The Patriots - This year's most overrated team?

[PATRIOT64]

Actually the Chargers are rated higher than the Pats, and maybe justifiably so. They are loaded in a truly weak division. They will probably clinch the AFCW by Thanksgiving.

The Raiders will surprise a lot of people this year and if Garcia ends up starting he could do what he has done with his previous teams and take them to the playoffs - Watch out for Oakland this year.

They could quite possibly have the best set of running backs in the NFL and I expect San Diego to have a decent challenge from them.

KC and Denver will be vying for scraps in the cellar of that division.

 

[PATRIOT64]

This is the part that shot his credibility. What the "football expert" apparently doesn't realize is how defensive philosophy impacts yardage rankings, as does playing with a big lead, going vanilla and then giving up a lot of garbage time yards.

BB's philosophy is geared around limiting points. There have been many games (SB XV against the Bills, SB XXXVI against the Rams, numerous games against the Colts where the team essentially dared the opposing team to run. BB knows which OC's are pass happy and those guys just don't have the mental discipline to stick with the running game. They want to throw. Guys like Mike Martz aren't happy in just beating you, they want to beat you by throwing the ball. BB's Hall of Fame Defensive Game plan against the Bills in the SB included convincing his defensive players that they were going to "allow Thurman Thomas to run all over them" b/c he felt that would keep Kelly out of rhythm and Buffalo was far more dangerous through the air than on the ground.

If you're going to rate defenses, you have to come up with something far more detailed than yards per game. That is the most useless and misleading statistic in football.

Actually IMO the most useless stat in the NFL is QB passing yards - A qb passes the ball out 5 yards at his own 20 and the WR catches it and makes a few moves to go down and score - The QB is given an 80 yard TD pass...THAT my friend is more misleading than anything.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

This is the part that shot his credibility. What the "football expert" apparently doesn't realize is how defensive philosophy impacts yardage rankings, as does playing with a big lead, going vanilla and then giving up a lot of garbage time yards.

BB's philosophy is geared around limiting points. There have been many games (SB XV against the Bills, SB XXXVI against the Rams, numerous games against the Colts where the team essentially dared the opposing team to run. BB knows which OC's are pass happy and those guys just don't have the mental discipline to stick with the running game. They want to throw. Guys like Mike Martz aren't happy in just beating you, they want to beat you by throwing the ball. BB's Hall of Fame Defensive Game plan against the Bills in the SB included convincing his defensive players that they were going to "allow Thurman Thomas to run all over them" b/c he felt that would keep Kelly out of rhythm and Buffalo was far more dangerous through the air than on the ground.

If you're going to rate defenses, you have to come up with something far more detailed than yards per game. That is the most useless and misleading statistic in football.

I think the author makes a great point and you make a great counter argument as well. However, I still think we haven't seen the best of BB mainly because the talent level just hasn't been there. Also, in recent years, the Pats have played a pretty vanilla defense which could be due to the fact that the talent just wasn't there. Sure, their defense has been good enough to win 3 super bowls but they started to decline after the 2004 season. It took the Pats until 2007 to start the defensive overhaul with the drafting of Brandon Merriweather. Since then, the Pats have been drafting pretty heavily on defense which I think is one stud pass rusher and MLB away from being pretty dominant. I want to see BB with a guy that can flat out take over a game rushing the QB. If the Pats can find a way to cover the TE and underneath routes, this will allow Adalius Thomas to concentrate on getting after the QB. When this defense shows they can improve their coverage and somebody steps up as a pass rusher, we will then see more creativity from the coaching staff that will actually confuse QB's.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Actually the Chargers are rated higher than the Pats, and maybe justifiably so. They are loaded in a truly weak division. They will probably clinch the AFCW by Thanksgiving.

That division was as bad as it could have been last year and they were 8-8.

 

[mesoslo]

the bengals are overated.

 

[Bartmac36]

Even Pats haters can't seem to wait until training camp...this is how they occupy their time...