More thoughts on Patriots going 16-0 – AFC East Blog – ESPN
I really don’t care for the 16-0 talk but this is a good list to look at the best challengers for this upcoming season. 2007 taught me a lot of things:
- Having an additional underlying motive like proving to the NFL that their championships weren’t tainted certainly helped. But you can only run on hate for so long.
- Even the good teams have 2-3 stinkers per year. Take the 2010 Browns game as a prime example. Some games you just don’t have it, and being able to overcome those games is extremely difficult. The 2007 Pats should’ve lost to Baltimore and Philly.
- Losing can be a good thing when the ultimate goal is to peak for one game in early February.
Of the list laid out in the article it’s a safe bet they’ll lose at least one of them, and probably another one that nobody saw coming because they’ll just stink. The offensive line will not show up, and/or Brady will be off and it just won’t work out.
But again, the goal is to peak in February and that’s all that I really care about. If the Pats blow a regular season game it’s just a chance for BB to turn the screws on them a bit and refocus the team. That can be a great thing.