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Those are all great points, points that I can't argue with. My whole argument is that it took BB almost 10 years to draft a LB within the first three rounds of the draft. After their most recent super bowl win in 2004, LB has been their most glaring need. Each and every year, not only do the "NFL experts" acknowledge that LB is a glaring need, we acknowledge it's a glaring need as well. You don't exactly have to be an "NFL expert" to figure this out. The Pats struggled in 2005 because their LB's were dreadful. They lost the AFCCG because their LB's were exhausted and had a lack of depth. Finally, some can argue that the defense lost them the super bowl in 2007 and their defense as a whole sucked in 2008.
It's kind of odd that the consensus on this board states that the weakest link on this team is at LB. However, some people in this thread seem to think otherwise. So which one is it?
2005 was an aberration. They lost Bruschi for part of the season due to the stroke. They lost Ted Johnson, literally, the day that training camp was suppsoed to start. You can't lose your top starting ILBs and expect the team to be good.
They lost the AFCCG because the referees insisted on calling PI against the Patriots and not against the Colts. Kelvin Hayden RAPED Reche Caldwell in the endzone on a catchable pass and nothing was called.
As for the SB, if you are going to say that the Pats lost because of a particular unit, you have to blame the DBs. Meriweather and Samuel both had dropped interceptions. Also, Samuel blew the coverage on Tyree TWICE. Once leading to a TD and the other time was the catch that rodney couldn't get up to knock the ball away. But Tyree was Samuel's man initially and he was in man coverage.