New England Patriots

[copelandamuffy]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1063553

Okay we who live in the Boston area, are happy.
But before we start cheering for another Super Bowl ring.
One Word of caution: JACKSONVILLE

[bpdblue]

I'm in the San Francisco bayarea, where Tom Brady is from.

It would have been so nice if Brady could have been on one of our local teams. Maybe oh maybe we could have had a resurrection of one of the local teams.

During the 70's the Raiders ruled for a while, during the 80's the 49ers were the team of the decade, not much since then by either, except now their both bottom of the barrel.

Oh well, at least the dreams continue.

[NRM_Oz]

I can't wait for the Superbowl as it always swings on Australia Day Weekend and it is day off to celebrate but the game needs to be sped up - 4 hours for 1 bloody game (but we see no ads from the USA). Actually some of our games of cricket do last 5 days so I should not comment.

I got a new projector and 2 new viewing chairs so I guess I am going to strap myself into those bad boys with my best mate (dunny is 12 feet from them) with an esky (cooler) next to us (but those stops in play ensure a pit-stop to avoid any accidents LOL.

Patriots record is well deserved this year ........... just keeping pushing lads.

[SecTrainer]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/f...icleid=1063553

Okay we who live in the Boston area, are happy.
But before we start cheering for another Super Bowl ring.
One Word of caution: JACKSONVILLE

Ya gotta give the Giants props.

1. They forced Bellichek to play his A-team for four quarters, and if not for the one mistake letting Moss run free down the sideline, the Pats are 15-1 today. Not the first time they came within a whisker of losing, either.

2. The Giants showed every other team the Pats will face in the playoffs that they can be beaten, and how. If they had managed to knock Brady down and/or ring Moss's bell just a couple more times, they're still popping champagne corks in Miami. Several playoff teams should be able to squash the Pats' ground game flat. Take out Brady-Moss, and you're still looking at a very good team, but not a perfect-season team.

The Giants aren't "my team" by any means. I admit that I follow the sadsack 4-12 Chiefs, who can't give the ball away quite often or fast enough to suit them, it seems, appear to have drafted their front line from the Lady's Aid Society, and find 20-yard field goals challenging. I watched the game wanting to see the Pats make history, true. But as the game went on, I had to admire the smack job that the Giants laid on the Pats for much of that game, and they did it with much less talent at nearly every position. It was truly a thing of wonder except for a very small number of errors that cost them.

Are the Pats beatable? You couldn't watch Saturday night without saying "Absolutely". Certainly, Jacksonville is only one team that should worry them. What I'd whisper in the Jaguars' ear is: There are SIXTY MINUTES in a football game - PLAY THEM ALL as if each one was the last minute. If the Giants do that on Saturday night, they send the Pats home crying. To me, other than stealing opposing team's signals, that's the real secret to the Pats' perfect season...they play EVERY MINUTE of every single game as if it was the ONLY minute in the game. How Bellichek gets them to do that is also a thing of wonder, and he has to be the Coach of the Century, hands down.

There's no dispute that you have to put an asterisk in the record books next to the Pats' 2007 season record due to the signal-stealing scandal. The team probably should have been disqualified from playoff eligibility for 2007. It will always tarnish Bellichek's reputation and it is a significant blemish on this "perfect season", but the fact remains that he is still one in a million among coaches and let's be honest - there isn't a team in the league that wouldn't love to have him come and do a little wiretapping for THEM. And, if it's cheating, so what? Everybody cheats, right? We live in a culture where cheating has become "accepted", if not "expected". That's what we mean by "playing hardball", right?

Maybe THAT'S what the Giants needed on Saturday night...a wiretap. There used to be three units to a football team...the offense, the defense, and special teams. Now, the game might be determined by how your fourth unit - the black-bag unit - stacks up against the SIGINT specialists on the other side.

[Chucky]

Trainer on this subject you are as shallow as Mitt Flop Romney. In one sentence you say you really want the Pats to set a record then you spend the rest of your post saying they should be disqualified for cheating. If you can say how the defense coaches can memorize then send the Jets next play on to the field for the players to readjust before the play starts then I would like to hear it.
Sour Grapes make sour wine.

[SecTrainer]

Trainer on this subject you are as shallow as Mitt Flop Romney. In one sentence you say you really want the Pats to set a record then you spend the rest of your post saying they should be disqualified for cheating. If you can say how the defense coaches can memorize then send the Jets next play on to the field for the players to readjust before the play starts then I would like to hear it.
Sour Grapes make sour wine.

I didn't say I didn't have mixed emotions about the "perfect season", Chucky, and that's hardly sour grapes. Read the professional sports press on this subject. The Pats even got honorable mention in the "Year of the Cheater" article along with Barry Bonds and others. I certainly didn't write the article. And yes, I agree with those who called for the Pats to be disqualified.

I'm not sure of your other question, but if you hear signals being called to the quarterback, you've got all the time the other team is in the huddle to adjust your defense. What the hell do you think this was all about? Nothing?

I'm sure you'd know best about the wine.

[SecTrainer]

Trainer on this subject you are as shallow as Mitt Flop Romney. In one sentence you say you really want the Pats to set a record then you spend the rest of your post saying they should be disqualified for cheating. If you can say how the defense coaches can memorize then send the Jets next play on to the field for the players to readjust before the play starts then I would like to hear it.
Sour Grapes make sour wine.

I didn't say I didn't have mixed emotions about the "perfect season", and that's hardly sour grapes. The Chiefs' performance had nothing to do with the game Saturday night, and I'm not a Giants fan, either, Waldo. On the other hand, you're an admitted Pats fan, so who's got the axe to grind?

What I said that chapped your hide was the same thing that chapped a lot of folks in Beantown...they got the bejesus scared out of them on Saturday night, and a lot of 'em now realize that the Pats can be beaten. What worries y'all even more is that the Giants were the second team that showed how it might be done. I'm sure you don't like to have to attach the word "lucky" to the "perfect season", but that's what you have to do now. Beating the Giants by only 3 points, and having to struggle to do it, was not what Beaners wanted to see. They hoped to be able to phone in the Superbowl, it seems. Tapes of this game are already in the hands of some very good playoff-bound teams.

Are the Pats still the best team in football right now? Absolutely, without any question. But it's really not necessary to entertain the fantasy that they're "unbeatable" to say that they're the best team in football. It will be up to Belichick to reinvent the scheme enough that the lessons from Saturday night won't benefit the opposition - and I'm the first one to admit that he's the guy who can do it if anyone can. I'd bet a big wad of money he's already hard at work doing that very thing. It's always hard to tell with Belichick, who is hardly "cuddly" under the best of circumstances, but he didn't look like a happy camper to me after that game.

Read the professional sports press on the signal-stealing subject. The Pats even got honorable mention in the "Year of the Cheater" article along with Barry Bonds and others. I certainly didn't write the article. And yes, I agree with those who called for the Pats to be disqualified. I take my hat off to the Pats for their season, even if I'm holding my nose at the same time just like I did when Barry Bonds broke the HR record.

I'm not sure of your other question, but if you hear signals being called to the opposing quarterback's helmet, or can flash the hand signals, either of which happens before the huddle, you have however much time that the other team is in the huddle to adjust your defense. I mean, how long does it take to tell your defense to run cover-2 or a safety blitz instead of playing zone? 1 second? You can make the adjustment before they break the huddle, and you don't even need to substitute people. So just what the hell do you think all the fuss was about? Nothing?!? They stole the signals, but so what, they couldn't do anything with the information? Maybe that's the spin you got in Tinkertown, but the rest of the country knew better and called it what it was - a "scandal" in professional sports. One likened it to stealing an opposing team's playbook and it's hard to argue with that point of view...unless you're a Pat's fan, and then I guess anything they do is okee-dokee. To everyone else, though, it's called CHEATING.

So, yes...I had mixed emotions on Saturday night. I wanted to see history being made, but it still had a bad smell to it and the cheating will forever be mentioned whenever people outside Boston discuss "the perfect season". As a fan of good football, I wish the Pats hadn't done that. So...you've come within two whiskers of being 14-2...so what? You'd still be the best team in football. Take the "luck" that had to go with being 16-0 and be happy about it. They say luck favors those who are prepared.

As for wine, I'm sure you'd know best about that so I'll leave that subject to you. And lose the juvenile graphics, Junior - they're a waste of bandwidth.

[LPAjh9558]

cheating & the Patriots

FWIW & IMO I don't think that the coaches cheating should have any impact on the year that New England is having. Now should the coach get Coach of the Year? Uh....NO. And for what I understand there hasn't been any proof that any of the players were helping. The only thing that they've been doing is kicking a**.

That being said, there have been 4 teams that almost beat them and if any of the playoff teams is smart they would go back, review their game against NE and then look how those 4 teams played against them. Give all 4 teams props as they have shown that's possible to beat NE. You just have to play the whole game though.

The 16-0 won't mean anything now unless they go 19-0 and hold the Lombardi trophy in the air again!

[copelandamuffy]

Being 58 years old, and excluding living in Houston during the 1970s,I have lived in the Boston area all my life

I have never seen the Boston sports teams as a group do as well at the five major sports teams, and I have lived through some pretty miserable years.
But this year seems different.

In soccer the New England Revolution made it into the playoffs
Red Sox World Series Champs
Boston Celtics, unless the wheels fall off the cart, are headed for the playoffs
Bruins may make it into the hockey playoffs
And I agree somewhat wit SecTrainer, it is a whole new season. As far as
as the fact the Pat's may have cheated in taping this, and taping that.
The only thing the Pats did wrong is they got caught doing it. Betcha every
other NFL team has done this.

[Chucky]

"I wasn't referring to that specific game, obviously. Read my other post in which I said that the Giants forced the Pats to play their A-game."

"Maybe the most honest thing you could do if you're not going to put on a decent game is just cancel the "meaningless" games. After all, they're MEANINGLESS, right? Why play them at all? Put on something more fun - like reruns of "The Brady Bunch". Oh, yeah - I forgot those advertisers and the bucks they bring in even for meaningless games....so sorry. Probably can't charge them quite as much for "The Brady Bunch"."

"And what are we saying when we run panty-boy out onto the field for 30 seconds in a "meaningless game", run a play designed for him where he can hardly fail to catch that one ball he needs to set a "record for receptions" (he makes 1 yard, but it's a catch), and then sit him down? What in the HELL is that crap about?"

If your post wasn't about the Pats then what other team had the scenario you wrote above. BTW he went more than a yard to the end zone. Come on "The Brady Bunch" pretty transparent. Love Junior