NFL Week 14- The Bird and The Beard Edition

11 Super Bowls. They've lost 5 (3 with Brady, 1 with Bledsoe and 1 with Eason/Grogan, though you can pin all 3 Brady losses squarely on the defense. Brady did what he had to do in those games).

But still, no. You're way off base about what was happening. Patriots fans are not fair-weather, front-running fans -- they've sold out every game since Kraft brought the franchise in 1994, two years before Bledsoe took them to the Super Bowl and 6 years before Brady arrived. People showed up, even through the Pete Carroll years. Yesterday they were booing the absolutely pathetic, insulting sequence at the end of the half, not the Patriots as an organization or in an existentialist sense. They did not boo the team at all in the 2nd half when they saw them showing some heart -- they were booing the refs. Nobody's "jumping off the bandwagon" or "ending a grace period." And they wouldn't have booed the team before halftime if the team had tried to score with 2 timeouts and a minute left in the first half -- with KC getting the ball to start the 2nd half -- instead of running throwaway plays and letting the clock run down. They were pissed at McDaniels above all.

 

That’s pretty much what they’ve done since all their receivers are injured

 

Tie game. 1 minute to go

Booger: settle for the FG if you have to

WTF

 

My halftime Iggles +300 money line bet was like candy from a baby.

 

One of the things I enjoy about the new OT rules (though I would make it a full 15 minutes) is that by a TD ending a game, makes the strategy more interesting for the offensive team instead of getting more conservative inside the 30.

 

Or just tune in one of your local radio stations that carry it......

 

Insert Uecker:

"He's not the best color man in the league for nothing folks!"

 

Was just talking about this generation with the nine SBs. No worries - I didn't run out of fingers.

This is interesting. Like you, I live in the area, and a couple of my friends are die-hards whose families have had tickets since the late 70s and mid-80s. Both were there and have different feelings on things.

One feels that the fan demographic has changed/become entitled and the offense (inc. the QB) sucks. What he saw the end of the half was a team that was hoping to break a couple of plays and, if that didn't happen, just escape to the locker room to regroup. He felt the display of displeasure was a really bad look.

The other thinks Zolak calls it too down the middle and Brady is just as good as ever. He thought the team quit at the end of the half and vocalized accordingly.

Guys like me just really have no concept of what it's like to see consistently good football and positive outcomes, let alone great football and championships. My perception may be fucked. I saw a crowd that wasn't upset that the team wasn't playing well but was instead upset that things weren't going well. Y'all are not used to that.

The second half is another story. That you didn't burn that stadium to the ground after those calls/non-calls was kind of admirable.

 

Hot take: Coaches with arguably the best player in the NFL (Peyton, Rodgers, Favre) or a great defense (Seahawks) don't win as often as Bill Belichick does. Other coaches not named Coughlin don't win two Super Bowls shutting down great offenses.

 

For any of the Pats AFC title games or Super Bowls, which would more likely shift the outcome, swapping QBs or swapping coaches?

 

The coach. Belichick would have would have spent 15 years atop the AFC South with a bye in the playoffs every year if he had Peyton in Indy.

 

Long time Raiders fan here. Obviously Gruden's seat is ice cold given his contract and the pending move - I do wonder though where it will be two years from now in Year 5. I don't see this team progressing. I don't see more than a few players who could conceiveably play on a Raiders Super Bowl team (their best players would be retired by then) and I think you can honestly say he's failed if the team isn't at at least a Bills or Ravens level in two years. And I really don't see that happening. Though I imagine Gruden could buy himself a couple of extra years by changing QBs.