With a healthy Brady and no important players on IR, what would our record be now?

[BradyManny]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

i voted for the same record, because i am also assuming no other team has any injuries either.

What teams that we've faced have been mired by injuries the way we have? Going into the season, looking at the rosters, not accounting for injuries on ANY teams, did you have the Pats at 9-5 at this point with a healthy Brady? I doubt it, and I know sure didn't. I had them competing for an undefeated season again.

A healthy AD and a healthy Brady and we're likely going for undefeated again. Rodney, Maroney, Woods, Wheatley, etc., they've all had a cumulative effect, but we lost our offensive MVP and arguably our defensive MVP (just look at the points against since AD has gone down).

It's a useless exercise, but the reality is, we're probably damn near undefeated again if we have the two aforementioned players still healthy.

 

[BradyManny]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

Like the butterfly wings flapping in China and, eventually, creating a war in America, the Brady injury changed everything, and it made the seasonal comparison impossible. I might personally think that a Brady-led team would still be undefeated, but that's absolutely nothing more than a guess based upon last season.

But that's a much better guess than saying "well, we didn't lose the Jets game because of our offense" kind of thing. You've brought up the notion that we'd be dealing with a completely different season in which the specific games are not at all comparable. It's an important caveat.

I don't even want to dwell on said parallel universe, it can't lead to anything good. Hell, I think even without Brady, if we had Adalius, we'd definitely be good enough to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl. As it is, I am not as sure. Can we do it? Maybe.

But its useless - besides if I'm going to play the "what if" game and go to my happy-make-believe land, then I'm going to a place where Moss corrals that desperation bomb from Brady back on February 2nd, 2008 and we all live happily ever after.

 

[ScottieC]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

I think we would have beaten the teams we were supposed to beat and hung in there and beat the teams that would have been close.

Brady is that good. Plain and simple.

14-0

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

How would I know? When I went to training camp and watched pre-season before Game One, I though that this was an 8-8 team were we to play with Cassel at the helm and with Harrison, AD, Maroney, etc. all playing.

If you had told me that the central corps of our D would be on IR including backups (Woods), that Warren and Bruschi would miss games, that Maroney would be IRed early and Morris and Jordan would BOTH together miss several games, leaving us with Boston Legal as our RB, I would have thought a Brady Pats would be lucky to be 9-5 at this juncture.

I'd guess HOF Brady woulda won at least 2 of the games we lost, maybe 3 at most, but would be by far the stronger QB force in the playoffs, were we to get there.

Cassel gets a solid A from me. He's EARNED it.

 

[BradyBranch39]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

Dumb thread, but I'll say 13-1

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

How would I know? When I went to training camp and watched pre-season before Game One, I though that this was an 8-8 team were we to play with Cassel at the helm and with Harrison, AD, Maroney, etc. all playing.

If you had told me that the central corps of our D would be on IR including backups (Woods), that Warren and Bruschi would miss games, that Maroney would be IRed early and Morris and Jordan would BOTH together miss several games, leaving us with Boston Legal as our RB, I would have thought a Brady Pats would be lucky to be 9-5 at this juncture.

I'd guess HOF Brady woulda won at least 2 of the games we lost, maybe 3 at most, but would be by far the stronger QB force in the playoffs, were we to get there.

Cassel gets a solid A from me. He's EARNED it.

Well said.

 

[Lifer]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

10-4. San Diego, Miami, and Pittsburgh still loses. And the Jets game, how could Brady have improved what Cassel did that night? Only the Indianapolis loss is turned to a win with Brady.

 

[swheeler23]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

10-4. San Diego, Miami, and Pittsburgh still loses. And the Jets game, how could Brady have improved what Cassel did that night? Only the Indianapolis loss is turned to a win with Brady.

I guess you would also want to keep Cassel and trade Brady next year since Brady playing makes little difference?

 

[Lifer]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

I guess you would also want to keep Cassel and trade Brady next year since Brady playing makes little difference?

Nope. But im intelligent enough to see that the reason the Patriots are down to 9-5 this year have little to do with the QB position. Its mostly due to the rotten play of the defense and special teams.

But simplistic fans always think its all because of the QB.

 

[ManningOverratedHick]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

Brady covered up essentially the same D last year by winning in shoot-outs. The first half of the season, Matt Cassel was a 150 yard, 0 TD, 1 INT kind of quarterback. Put Brady in the 5 losses, there's no way of telling what games they definitely would have won other than the Indy game. But it's very likely that Brady would have kept the Pats in the game against Miami, San Diego, and Pittsburgh and won at least 1 of those games. Probably would have won the Jets game, too. (Cassel's stats were deceiving in that game, a lot of that was desperation time, it shouldn't have got to that point to begin with.) Part of Brady's talent is performing well in all 4 quarters and against great defense like Pittsburgh. So hypothetically I'll give the Indy, Jets, and Pittsburgh game to Brady and say they'd be 12-2 right now with a much better chance in the playoffs. Cassel is like Peyton Manning, putting up good stats against sub-par defenses.

 

[BradyManny]

Re: With a healthy Tom Brady and no important players on IR,what would our record be

Nope. But im intelligent enough to see that the reason the Patriots are down to 9-5 this year have little to do with the QB position. Its mostly due to the rotten play of the defense and special teams.

But simplistic fans always think its all because of the QB.

Guess I'm a simpleton then.

But here's a few facts to consider before you come to your absurd conclusion and try and denigrate everyone who does not come to same said absurd conclusion.

- The 2007 New England Patriots averaged 37 points a game on offense. The 2008 Patriots are averaging 25 points a game. Maybe it's simplistic, but I consider 12 points generally pretty important.

- Keeping in mind this 2008 Patriots team is averaging 25 points a game on offense, take note that the 2007 Patriots defense gave up over 25 points or more on 4 occasions, and 24 points once. They won all 5 of these games last season. Would the same be true this season?

- Keeping in mind that the 2007 Patriots team averaged 37 points a game on offense, take note that the 2008 Patriots defense has only given up more than 37 points once this season, against Miami. That is the ONLY game this season in which an opponent has scored equal to or more points than the 2007 Patriots was AVERAGING on offense. Think about that for a moment.

- Until Adalius Thomas went down, the Patriots defense was giving up on average 19 points a game. The 2007 Patriots gave up 17 points a game, only 2 points a game less. Even now, the 2008 Patriots, after some tremendous struggles after losing Thomas, is giving up 21.7 points a game, again, just over 4 points more than last season, and far less than the 12 point drop in the offensive production.


Again, to summarize:

Pats' offense with Brady 07: 37 points a game
Pats' offense w/o Brady: 25 points a game
Difference: -12 points

Pats defense in 07: 17 points a game
Pats defense in 08 with healthy AD: 19 points a game
Pats defense in 08 to this point: 21 points a game.


Please, review these facts and come and tell me I'm a simpleton for thinking Brady's absence has mattered. (I also want to reiterate the importance of Adalius Thomas as well. In a matter of games, the defensive scoring has jumped.)