Is this the end of our great ride?

[Don Kipines]

Unbelievable fair-weather fans. Belichick won a Super Bowl with Bobby Hamilton, Anthony Pleasant, Otis Smith, a castoff named Mike Vrabel, and a bunch of nobodies on offense. He won plugging Troy Brown in at corner and he won with Earthwind Moreland starting multiple games in a row.

You all think that if you don't have Ed Reed or Troy Polomalu at every level, you can't win the Super Bowl. But this game is about playing smart and tough and playing well together as a team. They didn't do enough of either on Sunday, and so they lost. Essentially this same team whipped that same Pittsburgh team last year, so we know it's not a personnel issue. They just played badly. As physical as they were against Dallas, it was exactly the opposite Sunday.

Did they have better players on defense in 2001-2004? Definitely. Could they use an injection of top defensive talent? Sure. But this offense is far superior to the offenses on those old teams. And between Wilfork, Mayo, Spikes, McCourty, Haynesworth, etc, there's enough talent even on this defense to win. They've shown this already, beating some pretty good teams this year. Even in the Pittsburgh game, they kept it close. If they'd done even a decent job on offense, we'd all be talking about how they limited Pittsburgh to field goals and hung tough in the last minute. We'd be talking about Andre Carter's big game, Wilfork's two half-sacks, etc.

Look at the Chiefs last night. They were the worst team in the league in the first two weeks, couldn't stop anybody. Now they're playing winning football again. If the Chiefs can suck it up and play for a twit like Todd Haley, what are the chances the Patriots can turn it around for Bill Belichick? You honestly don't think they have it in them?

We lose by one score, to a playoff team, on the road, after a bye, and everyone is saying the Brady era is over. You end-is-nighers are all pathetic. Brady isn't in decline yet, and this team has a real chance. And you're all already fast-forwarding to the draft. Nice message to send to the players. Maybe they should pack it in, too?

 

[ensoul]

Your second premise is completely wrong and makes no sense, the intent is to be a winner in the regular season and in the playoffs, do you think Mr. Kraft would stand for mediocrity??.. this league has great parity, and teams have ups and downs last week New Orleans was exposed. San Diego a preseason favorite which is loaded with all stars has lost three in a row... teams are filled with injuries and busts, could the Pats do better? Of course, but on any given Sunday..

Well the chargers are always the favorites every year and every year the disappoint. We can all agree that no team is perfect and has flaws. If the pats were say ranked 15th in the NFL and they had a day like they did on Sunday we can probably agree that they had a bad day and chalk it up to that. That is not the case. The defense is ranked last in the NFL and they have no chance of getting better. It is not like the pats have some guys coming back from injuries. We are stuck with the guys BB drafted and cast offs that he grabbed that no one in the NFL wants.

I have no idea how Kraft thinks. Pats are having good regular seasons, they putting people in seats and I assume he is making money. Maybe he is happy with that? Maybe he is a BB guy and still thinks "In Bill we trust."like many people on here. I would believe that if BB loses the in the first round Kraft may start to believe that BB is spreading himself too thin. Who knows? Stay tuned.

 

[VJCPatriot]

There's always gloom and doom after a loss. That's the nature of the fanbase. But fact is this season is just underway. We're not even to the halfway point yet. Lot of football to be played. I see no reason to panic yet. We lost to the Steelers but last I heard they were a damn good football team. Pats need to make adjustments for sure and their D looked bad. But in terms of points given up, it wasn't as bad as it may have 'felt' to a lot of viewers.

Am I worried that we cut Bodden? Yes. Do I think we will probably cut Edelman after his Halloween 'escapade'. Probably yes. But so what? A team is more than that. What we need to see is for some players to learn from this loss and step up their game next week. It's not about falling down, it's about how you get back up that REALLY MATTERS.

 

[IllegalContact]

BB is not the only coach who has made this team a good team....parcells did it, meyer/berry did it........fairbanks did it.......

teams rise and fall with the tide.......all I know is that the pats have been to the superbowl in the 80's, the 90's and the 00's......very few teams can say that.....

they will be in the superbowl in the 10's.....and the 20's.......and the 30's.......why? good ownership in a large market.......

to be honest, I would not mind them sucking for awhile.......empty the 'to be seen' crowd out of the stadium

 

[reflexblue]

This team will still win a lot of Regular season games, but when the playoffs come ....forget it. The Defense is poor, and BOB Chokes under pressure.

Bill Belichick needs to fire the GM bringing in all this lack of talent. BB can still coach with the best of them, he just doesn't have the talent to go far once the playoffs start. If enough real talent was drafted on defense the ride would continue.

 

[Ring 6]

This team will still win a lot of Regular season games, but when theplayoff come ....forget it. The Defense is poor, and BOB Chokes under pressure.

Bill Belichick needs to fire the GM bringing in all this lack of talent. BB can still coach with the best of them, he just doesn't have the talent to go far once the playoffs start. If enough real talent was drafted on defense the ride would continue.

So we need to get a GM that pisses on that 14 and 2 talent and can figure out how to replace it with playoff talent? Silly me, I thought it was the same game in the playoffs.

 

[SVN]

Team has lot of problems and have seen gloom and doom before here but this week has been unbelievable.

 

[Lansdowne]

People are so funny..Are the days of being the absolute best team in the NFL over right now, prob! I don't think there is any great teams right now. If we played Pitts,Ravens, GB or NO 10 times the games will prob be split. That is how the league is...Alot of parity and mediocrity. Pittsburgh was obviously very pumped for this game especially since MANY fans and media talkers gave them no chance. This team is absolutely good enough to win a SB. Its all about who gets hot at the right time and get a good draw. Honestly, I rather they play on the road for an AFC title game. There would no pressure at all like there used to.

I agree with your post, teams that are supposed to be elite change their appearance pretty frequently. The Saints are considered an elite franchise this day and age, and they were a joke against the lowly Rams. And imagine how alarming it must be for people who were Colts fans for the past 9 years or so to see their team go from perennial Super Bowl contender to not being able to buy a win because one guy is missing. We're all hurting from losing to the MF'ing Steelers but there's plenty of football to be played.

Having said that, I wanted to address the bolded sentences of your post. Can't agree about there being no pressure at all. The secret was out after winning Super Bowl 36, and the Patriots are now the most despised team in the NFL, a lot of that due to winning and refusing to fall to the depths of obscurity like virtually every other team has at one point or another during this run. As long as Brady and Belichick are Patriots, there will always be pressure to win it all because the franchise has come a long way from the Rod Rust years. There's no "just happy to be there" with this team. When a 4th seeded underdog Patriots team rallied to an upset on the road in San Diego, and then blew a 21-3 lead on the road in the AFCCG against the Colts in Indianapolis, it didn't feel like there was any less pressure.

3 SB titles is a lot, but it feels like the Pats should have won 5 (2006, 2007), maybe even 6 (2010... I say maybe because of the Packers in the NFC). Brady and Belichick is the greatest QB/HC combo ever and yet they've spoiled us so much that no SB titles in the past 6 seasons feels painfully wasteful.

 

[pherein]

hmm The Packers lost back-to-back games to the horrible Redskins and Dolphins last October, and things worked out for them

Its the 1/2 of the season now, and usually when teams make key adjustments., and start playing for a playoff spot. No team is perfect or probably ever will be. Even the best teams have glaring defects that can be exploited.

We blitz a lot because we have a horrid run defense. Kind of like putting 8 men in the box, but you have a shot at the QB if its a pass play. Guys like Brady can pick that apart if he has good blocking, its taking a chance to mask our deficiencies. If we just played a regular D, teams would run on us all day.

GB has a really good WR/TE, but a below average OL, they mask that by moving Rogers in the pocket.

I mean we are all kind of stuck with who we have at this point.

you guys have a better team than 90% of the NFL, and a coach who probably is very aware of what the problems are. You always find your way to the playoffs. Im sure adjustments are coming.