We are on to Kansas City...

We're on to Kansas City... Kansas City, here we come
We're on to Kansas City... Kansas City, here we come
We had Jackson and Watson... now it's back to Mahomes

BradyFTW! said:

And you could do the exact same exercise the other way around, pointing out times that some of the board's bigger homers refused to acknowledge the flaws that did, in fact, end up ending the Pats' season. And whatever poster felt the need to take a weird victory lap over that and call out everyone who had the audacity to be incorrect would be engaging in an equally pointless circlejerk.

Everyone who's been here for more than a few minutes has been wrong from time to time, and nobody really claims otherwise. That's what makes the whole thing so dumb.

Click to expand...

I don't get how you are missing the point there. Nobody is taking any victory laps about being right or wrong. Doing that is exactly the dumbass behaviour that is so frustrating.

This is about stepping away from the very same grand proclamations that a season is over, calling players "done" or the infamous "this year feels different" when we go through the same thing essentially every year. Each season there is a race among the negative people and the homers to "call it" one way or the other just so they can point to being "right" all along. It is almost as they care more about being right than whatever the team ends up accomplishing.

And every year we see that -- apart from seeding -- the regular season is not some authoritative indicator about how anything in the postseason will go.

Criticise away on the current performance because god knows the offense in particular is giving a lot of ammunition for that. But what is the point of big picture statements if we have more than enough evidence that they won't be much better than rolling a dice.

Twice Mahomes KC has lost to NE.

1st game NE ran for 173 yards and 3- TDs Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots - October 14th, 2018 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

2nd game NE ran for 176 yards - 4 TDs AFC Championship - New England Patriots at Kansas City Chiefs - January 20th, 2019 | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Its not rocket surgery how to win vs the Chiefs. They always seem to have a **** defense.

Kansas chokes

The 2 biggest guaranteed chokers are the Chiefs. They always find a way to screw up. And, the overrated KU Jayhawks basketball team led by Bill Selfie.

Never put your money on ether of these 2 lame horses.

Do we think J-Mac will miss this game? How big of a factor is that?

luuked said:

Each season there is a race among the negative people and the homers to "call it" one way or the other just so they can point to being "right" all along.

Criticise away on the current performance because god knows the offense in particular is giving a lot of ammunition for that. But what is the point of big picture statements if we have more than enough evidence that they won't be much better than rolling a dice.

Click to expand...

A few reasons that apply to some but not all:

It's cool
Trolling
Boredom
Homerisim
Human nature
Because they can
Low on medications
Nothing better to do
Online genius derangement syndrome

The real question is who GAF?

Big game this weekend on our home turf. Feels like a statement game, one way or another. C'mon Patriots! Right the ship!

luuked said:

I don't get how you are missing the point there. Nobody is taking any victory laps about being right or wrong. Doing that is exactly the dumbass behaviour that is so frustrating.

This is about stepping away from the very same grand proclamations that a season is over, calling players "done" or the infamous "this year feels different" when we go through the same thing essentially every year. Each season there is a race among the negative people and the homers to "call it" one way or the other just so they can point to being "right" all along. It is almost as they care more about being right than whatever the team ends up accomplishing.

And every year we see that -- apart from seeding -- the regular season is not some authoritative indicator about how anything in the postseason will go.

Criticise away on the current performance because god knows the offense in particular is giving a lot of ammunition for that. But what is the point of big picture statements if we have more than enough evidence that they won't be much better than rolling a dice.

Click to expand...

Anyone who doesn't see last season as a prime example of this will never learn. The team was 9-5 looking mediocre down the stretch and went on to win the freaking Super Bowl.

Tunescribe said:

Anyone who doesn't see last season as a prime example of this will never learn. The team was 9-5 looking mediocre down the stretch and went on to win the freaking Super Bowl.

Click to expand...

Exactly and to build on that we can also use it the other way around and point to 2010 where the team looked absolutely amazing in December and got kicked out hard.

Being frustrated with games is normal but there is no point in trying to win the race to be the first to call a season over. There is a reason why "this year feels different" has become a meme at this point.

IMO the key factor is BB and his strategy against every opponent. I bet there is no team in NFL which desires to face the Patriots in playoffs regardless the regular season results.

Tunescribe said:

The team was 9-5 looking mediocre down the stretch and went on to win the freaking Super Bowl.

Click to expand...

Sadly, past performance is no guarantee of future results. I'd probably be more confident if I'd seen some kind of upward trend to the offense but as yet I haven't. I am hopeful that the wretched LB play for Houston was the result of the flu. Then again, RBs and TEs in space have been this team's Achilles heel all season. I don't see that ending this Sunday. I am hopeful that BB has schemes planned for the playoffs.

His best record as a Jets coach was in 2010 and was 11-5. I understand his frustration because he has not event felt numbers these Patriots team is having.

eustis22 said:

Sadly, past performance is no guarantee of future results. I'd probably be more confident if I'd seen some kind of upward trend to the offense but as yet I haven't. I am hopeful that the wretched LB play for Houston was the result of the flu. Then again, RBs and TEs in space have been this team's Achilles heel all season. I don't see that ending this Sunday. I am hopeful that BB has schemes planned for the playoffs.

Click to expand...

Your first sentence is precisely my point. This team potentially can look much improved a month from now.

UptownPatsFan said:

Click to expand...

The Chiefs have been primarily a zone team, but no doubt they will be in man coverage for ~50% of the game. Unfortunately for them, they suck against RBs, both on the ground and through the air. Michel, White, and Burkhead are going to obliterate them in both the running and passing game.

I expect a similar game from White like he had against Houston - 177 total scrimmage yards.

UptownPatsFan said:

Click to expand...

I agree that a more able sanu could be a huge boost to the offense. I hope having him (kind of not really) play right now isn’t preventing him from making the recovery we need him to make.

patsinthesnow said:

Click to expand...

Nice to see the numbers back up what I've been saying - the running game with Wynn in the lineup has been much better, and it will probably continue to trend upwards from here on out.

Sunday should be a big game for the RBs.

Tunescribe said:

Your first sentence is precisely my point. This team potentially can look much improved a month from now.

Click to expand...

All around the NFL we have such extreme examples of this. Sometimes it can’t even be explained as teams just turn it around/lose it despite having the same personnel.

Did anyone see Baltimore after a few weeks (2-2, struggling on offense) to be in competition for greatest offense ever? I didn’t even hear a peep about it until the pregame info against the Pats.

KC was “unstoppable” at 4-0. They’ve been very up and down.

Rams have largely the same players as last year yet are mediocre.

Dallas had “the NFL’s best offense” just a month ago which now sucks and cannot score points until garbage time.

Suddenly Mitch Trubisky and Derek Carr completely went in totally opposite directions. A month ago, Carr was on top of the world and Trubisky done. Now Trubisky is dominating and Carr is getting embarrassed.

Steelers were dead in the water and have won 7 of 9 despite losing all three superstars on offense.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

All around the NFL we have such extreme examples of this. Sometimes it can’t even be explained as teams just turn it around/lose it despite having the same personnel.

Click to expand...

Sometimes too, the difference in personnel is ONE guy. Remember the 06 Colts? They had an embarrassing run defense that year. Dead last in the league I think? They get Bob Sanders back, and suddenly no one can run on them in the playoffs at all. There's no one like that coming back for the Pats this year, but there are several guys who could be difference makers if they get healthy (Sanu, Cannon), keep progressing back from injury (Wynn, Lacosse), or turn a corner mentally (Meyers).

You could count Harry there too, but he may have just too big a hole to dig out of after missing half the year. Point is, it doesn't take much in this league to go from good to bad or bad to good.