroney, Faulk, and Brady they wont know what hit them! Me thinks we are gunna beat them down.

Methinks yer right

I love that scenario, too. They'll be on top of the world, probably undefeated, they'll have studied every tape of every Pats game,sleepless nights gameplanning for this one, unbelievable hype no doubt (we could be undefeated too so be ready), then we'll go in and smack em.

BB must know how they've been obsessed with the Pats-he'll have something special planned I'm sure

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Another great thread from Met. It's really nice to read football analysis instead of ***gate crap or the 451st Chad Jackson thread.

And starting tomorrow we'll start to get reall 2009 Pats football news.

 

[Metaphors]

check out who SD plays before us. Carolina, Denver, Jets, Oakland, and Miami. Borderline putrid Qbs and WRs. When we stroll into town with Moss, CJ, Welker, Watson, Maroney, Faulk, and Brady they wont know what hit them! Me thinks we are gunna beat them down.

I didn't think about the quality of the offenses but you do bring up a good point. I guess it could cut both ways. The Bolts could be flying high and carry that confidence into the game. Or they could be over-confident and not prepared for what the Pats will unleash. Interesting.

The thing that stuck out for me was the travel. The Bolts go to Oakland (no big deal) and then travel to Miami (bigger deal) before facing the Pats...who will likely already be on the left coast after the SF game. After the Pats they have to travel to Buffalo and then NO before coming home. I think travel effects are generally over-rated...but that is just a sick amount of time in a plane over a 5 week period.

 

[Angry Man]

Excellent post. Personally I'm going for an 13-3 season, AFC East win, and first round bye this year.

 

[Metaphors]

Excellent post. Personally I'm going for an 13-3 season, AFC East win, and first round bye this year.

AFC East champs? Definitely.

First round bye? Probably unless Indy plays way over their heads.

13-3? Sounds reasonable but I'm not predicting their record this year. I really didn't see a loss on the schedule last year but was too chicken-$@%* to predict 16-0. Until the Pats exit this dominant phase they are in, it just seems like something unpredictable will need to happen for them to lose...and predicting 16-0 every year will get me branded an unthinking homer.

 

[NWBolts]

Methinks that the Bolts will not be overconfident. In fact I'm more worried that they will be looking forward to playing the pats, and get trapped in one of the previous week's games. I just know it's going to be loud as hell at the Q, and I am traveling to be at that game. It was either see my Bolts play the Pats or play the Colts. I chose the Pats. We've beat the colts the last few times. It's obviously otherwise with the Pats. I think it will definitely be a more intense game than 2nd week last year when we stunk up Foxboro

 

[Metaphors]

Methinks that the Bolts will not be overconfident. In fact I'm more worried that they will be looking forward to playing the pats, and get trapped in one of the previous week's games.

I'm inclined to agree. I don't think Oakland or Miami has enough to take advantage of the Bolts looking ahead. I do think the Bills and Saints can do the job at home if SD suffers a post-Pats letdown. If the Bolts can take out the Pats, Bills and Saints with that travel schedule...color me impressed.

 

[Cartwright]

Did the AC systems fail? I've never heard anyone report that.

A few degrees warmer? That would be 72-75 degrees and we wouldn't be talking about this.

I'm not talking about hydrating...I'm talking about super-hydrating. That is what athletes do before playing in hot/humid conditions and takes a number of days to accomplish. You don't do that before every game because the water weight can make you sluggish (kinda like the Colts in the first half of that game...hmmmmm). You super-hydrate so that you sweat off the water weight and avoid dehydration, which is a leading cause of muscle cramps.

Again, the situation is long over. Nothing will change the game result and nothing short of a direct admission of guilt will taint the victory. You can believe what you want obviously, but saying there was no monkey business by the Colts that day is like me saying that Belichick misinterpretted the rule on videotaping from the sidelines.

I have no idea if they failed or not. Just suggesting it is possible, like anything else. Odd, but possible. I remember it getting warm in the second half. To be sure, I was wearing a T-shirt, shirt, and then a sweatshirt that I had purchased at the Dome. In addition, I had thick socks and warm boots on. So, it is not unexpected to be a little on the warm side. But I am conceding that certainly those AC units might have gone awry. But, to suggest that these well conditioned athletes were not prepared because they did not "super hydrate" is 100% laughable. The body is an amazing machine, and certainly it can be fine tuned, but for some reason, I just don't see Wilfork's body responding like a Ferrari, where every little tweak, change, twist, can adversely affect his 60 minute performance. The guy is a big tub of goo, and a 60 minute balls to the wall type of game can take it out of you, especially at his weight. Not my fault BB went went brawn over speed Who knows, maybe it is a strategy. One team "super hydrates" and is (as you stated is possible) "sluggish" in the first half. The other teams decides to forgo this method, and prepares as normal, hoping to jump out to an early lead and gut it out. Couldn't THAT be a legitimate strategy?? To compare the "warm" dome to say, a game in Miami in the HOT sun, and humidity (it generally isn't too humid in Indy in the wintertime) is again laughable. To even remotely suggest this as the case is mind boggling to me. BTW, when IS the last time your "cold weather team" played a hot one down in Miami?? Seems like a little conspiracy might be going on with the NFL schedule makers

 

[Metaphors]

I have no idea if they failed or not. Just suggesting it is possible, like anything else. Odd, but possible. I remember it getting warm in the second half. To be sure, I was wearing a T-shirt, shirt, and then a sweatshirt that I had purchased at the Dome. In addition, I had thick socks and warm boots on. So, it is not unexpected to be a little on the warm side. But I am conceding that certainly those AC units might have gone awry. But, to suggest that these well conditioned athletes were not prepared because they did not "super hydrate" is 100% laughable. The body is an amazing machine, and certainly it can be fine tuned, but for some reason, I just don't see Wilfork's body responding like a Ferrari, where every little tweak, change, twist, can adversely affect his 60 minute performance. The guy is a big tub of goo, and a 60 minute balls to the wall type of game can take it out of you, especially at his weight. Not my fault BB went went brawn over speed Who knows, maybe it is a strategy. One team "super hydrates" and is (as you stated is possible) "sluggish" in the first half. The other teams decides to forgo this method, and prepares as normal, hoping to jump out to an early lead and gut it out. Couldn't THAT be a legitimate strategy?? To compare the "warm" dome to say, a game in Miami in the HOT sun, and humidity (it generally isn't too humid in Indy in the wintertime) is again laughable. To even remotely suggest this as the case is mind boggling to me. BTW, when IS the last time your "cold weather team" played a hot one down in Miami?? Seems like a little conspiracy might be going on with the NFL schedule makers

Seriously, just stop. You aren't making any sense. I've explained all this in previous posts. The difference between a game played at 70 degrees and 85 degrees. How difficult it is to heat the interior of a dome (even with 70,000 people) to 50+ degrees above the outside temperature. When it makes sense for athletes to super-hydrate and when it makes no sense. Why it makes no sense for the Pats to be cramping up but the Colts are unaffected (the flu wouldn't account for how widespread it was).

There is no logical explanation for accidentally having the interior of a climate controlled structure be 50 degrees above the outside temperature and 15 degrees above the target temperature. No explanation will work since opening some doors and vents could have fixed the situation by halftime.

I will never defend Belichick's statement about his interpretation of the sideline videotaping rule. To do that, I would have to suspend disbelief and that would destroy my own credibility. You can continue to make excuses for the AFCC game conditions, but doing it on anything but a Colts forum just reflects badly on you.

 

[Cartwright]

Seriously, just stop. You aren't making any sense. I've explained all this in previous posts. The difference between a game played at 70 degrees and 85 degrees. How difficult it is to heat the interior of a dome (even with 70,000 people) to 50+ degrees above the outside temperature. When it makes sense for athletes to super-hydrate and when it makes no sense. Why it makes no sense for the Pats to be cramping up but the Colts are unaffected (the flu wouldn't account for how widespread it was).

There is no logical explanation for accidentally having the interior of a climate controlled structure be 50 degrees above the outside temperature and 15 degrees above the target temperature. No explanation will work since opening some doors and vents could have fixed the situation by halftime.

I will never defend Belichick's statement about his interpretation of the sideline videotaping rule. To do that, I would have to suspend disbelief and that would destroy my own credibility. You can continue to make excuses for the AFCC game conditions, but doing it on anything but a Colts forum just reflects badly on you.

I am not making excuses. I find it entirely possible that something did take place that could have been prevented. certainly didn't feel like 85 degrees though, and I was field level. Perhaps you were too, I don't know. But really, these guys are mostly well conditioned athletes, and IIRC, a few Colts did have their issues as well. Plenty of times, a player or two, from JUST ONE team, may cramp. It seems as though your logic says that either all should cramp, or none should cramp.

Do you have statistics? Do you know what the temp was in the dome in the second half? Can you tell me how many Pats experienced cramps? Can you tell me for certain NONE of the Colts did? Did you hear the pregame with Wilcots? How he stated BB admitted the the travel and the previous game with the Chargers took it's toll. IIRC, someone said it was one of their toughest games ever played (perhaps Brady said it). Is it possible that the Colts were fresher, due to a cold weather game a few short hours away on the previous SATURDAY, the 13th, while the Pats were finishing up 2000 miles away on SUNDAY, the 14th?

Again, I appreciate the comments, no hard feelings, I think my team earned that win, I think suggesting otherwise, after all your franchise has been involved with, reflects poorly on YOU

 

[Metaphors]

I think my team earned that win, I think suggesting otherwise, after all your franchise has been involved with, reflects poorly on YOU

Check earlier posts and you will see that I never questioned the legitimacy of the win. The playing field wasn't so unbalanced that the Pats couldn't win and it was a situation they should have overcome. So please don't tell me I'm "suggesting" anything. I'll speak for myself.

I'm done with this exchange since nothing more can be gained. If you want validation of your beliefs, plenty of folks on indystar.com are there to help you. Please stay around since I enjoy interacting with rival fans...just may want to steer clear of this particular subject.