NFL 2018

[chuckrh]

definitely a great day for games although not happy with either result. the rams are a division foe & NE, well we just don't want to get into that (seahawks fan). so i guess i'm rooting for the LA to get humiliated like Cantlanta & destroy the team, haha. NFC west is going to be a beast next year. SF will have Garrapalo back. everybody except maybe ARI are going to be in it all season. GO HAWKS!

[Iowan]

Rooting for the Rams, but fully anticipate a game that looks pretty similar to last night. If New England has the ball last in a close game, they absolutely 100% will win.

It's academic at this point. It's probably the most impressive dynasty in sports, and what makes it more impressive is the way they do it. New England never looks very dominant, but they beat you every single time when it matters*. Brady doesn't miss with the game on the line. Guys don't drop catches. They don't miss kicks. They are the model of clutch precision.


*NFC East notwithstanding

[Zip City]

The Patriots are the most boring dominant team ever. Everything is so methodical and planned. They're so damned good, but no fun to watch

[tinnitus photography]

The Patriots are the most boring dominant team ever. Everything is so methodical and planned. They're so damned good, but no fun to watch

yeah that Hogan catch was incredibly boring. and they never ever come back from deficits to win games.

a million eye rolls for ya, Zip.

[tinnitus photography]

Rooting for the Rams, but fully anticipate a game that looks pretty similar to last night. If New England has the ball last in a close game, they absolutely 100% will win.

It's academic at this point. It's probably the most impressive dynasty in sports, and what makes it more impressive is the way they do it. New England never looks very dominant, but they beat you every single time when it matters*. Brady doesn't miss with the game on the line. Guys don't drop catches. They don't miss kicks. They are the model of clutch precision.


*NFC East notwithstanding

not usually... this one still stings a bit.

[Zip City]

The Patriots are the most boring dominant team ever. Everything is so methodical and planned. They're so damned good, but no fun to watch

yeah that Hogan catch was incredibly boring. and they never ever come back from deficits to win games.

a million eye rolls for ya, Zip.

I didn't say they were incapable of making exciting plays. I said that their style of play is extremely methodical. Crossing patterns and tight-end passes. Brady under center. It works

[tinnitus photography]

i dunno, maybe 'most boring' means something else in Indiana?

[Zip City]

Dunno, guess you'd have to ask someone from there

[tinnitus photography]

Dunno, guess you'd have to ask someone from there

all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me.

[Iowan]

The Patriots are the most boring dominant team ever. Everything is so methodical and planned. They're so damned good, but no fun to watch

yeah that Hogan catch was incredibly boring. and they never ever come back from deficits to win games.

a million eye rolls for ya, Zip.

Their comebacks are extremely predictable. It doesn't make them any less impressive, but there's not even that much drama any more for a disinterested party. You know if Brady gets the ball last, it's over.

I'm sure it's awesome as a fan, and excruciating as a fan of the opponents, but watching without much emotional investment you start to take for granted what's going on out there.

[Zip City]

Dunno, guess you'd have to ask someone from there

all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me.

Yeah, I hear everyone from Rhode Island says that

[tinnitus photography]

Dunno, guess you'd have to ask someone from there

all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me.

Yeah, I hear everyone from Rhode Island says that

i wouldn't trust anyone who calls a milkshake a cabinet.

[cortez the killer]

The Patriots are the most boring dominant team ever. Everything is so methodical and planned. They're so damned good, but no fun to watch

yeah that Hogan catch was incredibly boring. and they never ever come back from deficits to win games.

a million eye rolls for ya, Zip.

I didn't say they were incapable of making exciting plays. I said that their style of play is extremely methodical. Crossing patterns and tight-end passes. Brady under center. It works

Yesterday was one of the most conservative offensive game plans I've seen from New England. However, for the past several years, they have been seen as one of the more innovative and multiple offenses in football - multiple personnel groupings and formations; a variety of shifts and motions; an elaborate screen game; an array of gadget/trick plays; a passing attack that stretches the field both horizontally and vertically; finding creative ways to get the Tight End involved in the offense; having the ability to attack a defense via the ground or air based on the match-up. To characterize the Patriots offense as "boring" and to suggest that their offense consists of crossing patterns (ironically enough "mesh concepts" are ALL the rave in football today), tight-end [sic] passes and Brady under center is lazy and uninformed.

[Clams]

Their comebacks are extremely predictable. It doesn't make them any less impressive, but there's not even that much drama any more for a disinterested party. You know if Brady gets the ball last, it's over.

You must have missed the waning moments of last year's super bowl

[Slipkid42]

all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me.

That's good shit right there.

[beantownbubba]

The Patriots are the most boring dominant team ever. Everything is so methodical and planned. They're so damned good, but no fun to watch

Boring as an emotional experience is in the eyes of the beholder. Too bad for you, but if that's how u feel, that's how u feel.

Boring as a somewhat objective descriptor is factually incorrect. In fact it is so far from the truth I seriously wonder if you have seen the games over the years. This is a team that has won w/ an inexperienced QB playing "game manager," it's won w/ dominant shut down defenses, it's won w/ some of the worst defensive play in the league, it's won w/ earthshaking ground games, it's won when they literally couldn't gain 50 yds on the ground in a game, it's won against powerful teams against which it matched up poorly (i.e. the other guys were way more athletic), it's won w/ the best athletes on the field, it's won w/ a short west coast style controlled passing game and it's won w/ the vertical passing game. It's won w/ stars and w/out them. They won 11 games w/ Matt Cassell at QB. They've won featuring a great tight end doing things tight ends never did before and they won w/ second string tight ends acting as mediocre blockers. They have won w/ the rules stacked against performing at the top level for very long and they have won despite punitive punishments way out of scale to the alleged wrongs. They have won w/ creativity, cleverness, craftiness, a willingness to change and adapt, an ever changing roster, the ability to see value in other teams' discards and to create valuable contributors out of nothing (see among many others the the unheralded James White, the vaguely worthy Miami Dolphin named Wes Welker, the Oakland discard Cordarelle Patterson and the solid but underappreciated wide receiver Troy Brown who became a 2 way star) and w/ virtually no top draft picks. They have won by picking up toxic players avoided by every other team and making it work (Randy Moss and for a few glorious weeks, Josh Gordon).

Every week is an adventure as we wait to see what Belichek, McDaniels and crew will come up w/ this week. The Patriots have probably started more trends than any team since the Walsh 49ers and by the time half the league has adopted the latest wrinkle the Patriots have moved on. It took the league about 2 to 3 YEARS to figure out why the Pats deferred to the second half and just last week they chose to take the ball first and made the most of the opportunity. They've won by being coldheartedly analytical (see e.g. Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Richard Seymour, Vince Wilfork, Adam Vinatieri and too many others to count) and by being sentimental (getting rid of Garrapolo in favor of a 41 year old QB who most teams would have forced out by now).

I don't know how this group feels about Tony Romo but to me he's been a surprising diamond as commentator. Did u hear him waxing ecstatic about the Patriots on Sunday? About how they do things that not only other teams don't do, but also things other teams CAN'T do?

The idea that last minute comebacks are somehow routine and predictable is mind boggling to me. I thought it was we NE fans who were supposed to take things for granted (which would be wrong but somewhat understandable) but apparently its the unaffiliated fans who find the essence of sports (unpredictably, greatness rising to the moment, responses to chance and fate, the agony of defeat, the outcome being in doubt until the game is actually played no matter what it looks like on paper and all the rest) routine and not worth celebrating.

My take on this season was that the Pats would probably win the AFC East because it's the AFC East and it's belichek and brady but that they wouldn't go far and wouldn't be dominant because they just didn't have enough good players. Look at the no-names and discards that make up much of the lineup! And yet here we are. That's not an accident and it's in no way predictable.

[Zip City]

I’m less than surprised that the New England residents have a more impassioned response to the Patriots’ gameplay than I do. I don’t have the same buy-in as you and am not critically analyzing each play. For a casual observer of the team, I find the Patriots style of play to be less exciting than some other teams.

[Iowan]

Bubba, you kind of laid exactly why this was predictable to the unaffiliated fan.

Because Belichik (and Brady) are that fucking good at winning football games. This isn't the first time they've excelled with a group of ragtag misfits. As is so frequently pointed out, they went 11-5 with Matt Cassell.

They're doing what they've always done this year. And it's probably the most amazing thing in American professional sports over the last 25 years (if not ever). But this isn't remotely surprising to many of us who aren't emotionally invested in it. Much like the scorpion who stings the frog ferrying it across the river, this is what they do. It shouldn't be that surprising, in that context.

[cortez the killer]

Bubba, you kind of laid exactly why this was predictable to the unaffiliated fan.

Because Belichik (and Brady) are that fucking good at winning football games. This isn't the first time they've excelled with a group of ragtag misfits. As is so frequently pointed out, they went 11-5 with Matt Cassell.

They're doing what they've always done this year. And it's probably the most amazing thing in American professional sports over the last 25 years (if not ever). But this isn't remotely surprising to many of us who aren't emotionally invested in it. Much like the scorpion who stings the frog ferrying it across the river, this is what they do. It shouldn't be that surprising, in that context.

More importantly, Iowan.....

[Iowan]

Bubba, you kind of laid exactly why this was predictable to the unaffiliated fan.

Because Belichik (and Brady) are that fucking good at winning football games. This isn't the first time they've excelled with a group of ragtag misfits. As is so frequently pointed out, they went 11-5 with Matt Cassell.

They're doing what they've always done this year. And it's probably the most amazing thing in American professional sports over the last 25 years (if not ever). But this isn't remotely surprising to many of us who aren't emotionally invested in it. Much like the scorpion who stings the frog ferrying it across the river, this is what they do. It shouldn't be that surprising, in that context.

More importantly, Iowan.....

The potential take down is always enough to keep me on the hook. I remember watching the 2002 Super Bowl with great enthusiasm, as I had a hunch the underdog Pats could stop the Greatest Show On Turf, which was getting a little too dynastic for my tastes. My uncle is from Avon, CT, and was a long-suffering die hard, so I wanted to see him get that one.

Time is a flat circle.

[cortez the killer]

My uncle is from Avon, CT.

My current home town.

[Iowan]

My uncle is from Avon, CT.

My current home town.

Small world. His sister is still in the area, I believe. He and my aunt live in VA Beach, and their neighbor two doors down just happened to be a guy from Franklin, Mass. As big of a Pats nut as my uncle, and a party animal all the same. Their football Sundays are pretty epic.

[Zip City]

I just want to point out that my view of the Patriots as "boring" is in no way a sleight about the unbelievable success they've been over the past 20 years

[tinnitus photography]

well i agree with you on that game. it pretty much sucked!

[phungi]

If we learned anything from last year, the NFL can skip the playoffs and just pit the Eagles vs Patriots in the Super Bowl...

[boyyourself]

"all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me."

this reminds me of millions of coastal residents who have never gotten blood or dirt on their hands, never grown food, have multiple pets and manicured lawns, take twenty minute showers daily, but like to tell me how I should treat the earth, what to eat, and what to think about climate change and and why.

[Zip City]

[John A Arkansawyer]

Dunno, guess you'd have to ask someone from there

all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me.

Yeah, I hear everyone from Rhode Island says that

Nice one!



(If you have this down really low, it sounds a little like "Man on the Moon".)

[beantownbubba]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the game was a snooze, but when plays had to be made, only one team made them. That's not a coincidence.

I will be the first to admit that I don't follow the NFL other than the Patriots closely enough to do any kind of serious analysis, [you know that "but" is coming, don't you?] but I have to wonder about the coach of the year voting. I'm sure there were several worthy candidates and that the winner (from the Bears) was deserving and I am NOT saying Belicheck should have won, but I think it's pretty universally agreed that nobody else could have taken that group of players and won a super bowl w/ them. Isn't that worth even a single, solitary, lonely vote? You're gonna say but the vote was taken before the playoffs and I'm gonna say yeah, but even so, the Pats had earned a #2 seed and were clearly positioned for a typical Patriots playoff run by the end of the season. And they did go 11-5, which is not exactly chopped liver. So let's skip that part and now go...

[tinnitus photography]

"all those jesus states so far from the ocean seem the same to me."

this reminds me of millions of coastal residents who have never gotten blood or dirt on their hands, never grown food, have multiple pets and manicured lawns, take twenty minute showers daily, but like to tell me how I should treat the earth, what to eat, and what to think about climate change and and why.

millions tell you what to eat? what is the most popular request?


i also love how some people think that they can have an independent opinion on science. what's your take on the unified field theory?