OT:How good is Hotlanta?

[deroc5050]

Squeaking out wins over teams that are bad and/or decimated by injury doesn't make it a tough place to play.

The last time we took a healthy team there we emasculated them.

Denver going back over the years has been a house of horrors for the Pats. Remember 2005 in the playoffs when the pats were trying to 3peat super bowl titles... Jake Plummer and the Broncos in Denver knocked us out. Last year Brock Osweiler....Chris Harper's muff punt, which costed us home field.

 

[BradyFTW!]

I didn't think Atlanta was for real a few days ago, but going into Denver and beating them is impressive. On one hand I'd mark down the impressiveness of the win since Lynch clearly wasn't ready to start, Kubiak was tweaking out on the sideline, and the black hole at RT pretty much blew up their entire offensive gameplan. But OTOH Atlanta controlled that game pretty much from start to finish, and it was a far more decisive win than the final score indicates. IMO those two factors more or less cancel out, so I'd say it was a very impressive win.

I still need to see a little more before I can consider them elite, but if they beat Seattle convincingly then I'm in on them.

 

[FourierSeries]

It's football, nobody's ever healthy. The Broncos haven't been healthy for a lot of our matchups either. And the emasculation you're referring to happened 5 years ago when Tim Tebow was their quarterback.

All that aside, I'm still not understanding whatever logic it is you're attempting here. Someone said in a very general sense that it's hard to win in Mile High Stadium. You're disagreeing with that because we did it once in 2011? Seems like you're implicitly saying that it's easy because we can do it, which is ridiculous because the Patriots do a lot of things that are objectively very hard to do, like win their division 11 times in 12 years or win 4 Super Bowls.

Winning in Denver is objectively hard to do, which makes it all the more impressive when we do it.

Have they experienced anything close to the following when playing us in recent history?

-decimated DL + missing #1 CB + missing powerhouse TE as we experienced in the 2013 AFCCG
-decimated OL + missing #1 WR + missing #2 WR + missing an explosive playmaker out of the backfield + missing a top LB as we did in the regular season game last year
-decimated OL + missing top 2 RBs + missing FB + top 2 WRs playing with injuries that would ultimately take several months to recover from, thus rendering them useless

If not, then there's no comparison to any injury problems they've faced. Last year, they actually had the fewest man games lost to injury.

It doesn't matter if Tebow was their QB. Their QB situation isn't significantly better this season, regardless of how many people want to suck Siemian's ****.

 

[FourierSeries]

Denver going back over the years has been a house of horrors for the Pats. Remember 2005 in the playoffs when the pats were trying to 3peat super bowl titles... Jake Plummer and the Broncos in Denver knocked us out. Last year Brock Osweiler....Chris Harper's muff punt, which costed us home field.

We didn't really have a team that could have won the SB that year. Also, unsurprisingly, we had some key injuries going into that game. But we still had a chance to tie it up late.

 

[Tony2046]

Falcons started 5-0 last year and then finished 3-8

Exactly.

They are the same team as last year until they prove otherwise. They handed the Panthers their only loss last year and still crapped the bed.

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

It's not a tough place to play in at all if you're healthy.

Historically the Patriots are 3 wins and 7 losses since 2000 when playing in Denver. It only gets worse if you go back before Brady and Belichick. It's a tough stadium with the altitude and the weather. It just is... If you want to go ahead and say that all of those losses were because of injuries, let's hear it...

 

[TheFlyingWedge]

Think we know these guys pretty well. They are a paper tiger. Surprising wins but never win the games that matter. Always have a good run game until it matters. They are much like the Atlanta fans that burn the teams jerseys every year. You never hear we have the best fans in Atlanta so there is no real connection between fans and the team. If they lose they are morons and if they win they are a SB team. Feel kind of sorry for guys that play there.

Old but its the same thing we hear every year. Like Philly I think the team is held back by the fans.
Matt has a huge problem choking in big games, but is fine with no pressure. They have pretty good weapons on offense but never get it together when it matters. The defense is pretty bad, not as bad as ours has been, but when you consider we put 32 pts on them in 1/3rd of the clock time... Tom would do the same with a way better defense.

Coming from the perspective of a Pats fan, sure it must be hard being a Falcons fan. But at least they get into the playoffs on occasion, and have the opportunity to choke it all away. I don't think a Cleveland Browns fan would have too much sympathy for a Falcon fan's whining and crying.

 

[pherein]

Coming from the perspective of a Pats fan, sure it must be hard being a Falcons fan. But at least they get into the playoffs on occasion, and have the opportunity to choke it all away. I don't think a Cleveland Browns fan would have too much sympathy for a Falcon fan's whining and crying.

me either

 

[supafly]

They aren't good enough to make me too concerned. Let's revisit the issue in a couple of months.

 

[MainePatsFan26]

Head shaking loss to the Bucs week one but since then, won in Oakland against a possibly legitiment Raidahs team, blewout Carolina (may or may not be a good team?), blewout NOLA (trash), and won in Denver against the champs. Schedules been tough, always hard to buy this team but, maybe Quinn has gotten through to them.

In terms of all around play in the NFC, I'd say the Vikings and Packers (and maybe the Seahawks) are still better than the Falcons. They survived against a rookie qb and pulled off a great upset in Denver. I'm not sure I'd put them above the Vikings, Packers, or Seahawks just yet. Part of the reason is consistency and that defense.

If the Falcons shore up that defense, the sky is the limit. (Har har.)

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

Exactly.

They are the same team as last year until they prove otherwise. They handed the Panthers their only loss last year and still crapped the bed.

Man...football is just weird like that lol

 

[pwes]

Man...football is just weird like that lol

Not really since it was divisional. I said it last year that they would get their first loss to Atlanta. As much as people want to deny it, your division opponents will always be your hardest opponents. They know you best, they play you harder and you have to play them twice a year. It's very hard to sweep your division for any team.