Pats vs. Indy

You’re going to really hate life when the Pats win the Super Bowl and Celtics win the NBA Championship giving the city the first Triple Crown in history. *

    • improbable, but it could happen.

God doesn’t hate me that much.

I have resigned myself to cheer for the Patriots in this one, but only because the Colts are in the AFC south. Stupid game…hate it, but have to watch it. Have to hear about it all freakin week on every show. Stupid stupid game.

Anyway, go Pats…or something.

Sharp you are the newest memeber of the Evil Empire, your Star Destroyer is in the mail.

Both a bunch of damn yankees and I hope they both lose.

Oh yeah, I never watched the Redskins steamroll the league in 1991 or Joe Gibbs run the ball or punt/kick a field goal on 4th down when up by a ton in the 4th quarter. The Pats actually remind me of that team except for the lack of class and the cheating. I hope they crash and burn.

I just hope it lives up to the billing. I don’t want it to me a blowout either way, but I don’t much care who wins.

Indy wins, then we don’t have to hear about undefeated for weeks on end (well, at least until Indy switches to cruise and loses). There’s some “Shut it!” for all the people declaring the Pats “Best Team EVAR”, plus you get a playoff setup where the Pats have lost 4-5 in a row.

Pats win, you might be watching history (like it or not, they could end up being the Best Team EVAR). They’re almost terrifying. Dallas played with them as long as they could (3+ quarters? Or did they fold in the 3rd?) but eventually crumbled. When there’s a team that in theory might test them, they CRUSH them ('Skins). Fuck you scores in the 1st half, you name it.

I’m actually expecting this to be a blowout in the Pats favor. I hope I’m wrong, but it’s the feeling I have.

As long as they lose to someone, I don’t care if they win the Superbowl. We don’t need this Pats team associated with “greatest team ever” talk.

I’d like to see this years pats play the 01 Ravens. The sick thing about the Patriots this year is that “spreading the defense” means that Brady can line up in the shotgun with 1 or even 0 running backs on any down anywhere in the field and get plenty of time to throw to any of 6 elligible receivers.

It’s the strongest offensive line that’s turning him into a God. The only way anyone is going to beat them this year is to bust through that line and take Brady down a couple of times, make him scramble (he can’t) or make them run with 2 backs (I don’t even think they have plays written for this).

Damn now to test my Ravens/Pats theory I have to buy Madden 08.

As somebody who didn’t follow american football, or any other American sport for that matter, until last year I don’t really understand this running up the score thing. In every other sport I have follow when somebody is winning a game easily you except them to finish the job off and win by as much as they possible can (check the scores from early rounds of the cricket or rugby world cups for some good examples). If nothing else it becomes a good opportunity to build confidence amongst your team, intimidate upcoming opposition and test out different plays/players/positions in a real game situation. If it’s a huge blow out the main entertainment comes from seeing if the winning team can set a few records.

Can somebody please explain what the pats should be doing and why this only seems to exist in football?

Can somebody please explain what the pats should be doing and why this only seems to exist in football?

It doesn’t only exist in football. If you see a team in any sport that clearly outclasses another, and yet keeps beating the pants off of them just for the sheer gratuitousness of the act, then it’s poor sportsmanship.

I don’t think that’s what’s happening here, though. I think we just have a bunch o’ sore losers.

<– Not even a Patriots fan

See, that’s not the case in most sports, having lived in both Australia and England, I had never come across it. Take a look at scores from the recent rugby world cup http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/poolstage.html. In a sport where teams typically score 15-30 points a match you have games with 70+ point winning margins. The same goes for the cricket world cup (http://cricketworldcup.indya.com/scores/html/live/matchcast.htm), in a sport where a decisive win is anything over about 30 runs you have winning margins of well over 200 runs. During both these events I never heard any complaints about far superior teams absolutely killing lesser opponents.

I’m not defending the patriots at all I just genuinely don’t understand the concept that in a professional sport a good team is expected to go easy on weak opposition.

In American football it’s not that they’re expected to go easy on the other team, it’s that they’re expected to bring in the second string. Trust me when I say I’m a rugby fan when I say this but American Football is much more violent than Rugby and the players get injured more often. Keeping your team on the field is considered poor sportsmanship because you’re trying to run up the score or set records at the possible expense of future wins which are considered more important in the short seasons that NFL players have.

I’m with Rimbo on this one though, don’t tell anyone in P&R, the pats substituted their second string in and still ended up embarassing the Redskins. The only move I considered poor sportsmanship was Moss playing defense to see if he could get an interception. He should have been benched to save for more important games. If he would have torn a knee diving for a catch or something that would have been a total embarassment to the coaching staff.

Actually, I expected my team to lose and lose big. I had hoped we could keep it to a reasonable amount (a couple of TDs) but I was joking the NFL was going to institute a new policy and give us two losses for losing so badly before the game started.

My problem is exactly what you described in the first bit. There is no need to rub it in when you have the game locked up.

Listening to a few guys that have been on teams like this -Randy Cross on the 49’ers for example, points to one of thier losses was a direct result of them taking thier foot off the week before. They came in flat the next game, and then lost. They were not used to having to play for 60 minutes. Bill I think is trying to avoid that. You are not seeing the other team throw in the towel right? Dallas put him in the position that he couldn’t kneel without giving the ball back- and after the week before with Dallas’ win over Buf- do you want them to have the ball with time to spare? Why chance it? Washington, I think after the way the Defense sucked in the second half of the Mia game, Bill was going to make most of his starters play the whole game- just to keep them fresh going into this week.
Why pass- this is right from the coach- the stacked 10 in the box- I’m not going to risk injury at that point in the game- the safeset play for my players was to pass. My take:Wow if you are dumb enough to play stupid football, I’m going to exploit you.
As for rubbing it in- I guess in baseball if you are up by 3 you should stop hitting, and in Basketball stop shooting? Come on. If you are expecting Football of all sports to be noble, are you kidding- it’s a war and if you can kick they other guys teeth in and scare the next opponent while doing it- then so be it. You will never NEVER hear a Pats fan bitch about the pounding in the superbowl the Bears gave us. That was insult football- the Fridge? We don’t care. they kicked our ass period.

01 Ravens defense- I’d like to see the 85 Bears myself. They were a more rounded dominant team than the Ravens.

Classless-Whatever.Here’s classless-Dungy gives money to anti-gay hate groups. That is classless. Being the ’ most important civil rights personality since MLK’ and he rails against another minority group. Classy.

Cheating-With the number of coaches that have come out and say they do/did the same thing I no longer feel bad about this.Chucky,Jimmy Johnson, Parcells… How about that Patriots playbook in the Washington locker room last time they played? Is that cheating? Pats just were classy enough to keep the dirty laundery to themsleves.

I recall there was some grumbling about it being unsportsmanlike that the Canadians at the last world juniors were running up the score on weaker teams, so the final was 8-0 or 10-0. However, if you look at the records from the first few winter olympics with hockey, the final scores were often around 24-0. Ah, the good old days…

Say what? Chelsea 6-0 over Manchester City. Rangers 30-3 over Orioles. Redskins 52-17 over 49ers. USA 123-59 over Virgin Islands. None of those games were loudly denounced as unsportsmanlike.

The operative distinction here is that those were teenagers. I still think it’s kosher because it’s the world class level, but I can at least understand the concerns. Claims of hurt feelings and unsportsmanlike like winning in the NFL is just ludicrous. You can be certain that if someone runs up the score on the Pats this year or next, no one will cry foul (nor should they.)

Wow, your knowledge of Manning and Brady is amazing. I’m a Pats fan and as much as I think that Brady has quite the edge, I believe they are nearly interchangeable.

I really doubt they will only put up a combined 54 points.

I’m guessing something more around 41 - 27 Pats

I’m not a fan of either team, and I’m not about to bandwagon for any team. Since both of them just beat the two teams I do like prior to this week, I say fuck em.

Oh and Pats will win. This game will be about which defense stops points. Not about which quarterback is good (they both are.)

Go Pats (aka “I’m a pats fan disclaimer”)

Anyway, I don’t think the Patriots have had any choice but to run up the score, and people predicted this from the start. When “Spygate” happened and the media started coming out with doubts about all of the Patriots’ past wins, they basically had two choices: crush everyone and cause a new sensation, or let those doubts linger and solidify, which at best would have been a crushing blow to player and fan morale.

Sure, it’s partly a big “fuck you” to everyone else in the league, but more importantly, I think it’s meant as a, “No, guys, seriously, we’re a good team.”