Aqua4Ever04 said:
Since you guys probably aren't smart enough to scroll over to another thread to read my view, I'll post it here too.
But first, have you been under a rock this off-season? Do you not know who the Pats have lost? A huge peice of that front 7 is gone, your most clutch playoff performer at WR is gone and your big time kicker is gone. Those 3 were all HUGE peices of your sucsess over the years. Who did you add in the off-season? And don't tell me Chad Jackson and Laurence Maroney because they both will be very good players, but won't do a whole lot this year. You guys are just so hard headed, you don't care to look at how huge those 3 losses are. You also lost one of your staples on the Oline in Tom Ashworth as well. Oh and I almost forgot, Dieon Branch is holding out, let me know how that turns out.
I was going to delve further into a counter-argument, but I figured it would fall upon deaf ears upon reading "offensive line staple...Tom Ashworth." Even if you wanted to spin it that way, I could say we (re)gained TWO STAPLES in Light and Koppen. Add in Neal, Gorin, Kaczur, and Mankins, and Ashworth should barely be considered a loss.
There aren't any "huge" pieces to the Patriots' defense (or offense, for that matter). I can see you need some education in how a proven winning team works, so I suggest reading these 2 books by James Lavin:
Patriotsbook.com
You will learn that Belichick has always felt it's the team defense that matters. You can have the greatest LB in the world (which Willie was far from), but without a supporting cast he's meaningless. Great, the Pats lost ONE piece of their defensive puzzle. That's like one axe swing into a tree - there's still plenty of "meat" left. In the Pats' case, that means the best front seven in the league - (Seymour, Wilfork, Warren, Colvin, Bruschi, Vrabel, Banta-Cain/Beisel). However, the 2006 season will also see the return of Harrison and Gay - some more additions for you to chew on, since I see you have an appetite for these offseason addition/subtraction lists that the pundits of lesser intelligence feel decide the upcoming season.
People don't care about a 6 game winning streak? When this team was 1 bad fumble from winning the division. People do take notice of stuff like that just not you because all you know is Patriots football.
And tell me, how is last year relevant to this years' success? Keep living in the past, because avoiding such is yet another "secret" of the Patriots' success.
And you call my argument dumb lol. We got lucky against San Diego? Umm ok?? If we got lucky in that game, then you got very lucky the first time you played us. If not for that McMichael fumble late in the first half, we would have liekly been up 14-0 or at worst 10-0 heading into the locker rooms. But instead you guys got a field goal out of it making it a 7-3 contest. You guys won by 7 when we failed to punch it in deep in the red zone. You wanna talk about getting lucky? Look at that game my friend, which essentially was the difference in who won the division.
As for your "gift" at the end of the season. The Dolphins were beating up on your starters pretty good too as I recall. Then BB pulled them out, and don't you think that maybe took just a little bit out of the Fins sails?
And you don't think the Patriots would have actually tried in the final game if it decided the division? Come on! The Pats didn't even have a SEMBLANCE of the starting lineups we'll see come September for that game. James Sanders was starting at safety (Hawkins, plus obviously Harrison, were out) and Hank Poteat was starting at corner (Samuel, plus Gay, Starks, C. Scott, and Poole were out). Come this year, Sanders will be the 10th DB while Poteat will be relegated to the "shadow roster." Nevermind Bruschi and Dillon were out, leaving an injured Pass, plus a Faulk and Evans returning from injury. A healthy Dillon and Maroney versus that trio is night-and-day. And if the Dolphins had the "wind taken out of their sails" because BB pulled the starters, they must not be too strong mentally of a team.
You say how close our ball games were during that 6 game streak but think about this. There were 3 or 4 other games that we lost that we very easily could have won. For example, our first game against you which I already explained. Our first game against Buffalo, Frerotte had 2 INTs in the Buffalo end zone and Ronnie Brown fumbled in the red zone with under a minute to go down by 6. Thirdly, the game against Atlanta, Frerotte had 2 more turnovers in the red zone. The second one came at the Falcons 5 yard line with a minute to go trailing by 7. So with Culpepper, those 3 games are without a doubt wins!
Without a doubt wins, of course! Too bad those game situtations will likely never occur again in the history of the Dolphins. Completely new situations for Culpepper and the rest of a Dolphins team with a ton of turnover. Teamwork is always a huge part of success, and the group the Patriots have put together have been with each other for a while now. Those and the plethora of other intangibles players like Brady, Bruschi, Brown, and Harrison bring simply are unmatched by other teams in the league, like the Dolphins.
So don't tell me my argument is dumb because the Fins are a vastly improved team and will kick the s*** out of the Pats two times this year and run away with the AFC East. You guys just don't see anything other New England Patriots football and it really scews your vision on the rest of the league/division. If you think the Fins are another year away, you're a moron!
Man, your tune changed pretty quickly. Was it whatever you drank/smoke Friday night? You went from "this will be a tight race and I still respect the Pats" to "We will kick the **** out of them and run away with the AFC East."
