I'm creating a separate post for this because I think this kind of insanity deserves to be pointed out, isolated, and ridiculed. I appreciate that Whitlock is trying to take a different look at last night's game, but he is way off-base on this one. The 2007-08 Patriots are not one of the three or four best teams of all time. I'm not sure they can fairly placed in the top twenty.
They played in a horrible division this year, racking up a 6 - 0 record. They beat some good division-winning teams along the way to 16-0, but let's not forget that it was their own decision to expend a lot of energy trying to turn wins into blowouts. Along the way they survived the below average Eagles, terrible Ravens, and looked less than stellar in double-digit wins against the Jets and Dolphins. It was their own decision to spend the last couple weeks of the regular season trying their hardest to win some meaningless games. They survived the Giants to complete the perfect regular season, but the Patriots didn't look like the dominating team that started the season so hot. By the time the playoffs rolled around, they looked old and spent.
I'll remember them as a team that had a great corps of receivers, led by an absolute freak in Randy Moss. They scored over thirty points in 8 of their first 8 games. It took the league about 10 games to develop an effective defensive gameplan against them. They scored fewer than 30 points in 6 of their final 11 games, including a pedestrian 22 ppg average in the playoffs.
I know Whitlock has a thing for Tom Brady, but when your guy doesn't get it done on the biggest stage you have to give him the same harsh treatment reserved for all big game losers. No one talks about the 14-2 Colts of 2005 or the 14-2 Chargers of 2006. They talk about the champion Steelers and champion Colts. The Patriots didn't win it all. At best, they are the 43rd best team of all time, slotted below each of the Super Bowl champion teams.
Monday, February 4, 2008
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10 comments:
Well damn. I was looking forward to a couple of months of silence from the "Tom Brady for Jesus"/"fold up the league because no one will ever be better than the F-Pats" crowd(s).
I think 43rd best is a bit of a stretch. They were surely better than the 2001 Pats;-)
Kravitz's column was amusing today.
whitlock is a fool
DJ Gallo's piece is a masterpiece. I sometimes wonder how much is purely hunorous and how much... well, it's pretty rough on Pats fans. Which is why it's delicious. Maybe time for seconds....
For some of the reasons Simmons mentioned, I wonder if the 2001-2 Pats wouldn't have KILLED this gutless version of he Pats.
I agree. The Pats were scary at times this season, especially early on. But nothing strikes fear into an opponent like a team whose defense can shut you down so completely that you start to question yourself.
For my money that element of the Patriots died the day the Colts went into Foxboro and put up 40 points.
Whitlock must be having that last dance with Mary Jane. In case anyone didn't know, the trend has continued: no regular season MVP has EVER won a Super Bowl. Congrats again Tom.
Josh...sorry, not sure where that stat came from but Bart Starr (1966), Terry Bradshaw (1978), Joe Montana (1989), Emmitt Smith (1993), Steve Young (1994), Brett Favre (1996), Terrell Davis (1998), and Kurt Warner (1999) all won the NFL's regular season MVP and won the Super Bowl.
The stat is that no winner of the passing title (most yards) has won the Super Bowl
Yes, I apologize. I had the wrong stat. Thanks for the correction.
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