What up with our front office?

[Deus Irae]

Sorry, the criticism is not the same. Granted I will chock it up to typical fandom because it probably would be no different anywhere else. But many of the things people are blasting Belichick for the same things they praised him for in the past. Why? Because some of the things he did in the past failed this past year, they think everything Belichick has done time and time again will not work.

And that is the same as it has always been. There's been nothing new.

There are quite a few people on this board who are not Belichick haters and might have even fallen in the homer category just three months ago now blasting Belichick. Since they are not doing in a troll way, I won't call them out by screen name.

That's no different than any other year, which is the point. When Belichick makes mistakes, or perceived mistakes, people 'blast' him for it.

And we are only hearing one side of the story in all those cases. The Pats don't talk about contract negotiations so we don't know what really happened only the players' spin. Granted Pats spin would be one sided too, but it would at least give us balance to get to the truth.

I'm sorry, but this simply is not true.

First, I think Belichick's offseason has been overblown as how bad it was. Yes, Galloway was a horrible move. So was Greg Lewis. But TBC and Bodden were great moves. I think Burgess would have been a good move if Belichick did it a month or two earlier and allowed Burgess to get acclimated. It took him nearly a season to get acclimated. It is too early to tell how the Seymour trade will work out, short term it was not good. Long term, it could help give the Pats 3 more Super Bowls.

It hasn't been overblown at all. If Belichick had been just "some coach/GM", he'd have gotten fired for this past year, or at least be placed on the so-called "hot seat". It was the worst season I remember seeing a quality coach/GM have. Outside of the draft, if there was a wrong choice to be made, he chose it almost every time. The Burgess trade is just a textbook example of making a moronic trade and having a fan base in denial enough to pretend "it would have been a good move if..."

And the Seymour trade was a disaster that torpedoed the season. This talk about waiting to see how the pick will work out is irrelevant. The trade will now require that resources be spent to fix the hole that wasn't there, since Green and Wright clearly were unable to handle the job. So, at least one season lost and a continuing need to fix what wasn't a problem is on the ledger already. That pick could be the next Brady or Lawrence Taylor, and it won't make the trade a good one. The level of play of the person chosen is not going to be sufficiently higher than Seymour's to make up for what's already been lost and will have already been lost before the pick is even made.

Second, yes Belichick had a bad year. You look at every great coach and they don't hit every year. That doesn't mean this is a trend or that the game has passed him by like many (even some of what I considered before this year more rational fans) have suggested.

It also doesn't mean that you keep kissing his ass and attacking those who question him, either, but that's what the homers have been doing. As for it meaning that this is a trend, perhaps you don't think that his recent drafts show a trend of not finding elite talent? Do you think his recent free agent moves have not trended to be lower quality than they were in the early part of the 2000s?

The trends are there, but have been acceptable prior to now because Brady, and the other excellent players from that earlier time, were able to compensate for the decline. That was not true this past season, as many of those great players moved on and Brady was not 100% Brady. The question is only whether or not Belichick will reverse those trends going forward.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

In a lot of cases it is. For example, I do not think Belichick should be fired. He's allowed to have a season of headscratching moves. IMO, he's earned that right after helping to bring this team three more Super Bowls than it had previously had in it's entire existance. However, I do think he should be questioned. Shipping Seymour out as late as he did without a viable back-up plan (the majority of the posters on this board could have told you that Jarvis Green is not good against the run) is just one of those decisions.



Not a lot of people around here, outside of the NEPatriot's of the forum, have even come close to comparing him to Grier.



These people are idiots. I can only speak for myself. The only time I've "bashed" (if you can even call it that) BB and the team for not spending money is this past offseason. Even then I was very careful not to call them cheap. I believe my exact words were, "Kraft is not cheap, however I do believe that the team tried to do things on the cheap this year... to negative results". I followed that up by stating that I'd like to see this team as active in free agency as it was prior to the 2007 season.



That's because some people looked at Seymour being traded with focus on what we would have to do this offseason and automatically assumed that unloading his salary a year before we were supposed to would help us sign our most important defensive player to a new contract. So far, that has not happened and, with each passing day, Wilfork sounds more and more disenchanted. In this case, some are "bashing" BB while others are merely putting two and two together.



This has not been me either. I've blamed the defensive woes more on the personnel available instead of the coaching or the scheme since before midseason.



I'm not throwing this all on you, because you're a good poster. However, this is exactly the type of complacency I was speaking of earlier in regards to the team. Was the season itself a success? Sure. We won the division. However, the success of the team has never and should never been what it's done in the regular season. Granted, you need to take care of business in the season to have a shot afterward. However, the success of the team should be what it does in the postseason. In an effort to (I guess) defeat a debate about the team's direction, several posters have taken to this "the season was a success!" attitude. No, it really wasn't. This team had major holes on both sides of the ball that gradually became more and more exposed as it went on until it ultimately culminated in getting outplayed, outcoached, and outclassed in the Wild Card round to the tune of a very embarassing blowout. Bottom line is that, for the first seven years of this decade, this team and it's fans have scoffed about "regular season successes". Remember the days when we all used to call the Colts a "regular season dynasty"? Well, that's where we are now unfortunately. I just hope, like you do, that we can turn the page on that.

No offense kontra, but I find it comical when you twenty somethings make allowances...

In 2005 we embarassed ourselves in Denver. It wasn't the end of anything, although some predicted as much because we obviously were destined to threepeat. Then in 2006 it was really ovah as the much maligned regular season dynasty pulled our pants down in the second half of a championship game and spanked us on their way to a ring of their own.

What followed was really telling. We won the next 18 in a row before finally losing a game by literally a hair at the least opportune time. Of course we also lost a second first round pick in the upcoming draft that the value nut had been stockpiling, but I digress...

Following season was perceived as must have revenge for that totally unacceptable and embarassing performance. Only we lost the franchise in the first quarter of week 1 and that stiff Belichick could only squeeze 11 wins out with a backup who hadn't played since HS...while if he'd had Jeff Garcia or Daunte Culpper on speed dial we'd certainly have avenged the horror that was 2007...

This year after trading the Walmart replacement for #34, when the last of the too old and slow players the madden generation had been demanding they replace for like 3 years finally departed enmass, and it underscored the alternate interpretation of the old adage you can't coach speed...a fanbase tormented by no parades they can't even be bothered to attend anymore in 5 long years had had it. The kicker was trading a 30 year old DE they couldn't extend for a top 10 pick in the first draft with a rookie contract cap...like somehow what happens after 2011 matters...

You guys need to stop making assumptions beyond this: Belichick is smarter that any of you...so is Kraft. They've forgotten more about the game and the business of football than any of us fans will ever know, no matter how savvy some of us truly believe outselves to be. Doesn't mean we can't talk about stuff. Just means we should focus more on trying to understand why they do what they do as opposed to patting ourselves on the back for being smart enough, or shortsighted enough to see all of their mistakes in hindsigh or based on our own short term view of what constitutes success...

After all, next week it's those scoffed at regular season successes kicking off in their second superbowl this decade. Coming off a one and done wildcard loss to a perrenial playoff fraud last season...not to mention getting kicked to the curb at home by the same frauds the season before... Of course there were lots of Indy fans who over the last few seasons had come to the conclusion that it was clearly time to move on from Dungy and his lap dog assistant and that aging and unimaginative OC not to mention the egomaniacal GM who let Harrison age out without a replacement and was picking third rounders who walked away from the game after their rookie seasons and was now busting on such critical selections as their LT of the future.

Turns out he's still a genius...

 

[MoLewisrocks]

And that is the same as it has always been. There's been nothing new.



That's no different than any other year, which is the point. When Belichick makes mistakes, or perceived mistakes, people 'blast' him for it.



I'm sorry, but this simply is not true.



It hasn't been overblown at all. If Belichick had been just "some coach/GM", he'd have gotten fired for this past year, or at least be placed on the so-called "hot seat". It was the worst season I remember seeing a quality coach/GM have. Outside of the draft, if there was a wrong choice to be made, he chose it almost every time. The Burgess trade is just a textbook example of making a moronic trade and having a fan base in denial enough to pretend "it would have been a good move if..."

And the Seymour trade was a disaster that torpedoed the season. This talk about waiting to see how the pick will work out is irrelevant. The trade will now require that resources be spent to fix the hole that wasn't there, since Green and Wright clearly were unable to handle the job. So, at least one season lost and a continuing need to fix what wasn't a problem is on the ledger already. That pick could be the next Brady or Lawrence Taylor, and it won't make the trade a good one. The level of play of the person chosen is not going to be sufficiently higher than Seymour's to make up for what's already been lost and will have already been lost before the pick is even made.



It also doesn't mean that you keep kissing his ass and attacking those who question him, either, but that's what the homers have been doing. As for it meaning that this is a trend, perhaps you don't think that his recent drafts show a trend of not finding elite talent? Do you think his recent free agent moves have not trended to be lower quality than they were in the early part of the 2000s?

The trends are there, but have been acceptable prior to now because Brady, and the other excellent players from that earlier time, were able to compensate for the decline. That was not true this past season, as many of those great players moved on and Brady was not 100% Brady. The question is only whether or not Belichick will reverse those trends going forward.

And then of course there are the well over twenty somethings who should just know better but can't help themselves because the only ego greater than Belichicks hereabouts is apparently theirs...

 

[Deus Irae]

And then of course there are the well over twenty somethings who should just know better but can't help themselves because the only ego greater than Belichicks hereabouts is apparently theirs...

Given the nature of what most of your posts have become as you've become more and more blatant in making your assumptions about how others think, even as you've bashed anyone else who's dared to make any assumptions in a similar vein, I find it ironic that you'd be stating this claim.

 

[Clonamery]

Given the nature of what most of your posts have become as you've become more and more blatant in making your assumptions about how others think, even as you've bashed anyone else who's dared to make any assumptions in a similar vein, I find it ironic that you'd be stating this claim.

Takes one to know one.

 

[Willie55]

Originally posted by Deus Irae
It hasn't been overblown at all. If Belichick had been just "some coach/GM", he'd have gotten fired for this past year, or at least be placed on the so-called "hot seat". It was the worst season I remember seeing a quality coach/GM have. Outside of the draft, if there was a wrong choice to be made, he chose it almost every time. The Burgess trade is just a textbook example of making a moronic trade and having a fan base in denial enough to pretend "it would have been a good move if..."

10-6 and the playoffs gets you fired?

 

[Deus Irae]

10-6 and the playoffs gets you fired?

1.) It's not all about records, as Schottenheimer getting canned after going 14-2 demonstrates quite clearly

2.) When you equate "record" to "season", you err. An 8-8 record for one team might be an unexpectedly good year, while that same 8-8 record might be a disaster for another team.

 

[tanked_as_usual]

10-6 and the playoffs gets you fired?

you know the funny thing is that as much as I have disagreed with BB's last 2 years, the last thing I would do is fire him.......

99.9% of all coaches out there would screw up alot more than he does

that said, how many coaches out there have managed to revive dynasties during their coaching tenure? the best example is landry....the guy had 20 straight years of a winning record........and I'd bet people talked about firing him once in while during that time

 

[Leave No Doubt]

No offense kontra, but I find it comical when you twenty somethings make allowances...

In 2005 we embarassed ourselves in Denver. It wasn't the end of anything, although some predicted as much because we obviously were destined to threepeat. Then in 2006 it was really ovah as the much maligned regular season dynasty pulled our pants down in the second half of a championship game and spanked us on their way to a ring of their own.

What followed was really telling. We won the next 18 in a row before finally losing a game by literally a hair at the least opportune time. Of course we also lost a second first round pick in the upcoming draft that the value nut had been stockpiling, but I digress...

Following season was perceived as must have revenge for that totally unacceptable and embarassing performance. Only we lost the franchise in the first quarter of week 1 and that stiff Belichick could only squeeze 11 wins out with a backup who hadn't played since HS...while if he'd had Jeff Garcia or Daunte Culpper on speed dial we'd certainly have avenged the horror that was 2007...

This year after trading the Walmart replacement for #34, when the last of the too old and slow players the madden generation had been demanding they replace for like 3 years finally departed enmass, and it underscored the alternate interpretation of the old adage you can't coach speed...a fanbase tormented by no parades they can't even be bothered to attend anymore in 5 long years had had it. The kicker was trading a 30 year old DE they couldn't extend for a top 10 pick in the first draft with a rookie contract cap...like somehow what happens after 2011 matters...

You guys need to stop making assumptions beyond this: Belichick is smarter that any of you...so is Kraft. They've forgotten more about the game and the business of football than any of us fans will ever know, no matter how savvy some of us truly believe outselves to be. Doesn't mean we can't talk about stuff. Just means we should focus more on trying to understand why they do what they do as opposed to patting ourselves on the back for being smart enough, or shortsighted enough to see all of their mistakes in hindsigh or based on our own short term view of what constitutes success...

After all, next week it's those scoffed at regular season successes kicking off in their second superbowl this decade. Coming off a one and done wildcard loss to a perrenial playoff fraud last season...not to mention getting kicked to the curb at home by the same frauds the season before... Of course there were lots of Indy fans who over the last few seasons had come to the conclusion that it was clearly time to move on from Dungy and his lap dog assistant and that aging and unimaginative OC not to mention the egomaniacal GM who let Harrison age out without a replacement and was picking third rounders who walked away from the game after their rookie seasons and was now busting on such critical selections as their LT of the future.

Turns out he's still a genius...

I hope lots of people here read this post. Read andcomprehend, something which at times seems a bit problematic here.

 

[Clonamery]

1.) It's not all about records, as Schottenheimer getting canned after going 14-2 demonstrates quite clearly

2.) When you equate "record" to "season", you err. An 8-8 record for one team might be an unexpectedly good year, while that same 8-8 record might be a disaster for another team.

You mean like the defending Superbowl Champs?

 

[Willie55]

1.) It's not all about records, as Schottenheimer getting canned after going 14-2 demonstrates quite clearly

2.) When you equate "record" to "season", you err. An 8-8 record for one team might be an unexpectedly good year, while that same 8-8 record might be a disaster for another team.

That was philosophical difference in San Diego. And the fact that you mentions Marty and BB in the same sentence is amazing.

You either sound like a BB basher or a spoiled fan forgot about or never lived through the bad years of the Pats. Was I disappointed about this year? Yes. But how many teams would have given up next years draft to have the season the Pats did. The fact that you are complaining about the Pats season and alluding to it being a failure just adds to the greatness of what the Patriots, and more specifically BB, have done over the past decade.

 

[oldskool138]

But how many teams would have given up next years draft to have the season the Pats did.

Not many. If they fail they get better draft picks that could help their team out for years to come. If they sacrifice one draft for the Pats 10-6, it could negatively impact their club for the next 4-5 years.

 

[iapatsfan]

I think that we should understand that failure to re-sign players or sign coaches five weeks before free agency even begins should not be a cause of alarm.

I agree with you, but their should be cause for alarm with this team's inability to develop defensive playmakers over the last few years. Mayo is a nice player who makes a lot of tackles, but to this point he is no difference maker. When Trevor Price makes a point of saying our best defensive player is Junior Seau, we are in trouble. I also think there is cause for alarm when a "genious" coach thinks we can get by with no threat of a running game. Look what the aquisition of Dillon did for this team. Why we continue to try and get by with age and mediocrity at the RB position is beyond me. I also think there is cause for alarm in believing a team with no threat of a running game can get by with only two viable receiving options. The BB "bend but don't break" defense and spread 'em out (with only 2 viable receiving options) offense have become too predictable and are leading us in the wrong direction. I want to see this team move towards an agressive, get after the QB D, and a pound the ball and take shots when they are there O.

 

[Rob0729]

And that is the same as it has always been. There's been nothing new.



That's no different than any other year, which is the point. When Belichick makes mistakes, or perceived mistakes, people 'blast' him for it.

Both those statements are complete and utter BS. The motto up until very recently has been "In Bill we trust".

I'm sorry, but this simply is not true

.

How is that not true. The Pats' position has always been they don't talk contract negotiations. Many times to their own detriment. We have no idea what their position is on the Wilfork

It hasn't been overblown at all. If Belichick had been just "some coach/GM", he'd have gotten fired for this past year, or at least be placed on the so-called "hot seat". It was the worst season I remember seeing a quality coach/GM have. Outside of the draft, if there was a wrong choice to be made, he chose it almost every time. The Burgess trade is just a textbook example of making a moronic trade and having a fan base in denial enough to pretend "it would have been a good move if..."

No head coach/GM would be fired just because they finished 10-6. You bring up Marty Schottenheimer, but you ignore the fact that he had a long history of choking in the playoffs and his relationship with AJ Smith got so bad that ownership was forced to choose one or the other because they could no longer work together.

I think the Burgess deal was bad, but if he got acclimated to the defense during the offseason. It would at least not be a horrible trade.

And the Seymour trade was a disaster that torpedoed the season. This talk about waiting to see how the pick will work out is irrelevant. The trade will now require that resources be spent to fix the hole that wasn't there, since Green and Wright clearly were unable to handle the job. So, at least one season lost and a continuing need to fix what wasn't a problem is on the ledger already. That pick could be the next Brady or Lawrence Taylor, and it won't make the trade a good one. The level of play of the person chosen is not going to be sufficiently higher than Seymour's to make up for what's already been lost and will have already been lost before the pick is even made.

The Seymour trade did not torpedo the season. There were just as many problems with the offense as the defense this year. Seriously, you are being overly dramatic on this one.

As for the statement that if the pick becomes the next Brady or Lawrence Taylor it is still a bad trade, you really can't be serious. A Tom Brady or Lawrence Taylor are special players that come around once or twice a generation possibly once in the entire NFL history? Seymour is a great player, but not that good. There was a good chance that the Pats would have parted ways with Seymour after this past season anyway. So you really think losing a great player for one year is not worth getting an elite, franchise players who is the best player of his generation if not in football history potentially for a decade. If you could guarantee that that 2011 pick in 2011 was either Brady or LT re-incarnated, there isn't a GM who wouldn't make that trade. Well, any GM with enough job security that he knows he would be around in 2011 to make the pick.

It also doesn't mean that you keep kissing his ass and attacking those who question him, either, but that's what the homers have been doing. As for it meaning that this is a trend, perhaps you don't think that his recent drafts show a trend of not finding elite talent? Do you think his recent free agent moves have not trended to be lower quality than they were in the early part of the 2000s?

There are a lot of things I think Belichick has done wrong over the last few years. But then again, there were things he did wrong in the Super Bowl years. The guy is not perfect. He still has a proven track record of rebuilding this team on the fly and keeping a consistent playoff team and contenders. The Jets showed this year that all you have to do is get into the dance and no matter how you played in the regular season, you can do damage in the playoffs. The Steelers did that last year with greater success. So did the Giants the year before.

The trends are there, but have been acceptable prior to now because Brady, and the other excellent players from that earlier time, were able to compensate for the decline. That was not true this past season, as many of those great players moved on and Brady was not 100% Brady. The question is only whether or not Belichick will reverse those trends going forward.

The trends are that whenever the Pats experience a downturn, Belichick makes the corrections to fix it and the Pats surge again. I am willing to ride that trend until he proves that trend wrong. The guy has earned my trust and I won't blast him until I see what this team looks like in September. Come September and this team has no outside rushers, no depth at WR, and is basically the same team but another year older I will then be far more critical. I won't blast him for his approach to the 2010 offseason before it even begins though.

 

[Willie55]

I agree with you, but their should be cause for alarm with this team's inability to develop defensive playmakers over the last few years. Mayo is a nice player who makes a lot of tackles, but to this point he is no difference maker. When Trevor Price makes a point of saying our best defensive player is Junior Seau, we are in trouble. I also think there is cause for alarm when a "genious" coach thinks we can get by with no threat of a running game. Look what the aquisition of Dillon did for this team. Why we continue to try and get by with age and mediocrity at the RB position is beyond me. I also think there is cause for alarm in believing a team with no threat of a running game can get by with only two viable receiving options. The BB "bend but don't break" defense and spread 'em out (with only 2 viable receiving options) offense have become too predictable and are leading us in the wrong direction. I want to see this team move towards an agressive, get after the QB D, and a pound the ball and take shots when they are there O.

Mayo was defensive Rookie of the Year and then hurt his knee in the first game of the season. He played the rest of the year with a noticeable limp. I'll wait until next year to hold judgment on him.

By the time the Pats got Dillon he was in his 30's and thought to be washed up. The year before they got him he only had 500 yards rushing.

I agree about the defensive philosophy needs to be turned to aggressive get after the QB.

 

[Kontradiction]

No offense kontra, but I find it comical when you twenty somethings make allowances...

Yeah. Thanks for the thinly veiled potshot. Using my age to try to disprove my argument is pretty weak if you ask me. But whatever floats your boat I guess...

In 2005 we embarassed ourselves in Denver. It wasn't the end of anything, although some predicted as much because we obviously were destined to threepeat. Then in 2006 it was really ovah as the much maligned regular season dynasty pulled our pants down in the second half of a championship game and spanked us on their way to a ring of their own.

What followed was really telling. We won the next 18 in a row before finally losing a game by literally a hair at the least opportune time. Of course we also lost a second first round pick in the upcoming draft that the value nut had been stockpiling, but I digress...

Except you forget to mention one thing: we were in all of these games. No single game was so far out of our reach to the point where it got embarassing. Denver, IMO, was not embarassing at all. Indy was only embarassing because we blew a lead. And I don't think I need to explain Super Bowl XLII. Those two games were embarassing, but for different reasons. This blowout loss to the Ravens was particularly embarassing partly because the team couldn't get out of it's own way (nothing different here from the entire regular season, just about every time we faced a good team with one exception) and partly because we were never really a threat to a team playing without the full services of it's starting quarterback. Essentially, we were very fortunate to be 10-6 this season. We could have very easily been 9-7 at the most, 8-8 at the least.

Following season was perceived as must have revenge for that totally unacceptable and embarassing performance. Only we lost the franchise in the first quarter of week 1 and that stiff Belichick could only squeeze 11 wins out with a backup who hadn't played since HS...while if he'd had Jeff Garcia or Daunte Culpper on speed dial we'd certainly have avenged the horror that was 2007...

This is another problem. Because I think Belichick made some mistakes this season does not automatically mean that I think he's a stiff. Now, perhaps I'm not reading this correctly and, if I am, correct me. However, if I'm not, then I would love to see you provide some sort of concrete evidence of where I've called Belichick a "stiff" or anything remotely of the sort.

This year after trading the Walmart replacement for #34, when the last of the too old and slow players the madden generation had been demanding they replace for like 3 years finally departed enmass, and it underscored the alternate interpretation of the old adage you can't coach speed...a fanbase tormented by no parades they can't even be bothered to attend anymore in 5 long years had had it. The kicker was trading a 30 year old DE they couldn't extend for a top 10 pick in the first draft with a rookie contract cap...like somehow what happens after 2011 matters...

Actually, the kicker was trading that 30 year old DE without a viable back-up option to come in there behind him. The day Seymour was traded, I came into the thread and posted that the only way that I can see Belichick trading such a dominant DE for the two gap scheme (outside of te first round pick two years away) was that he must have had a viable option (my guess was Pryor) that impressed him in training camp and preseason, enough so that he could warrant trading him away and leaving a huge gap in the defense. Turns out I was wrong, unless of course you want to try to make an argument about how Jarvis Green was a force in both the passing game and the running game. However, I'm not sure how you could do that since Green was regularly handled by a single blocker which would allow another guy to come out and isolate the OLB. Since you seem to think that BB is infallible in the way he carries himself and the team, I wouldn't expect you to understand that trading away such a presence without having a dependable back-up plan is anything but "genius". Face it Mo, in the short term this was a horrible move.

You guys need to stop making assumptions beyond this: Belichick is smarter that any of you...so is Kraft. They've forgotten more about the game and the business of football than any of us fans will ever know, no matter how savvy some of us truly believe outselves to be. Doesn't mean we can't talk about stuff. Just means we should focus more on trying to understand why they do what they do as opposed to patting ourselves on the back for being smart enough, or shortsighted enough to see all of their mistakes in hindsigh or based on our own short term view of what constitutes success...

You really should read the rest of my posts instead of just reading the negative stuff and bashing your head off of the keyboard...

And yes, it all starts and ends with Brady and his health, but his health can't be good for long if he keeps absorbing shots like he did last year. Personally? I have faith in Belichick to make the right moves this offseason and am looking forward (already) to 2010.

In the end, I can criticize the coach and the team's moves all I want (and most of it isn't hindsight, by the way. Though I do understand how it's more convenient for you to say that). I'm a fan. Fans pay the ticket prices. Fans buy the merchandise. Fans spend their extra time watching the games. Extreme fans take to using the rest of their time posting on forums. As such, I have earned the right point out the wrongdoings of the coaching staff and front office just as much as I have the right to applaud the good moves they make as well. That's how I can criticize Bill in one paragraph and then put full support behind him in another.

After all, next week it's those scoffed at regular season successes kicking off in their second superbowl this decade. Coming off a one and done wildcard loss to a perrenial playoff fraud last season...not to mention getting kicked to the curb at home by the same frauds the season before... Of course there were lots of Indy fans who over the last few seasons had come to the conclusion that it was clearly time to move on from Dungy and his lap dog assistant and that aging and unimaginative OC not to mention the egomaniacal GM who let Harrison age out without a replacement and was picking third rounders who walked away from the game after their rookie seasons and was now busting on such critical selections as their LT of the future.

Turns out he's still a genius...

This does not disprove my point at all. Manning and the Colts are going to the Super Bowl because they have the most complete team that they have ever had since he became quarterback. Manning has a great first option (Wayne), the second best second option in the league (Clark), and viable third and fourth threats (Garcon and Collie) one of whom can take their man vertical and stretch the field. He also has a pretty damn good O-Line as well as a defense that finally learned how to stop the run (one thing I'll give Caldwell credit for is beefing up the DT positions on the defense, something which Dungy apparently tried as hard as he could not to do). Compare that to this year's Pats team: Brady coming off of injury (I expect him to be better in 2010), injuries and age on the O-Line (Neal), a special teamer as the third "threat", lack of TE's due to said deficiencies on the O-Line, a D-Line taken out of it's game due to Seymour's absense (his side became easy to run against, his absense in effect allowed guys to bear down on Wilfork and make him less of a factor), and a LB corps that could stand to see improvements at three spots. Looking at the comparisons, it should be no suprise to anybody that Pats fans are now holding on to regular season accomplishments while the Colts find themselves in the Super Bowl.