I haven’t really been at the forefront of that charge because honestly I think the Patriots and Brady are always pretty locked in and intense. That 2007 situation was special because it actually happened to the current team and was being spun to discredit what current members of the team did. So yeah, they were pissed off and looking to prove a point.
But now it happened last year, a good portion of the current players weren’t even on the team, and nearly all the rest have only been here for a short time at least as far as the earlier Super Bowl wins go.
I do think there’s an element of Brady getting some extra juice from his personal experience, as well as Belichick and McDaniels as far as gameplanning goes – i.e. when they’re up by double digits in the fourth quarter and they’re still looking to pile points on. I think we’ll see them hit 50 at least once or twice this season and there will be crying about it.
But overall I think this team very much has the potential to be better than last year’s when you consider who they’re going to have to beat. Last year we needed Revis and Browner in a bad way, but this year their absence can be overcome with all the additional pieces up front along with solid play from Butler and Brown at corner.