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12 wins, book it.


PatsFanInVa

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I can't believe this is (in my mind) thread-worthy, but I saw them picking the Pats to win 7 games on NFLN, and I'm seeing it become the sexy cliche that we have a big collection of 2s and 3s at the offensive skill positions, but no true #1s... and granted, I am buying reports out of camp about Mac10.

So I see this as a 12-win team. I won't go through the usual stupidity of listing 17 games and saying (in June) "this player is really good, so I don't know how the Patriots answer, that game's an L...." that sort of thing.

Instead I want to say some really self-evident things based on watching this team, and football, a few decades.

1) Complaining that there's no true no. 1 RB on this team is exceedingly idiotic. We don't do that. We just compete regularly for the most effective/efficient running back room in the league. I have no doubt this will be a deadly committee, more so than in previous years. This should scare some people.

2) The only relief teams are likely to get from the running game is getting gashed in a passing game, with a QB who was already top half of starters in his rookie year which never happens. If reports of his 2nd year jump promise prove out, he's not just this howdy-doody looking not-Tom back there, he's dangerous. Mediots: stop trying to figure out whether Tua will be good if you give him Tyreek Hill. Mac's going to be good with Tyquan Thornton (or the other 4 or 5 guys ahead of him.)

I think somebody's going to pop up as this huge surprise incredible talent between TT and Tre "I am too a steal" Nixon (See what I did? "I am not..." never mind, I'm pushing 60). But even if not this is the kind of guy who can end up with 30 TD and 4,500 yards while the mediots are raving about Tua to Tyreek in a less potent offense.

2a) If Jonnu Smith bumps up his performance, that's just a sweetener. And let's hope H Henry remains a notch under the true elite... or heck, why not take a step up and prove you belong in that league :D

D is a huge question mark to me, because I dont know how different or similar we'll look. From personnel looks, it seems like we're loading up on youth and speed (and we're once again losing an all-world corner, what else is new.) If the question is whether we can be more capable of containing a Josh Allen barring a hurricane, the answer is, well, we sure can't be less capable. I'll be interested in seeing how the D pans out. That's one of those thing where you look back at the end of the season, and whatever it was in retrospect it's the truth, as Steve Belichick said recently between bumps of meth. Okay I don't know why I said that, I am sure it's the mullet.

Just please, no losing all coherence after the bye week please? That's something I've thought about a lot: regardless of schedule, we went into the bye in the cat bird's seat. Did we come out of the bye worse than we could have been, i.e., mentally soft, maybe not in good condition? it's not like we lost the QB or anything, but it was like a tale of two seasons.

So, season prediction, 12-5. We'll rise and fall on Mac and I say we're rising.

Its off season everybody just say numbers that total to 17 with a hyphen between them.
 
That would be a great season considering this is a rebuild. From 7-9 to 10-7 to 12-5. I’m not sure I agree that will happen though. Offensively I think the Pats will be better, more unpredictable.

On defense, so many question marks. Who’s the starting DBs ? Can the Pats get to the QB ? Pats LB’s, they are depending on Ronnie Perkins, Cam McGrone and Josh Uche to replace Van Noy, Collins & Hightower. Just so many unanswered questions on defense, that predicting 12 wins is tough for me. There’s gonna be some growing pains on defense. We will see some bad games defensively. I’m hoping Perkin, McGrone & Uche play like maniacs and give us the swagger that Van Noy, Collins & Hightower gave us.
 
1) Complaining that there's no true no. 1 RB on this team is exceedingly idiotic.
I haven't seen one poster complain about this. Damien Harris is a very good RB and I would put him in the top 5 of the NFL. Rham is going to a top back in the league very soon.
2a) If Jonnu Smith bumps up his performance, that's just a sweetener.
I believe he will have a bounce back year and utilized better. The play designs for him last year were set up to fail.
On defense, so many question marks. Who’s the starting DBs?
They have a very solid group of S's. But the CB's look brutal on paper. 2005 and 2008 esque.
Can the Pats get to the QB ?
Judon and Barmore need help. Uche needs to step it up and not stand around like he did a lot last year after his initial rush move didn't work. The diapers need to come off with Jennings and Perkins.
Pats LB’s, they are depending on Ronnie Perkins, Cam McGrone and Josh Uche to replace Van Noy, Collins & Hightower.
Bill is really rolling the dice on what he has at LB with McGrone (injury prone), McMillan (injury prone) and Wilson (lost job to another player) on the inside and Jennings (IR), Perkins (IR) and Uche on the outside (snaps decreased as he kept getting thrown out of the club when teams ran the ball/invisible pass rusher).
 
That would be a great season considering this is a rebuild. From 7-9 to 10-7 to 12-5. I’m not sure I agree that will happen though. Offensively I think the Pats will be better, more unpredictable.

On defense, so many question marks. Who’s the starting DBs ? Can the Pats get to the QB ? Pats LB’s, they are depending on Ronnie Perkins, Cam McGrone and Josh Uche to replace Van Noy, Collins & Hightower. Just so many unanswered questions on defense, that predicting 12 wins is tough for me. There’s gonna be some growing pains on defense. We will see some bad games defensively. I’m hoping Perkin, McGrone & Uche play like maniacs and give us the swagger that Van Noy, Collins & Hightower gave us.
The reality is though that for many years the defense has undergone personnel changes, lost players, gone into seasons with major question marks, had question marks evolve in season etc etc.

Through all of that in the last 16 years the defense has been
Top 5 7 times
Top 10 8 other times
15th once

They know what they are doing and will end up almost certainly with a top 10 defense, whether we can see how yet or not.
We won’t not be a good team because of the defense.
 
I can't believe this is (in my mind) thread-worthy, but I saw them picking the Pats to win 7 games on NFLN, and I'm seeing it become the sexy cliche that we have a big collection of 2s and 3s at the offensive skill positions, but no true #1s... and granted, I am buying reports out of camp about Mac10.

So I see this as a 12-win team. I won't go through the usual stupidity of listing 17 games and saying (in June) "this player is really good, so I don't know how the Patriots answer, that game's an L...." that sort of thing.

Instead I want to say some really self-evident things based on watching this team, and football, a few decades.

1) Complaining that there's no true no. 1 RB on this team is exceedingly idiotic. We don't do that. We just compete regularly for the most effective/efficient running back room in the league. I have no doubt this will be a deadly committee, more so than in previous years. This should scare some people.

2) The only relief teams are likely to get from the running game is getting gashed in a passing game, with a QB who was already top half of starters in his rookie year which never happens. If reports of his 2nd year jump promise prove out, he's not just this howdy-doody looking not-Tom back there, he's dangerous. Mediots: stop trying to figure out whether Tua will be good if you give him Tyreek Hill. Mac's going to be good with Tyquan Thornton (or the other 4 or 5 guys ahead of him.)

I think somebody's going to pop up as this huge surprise incredible talent between TT and Tre "I am too a steal" Nixon (See what I did? "I am not..." never mind, I'm pushing 60). But even if not this is the kind of guy who can end up with 30 TD and 4,500 yards while the mediots are raving about Tua to Tyreek in a less potent offense.

2a) If Jonnu Smith bumps up his performance, that's just a sweetener. And let's hope H Henry remains a notch under the true elite... or heck, why not take a step up and prove you belong in that league :D

D is a huge question mark to me, because I dont know how different or similar we'll look. From personnel looks, it seems like we're loading up on youth and speed (and we're once again losing an all-world corner, what else is new.) If the question is whether we can be more capable of containing a Josh Allen barring a hurricane, the answer is, well, we sure can't be less capable. I'll be interested in seeing how the D pans out. That's one of those thing where you look back at the end of the season, and whatever it was in retrospect it's the truth, as Steve Belichick said recently between bumps of meth. Okay I don't know why I said that, I am sure it's the mullet.

Just please, no losing all coherence after the bye week please? That's something I've thought about a lot: regardless of schedule, we went into the bye in the cat bird's seat. Did we come out of the bye worse than we could have been, i.e., mentally soft, maybe not in good condition? it's not like we lost the QB or anything, but it was like a tale of two seasons.

So, season prediction, 12-5. We'll rise and fall on Mac and I say we're rising.

Its off season everybody just say numbers that total to 17 with a hyphen between them.
1F0577DA-B41C-427D-B658-94B096E8687F.jpeg
 
The highest Vegas win totals odds are the Bills, Packers & Bucs at 11.5
Followed by the Chiefs, Chargers, Rams, Cowboys and Broncos at 10.5
Vegas has the Pats at 8.5
I'm thinking 9 or 10 wins so I'm betting the over.
 
I can't believe this is (in my mind) thread-worthy, but I saw them picking the Pats to win 7 games on NFLN, and I'm seeing it become the sexy cliche that we have a big collection of 2s and 3s at the offensive skill positions, but no true #1s...
The problem with calling that statement a cliche is that it’s mostly true. Mac Jones is a legit NFL star QB so I have no problem calling him a #1. But after that, there are no #1’s in the backfield or catching passes. Now I don’t care much about the backfield since this is a passing league, but they damn sure need to improve at the WR position if they want to take that next step.
 
The highest Vegas win totals odds are the Bills, Packers & Bucs at 11.5
Followed by the Chiefs, Chargers, Rams, Cowboys and Broncos at 10.5
Vegas has the Pats at 8.5
I'm thinking 9 or 10 wins so I'm betting the over.
Vegas is recognizing that this is how people are betting - the equivalent number of people will grab one or another side of the bet with us at exactly .500. I would like Vegas to offer me a bet that no team will have 12 or more wins. Of course, Vegas will not do this. The over-under on most wins, any team is probably more like 14. So I mean, it is what it is. This is what the crowd thinks, thank you Vegas.

It's funny what's happened to the NE fanbase - not complaining, just observing. It's a mood thing, and that will influence the Vegas line too. Time was when we'd have somebody screaming "19-0!!!" every season. Now you're that guy when you say 12 wins. I think that pendulum has swung (clearly there's the personality cult aspect to it - half the team's fans are and always were Brady fans.

Only slightly related anecdote - I refused for a long time to "predict" the Brady Pats to win more than 12 because the hubris of it all. I finally realized, those teams were MORE likely to win 13 or more.
 
The problem with calling that statement a cliche is that it’s mostly true. Mac Jones is a legit NFL star QB so I have no problem calling him a #1. But after that, there are no #1’s in the backfield or catching passes. Now I don’t care much about the backfield since this is a passing league, but they damn sure need to improve at the WR position if they want to take that next step.
There are new pieces at WR, but really I think it's a less than ironclad blueprint to be ultra-concerned about a "true number 1" receiver if you can rely on a QB leading the team to success.

If anybody should know that it's fans who were there for the first Pats dynasty in 2001-2004. Who was our great league-stomping wideout then? Patten? Troy Brown? David Givens?

You could call the 2007-2012 teams the Middle Kingdom. If you asked at the outset of any season who would be in the SB, the Pats would be up there. But between the league hating us, Brady getting injured, Eli Manning being voodoo, etc., it was just not to be. That's when we had the clearest claim to "true number 1" talent at WR.

Then in the Second Dynasty period there was Edelman, and who would predict him to be a number 1... except that he gelled with Brady (and got underestimated because he had a lot of Welkeresque attributes in terms of seemingly impossible cuts, so at first people were stuck on "he's no Wes Welker.")

I'm with the guys who are more concerned with the O-line than the lack of number 1 names at WR. Somebody right now is Edelman in the early years, or, dare we hope, Thornton's speed might translate to getting open, or Tre Nixon might be what he was in camp. Somebody else emerges if Mac-10 gets time and is as improved as reports indicate. Big ifs.

But a lot of guys here think Mac-10 puts up 4,500 yards and 30 TD, and that sounds reasonable to me. It's a far cry from peak Brady, and sorry to anybody who has him in fantasy. But that's certainly a number where if nobody emerges as a "1", that's actually a good thing. It means he's so in command and so devoted to the open man, not one particular guy, that if ANYBODY gets open he'll gash you.
 
Any art teacher will tell you the kid is engaged when the tongue comes out. Heck, even cartoons drawn about an engaged kid drawing intently shows the kid's tongue out.

On the other hand, some antipsychotics apparenetly lead to tardive dyskenesia, which can be lingual.

Finally, I will note that they laughed at Galileo too. But as a side-note, they also laughed at Bozo the clown.
 
Miami split
Buffelo get swept
Jets Sweep

They were swept by Miami last year and split with Buffalo. Both are improved as are the Jets.

Steelers and Ravens split. It could be the other way around who knows but I can't see them winning both. Honestly they could be 0-4. That's a brutal first quarter of the season.

Packers and Lions split.

Cleveland and Chicago split. Maybe you can make an case they sweep these two but with Watson I expect the Browns will have a bounce back year.

Indy and Minn split. Has the defense done anything to make you think Taylor won't run all over them again? Ryan > Wentz.

Cards, Raiders and Bengals. By this time in the season who knows where all the teams will be at with injuries. I'll give them the Cards as they seem to implode down the stretch. They'll be a dog against both the Bengrals and Raiders.

8-9 but I could see them scheming it up to go as good as 10-7 again. I hope you're right and they are 12-5. I'd be psyched to be wrong. I'm setting my expectations that this is year two of the rebuild with MJ10. I expect the offense will be more dynamic. I also think the defense still has a lot of holes. Losing Jackson hurts. We'll see.

Sun, Sep 11@
2019_MIA_wbg.png
Miami0-0
1:00 PM EDT
CBS
Loss
Sun, Sep 18@
2019_PIT_wbg.png
Pittsburgh0-0
1:00 PM EDT
CBS
Win
Sun, Sep 25vs
2019_BAL_wbg.png
Baltimore0-0
1:00 PM EDT
FOX
Loss
Sun, Oct 2@
2019_GB_wbg.png
Green Bay0-0
4:25 PM EDT
CBS
Loss
Sun, Oct 9vs
2019_DET_wbg.png
Detroit0-0
1:00 PM EDT
FOX
Win
Sun, Oct 16@
2019_CLE_wbg.png
Cleveland0-0
1:00 PM EDT
CBS
Loss
Mon, Oct 24vs
bears_wbg.png
Chicago0-0
8:15 PM EDT
ESPN
Win
Sun, Oct 30@
2019_NYJ_wbg.png
NY Jets0-0
1:00 PM EDT
CBS
Win
Sun, Nov 6vs
2019_IND_wbg.png
Indianapolis0-0
1:00 PM EST
CBS
Loss
Bye Week
Sun, Nov 20vs
2019_NYJ_wbg.png
NY Jets0-0
1:00 PM EST
CBS
Win
Thu, Nov 24@
2019_MIN_wbg.png
Minnesota0-0
8:20 PM EST
NBC
Win
Thu, Dec 1vs
2019_BUF_wbg.png
Buffalo0-0
8:15 PM ESTLoss
Mon, Dec 12@
2019_ARI_wbg.png
Arizona0-0
8:15 PM EST
ESPN
Win
Sun, Dec 18@
raiders_wbg.png
Las Vegas0-0
8:20 PM EST
NBC
Loss
Sat, Dec 24vs
2019_CIN_wbg.png
Cincinnati0-0
1:00 PM EST
CBS
Loss
Sun, Jan 1vs
2019_MIA_wbg.png
Miami0-0
1:00 PM EST
CBS
Win
Sun, Jan 8@
2019_BUF_wbg.png
Buffalo0-0
Time: TBDLoss
 
The problem with calling that statement a cliche is that it’s mostly true. Mac Jones is a legit NFL star QB so I have no problem calling him a #1. But after that, there are no #1’s in the backfield or catching passes. Now I don’t care much about the backfield since this is a passing league, but they damn sure need to improve at the WR position if they want to take that next step.
Why? We won exactly 0 superbowls with a number 1 receiver and Gronk wasn't even playing in 2 of them
 


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