What you just outlined is the difference between being a SB contending team and a middler team. The team has to be more consistent everywhere - offense, defense, STs and coaching.
No, that's not what I outlined. What I outlined is, the 2023 Patriots have the talent and coaching to win the Super Bowl. THIS. YEAR. They showed it in the 2nd quarter. THAT team beats everybody.
Last year was a dumpster fire
And they were still 8-9, a couple of plays from a playoff berth.
I really don't understand what the point is of your rant thread. Plenty of teams have talent in the league and could be Super Bowl contenders but aren't because their operation is a joke. That is what the Patriots have become post-Brady. That first quarter was Jete football. It was so bad that I think it even shocked the Eagles who before they could even sip their first drink of Gatorade were up 16-0. I lost count of all the coaching blunders from play calling in the second half to Bill's not taking the easy 3 with 10 minutes left in the 4th down 5. That was bush league point chasing.
Then don't fucking post in it. Simple as.
Ok. You do you.
No other team in the AFC East is going to watch tonighst all 22 and be encouraged. This team will be a second-half team much like the 2001 team. I'm actually looking forward to this season more than I have any in the last 10 years. I think Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien, and Mac Jones are going to shove a lot of shit up peoples asses this year. Let's see how things play out. I'll take a wild card and a road game and see how it goes.
I disagree, and don't think it's delusional. That is the best defense in the NFL we saw out there today. Right now, it's the best. You can't squander that and be happy with incremental improvements - in games you should have won, with a schedule like this, in a division and conference like this. Yes, it's better than last year, but there was a W on the table, and now it's an L. This team needs to make a good run this year. And dropping games that should be wins is the best way NOT to do that.
Give them TIME. You are right about the D. The O needs time. The D has been developed and coached for 3+ years now. The O needs to catch up. They will.
Time is not a luxury this team has this year. Not when they're giving away wins. The margin for error just shrunk. Players will get injured, weird, quirky things happen. You can't have this defense, and miss the playoffs. Squandering that would be a tragedy, and people will be looking for heads on pikes, and I couldn't say they were wrong.
Nobody had this down as a win in their predictions. Even the folks that have them making the playoffs (such as myself) had this down as a loss. Did we have it down as a close loss? Not really. I'm highly encouraged and I will look again tomorrow between teams meetings for work to see if I want to update my prediction for this year to include more wins as a result of what I saw today.
Predictions are like assholes.Nobody had this down as a win in their predictions. Even the folks that have them making the playoffs (such as myself) had this down as a loss. Did we have it down as a close loss? Not really. I'm highly encouraged and I will look again tomorrow between teams meetings for work to see if I want to update my prediction for this year to include more wins as a result of what I saw today.
Isn't that awesome?Predictions are like assholes.
That's the best defense in the NFL, and you can't tell me otherwise. The Eagles were 3rd in scoring offense last year, 3rd in yards, nearly 400 yards a game last year. They held them to 250 yards of total offense today. 154 passing yards. 154. The top 3 receivers has 95, 88, and 55 receptions last year, for 1196, 1496 and 702 yards, and 21 TDs. They averaged almost 120 yards a game rushing, 97 today (after giving up almost 40 on the first drive of the game).
...and don't forget that the defense held that offense to 17 points, 7 of which were on an extremely short field.
