Bill, I’m not underestimating their ability to play, I think it’s a testament to how great an off-the-field coach Fox is that they play so well as a team. The Vikings have some great athletes but do they play well as a team? Nope.
My mistake. I thought you were stating they were getting by purely on the virtue of great coaching.
Andrew, I thought you knew something about football. The Colts beat themselves? Well, that’s the 14th team in a row someone said, “well, the other team played bad…the Patriots just happened to be there.” Give me a fricking break. You know how many other teams have won 14 in a row? Just the undefeated Dolphins of '72. Let’s pay a little respect to a great team, please.
And the second comment you made that made my eyes roll so far back that I had to pick them up off the ground was, “you can’t win a Superbowl with the kicker”. Were you in a coma the last time the Pats were in the superbowl? Does the name Scott Norwood mean anything to you? Anything?
The problem with McNabb is that he can’t always beat you with his arm. He’s a good passer, but not a great one.
The Eagles were better last year. The entire NFC is suspect this year.
Here are some fun Pats stats:
Touchdowns allowed this season: 23
Takeaways: NE: +17 (#1)(Car -5!)
INTS: 29 (#1 in the NFL)
Points Allowed:14.9 (#1)(Car 19)
Wins in a row:14. Fourteen. One other team in NFL history has done that.Nuff said. If you can’t appreciate that fine…personally I can’t wait for the DVD to watch again and again and again… Lessie- both MVPs TWICE. Beat the #1 Defense, best record vs teams in the playoffs and with winning records. Yep all luck. If that is luck, I hope some wears off on the rest of NE and we can get some lucky warm fricking weather- or maybe a Red Sox World Series win.Maybe Brady and L.Milloy can come back and play for the Sox…
The Colts beat themselves. Uh yeah, 4 Ints 4 sacks that was just luck. See the +17 up there^? Defense Wins titles. Offense sells seats. You think that it was just bad playing by Payton that ty law and Harrison totally screwed with Payton’s head? Ty Law lining up as a Safety with Harrision on Harrision baited Manning TWICE. The Pats have so much depth that they pull thier super nose tackle(Washington) and put in a second year player who gets 3 sacks. Guess that is another position that doesn’t need to be drafted for. If R. Colvin din’t screw up his hip in game 3 I’d bet he would have broken the single season sack record on this team. He was averaging 2 sacks a game from preseason on.
I can understand how the rest of the country doesn’t get it. We have no Jerry Rice, Payton Manning, or Ray Lewis. Our Harrision, Law, Bruschi,Seymour,Brown,Brady,Wilson,B.Johnson,Washington,Centers,Faulk have no Chunky soup contracts or do stupid rap albums, or kill people. All are probowlers in every New Englanders eyes…no I take that back…who gives a shit about the pro bowl. We got the superbowl. Again.
Rather watch that game emotionally involved than that Hawaii touch game. Besides that damn sand almost killed one of our RB’s a few years ago.
In Belicheck we trust. Hope this guy coaches here until he retires.
Did I mention that it only gets better? Look at our draft picks for next year. Heh. Big smile…BIG Smile. After hwo the 2002/3 rookies worked out I can’t wait to see what gem they find that no one wants this time. And we haven’t even seen last years 1st round pick play yet. Let him learn…then unleash him.
One other thing- Carolina scares me far more than Indy did. Same with the Titans.
I seem to have pissed off the Pat fans. That’s fine, they can prove me wrong in two weeks. :wink: Look, I don’t care. I’m just hoping for a good game… I think this is a great match-up.
Still, if I were a die-hard Pat fan I would be a bit nervous about the lack of Red Zone production. With the opportunities the Pats had Sunday should have been a HUGE blowout, rather than something that went down to 1:20 in the 4th before being truly decided. In Houston you’re playing a team that does score Touch Downs and doesn’t make mistakes - and they have a wily coach. Most football experts will tell you that TDs are far more important than Figgies.
14 wins in a row is a heck of an achievement. And I’ve been saying that Belichick is a great freaking coach throughout this thread.
I hear you, but as usual with the Pats if they are ahead…which they were all game…well, which they have been since Nov 30th…they play very close to the vest. points are points. When they need to open it up they do…like the last indy game.
The Patriots are a good team and they did beat the Titans and Colts, but both those teams also beat themselves…a bit. YES the Patriots had a lot to do with it, but they didn’t cause all those stupid Titans penalties. And they didn’t cause Manning to start throwing inaccurately (the pass rush WAS good, but there was more going on there, IMO). Manning looked bad. A lot of it was the Pats, but a lot of it was Manning. And the Colts defense looked like crap at several points. So did the Titans defense, for that matter.
The Panthers defense is better…quite possibly the best the Patriots will play this year. They will be able to put pressure on Brady and, despite what so many analysts seem to think, Brady is not a great QB. He is good, yes, but not great. There are at least 15 other QBs in the NFL that could win in his position. He doesn’t score much, but he does a great job not making mistakes. He doesn’t go deep much, but when he does it is effective because of that very tendency. He has WRs that are pretty good at getting YAC after those short passes. I am curious to see whether or not they will be able to score in the redzone. That offense is suspect, and a good pass rush may be able to squash it. That said, they can be very efficient at times, and the Panthers D MIGHT get frustrated by that. I just don’t think so.
Should be a great defensive game either way though, and I LOVE defensive games. I could watch 21-14 games all season long and be in heaven, as long as they were the result of good defensive play rather than poor offensive.
They will be able to put pressure on Brady and, despite what so many analysts seem to think, Brady is not a great QB…There are at least 15 other QBs in the NFL that could win in his position.
I love it when people ignore little things like stats. 25 tds with 13 ints with 4,000 yards passing? 14 wins in a row with little to no running game? His best receiver, TroBro, misses more than a month of games? Please, identify the FIFTEEN other quarterbacks that could win in his position. I’m dying to know who these guys are. :evil:
Here’s my prediction: Delhomme will be lost in the Belicheck twilight zone. People will blitz when he reads zone, and there will be 7 men in coverage when he thinks someone is open. Ted Washington will muck up the middle and Stephen Davis and his backups will have a hard time running over people like they did in Philly. Brady will lacerate their defense, and he’ll use their energy against them with wide out screens, play actions and snap counts. They’ll kick field goals, a lot of them. And in the end, they won’t need Adam to seal the game away because they’re going to win by 30 points.
Pats 33 Panthers 3
I’ll be back to gloat next week.
Rob sez: Enough with the Brady hatas, bring on the Delhomme hatas! Belicheck is a wizard against QBs he’s played against prior, not so much against ones he’s playing against for the first time.
Or like Dallas, whose run D finished third and the Pats fourth? Maybe, but this projection is worth as much to me as peoples’ ponitifications about Brady’s lack of ability to you. Of the teams with the top 10 run Ds, the ones Carolina has faced are Jax (2nd), who they beat in week 1 and Dallas (who they lost to in the regular season and then rolled in the playoffs). They lost to Philly in the regular season too. As for vs. overall D? Jax and Dallas again, plus Tampa Bay, who they swept (of course, they lost to Houston and Atlanta, who have the worst Ds). Regardless, it’s clear they are playing their best ball right now, winning despite some significant errors. And “Stephen Davis and his back-ups” is Pro Bowler Stephen Davis, Deshaun Foster is just as good and has shown he can start and excel, plus FB Brad Hoover, who is no slouch. Carolina has rolled over teams without their starting RB. New England hasn’t faced a top ten rushing team since Denver, Nov 3rd (who they admittingly beat, 30-26). Of course, this is to take nothing deserving from the Pats’ D, but it’s hardly a foregone conclusion. The battle for rushing yards will be a key battle, since the Pats kept both Indy and Tennessee under 100, while Carolina has gotten over 100 in all three games.
WOW! Quite bold, considering the Patriots’ average lead for its 16 wins is 10, and the average loss for the Panthers is 8.6. On what basis is your prediction of Brady’s ability to annihilate the Panthers D? It couldn’t be their line, which boasts the best front four in football. The LBs? Dan Morgan is healthy and back in. The secondary? Played at least as well (which would be considered excellent) as the Patriots’ has in the offseason. Nobody has yet to use the Panthers’ energy against them. The Panthers’ D has committed only 5 penalties the entire postseason: 3 holds, a PI, and a face mask. The Panthers average pass and run D this postseason: 200 and 91. I know, it’s mostly just a bunch of stats. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with making a bold prediction.
The game will not have been played yet, BUT OK!
If the Patriots are as over-confident as Mr. O’Boston is… they’re dead.
My prediction is that we’re going to see a real chess match. Hardcore football fans will love, the rest will tune in for the silly commercials. I think it’ll be close and it’ll probably hinge on mistakes. Carolina doesn’t make mistakes… and Ty Law creates mistakes. I’ll be watching!
Hey, it’s just a fiery prediction. I’m basing it on intuition and loyalty.
Next week, as in next Sunday, around 10:45.
Brady vs. the pass rush of Denver:
20 for 35
57.1 pct
350 yards
Yards per pass: 10!
0 sacks
1 Int
3 TDs
Please rush Brady.
The trick with Brtady is don’t rush him, cover everyone, and you have a better chance of defeating him. Get in his face, there will be an opening and 9 out of 10 times he is going to see it. He can throw ugly, off his back foot, rolling out, and can actually step into the pocket unlike another famous Patriots QB.
I haven’t seen another QB in years (Aikman maybe) that can read the field as quick as Brady and has no fear of being whacked. Sure he is slow, and yes he has one of the weakest arms in the NFL, but his brains make up for it. Would I trade him for Vick? Sure, after they win another SB. Vick is fun as hell to watch but I’m a firm believer that a mobile QB makes it harder to win the big one. When was the last one, Steve Young?
As a NE fan it has been fun to watch him after the Bledsoe years where I felt like I was watching a deer in the headlights and every 3rd pass was chucked out of bounds, even though sitting at home you could see 2 obviously open recievers.
I’m not saying anything about Jake. His numbers are good, it is obvious that the Panthers are doing exactly what the Pats did with Brady the first year. Stick with the high precentage stuff, and rely on your RB’s.
Thank you BTW to Warren Sapp for providing a bit of ammo for the team. Dumbass, hope his fat ass enjoys sitting in that Booth watching the game. Wasn’t the big stat this year that the rookies on that team had more tackles than he did? It is stuff like that that I’m soooo happy we don’t have any mega stars on the Pats. I never have to cringe watching sportscenter.
If that was in response to me, I was referring to the Pats’ run defense against a top running team, not pass rushing. Although Denver has a good pass rush, so you’re point is still valid.
And here is one of the key battles for the Super Bowl: the ability of the Panthers front 4 to get penetration. If they can’t, no one can, and that will definitely remain to be seen, especially in the fourth quarter if the score is close. If they can’t and the Panthers rely on the blitz too much, Brady will make them pay for it.
Kurt Warner in his Super Bowl season could. Then, well, he got whacked a lot.
You sometimes wonder about mobile QBs. Why are they mobile? Bad field vision, receivers that can’t get open (or a shitty offensive plan that doesn’t let them get open) are typical reasons. A shitty D that doesn’t stop the other team from scoring, so you’re behind a lot. Although, the most recent rushing QB in the show was Steve McNair (who lost by one yard). Proving your point is how McNair has evolved out of that mold.
Bledsoe went under like every QB that Parcells has left behind. It’s inconceivable to look at Bledsoe or Testaverde these days and think of them ever going to the Super Bowl of the AFC championship. Bledsoe has two saving graces for next year: a good defense, and Mike Mularkey (Pitt’s former OC) as the head coach. Mularkey’s scheme demands the QB to throw to a spot and not improvise much (which would be why Tommy Maddox has faired better than Kordell Stewart in that scheme). Also, in Bledsoe’s defense, former Bills OC Kevin Gilbride is the dumbest assistant coach in the league with the worst, most predictable gameplan in football. Last season, the first half: excellent. Since, using the EXACT SAME SIMPLE plan, with Gilbride unapologetic in press conferences and literally saying “Hey, it was working before:” dick.
The scary thing about Jake is that when he has been asked to do something that no one is sure he is capable of, he’s done it. Which is just like Brady, as well. If the Pats are up, and the Panthers have the ball with a minute and change at the bottom of the fourth, I would be more nervous than confident if I were a Pats fan.
After the pasting the Bucs gave the Niners (I’m a Niners fan) in the playoffs last year, it was so nice watching them dismantle the Bucs this year and stump the end zone pylon-punting Sapp. The sad part of all this: Sapp wil be handed a ridonkeylously big paycheck for an analysis gig the nanosecond he retires. My heart weeps.
I basically agree with you Bill. But check one last time. The Panthers played one other good run D…the Titans, who shut the Panthers’ run game down. Davis got nothing that day. If the Patriots dedicate to stopping the run, they can probably do it. However, that will give Delhomme a chance to get some easy passes. I don’t expect a high score from either team because both defenses are great.
And once again, my pick is the Panthers. I still can’t get behind that Patriots offense. It just seems weak to me.
Rob-
the only saving graces of the Pats O is this:
5 wide, all can catch. Most teams are not very deep in the DB dept, and the Pats take advantage of this. LB on a WR is a match they will take every time, and that is what Brady looks for.
As for ‘5 red zone’ yea the Pats want to score TD’s but when they are leading they stick to the low risk stuff. As long as they are in Adam’s range why push it? It is like the Giants of old. Play close to the vest, depend on your D. Adam alone scored more than the Colts, which is a bit sad.
I’ve seen this offense light it up when they have to- Titans and Colts game 1. Bills in the last week- granted the Bills were not on the field after the first score.
Running game: If the Panthers test the middle they are done. Ted Washington is a wall. Outside, is a wash. Panthers WR will block (a rarity in the NFL) but the whole Pats D has no fear of smacking someone in the mouth.
Passing vs. the Pats in a short yardage game is very dangerous. This LB/DB core knows that game very well. They play against the master of the dinky do football game every week. How many did the LB’s alone pick off this year on short slants? 6 or 8 I think.
You answered your own point, Robert. Check Delhomme’s stats for that day (admittingly a loss): 31-49 for 362 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs. Those would be, to that date, far and away career numbers for him. 49 pass attempts is just silly, with no INTs and a 63% completion rate. And that was their first loss, off a muffed kickoff and a quick TD by McNair to start things. If you check the gamebook, the Panthers didn’t change up their offensive plan until the second half. Dink and dunk passes and plugged rush attempts, as this was back before Carolina knew what Delhomme could do. The second half gave them an idea, I think.
Yeah. Both teams overachieve, but the Panthers overacheive off a better offense and defense than the Patriots. Which, of course, could ultimately mean nothing.
HEY I didn’t write that! :shock: My pick is the Pats ! Don’t be putting words in my mouth :D
DURR how do dis quote paste and cut werrk?