McCourty fires off the first salvo.

[PP2]

This is no different than BB or Brady saying they hate the Jests.. no big deal.

That's what I see here too. Perhaps a salvo by BB standards but hardly a salvo in general. He only articulated what everyone knows for a fact: Baltimore is finished if they lose and Miami wins. What else is he going to say? "May the best team win?"

 

[TonyTucker]

Phil's son Chris works, or worked for the Patriots, so that might be part of his backing off of massive praise. He doesn't want to appear as a homer, maybe?

 

[Froob]

I wonder if Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones will wave to McCourty on the way to the endzone, Deion Branch style ala 2003 vs the Steelers AFCCG. He should just keep up with the Patriot way and keep his stupid mouth shut.

On their way to the endzone, without the ball of course.

 

[Archeryaddict12]

holy cow, this team actually has a swagger????!!!!!!

This team is growing up. Time for them to make a run starting Sunday with Tom/BB at the helm.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

That Salvo is going to need a big dosage of Viagra to make any worthy bulletin board...or a Rodney Harrison translation device (English -> Bulletin Board).

 

[Joker]

Let me fire a second salvo at Fugly Q. Space-alien...

 

[Tunescribe]

..........

 

[Joker]

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Personally I as a fan love it when a Pats player (Brady, McCourty, etc.) expresses dislike for an obnoxious opposing franchise (Jets, Ravens…).

You Shank Shaughnessy acolytes may feel differently.

Thank you, adult grownup. There is far too much damn fear and angst here.

I will never understand why so much of this board is filled with scared cowards. Pretty much every other team in the league talks significantly more trash than the Pats. And...

There are never actually tangible consequences to trash talking, really. The Anthony Smiths are just as likely as the Giants all wearing black for a funeral.

Who cares? I'm personally not offended by one of the Patriots' veteran leaders saying they would like to win the game on Sunday. I'd be irritated if he didn't. Hell with the Ravens.

 

[supafly]

Thank you, adult grownup. There is far too much damn fear and angst here.

I will never understand why so much of this board is filled with scared cowards. Pretty much every other team in the league talks significantly more trash than the Pats. And...

There are never actually tangible consequences to trash talking, really. The Anthony Smiths are just as likely as the Giants all wearing black for a funeral.

Who cares? I'm personally not offended by one of the Patriots' veteran leaders saying they would like to win the game on Sunday. I'd be irritated if he didn't. Hell with the Ravens.

I have concerns with going down to BAL and winning vs a tough Ravens team that plays well on their home field and somehow finds a way to hold Brady to the bare minimum in every meeting.

I have no problem though with what Devin McCourty said. In all reality I don't believe that he said anything wrong whatsoever. On a whole however, I do agree with the way they normally keep their mouths shut, as it's probably the better way to go and just focus on football. It's good to hear some trash talk and hope coming from this defense though, and hopefully it pumps them up this Sunday.

However, in the past it's sometimes come back to hurt us ala Brady "knowing the Steelers like the back of his hand" for the 2011 game, then laughing at the thought of only scoring 17 to the NYG in the SB (when they actually only scored 14), to pointing out how much he hates the Jets this year in their second meeting this season, and having Welker and co. make fun of Rex Ryan in the playoff game from 2010. Those FOUR examples are good enough for me to think that they should probably just keep their mouths shut in most cases. Then again, I'm a bit too superstitious

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

McCourty said: "I’ll put it this way: there would be no better feeling than us beating them Sunday and (if Miami wins)… we eliminate their season right there. For me and for a lot of my teammates there’d be no better feeling. So it’s gonna be key to come out and play well on Sunday.”"

I'd prefer the Patriots keep to Paul Brown's old school ways of team football/try to gain every advantage (say little as possible). With that said BB broke his own rule with recent comments about the Jets. Can't be too upset with McCourty for doing it and doing it to a lesser degree.

To clarify, McCourty was not really trash talking or displaying swagger (at least as I understand the application of those words). He said, basically, that he doesn't like the team, Ravens, that ended the Patriots 2012 season/SB hopes and it's important for the Patriots to play their best so they can win as well as eliminate the Ravens. Whoa! That's some lashing out, some boasting there! Next thing he will say is he hopes to do everything he can and more to see the Ravens lose because a win helps the Patriots.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

How many championships has "the Patriot way" and "do our talking on the field" brought since 2004? I actually prefer that some of our players express some emotion like this. They could use a little attitude. Especially since it's not really bad trash talking, and it's against a douchebag franchise like the Ravens.

All the success up thru 04, then a 1 in a 100 improbable Giants' catch away from perfection in 07, then a catch that WW makes 9 times out of 10 from SB victory in 11, also throw in a close AFFC games among other lofty success comparatively. All this in an era where the system is designed to make it very difficult to remain highly competitive year over year.

So the "the Patriot Way"(their team-monolith-gain every advantage approach,,,,not the made up Media definition) is ineffective because they don't shoot their mouths off to the Media which has contributed to a lack of SB wins since 04?. What an ironic thing for you to say as it is the Patriot Way's incredible success that has allowed you to lose all sense of perspective and make such an erroneous statement.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

It doesn't make a difference. There is no Karma, there is no Patriot Way at work here that would magically prevent a loss. Suggs trash-talked all over the 2012 Pats' corpse last year. The 2011 Giants the year before. Did their salvos somehow lead to their clubs' undoing? Nope.

The only way I'd object is if McCourty said something really incendiary, like he wants to bash Flacco's dull face in. But he didn't. So it's fine.

I agree that the incendiary level of the comment has meaning and that his statement was borderline nothing.
However, your first paragraph is described on page 1 of the book of logical fallacies. If A occurs then B occurs, this does not make the two connected. Consider, if Rob Gronkowski is healthy and this allows the Patriots to beat the Ravens in last year's AFCCG, does that mean "say little when you lose, even less when you win" was the reason why the Patriots won? Or, conversely, the Ravens loudmouth spouting off the reason why they lost?

There are a multitude of factors that go into why a game plays out as it does. And there is nearly zero supporting evidence to suggest your statement is true. And with that near total lack of substantiation for the 'trash talk theory', the safest and smartest play is to go with the BB's 'say little' program that has seen unprecedented success in the Cap era and the Patriots, literally, within 2 hairs of being the greatest franchise of the SB era, bar none.
So if fans get excited over and need some loudmouth spouting off to make their following/watching of the Patriots most enjoyable? How about turning to the 1000 venues found on TV-Radio-Internet that will sate that need to the Nth degree. And with that we then let BB's program remain in place until at least it no longer has them in that very very small circle of teams that are in the hunt for the SB in January (of which the Patriots are probably the only name that is among that small circle year in and year out).

 

[everlong]

I could care less as long as BB doesn't decide to sit him for the first quarter like WW and footie-gate and DM shows up big time in the game to back it up. Let's face it he pretty much summed up what the entire team and fan base thinks. That they want to knock out the southern Jets.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I have concerns with going down to BAL and winning vs a tough Ravens team that plays well on their home field and somehow finds a way to hold Brady to the bare minimum in every meeting.

I have no problem though with what Devin McCourty said. In all reality I don't believe that he said anything wrong whatsoever. On a whole however, I do agree with the way they normally keep their mouths shut, as it's probably the better way to go and just focus on football. It's good to hear some trash talk and hope coming from this defense though, and hopefully it pumps them up this Sunday.

However, in the past it's sometimes come back to hurt us ala Brady "knowing the Steelers like the back of his hand" for the 2011 game, then laughing at the thought of only scoring 17 to the NYG in the SB (when they actually only scored 14), to pointing out how much he hates the Jets this year in their second meeting this season, and having Welker and co. make fun of Rex Ryan in the playoff game from 2010. Those FOUR examples are good enough for me to think that they should probably just keep their mouths shut in most cases. Then again, I'm a bit too superstitious

too much post hoc ergo proper hoc there

 

[Sicilian]

I could care less as long as BB doesn't decide to sit him for the first quarter like WW and footie-gate and DM shows up big time in the game to back it up. Let's face it he pretty much summed up what the entire team and fan base thinks. That they want to knock out the southern Jets.

I've always wondered if Wes was sat to start that game because he made comments, or because he basically took personal shots at another member of the head coach fraternity. I don't think Belichick has a distaste for Rex Ryan as a coach, he just chooses to do things in a very different manner. I think he sat him down because he thought Wes was being disrespectful, not because he displayed any kind of hubris.

 

[Get it shawtaay]

The hate that gets directed towards McCourty on this site is comical.

 

[PP2]

I've always wondered if Wes was sat to start that game because he made comments, or because he basically took personal shots at another member of the head coach fraternity. I don't think Belichick has a distaste for Rex Ryan as a coach, he just chooses to do things in a very different manner. I think he sat him down because he thought Wes was being disrespectful, not because he displayed any kind of hubris.

My guess is it was simply because what Welker said was not football-related.

 

[Get it shawtaay]

I've always wondered if Wes was sat to start that game because he made comments, or because he basically took personal shots at another member of the head coach fraternity. I don't think Belichick has a distaste for Rex Ryan as a coach, he just chooses to do things in a very different manner. I think he sat him down because he thought Wes was being disrespectful, not because he displayed any kind of hubris.

And if it were Jeff Fisher he wouldn't have even cared.

 

[Kontradiction]

The hate that gets directed towards McCourty on this site is comical.

I love McCourty. Think he's one of the better safeties in the AFC. I just would have preferred that he said that after the game. But he didn't and what he said wasn't horrible, so it is what it is.