OK, so you've not only managed to totally misunderstand what anyone is saying, but now you've turned all hostile. Let me clear a thing or two up. First of all, I don't believe for a second that the Patriots deliberately lost the debacle against Baltimore in last year's playoffs. They were shaky all season, up and down, and they hit their low point at the exact wrong time. They got their asses handed to them, plain and simple. After not seeing it happen for the better part of a decade, Pats fans got to see it happen a lot this year, including week two against the Jets. Any thought that Belichick "threw" that game, or told his players to, is not only just plain stupid, but it's so far from being an objective analysis that it's laughable. Yes, a lot of Patriots fans have trouble when their team loses games. Some of them take it to the extreme. But show me one fan base of a professional sports team that's had any success that doesn't do the same thing. And about 2005... It's not about being "scared" about who you're playing. Everyone with half a brain who watched the end of that game could see plain as day that the Patriots had no real interest in winning it. For Christ's sake, Belichick let Flutie attempt a drop kick for an extra point. A drop kick, dude. Is that a sign of a coach wanting to win? And if you want to respond and say, "idiot Patsie fan" or something brilliant and original like that, take a look at some of the articles about that last game of the 2005 season: http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2006/01/02/winners_even_in_defeat/ Or maybe what Globe columnist Dan Shaugnessy wrote: Belichick would be foolish to tell the truth here, and foolish is one thing he is not. There's no upside to any admission that the Patriots would rather play Jacksonville than Pittsburgh. But knowing Belichick the way we know him -- no detail ever is overlooked -- it strains all credulity to submit that the coach was unaware of what was going on around the league during the game. New England's football success has been built on preparation and attention to detail. And now we're supposed to believe the Patriots made no effort to dictate their first-round opponent when they had complete control over the identity of said opponent? Sorry, not buying. If the Patriots wanted to play Pittsburgh next week, they would have beaten Miami and they'd be playing the Steelers. So you've made a lot of incorrect assumptions.
You could make the argument about a regular season game. But the fans saying the Pats threw playoff games is just too over the top.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say just because Dan Shaugnessy believes something to be true doesn't mean it is. Are you really hanging your argument on whether a reporter simply agrees with your position?
No, not a single reporter... you can look it up, there were tons of similar articles at the time. I'm not sure what it is you guys think I'm trying to do. I'm not saying the Patriots only lose when they want to. I'm just saying with this particular game, the Patriots clearly tanked it to set their week one playoff game up.
I think the point is there is a big difference in setting yourself up for a more favorable match-up the next week and completely making all the hard work your players put in all season irrelevant by tanking the playoff game, so doing one doesn't correlate to the practice of doing the other. so even if the Pats did tank against the Fins it no way validates the claims that they gave up on this season in the playoffs for off season reasoning. you'd have a hard time convincing players to ever play hard for you again knowing that at some point you may lose faith in them and stop trying this season, so why should they sweat for you.
Absolutely agree with the bolded part. They're mutually exclusive. And I'm actually embarrassed that any Pats fan would suggest they lost a playoff game intentionally because of the "final eight" rules with UFAs. That's completely ridiculous. But I do think it's common for teams to go into the last week or two of any given season, especially if playoff seeding is more or less set, with a "if we win, great, if we lose, who cares" mentality. And that definitely applied back in '05.
I agree that teams do just that. I also agree that the Patriots did just that in Week 17 of 2005. I wrote this already in this very thread! My problem here is that several Patriots fans in this thread, including the JoeSixPat clown featured in the first post of this thread, believe that the Patriots folded the tent in Week 17 of the 2005 season because they were too scared to play Pittsburgh in the 2005 AFC Wild Card playoffs. That, to me, is just utterly, utterly ridiculous.
Check out my posting history on football matters. You will not find that type of crap from me. Nice try, though. From the looks of things, this thread is just getting started.
Why do Pats fans think BB is a mastermind genius? what has he done since the cheating shit happened? BB landed in a spot where His Qb was good and now his "schemes" are exposed....
Apparently, some of them do not think he is a mastermind genius. You see, if Belichick was truly a mastermind genius he would not have backed down from a Pittsburgh at New England Wild Card matchup in January 2006. The Patriots were coming off back-to-back Super Bowl championships, but apparently Belichick had no faith in himself, his assistant coaches, or his players. Do you think legendary head coaches such as Weeb Ewbank, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Paul Brown, Don Shula, George Halas, Greasy Neale, Hank Stram, and Tom Landry ever backed down from a challenge on the football field? I don't think so. Well, you know what? Belichick has backed down. He has had feces run down his legs over the thought of facing a 6th seed in the playoffs. Patriots fans know this. As a result, Patriots fans absolutely cannot rank Belichick among the all-time great head coaches.
I think Belichick makes plenty of mistakes (especially with drafting), but in fairness the Patriots did come within about 90 seconds of going 19-0 after the whole camera fiasco took place. He also coached a Brady-less team to 11-5. I understand he's easy to hate but you can't deny the man's a good coach.
Sure, use the drunk smilie. That's your answer. That's your answer to everything. Your revolution is over, mister. Condolences. The trolls lost. My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Post at a Patriots forum, sir. The trolls will always lose. Do you hear me, GoPats? The trolls will always lose!
I want to respond to this, but to do so in the manner I wanted was going to take too much time and I didn't have much time in the later portion of that week. It will be done, though. Also, you can expect a companion thread.
How 'bout Belichick goes for it on 4th & 2 on his own 28 with a little over two mins. to go vs. the Colts last year? NE up six, Patriots lose 35-34, CONSPIRACY! There are enough tin-foil hats to go around for both fan bases.
Absolutely, these are the same people that burn cars when the Red Sox lose and thought that there was some "curse" preventing them from winning the World Series when in reality they just SUCKED for 82 years:wink:
I already addressed the drop kick. Once again, Doug Flutie came on to drop kick an extra point with the score Dolphins 25, Patriots 19. If Flutie botched the kick, no big deal. There was only 6:10 remaining, so the Patriots were going to have to score a touchdown anyway. Of course, if Flutie messed up and the Dolphins went on to convert a FG the Patriots would have been trailing 28-19, but Belichick probably didn't think the Dolphins would score again. Well, of course Flutie made the kick and the score became 25-20. The Dolphins did go on to kick a field goal and they took a 28-20 lead.
