The only "Elite Teams" in football this year are the Packers and Lions, and both those teams would eat New England alive in the passing game.
+1 The Pats defense sucks, but we knew that coming into the season. Hell, we knew that last year. That still doesn't change the fact that it's very, very hard to outscore them. The Pats are vulnerable, but they're still one of the 3 best teams in football.
I'll give you the Packers, but... The Lions? They'd have 3 losses if the Cowboys hadn't handed them an even bigger present than the one they handed the Jets.
A fair point, but their losses are to a very good Niners team and to Atlanta when they were a bit banged up. The firepower on Detriot between Offense and Defense is scary. Just my opinion though.
Brian Waters was an outstanding signing. First of all, you got owned by the Steelers. Fucking owned. Don't insult football by suggesting that you were a lucky break or two away from winning that game. Secondly, the Steelers are not elite. Their defense is injured, their offensive line is patchwork and their running game is non-existent. Ben Roethlisberger out-Bradyed Brady, picking apart weak zone coverage with dinks and dunks all game. Lastly, I don't think anyone- certainly not me- is suggesting that Bill Belichick isn't still an excellent coach. What's up for debate here is his effectiveness as a general manager. In my opinion, out of ego or good old-fashioned poor scouting, Belichick has done a below average-to-poor job adding elite talent to your team through the draft. Year to year, the annual draft day Beli-fellatio is diminishing. He keeps eschewing blue chip talent in favor of more picks and "his players," (players who routinely end up cut within a few seasons), and the same draftniks who used to heap praise on his "value" picks and NFL business acumen have seen enough value cuts to realize that their praise was misplaced. The biggest problem with Belichick's constant draft day hubris is that he doesn't respect the fact that he, The Mighty Hooded One, has a window for success, just like every other coach: he's got Tom Brady. A less egotistical general manager might recognize this and seek out talent to compliment his dominant quarterback while he's still dominant to maximize the team's opportunity for success while there's still such a gift opportunity. Not Belichick. Pay it forward. Better to have the picks next year. And then next year... and the year after that... If I was a cynical man, I might suggest that Bill Belichick is anxious to distinguish his legacy from that of Brady's and wants to insure that when TB's dominance finally evaporates, the Bill-led Patriots still have a shit-ton of draft picks and a fundamentally sound base of players. Hell, if Brady tears an Achilles in week 17 this year, the Pats have the ammo to get Luck, no doubt. In truth, I have no idea why Belichick drafts the way he does. But it's clear that the 2011 Patriots are no more talented than the 2008 Patriots; I think most reasonable Pats fans would agree that it's not even close. He hasn't built through the draft, he hasn't built through free agency, he hasn't put himself, as a general manager, in the best position to succeed as a coach. It's not even an argument, regardless of how much you love Rob Gronkowski. He's done a below average job without Pioli by anyone's standards.
Belicheck is still a great coach and Brady is still a great QB. The offense is an incredible unit and if they had a deep threat would be flat out scary. With that being said Belicheck the GM has ruined the prime Brady years. He has built a team that is designed to win in the regular season. He has zero confidence in his defense and he's waisted a ton of high draft picks on defensive players that with the excpetion of Chung, Mayo McCourty and maybe Spikes all busted. He failed at building a defense through the draft and it will probably be the reason that Brady doesn't get another ring. They are a great regular season team and it won't surprise me if they win 11 or 12 games. They don't turn the ball over, the defense does not give up big plays, the defense in the red zone where the zones are tighter is difficult to score on. Any team that watches tape would know these things. They will let you pass the ball on them between the 20's all day. They really don't have any ability to stop it. If Eli doesn't turn the ball over the Giants should be able to move the ball similar to the Steelers. The key thing to playing them is not turning the ball over and slowly moving the ball through the air. Brady can win 10 games in his sleep, Belicheck's concepts on red zone defense and penalties/turnovers are the reason they are so difficult during the season. Once the playoffs start, all of that crap is out the window. Belicheck the gm failed at building a defense.
I don't disagree with most of your post, but Brady has thrown more picks than Sanchez this season, and twice as many as he did in the whole of last season.
I agree, but how many of those picks were on deflections against the bills? Last year I think they were something like +22 in turnovers. They have a recipe that works during the season but it doesn't work in the playoffs.
Four against the Bills. Even if you take that game out as a statistical aberration, he has thrown as many picks in six games as he threw the whole of last season. He is already on track to have his worst year ever for picks by some considerable distance.
Or, you know, dealing with power outages and trees that fell down and took out fences and sheds. I'm sure you missed us. I know it hasn't been the same for me, missing out on your hysterical jokes about Robert Kraft's deceased wife.
True, but it works both ways. Sanchez would probably be the Patriots' third-string QB if he played 150 miles to the north. One of the interesting things about the Jets-Pats rivalry these days is how one team's strength is the other team's glaring weakness, and vice-versa.
Which is why Belichick's moves have been so questionable. He won three Super Bowls when his defenses were pretty damn good. Neglecting it has cost him at least a few more.
It's pretty clear the talent in New England has faded considerably since Scott Pioli has left. Other than the two tight ends almost all of their impact players (Brady, Welker, Wilfork, Mankins..etc were there before he left. They have replaced guys like Seymour, Bruschi, Vrabel, Harrison, Law, Samuel, with McCourty, Chung, and Mayo....solid players but not at the level of their predecessors and after those three there is not much else in recent drafts that is contributing on the defensive side of the ball for them.
I completely agree. The past three seasons have been frustrating because I know Brady isn't going to play forever. Each season that BB fails to fix his defense is a lost opportunity. Even if they had an average defense they might have won a couple of Super Bowls, going back to the one against the Giants where they couldn't stop Eli on that last NY drive. The problem as I see it is that they have nice complementary players on defense, but no real playmakers. Wilfork maybe, but other than that, they're very average to below average elsewhere. Mayo is a great tackler but he doesn't come up with a lot of big plays. McCourty looks terrible this year. And they cut Bodden a day before they put Dowling on IR? Most of these moves don't make sense to the outside observer, and the result is what we saw on Sunday. Halfway decent offenses have an easy time against this defense, and that's not going to cut it. Belichick seems like he's playing the odds... if he can get two second-round talents over one first-round talent, he takes that deal every time, figuring that he's got more of a chance to coach one of them up and make him a star. But failing to move up at times, like the Jets did to get Revis, is killing them. At this point I'd rather see the Patriots take a shot on an elite player and miss instead of having a constant revolving door in the secondary and at the linebacker spots.
Good post. Totally agree. I don't respect the misconception that Belichick coached up a a slew of blue collar nobodies into championship defensive players. That's a load of misguided Belichick-mythology. The Pats won with blue chip players, in addition to blue collar players. Willie McGinest. Richard Seymour. Ty Law. Vince Wilfork. Talent. Guess where these guys were drafted? It sure as shit wasn't at the bottom of the second round after a "shrewd" trade down.
I don't think you can argue this point. I think they've missed with their picks on defense alot, especially DBs. On offense he's missed on more than a couple RB's and WR's too. He's been pretty good drafting D-Line and O-Line.
for someone that "digs" .. he would know that there were tons of power outages here in Mass.. I wanna be cool like him one day ..
Don't worry. You'll always be another useless masochist seeking abuse by posting on other team's message boards.
I would respectfully submit that having too much control of personnel, is lending to Belichick getting away from his genius which is creativity, instead, marrying players to his philosophy and not the other way around, which a strong GM forces a coach to do. He had great defenses when he was here, with some good players and shit, like he has now, the difference being not picking the guy, made him adapt. (like schotty, not to the same degree)
