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- Aug 3, 2009
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24 hours later, still feeling pumped up. But I'm sober now, and have so many thoughts on an amazing year.
- After some further consideration, this year's team is my favourite team. I'm a Brady fan, not a Boston guy. I grew up with him at Michigan, followed him to New England, and watched him grow up into the GOAT. I can understand and respect all of the New Englanders who watched this team for decades wanting to put the 2001 team ahead of this one. Totally get that. But after all Tom has been through, this is my favourite championship by far.
- One of my fav things about this year's team was the redemption of so many whipping boys. Chung was banished, but has come back to be a key starter. McCourty struggled as a corner, now he's our Pro Bowl safety. Logan Ryan got beat up quite a bit but played his best ball in the postseason. Dola's contract made him an easy target early, but he became one of Brady's trusted targets late. Lots of calls for Cannon to be cut, but he was All Pro this season. James White, what a game for a guy some thought would be cut. Blount had a ton of TDs and won everyone's respect early in the year for his hard running.
- **** Arthur Blank. So many people say they felt bad for him, but maybe his dumb ass shouldn't have gone down to the sideline early to celebrate. He got exactly what he deserved.
- If I have two minor regrets about this year, they're both Ravens-related, and both childish as ****. But I wish BB trolled the Ravens by running the "deception" play against them. Harbawl cried for months about how it was illegal and the league changed the rule, which "proved" his point. The league merely changed the number range that could be used. The Patriots would run it a week later against the Broncos using Shea McClellin. "Study the rule book" Harbawl.
- The other is the end of the Ravens game. Two weeks prior, the Ravens led the Bengals by 7 with 11 seconds to go, and ran a play on 4th down where they intentionally held every Bengal on the field for time to expire before taking a safety to end the game. Well the Patriots were up 7 with 13 seconds to go on 4th down, and imagine Harbawl's *****ing and crying if we had run the exact same play against him. It would have been epic fat tears.
- The Texans shutout in week 3 might have been one of my fav non-Brady Patriots games. Really like Brissett and think he's got the intangibles to be a good QB. His work with getting Floyd up to speed was also great.
- I think Hightower either gets franchised or leaves. With his injury history, BB is not going to give him a huge deal, or else it will come with lots of protection clauses. High seemed to take the Collins trade a bit personally, and brought it up several times. I wouldn't be surprised if he got the tag.
- I think Marty is gone. He's going to want to get paid, and as an over-30 TE, he won't get that deal here. I'm okay with this though. He reminds me a bit of Moss, all-in...for a while. Could sour quickly.
- Everyone bashed our D, but they proved to be elite, helping keep a historic Falcons offense in check. Meanwhile, everyone bashed that Falcons D too, but they were very good until they ran out of gas. They finished the season 27th in D, but were 20th in the second half of the season I think, and got even better in the play-offs. Just further proof that it doesn't matter what you do to start the season, but how you finish.
- In any great comeback, you need help. The Falcons really botched up so many different plays, it's been talked about ad nauseum. But the most incredible thing is that after they took a 25-point lead, they ran the ball only 4 times for 10 yards. I mean, if they just run the ball a few more times, they are the champions, forget all the other mistakes.
- And you need a bit of luck. On the game-winning TD, White looked like he should have been down but he powered his way to the end zone, which many people said he couldn't do. But on the other hand, did anyone else notice a pretty significant hold on Cannon?
None of the Falcons seemed upset, and I'm not complaining mind you. But that looks like a missed call. The missed facemask on Logan Ryan also would have offset the holding penalty.
Then again, there were some clear ridiculous holds on Patriots DL throughout the game so I make no apologies.
- The Falcons didn't give us the game though. They just didn't close the door. Tom still had to put up a miracle finish to take advantage of the opportunity.
- And really, that's the difference between the two teams, and why we were favourites. Atlanta had to play a perfect game to win, and they almost did play that perfect game. The Patriots could bring their B or C-game and still have a chance, and we did. Lose the turnover battle, go down big early, get gashed in the run game, give up a defensive TD...if any of those things happened to Atlanta, this game would be a blowout. All of those things happen to us and we still win.
- Which is why it was clear that BB loved this team too. His speech after the Broncos game, his comments during media week, he enjoyed working with this group of guys. And we are spoiled to get to enjoy this season.
- As BB said, we're 5 weeks behind everyone else in getting ready for 2017. But one more day to enjoy the parade.
- After some further consideration, this year's team is my favourite team. I'm a Brady fan, not a Boston guy. I grew up with him at Michigan, followed him to New England, and watched him grow up into the GOAT. I can understand and respect all of the New Englanders who watched this team for decades wanting to put the 2001 team ahead of this one. Totally get that. But after all Tom has been through, this is my favourite championship by far.
- One of my fav things about this year's team was the redemption of so many whipping boys. Chung was banished, but has come back to be a key starter. McCourty struggled as a corner, now he's our Pro Bowl safety. Logan Ryan got beat up quite a bit but played his best ball in the postseason. Dola's contract made him an easy target early, but he became one of Brady's trusted targets late. Lots of calls for Cannon to be cut, but he was All Pro this season. James White, what a game for a guy some thought would be cut. Blount had a ton of TDs and won everyone's respect early in the year for his hard running.
- **** Arthur Blank. So many people say they felt bad for him, but maybe his dumb ass shouldn't have gone down to the sideline early to celebrate. He got exactly what he deserved.
- If I have two minor regrets about this year, they're both Ravens-related, and both childish as ****. But I wish BB trolled the Ravens by running the "deception" play against them. Harbawl cried for months about how it was illegal and the league changed the rule, which "proved" his point. The league merely changed the number range that could be used. The Patriots would run it a week later against the Broncos using Shea McClellin. "Study the rule book" Harbawl.
- The other is the end of the Ravens game. Two weeks prior, the Ravens led the Bengals by 7 with 11 seconds to go, and ran a play on 4th down where they intentionally held every Bengal on the field for time to expire before taking a safety to end the game. Well the Patriots were up 7 with 13 seconds to go on 4th down, and imagine Harbawl's *****ing and crying if we had run the exact same play against him. It would have been epic fat tears.
- The Texans shutout in week 3 might have been one of my fav non-Brady Patriots games. Really like Brissett and think he's got the intangibles to be a good QB. His work with getting Floyd up to speed was also great.
- I think Hightower either gets franchised or leaves. With his injury history, BB is not going to give him a huge deal, or else it will come with lots of protection clauses. High seemed to take the Collins trade a bit personally, and brought it up several times. I wouldn't be surprised if he got the tag.
- I think Marty is gone. He's going to want to get paid, and as an over-30 TE, he won't get that deal here. I'm okay with this though. He reminds me a bit of Moss, all-in...for a while. Could sour quickly.
- Everyone bashed our D, but they proved to be elite, helping keep a historic Falcons offense in check. Meanwhile, everyone bashed that Falcons D too, but they were very good until they ran out of gas. They finished the season 27th in D, but were 20th in the second half of the season I think, and got even better in the play-offs. Just further proof that it doesn't matter what you do to start the season, but how you finish.
- In any great comeback, you need help. The Falcons really botched up so many different plays, it's been talked about ad nauseum. But the most incredible thing is that after they took a 25-point lead, they ran the ball only 4 times for 10 yards. I mean, if they just run the ball a few more times, they are the champions, forget all the other mistakes.
- And you need a bit of luck. On the game-winning TD, White looked like he should have been down but he powered his way to the end zone, which many people said he couldn't do. But on the other hand, did anyone else notice a pretty significant hold on Cannon?
None of the Falcons seemed upset, and I'm not complaining mind you. But that looks like a missed call. The missed facemask on Logan Ryan also would have offset the holding penalty.
Then again, there were some clear ridiculous holds on Patriots DL throughout the game so I make no apologies.
- The Falcons didn't give us the game though. They just didn't close the door. Tom still had to put up a miracle finish to take advantage of the opportunity.
- And really, that's the difference between the two teams, and why we were favourites. Atlanta had to play a perfect game to win, and they almost did play that perfect game. The Patriots could bring their B or C-game and still have a chance, and we did. Lose the turnover battle, go down big early, get gashed in the run game, give up a defensive TD...if any of those things happened to Atlanta, this game would be a blowout. All of those things happen to us and we still win.
- Which is why it was clear that BB loved this team too. His speech after the Broncos game, his comments during media week, he enjoyed working with this group of guys. And we are spoiled to get to enjoy this season.
- As BB said, we're 5 weeks behind everyone else in getting ready for 2017. But one more day to enjoy the parade.
