2015 New England Patriots Thread

Could be because he's good and adds an extra element to the offense that Blount isn't capable of.

It's interesting how the Super Bowl and - especially - the psychodrama around the psi of footballs have somewhat ironically raised the Patriots to a whole new level of dynasty. They just *dominate* the NFL in a way few teams in any sport do. Buffalo completely tied itself into knots in the frenzy to beat the Patriots. I checked out the Jacksonville paper this morning, and their football page has a big picture of Tom Brady at the top. The Patriots have been the top franchise for a while, but never quite this dominant.

As spot on as that analogy is, I couldn't hate that association anymore. Thanks.

I think that is fair and I am not really trying to say they haven't been great.  Intuitively, the salary cap argument makes sense, but pre salary cap the teams at the time were the same playoff teams each year because they were that good.  IOW, it's really hard to argue that the current parity has made winning a conference game or even a playoff game harder.  I am sure there is some statistical model that would try and make the point, but I wouldn't probably agree with it.  Again, I point out, the division has been terrible for an uncommonly long time, which has given them seeding advantages.

The major credit I give them is they have done it with revolving personnel at multiple positions.  That is quite an accomplishment.  I have a more traditional definition of dynasty and their Super Bowl Victories have been on the thinnest of margins.

A long article from n+1 (of all places):
nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/leviathan-and-the-air-pump/

I know no one wants to talk about this again, but I think this is a pretty fair article: it admits the Pats probably were doing something shady. It also points out that Goddell is doing something just as shady. It's not exactly the "everyone else cheats" argument, which is far too dismissive, but it paints the NFL like I tend to see it: a sport and an (authoritarian) league where there's a huge grey area between what's allowed and what isn't allowed, what's a foul and what's not a foul.

Steve Nelson might disagree.

Everyone hates Bill Belichick, but apparently not enough to refuse to trade with him. Does anyone make as many player-for-player and/or in-season trades as BB? Blount for Demps, Mankins for Wright, Hoomanawanui for Hicks, Ayers, Castillo, Bostic. The wheeling and dealing never stops.

After early success with the 4 TE package, some coaches would say, "let's do it over and over again." BB says, "OK, they've seen that one now, time for something new."

Gotta say, though, the roster construction looks a bit unbalanced now. only 3 TE/FB and a gazillion defensive linemen? Stay tuned, the carousel may not have stopped turning yet.

Exactly. Mason has lined up as the FB several times already.

The rule about a fumble going out of the opp's endzone being a touchback is completely ridiculous in the first place. Nowhere else can you get a free takeaway without establishing possession of the ball.

Sorry way behind, but wanted to weigh in on something discussed a couple weeks ago.

One of the reasons the teams before the salary cap era were THAT good, was because there was no salary cap. The franchises were great, no doubt and dominated with the same rules as everyone else. The huge advantage that they had was they could keep anyone they wanted. So when you draft well and acquire talent well and you can keep that all and add more that's going to make you dominant. You can keep that star player and his high talent back up, etc.

You would never refer to the first "era" of this Patriots success as the Corey Dillon Era. He was on the last championship team and that's it. They won two without him. He was brought in for that 2004 edition team. Had a great year, signed a big contract and then wasn't anything special the next two seasons. If you need a player to identify the first wave then I'd say it's Ty Law. Not because he was the best player, but because he left after 2004. 2005/6 were kind of transition years and then they brought in Welker/Moss for 2007, which was the start of the new identity. I actually think Welker better identifies that time period but Moss works better because he left a few games into 2010 which was Gronks first year. So lets go with the Ty Law, Randy Moss and Gronk eras.

Either way, 2 fumbles didn't earn Ridley a 2-year contract extension like Lewis just got today (not really related but I thought I'd build off of it to report the news).

Only the Patriots can make a blowout of the Cowboys in their own stadium seem rather boring. Even Gronk wasn't very involved. Next, on to Indy. Revenge is sweetest served cold.