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Super Bowl win for Pats in 2012 would cement Brady/Belichick legacy

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A couple of days ago I finally for the first time willingly watched some of Super Bowl XVI. It was the Sound EFX episode, and though I turned it off as soon as Welker didn’t make that catch and watched a lot of it on mute, I once and for all put the 2011 Pats to rest.

Going into the Super Bowl I really saw no way the Pats would lose. Up to that point every game seemed to have its own poetic justice (except that first Giants loss). Brady beat the Jets in New York for the first time since the Spygate, and ended the seasons of both the other teams that had ended his in 2005 and 2009.

Peyton as a Colt vs. Brady was over. And hey, we even let the Steelers finally win one! I knew you had it in you guys! 

Add all that with Myra Kraft’s magical presence over the team and I just didn’t see how we would possibly lose that game. It was just too perfectly all lined up. The Pats would cap off the season by beating who else but the Giants, and avenge the biggest and worst defeat of the Belichick era.

Forget about the Perfect Season, that’s the Perfect Decade.

To be honest it even scared me a little bit in the week leading up to the game. Half the fun of the NFL season is avenging past losses and trying to right wrongs. There would be no one left to beat.

And had the Pats won the Super Bowl my ultimate nightmare could’ve possibly come true. It would seem as good a time as any for Belichick call it a career. And that is something I don’t want.

Well it must’ve been too perfect for the football gods because they decided to tear our heart out on a grand stage yet again, and here I am, left really hating Eli and the Giants a good deal more than I hated them starting in February 2008, and general apathy towards everyone else.

The Jets will always be the Jets of course, and I’ll always respect and enjoy the games against the Ravens and Steelers, but outside the Giants it’s all just slightly less meaningful. 

Still, there should be some great games this season. Getting a shot at the Texans and 49ers should be interesting, and going into Baltimore should be a dog fight. But new rivals must emerge.

Perhaps Buffalo or Houston are ready to give us a run in the AFC, but as things are lining up right now  the Pats should be favorites to secure homefield advantage for the third straight year.

Being a Pats fan has been quite a ride for the past decade. It all seemed easy early on, but lately no professional sports team has fallen just short of championships more than BB and TFB. Yet again the pieces are in place to make a run at another Lombardi which would definitely cement the Brady/Belichick combo as the best of all time.

Another win would tie Brady for most Super Bowl wins with Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, not to mention that he’d stand alone having gone to six. Another MVP would also tie him with Montana with three.

For Belichick another Lombardi would give him a tie for most Super Bowl appearances with Don Shula (who only won two of six), and would tie him with Chuck Knoll for most as a head coach. Overall another win would give Belichick six total Super Bowl rings, putting him second all-time, pretty much undeniably the greatest coach of all time.

And one more shiny silver football for The Hall at Patriots Place would certainly put a different gleam on the two Super Bowl losses to the Giants. I just doubt we’ll ever get another shot at them in the big one.

No matter how it ended, 2011 was a fun ride and there’s plenty of reason to believe the 2012 Patriots can be even better. There might not be a lot of teams who we still owe a pounding to, but there’s still a lot to play for.

AFC East thoughts from a Patriots perspective

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I’ve resisted commenting on the goings on (or lack of goings ons… cough Dolphins) around the rest of the AFC East until now but it seems like a good point to review the moves made thus far by the Patriots main opposition, and by that I mean Bills and Jets since I have no idea what the Dolphins are doing.

The road to the playoffs goes through the division, and the Patriots have won the division nine of the last eleven years. So what have the Jets and Bills been doing to close the gap?

Let’s start with the Bills. By now everyone knows they’ve signed the big fish Mario Williams, adding him to a defensive line with Marcel Dareus and Kyle Williams. Then they added Mark Anderson as the other bookend.

I have mixed feeling about Anderson. He’s like that guy you let stay in your castle and he’s a valued warrior in a couple battles, then the next thing you know he’s taking a buttload of money to go fight for one of your direct rivals. (I’ve been watching a lot of Game of Thrones lately if you can’t tell). So whatever Mark Anderson, you got paid and that’s fine. Just keep any celebrating you do at the Pats expense to a subdued minimum. You owe us.

On paper, and with a pending 10th overall draft pick, the Bills look formidable. Seems like they’ve seen what the Giants have been able to do to the Patriots and are trying to replicate it, to their credit.

The problem however is the same problem they had last year, and that is lack of depth. The Bills were off to a great start until the injury bug hit them, and then they finished 6-10.

The Patriots off-season has illustrated yet again why they value the middle of their roster as much as the top, and there has yet to be an injury, no matter how major that the Patriots haven’t overcome in the last decade.

So the question is, can the Bills stay healthy? If they’re the rare team that escapes the injury bug they should surely challenge the Patriots. If they can’t keep Anderson, Dareus, K. and M. Williams on the field it could be lights out just like it was last year. And by lights out I mean Sean Merriman who hasn’t quite turned all the lights out since 2007.

I like Ryan Fitzpatrick but it’s all going to have to line up perfectly for him. If the Bills defense stays healthy they should be able to keep Fitzpatrick in a good position. If they don’t, and Fitz is forced to play from behind or “keep up” he will struggle.

The other question is can Fred Jackson continue the kind of dominant performance he turned in last year before getting hurt. He’s a huge key to everything they do on offense and they need a full year from him.

I expect the Bills to get off to a good start, how long they stay on that course will directly relate to how healthy they stay. But for the first time in a long time the Bills games will be ones that Patriots fans circle before the season.

And then there’s the Jets.

Look, I’m a Patriots fan. My general feeling toward our main rivals is well known. But all bias aside, I don’t know WTF the Jets are doing.

If you’re not building your team to specifically take down the Patriots what are you doing? The Jets holes are well documented. Safety, Right Tackle, and Pass Rush are three major needs for them, and what have they done to address any of them? Took a gamble on Laron Landry and signed Tim Tebow.

If Landry is healthy it’s a good move. They absolutely needed someone to help deal with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez because Eric Smith and Jim Leonhard were not getting it done in 2011. Landry could be an answer there.

But the Tebow move does nothing to attack a Patriots weakness (they shut him down twice last year) and it also undermines the quarterback you just extended. We all know Jets fans. Does anyone doubt there will be chants for Tebow, even just mockingly, at the first mistake Mark Sanchez makes? Tebow is another whole sideshow for a circus that has been full of sideshows over the past couple seasons.

To be honest I like being a Patriots fan even more when the Jets are making moves that concern me. Moves that make me think this could be the year they actually win the AFC East. But I’ve seen none of those kind of moves this off-season.

It’s seeming more and more like the only real talent on their roster was either brought in by Mangini or with Rex from Baltimore. Is there a single elite player that’s been added by the Rex Ryan regime? I can list off quite a few Patriots that have been added since 2009 that are impact players, who are on their way to elite if not there already. The Jets cupboards are starting to run bare and I’m not sure where the plan is to restock and build a team that can beat the Patriots.

Not that I’m complaining about it, but come on Jets. The NFL is better when you’re a tough ground and pound team, not a bunch of attention-seeking, contract-misreading, buffoons with no real plan to get back to those AFC Championship games you lost two of.

The Bills sure look like they’ll be ready to give the Pats a run for their money, at least in the early part of the season. While the Jets seem like they’re still trying to figure out what they’re doing. The Jets should have huge concerns about the Bills, especially with the pass rushers they’ve added. The Jets offensive line needs to be a lot better this season or it won’t matter who’s playing quarterback.

I’ll write something about the Dolphins when we know who their quarterback is. Until then, they don’t concern me.

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What does this mean for the rest of the AFC East?

The Williams signing gives the Bills arguably the best defense in the division. While the New York Jets will certainly take umbrage with that statement based on their outstanding secondary, the Bills now have a defense that features playmakers on every level. From Williams and Dareus controlling the line of scrimmage to Nick Barnett and Jairus Byrd making critical plays in back seven, the Bills have a deep and talented lineup that can thrive against any offensive style.

In the AFC East, the unit has to match up against the New England Patriots’ diversified attack. The Pats place a premium on spreading the field with multiple formations and personnel groupings, while using the short passing game to stretch the defense horizontally. After watching the New York Giants’ front four throttle the attack in Super Bowl XLVI, the Bills now have the capability of using a similar approach in a pair of division games.

For the Miami Dolphins and Jets, the Bills’ revamped defense now possesses a front line to control the game in the trenches, neutralizing both teams’ ground-based attacks. The size and athleticism of the defensive line can create penetration at the point, allowing the linebackers to flow freely to the ball.

NFL.com news: Mario Williams takes stout Buffalo defense to next level

And on the third day of Free Agency Buffalo ascended to the top defense in the AFC East…

https://www.patspropaganda.com/bills-williams-patriots/

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In this division right now, I’d say that Buffalo is a better team than the New York Jets,” King said. “I think the Patriots are better than the Bills, so I don’t see the Patriots having a lot of trouble winning this division this year, but the whole question is, that hasn’t been their biggest problem in recent years, it’s been what happens in January and beyond.

Peter King

Hard not to agree with Peter here. The Bills have had a great start, but they’re about to enter a make or break stretch and I’d bet it breaks them. Unless they can keep up the obscene turnover ratio like the 2010 Pats did.

https://www.patspropaganda.com/in-this-division-right-now-id-say-that-buffalo/

A moment of positivity about the Patriots defense

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Everyone has been killing the Patriots defense ever since they got killed on Sunday, and I’ve been right there with them, but after watching the tape a few more times I’m not quite as depressed as I once was.

Let’s look at the 12 defensive series the Patriots had:

  1. 2 plays: Interception
  2. 10 plays: Interception
  3. 3 and Out: Punt
  4. 6 plays : Punt
  5. 8 plays: TOUCHDOWN
  6. 10 plays: FIELD GOAL

Halftime

  1. 3 and Out: Punt
  2. 7 plays: TOUCHDOWN (after Brady INT put Buffalo on NE 39)
  3. 3 plays: Punt
  4. 3 plays: Punt
  5. 2 plays: TOUCHDOWN (46 yards in penalties)
  6. 3 plays (and a few kneel downs): FIELD GOAL

So 12 series break down as such:

  • 5 Punts
  • 2 Interceptions
  • 3 Touchdowns
  • 2 Field Goals

Now clearly there are still problems, especially closing out the half and end of game. It seems the more pressure the situation provided the more likely the Pats D was to play sloppy.

But there is evidence that there are positives to build on from this performance no matter how much people want to point out all the stats that make this look like the worst defense in the history of football.