aluminum seats
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2006
- Messages
- 10,367
- Reaction score
- 11,241
It’s funny how reactionary everyone---fans, media, everyone--is after every game, although nobody likes to admit it…..we all pretend we’re being objective and realistic. The Pats win yesterday? They’re awesome. They get blown out? “Give me the last 5 years of my life back.” It’s comic.
Here’s the thing. The Pats lost big yesterday to a really outstanding team. Too often we forget there are two teams playing. Yesterday, the Saints were at the top of their game, and the Pats played a bad game, with predictable results.
I think the best thing to do is go back to 2005. That season, the Pats got clobbered more than once--the last beating by the Colts in November in a game very similar to yesterday’s. They went on to win 6 of their last 7 (not including the last game of the season to Miami that they wanted to lose). It might not be that hopeful to refer back to a season with a second round playoff loss, but anyone who watched that game knew the Pats had a really outstanding squad at that point, with uncharacteristic errors doing them in. The goal for the Patriots now is to work to get back to that level of play, and let the chips fall.
There were a lot of things wrong yesterday you could reasonably expect not to see again. Brady played poorly. The offensive line was out of sync, and will benefit greatly from getting Vollmer back. The bad line play threw the whole offense out of whack. The young secondary isn’t anywhere in the vicinity as bad as they looked yesterday--the coaching staff will make the most of the learning opportunity. On the plus side, Maroney is running harder than I’ve ever seen him. The lack of a consistent pass rush is the one element that would be the best bet to end their season, but one game at a time.
Point is, there’s a lot of talent on this team on both sides of the ball. Yesterday was one game, a bad one for the Pats. But they’re winning the division, Cincy & SD play each other, Cincy goes to Minnesota, San Diego goes to Dallas and (hard to believe they’re playing well but they are) Tennessee, etc. , so the #2 seed is hardly a stretch. It’s always darkest before the dawn. Keep the faith.
Here’s the thing. The Pats lost big yesterday to a really outstanding team. Too often we forget there are two teams playing. Yesterday, the Saints were at the top of their game, and the Pats played a bad game, with predictable results.
I think the best thing to do is go back to 2005. That season, the Pats got clobbered more than once--the last beating by the Colts in November in a game very similar to yesterday’s. They went on to win 6 of their last 7 (not including the last game of the season to Miami that they wanted to lose). It might not be that hopeful to refer back to a season with a second round playoff loss, but anyone who watched that game knew the Pats had a really outstanding squad at that point, with uncharacteristic errors doing them in. The goal for the Patriots now is to work to get back to that level of play, and let the chips fall.
There were a lot of things wrong yesterday you could reasonably expect not to see again. Brady played poorly. The offensive line was out of sync, and will benefit greatly from getting Vollmer back. The bad line play threw the whole offense out of whack. The young secondary isn’t anywhere in the vicinity as bad as they looked yesterday--the coaching staff will make the most of the learning opportunity. On the plus side, Maroney is running harder than I’ve ever seen him. The lack of a consistent pass rush is the one element that would be the best bet to end their season, but one game at a time.
Point is, there’s a lot of talent on this team on both sides of the ball. Yesterday was one game, a bad one for the Pats. But they’re winning the division, Cincy & SD play each other, Cincy goes to Minnesota, San Diego goes to Dallas and (hard to believe they’re playing well but they are) Tennessee, etc. , so the #2 seed is hardly a stretch. It’s always darkest before the dawn. Keep the faith.