Can This Team Win the Super Bowl?

[Cunk]

The game last night should tell you that, yes, they could win the SB. They could have won last night against a team that could be their rival if they make it there.

 

[Ring 6]

No, of course not. Even with all the mistakes we made, we were still in it until the last second, and I was sure we would score. Then I was praying we'd win the toss in OT, because if we had to put the D back on the field (obviously BB's thought too at the end of the game) we were going to lose.

The OP's question was can the Patriots win the SB, and my answer remains the same, not with that defense. That doesn't mean the Pats won't get it fixed, but you have to admit, the D did not look good last night, any way you slice it.

Well then we disagree because I think that offense and that defense is good enough to beat anyone.

How can Seattle hope to win with THAT defense? Stopping 1st and goal from the 1 every week?

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

You think they are going to lose to the worst team in the NFL?

No but it could be a close game.

 

[The Brandon Five]

In a word, no. Not if we are talking about the team that we saw last night.

 

[dtbrks]

yes they will win the super bowl.

 

[Mark.]

The thing I don't get is why can't BB put together a defense like 2001-2004 or like the current seahawks D?

I was thinking about that too. Before 2001, the Patriots had higher picks in the draft. Players like McGinest, Law, etc came from those drafts. When you're picking late because of excellence year after year, you don't get those higher picks. I know you can build through free agency, but that is more expensive.

 

[Ring 6]

No but it could be a close game.

No

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

I was thinking about that too. Before 2001, the Patriots had higher picks in the draft. Players like McGinest, Law, etc came from those drafts. When you're picking late because of excellence year after year, you don't get those higher picks. I know you can build through free agency, but that is more expensive.

Well you have to pay to get those defensive stars just like he did with revis for one year. If this team had a pro bowl type of tackle in the middle it would make the defense as a whole better.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

We are the favorite (still?) so we are definitely going to win it! ...the D just need to tighten it up!

 

[Gallo]

Sure it can, how can the answer be anything other than a resounding yes? Just because they are not a perfect team and have probably just as good - or better - chance of losing in the playoffs or the Super Bowl, does that mean they are not among the 3-4 best teams? The Pats, Broncos, Seahawks, Raiders, Dallas all look like they could go all the way. There is no 2007 Pats team this season, many teams could win. And even that team lost in the end, despite being clearly the best team in football.

 

[reflexblue]

Not with the defense that was out there last night. It looked like they came back from a two week vacation and last night was the first morning back.

 

[FCB02062]

No - all the SB winning teams had "difference makers" on defense. This team has zero play makers at all...same ****ing thing as 2011...

 

[tombonneau]

I'm not overly concerned by the D. People are always concerned by the D, but the reality is big game losses like this (31-24) are abnormal for the Patriots. They usually win shootouts. Where they are screwed is in 21-17 type losses where the offense cannot do enough.

Just look at their season-ending losses since 2007:

14-17 nyg
n/a
33-14 bal (think we all agree this game was aberration beatdown)
28-21 njy (really 28-14, garbage score makes it look nicer)
17-21 nyg
13-28 bal
16-26 den
18-20 den

So the offense couldn't crack 20 points in losses (disregarding garage score vs jets). That's not gonna win many playoff games. All of these losses are due to offensive ineptitude.

The only team IMO that can stop the Pats offense is Denver D. Even Seattle we saw they were on the verge of 31 and rolled up the yards.

Don't fear the D. Fear the OL.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

I'm not overly concerned by the D. People are always concerned by the D, but the reality is big game losses like this (31-24) are abnormal for the Patriots. They usually win shootouts. Where they are screwed is in 21-17 type losses where the offense cannot do enough.

Just look at their season-ending losses since 2007:

14-17 nyg
n/a
33-14 bal (think we all agree this game was aberration beatdown)
28-21 njy (really 28-14, garbage score makes it look nicer)
17-21 nyg
13-28 bal
16-26 den
18-20 den

So the offense couldn't crack 20 points in losses (disregarding garage score vs jets). That's not gonna win many playoff games. All of these losses are due to offensive ineptitude.

The only team IMO that can stop the Pats offense is Denver D. Even Seattle we saw they were on the verge of 31 and rolled up the yards.

Don't fear the D. Fear the OL.

I don't think this team will lose this year because of the OL. It will be the defense. Not the same defense as last year.

 

[Joey007]

Of course, but I will say that we no longer have a cakewalk in the AFC. We learned that last night without even playing an AFC team.

KC, Denver, and Baltimore could all get us if the offense doesn't have its best day. All three have very good defenses.

Even Oakland could give us a shootout. Could you imagine what Derek Carr would've done to that defense last night?

 

[tombonneau]

I don't think this team will lose this year because of the OL. It will be the defense. Not the same defense as last year.

My point is that is when the team loses: when the O can't do anything, usually because the OL lays an egg.

Those same bend-but-don't-break defenses did enough to win just about all those games.

 

[PatriotsPimp136]

Of course, but I will say that we no longer have a cakewalk in the AFC. We learned that last night without even playing an AFC team.

KC, Denver, and Baltimore could all get us if the offense doesn't have its best day. All three have very good defenses.

Even Oakland could give us a shootout. Could you imagine what Derek Carr would've done to that defense last night?

If your corner situation's not very good then you gotta have a decent defensive line. It wasn't upgraded. I was never the biggest chandler Jones fan. He was inconsistent but this defense would be alot better if he was there now. I would say goodbye to logan ryan after the season.

 

[PatsFan92]

Hey all, I was pretty disgusted last night going to bed but after some shut -eye I feel better prepared to reflect on last night-

In a way I think this will serve as the KC game for 2014. Did we get our doors blown off like in KC? No, but a lot of those same desperate "man, this defense couldn't stop Everett high school" feelings were present in a lot of people. Here are my takeaways. Let me know how you feel.

• I think this defense is not as good as a lot of us wanted to believe all year, but last night was also an extreme inaccurate example of our worst football
  
  
• Seattle played great and deserved that victory, but like any teams losses, last night we uncharactersitaly had too many mistakes on both sides that I wouldn't expect to continue
  
  
• the offense seeming un-new England like was more of a product of playing the best overall defense in football, and less a product of bad mistakes, though we did has a few
  
  
• to go along with that, I think last nights defense was more about how many terrible mistakes we made on defense and less about our inability to stop them. I can't rememeber a game where so many of our starters looked completely lost. So many. Blown assignments, DBs looking around in confusion at each other after Big wide open games. Seattle didn't do anything special or that we haven't seen before, I think we just had a terrible night and those things happen sometimes. We seem to always have an uncharacteristic complete breakdown on defense once a year. This was that game.
  
  
• I think it's safer to say we are closer to a 14-18th ranked defense instead of the the fringes of the top 10 or a bottom 5 defense like we played last night. The good thing is that tom Brady and BB have made some noise with much worse defenses. 2011 we brought our bottom 2 defense to the super bowl and held the giants to a low scoring and that our offense ended up blowing.
  
  
• BB is a master at tightening up or defense in the playoffs. This was also our first game back with Jamie and I that it was a large factor in our performance. Jamie being traded took a large emotional toll on our defense and I think people like Hightower would admit that behind closed doors. The further removed we get from the trade and the more game time we have without him the better we will play without him. Even if he was "freelancing" or having a "down" year, he still was a constant rock and force in our defense and playing without him will take time to get used to.
  
  
• the positives to me are that- despite our defense playing the worst game I've seen out of them all year, (and probably worst game since 2012-2013) and our offense making some mistakes we usually don't make, we still moved the ball at will in the second half and left a bunch of points on the board. If driving down the field at will in the second half on ten best defense in football and losing on the goal line is as bad as it's going to get for our offense, then I feel fantastic about them going forward
  
  
• the Jules fumble was just a great play by Seattle, but Brady's int, our failure to go for 2 on a couple of scores, and our failure to convert a couple red zone trips into TDs are not really "typical" problems that plague us. Like I said, Seattle played great and held us to 24. But if 24 against the best defense in the league, when it easily should have been in the 30s because of our own uncharacteristic mistakes, is a "bad" night for us then I feel okay. We saw what Brady did with a worse offense in xlix.
  
  
• overall this game sucked and will largely be a throwaway game when we look back on it. Sometimes you just don't have "it." Seattle is a top 3 team and we didn't play patriots football tonight. Sometimes this happens. We have 7 games left and 5 of them are very favorable situations. Hopefully we can have a couple confidence building games defensively over the next few games and get to form for the playoffs.
  
  
• the last thing that goes in our favor is that the raiders, chiefs, and broncos all have to play each other 3ish times down the stretch and will definitely beat up and trade losses with each other.
  
  
• at the end of the day we had an unpatriot loss , but that happens. I fully expect this team to rip off at least 5-6 out of our final 7 and be right back where we always are----> playing for a super bowl berth in NE. Every season we have awful losses that make us think "wow, I can't see us being competitive in the playoffs this year", but we also usually have 12+ victories that show other wise and usually can look back and laugh at our bad losses when it's all over.

Lets go blow the doors off of SF, NY, and Baltimore and then solidify the 1 seed in Denver. Unless we meet them again in the super bowl, we won't play another team as complete as Seattle. I'll put my money on BB in a rematch

 

[Sicilian]

Even Oakland could give us a shootout. Could you imagine what Derek Carr would've done to that defense last night?

While I can't argue that there were several concerning elements defensively last night, I wanted to address this idea specifically: The old, "If X did this to our defense, just imagine what Y could do!"

Football, more than most sports IMO, is so week to week and gameplan specific. The way we matched up (or didn't in many places) against Seattle does NOT guarantee that a better all around offense would have more success or even the same success. We've seen this in many years past, where we'll give up points in the high 20's to a quarterback we feel is no good, then turn around the next week with the same players and keep a pro bowl QB to the low to mid 20's.

It's tempting to extrapolate, especially after a tough loss, but if Oakland rolls in here in the playoffs, no one should be conceding 30 points just because they're a more traditionally talented offense than Seattle (who is no slouch when everyone is healthy, by the way).

 

[Patstopia]

I must have missed it, is the Super Bowl next week? Why don't we all just wait and see how things go for the rest of the season?
Everyone is running around pissing and moaning like something impossible has happened, did you think we wouldn't lose ever again?