You shouldn't be. They're not good enough. This year, Brady and McDaniels are going to have to be even more brilliant than last year, just to try getting something near the same results.
Disagree....a lot on this comment. They have better skill player talent than they've had on MANY of their teams over the years.
There is legitimate concern about how the OL and TE's are playing. So if you want to raise a red flag on this team, THAT is where you should shine your cynical light on.
I think people are just too hung up on the fact this team has no "star quality" WR's on it. But what we DO have is no worse than 8 other teams that were good enough to make it to the Superbowl.
I agree that we are MORE than good enough at WR with 3 very solid and dependable WR's in Edelman, Sanu, and Dorsett, plus the GREAT potential of Harry and the addition of Meyers who has done nothing but catch EVERY ball within reach of him.
This was NEVER going to be a big chunk WR group. Most teams NEED to make at least one big chunk play in a drive to score because slow 10-15 play drives will usually break down with penalties or bad plays. Those are the stats.
But the Pats have CONSITENTLY, over the years, been the ONE team that went against those odds and won. Mostly because they had a QB who was good and disciplined enough to make the right choices along with the rest of the team who were smart and disciplined enough NOT to make (for the most part) those drive killing mistakes.
Do we have holes. Absolutely. OL and TE are the obvious ones. But I have a feeling that when Lacosse is able to play we are going to be pleasantly surprised with his contributions. It won't be a returning of Gronk, but just enough to make the TE's a REASONABLE asset to the offense.
As to the OL. It is not going to the power team OL we had last season. It CAN'T be because of the losses at TE and FB, 2 key elements of our run game last season. But the fact is that they have been an adequate pass blocking OL even with Newhouse, and will be even better when Wynn returns against Dallas.
When you add in the quality and depth of the defense, this team has more than enough talent to defend its title.....IF they can continue to improve as a TEAM as the season progresses.
I agree with Bill. This is a coaching issue. That is to get the talent available into the best spots for it to succeed against other really talented football players.