sean10mm
Rotational Player and Threatening Starter's Job
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Random preseason topic: Looking back, what Patriots opponent do you respect the most?
For a single game I'm going to say the 2017 Eagles. Looking back on it, what stands out about that team compared to other Patriots opponents is how the Eagles approached the game - they just went absolutely balls-out and threw everything at us. They were in maximum attack mode from start to finish. Losing that game sucked, but the Eagles did everything to earn the win - it didn't have the garbage fluke quality of the losses to the Giants. Doug Pederson might end up being a one hit wonder as a head coach, but that one hit was legit.
It was also just a really good team that year, which seems weirdly overlooked. 13-3 record, #1 in SRS, #3 in points scored, #4 in points allowed. "Super Bowl Quarterback Nick Foles" seemed like a weird thing to say at the time, but you can't fault how he played on that run AT ALL: 3 games, 6 TD passing, 1 TD receiving, 1 INT, no game with a passer rating below 100.
Honorable mention to the 2014 Seahawks, who were scary as hell and had just humiliated Peyton Manning's record-setting Broncos the year before. I loved hating that team more than any other Patriots Super Bowl opponent. Lost a ton of respect for them in the last 1:06 of that one though.
Non-Super Bowl opponent might be the 2018 Chiefs. That team just scared the hell out of me with Mahomes, because you could do everything right and he could still throw a touchdown simply because he was a human cheat code. The Ravens had a run from like 2009-2014 where they went back and for with us in the playoffs, but psychologically it just wasn't the same as watching Mahomes decide he was going to alter reality to suit himself, and both the regular season game and the AFCCG were utterly absurd games.
For a single game I'm going to say the 2017 Eagles. Looking back on it, what stands out about that team compared to other Patriots opponents is how the Eagles approached the game - they just went absolutely balls-out and threw everything at us. They were in maximum attack mode from start to finish. Losing that game sucked, but the Eagles did everything to earn the win - it didn't have the garbage fluke quality of the losses to the Giants. Doug Pederson might end up being a one hit wonder as a head coach, but that one hit was legit.
It was also just a really good team that year, which seems weirdly overlooked. 13-3 record, #1 in SRS, #3 in points scored, #4 in points allowed. "Super Bowl Quarterback Nick Foles" seemed like a weird thing to say at the time, but you can't fault how he played on that run AT ALL: 3 games, 6 TD passing, 1 TD receiving, 1 INT, no game with a passer rating below 100.
Honorable mention to the 2014 Seahawks, who were scary as hell and had just humiliated Peyton Manning's record-setting Broncos the year before. I loved hating that team more than any other Patriots Super Bowl opponent. Lost a ton of respect for them in the last 1:06 of that one though.
Non-Super Bowl opponent might be the 2018 Chiefs. That team just scared the hell out of me with Mahomes, because you could do everything right and he could still throw a touchdown simply because he was a human cheat code. The Ravens had a run from like 2009-2014 where they went back and for with us in the playoffs, but psychologically it just wasn't the same as watching Mahomes decide he was going to alter reality to suit himself, and both the regular season game and the AFCCG were utterly absurd games.