Never forget the 2008 season

[Oswlek]

Thomas Jones and Jamal Charles rushed for close to 2300 yards. Dwayne Bowe was a 1200 yard receiver. McCluster and Moeaki were decent secondary options. There OL was at least as good as the Pats 08 version with guys like Albert, Waters and Lilja. They certainly didn't have the top end talent of Moss and Welker but that team had talent.

Bowe was hurt and a non-factor in the playoff game. Thomas Jones was a shell of himself and only accumulated yards because the team was hesitant to give Charles too much of a workload. There really was no comparison. And even if there was, taking a single awful game that wasn't representative of how well he played in NE and purporting it to be his expected result in the playoffs is absurd.

I only mildly disagree with your overall point, but I vehemently disagree with your rationale.

 

[everlong]

Bowe was hurt and a non-factor in the playoff game. Thomas Jones was a shell of himself and only accumulated yards because the team was hesitant to give Charles too much of a workload. There really was no comparison. And even if there was, taking a single awful game that wasn't representative of how well he played in NE and purporting it to be his expected result in the playoffs is absurd.

I only mildly disagree with your overall point, but I vehemently disagree with your rationale.

I wasn't basing it solely on one playoff game but that entire 2007 and 2010 seasons as a whole coupled with his entire career vs top defenses. You want to cherry pick a few good passer ratings vs poor teams in 07 and ignore the bad ones and all the career evidence. Pitt in Pitt would have been a worse outcome than the home games vs Pitt and Bal from those seasons.

So I disagree just as much. With that said we've probably both wasted too much time on something that we'll never know the answer to so I'm willing to agree to disagree.

 

[Oswlek]

I wasn't basing it solely on one playoff game but that entire 2007 and 2010 seasons as a whole coupled with his entire career vs top defenses. You want to cherry pick a few good passer ratings vs poor teams in 07 and ignore the bad ones and all the career evidence. Pitt in Pitt would have been a worse outcome than the home games vs Pitt and Bal from those seasons.

So I disagree just as much. With that said we've probably both wasted too much time on something that we'll never know the answer to so I'm willing to agree to disagree.

To my eye, I'm not the one cherry picking, but I agree it is time to agree to disagree.

On the more global level, I also agree that NE earned their fate that year and don't see it as some travesty they were on the sidelines. If the wanted in, they could have earned it on their own many different ways.

 

[Koma]

Yeah but at least we got to watch them knock the Colts out of the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Did the Chargers win that game in OT? If so, then that was the game that provided the momentum for the overtime rule changes because the Chargers won on the opening possession and the Colts never saw the ball.

 

[mosi]

Yes I would have liked for them to have the chance to make the playoffs. Probably would have won a game or two. They were rolling in December.

Also, on an unrelated note, R.I.P to the 2010 pats. They were 07 dominant in those last 8 games. Never seen a team with so much momentum flame out like that.

Besides 2007, and the beat down in 1985 SB loss, the 2010 loss is the most painful to me. I thought they would roll into the Super Bowl but was nervous about all the rookies. I even mentioned that in threads back than but thought 2011 and 2012 would be the years. If not for Gronks injuries, they would have been..

 

[RayClay]

I kinda hated that season because it robbed Brady of one year as he was peaking on his prime. I could even argue it robbed him of TWO prime seasons because he clearly wasn't the same for at least ~ 10 games into the 2009 season. In fact, he wasn't really playing that well until the Sunday night massacre @Pittsburgh.

For all that Brady has accomplished already, I can only imagine what more accolades he would have if he had never tore his ACL.

I would have been happy for Cassel to lead us to a Super Bowl. Screw accolades.

 

[RayClay]

I like that the screwing this year will go to one of the"historic" NFL teams from Detroit or Philly. And to make it even better, it could be a 6-9-1 team that does it. Maybe that will help get the NFL do something about it in the future. I wonder why they did it in the first place?

 

[New England Pride]

Did the Chargers win that game in OT? If so, then that was the game that provided the momentum for the overtime rule changes because the Chargers won on the opening possession and the Colts never saw the ball.

Come on man you really think they'd change rules just for Manning.

 

[Kontradiction]

Did the Chargers win that game in OT? If so, then that was the game that provided the momentum for the overtime rule changes because the Chargers won on the opening possession and the Colts never saw the ball.

Yeah, the Chargers scored in OT and the Colts never got the ball. All around entertaining game.