crawhammer
Experienced Starter w/First Big Contract
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I re-watched the documentary. I'll put slightly more on the timing of the Modell announcement but they were 1-5 in games started by Eric Zeier (or in which he had significant playing time). In fact he started the first 3 losses, and threw 4 picks in another, of their 1-7 finish. Zeier was not a legitimate starting NFL quarterback so it's highly probable he had more to do with those losses than Modell.I've seen the documentary but I'll watch it again tonight. I'll get back to you tomorrow.
Modell's announcement definitely impacted the team, but they were 1-3 (with an OT win) just prior to the announcement, and 4-4 overall, which isn't a sterling record. 2-10 is a brutal way to finish out a season so it's hard ignore the team's poor play and just put it all on the announcement.
One could put it on the QB play generally too. They got off to a hot start with Testaverde having 8 TDs and 1 INT in the 3-1 start. After that (October onward), Testaverde and Zeier combined for 13 TDs and 18 INTs in the 2-10 finish. Seems like QB play was the major culprit here.
Furthermore, on the documentary, it's heavily slanted toward glorifying Belichick and his staff. It spends more time on the staff, their responsibilities (some menial), and their eventual career paths than anything (which is fine I suppose but it burnt a lot of doc time).
Regarding the 95 team itself, the gist of the documentary narrative was the team had been favored preseason by some to make the Super Bowl and Modell ****ed the whole thing up on November 6, halfway through a .500 season to that point. Not sure I agree.
I think all of these are true: 1) the team was performing below expectations, 2) Modell took a major dump on the season, and 3) the team went completely in the toilet (probably in large part to really bad quarterback play).












