NFL V

[davos]

The broncos should have won that game. The fumble on the goal line in the 1st half cost badly. Green Bay dominat from that point until halftime but failed to put up enough puts to have the game under control. The broncos then stayed in the game until the the end when they made some bad play calling inside the red zone that forced them to settle for 3. They really should have put it away there and the Packers were really fortunate to go to OT. I'll take the win but it was ugly. Some many ugly wins in a season though makes me nervous. Sooner or latter those ugly wins have to start turning into solid wins or the luck will break and they will become simply ugly losses. Favre played a great game though and the pass for the winning TD was simply a thing of beauty.

Jay Cutler has the potential to be one of the best in the league given a couple of years to develop.

[aeu]

CB,

That's fine but doesn't really apply going for it on 4th down up 35(?)-0 with 10 mins to go.

I can buy the intimidation explanation. I can see that working on other teams. But I'd say Belichick just being a gigantic ass is the more likely explanation. Then again, he IS smarter than all of us, so maybe there is a method to the madness.

Also, when you say a lot of players and coaches said that, who are you talking about exactly. Anybody from the REdskins? Anyone from the Browns? (Surely not Romeo Kernell, right?)

[kastor]

All the bitter wishing in the world won't make that asterisk a reality. No more than squinting and wishing real hard at a roster sheet that includes Griese, Grossman, and Orton will make any one of those guys a championship quarterback. Since you're the guy who wished a serious injury upon Brady, I'll go ahead and wish you an eternity of watching those guys piss themselves on the field while Urlacher seethes and Briggs packs his bags.

Aww, isn't that cute. It's like a whole paragraph's equivalent of "nuh uh, you are!"

You should have just cheated and said "nuh uh, you are!" rather than wasting all those words. That's what a true Patriot would do.

ETA:

Or, would a true Patriot write several more paragraphs when only "nuh uh, you are!" was needed? Things change so quickly these days; it's hard to tell if cheating or poor sportsmanship is the current fashion for Patriots.

[CelticBrennus]

I cant say anything about Romeo Crennel, someone who I think everyone in the Pats organization respects greatly, but as far as the Skins go, there were plenty of Skins players talking about how they were going to shut down the Pats etc...

I did think Belichick's quote about how it is more disrespectful to stop playing then it is to continue to be interesting. Personally, when I played football, back in the day, even if the other team was up by 30, I hated it with a passion when they appeared to be taking it easy on us (and that happened a lot, we just plain sucked, I mean Miami Dophins/Notre Dame level sucked). I hated it when the other team took a knee, or obviously was not trying as hard to score. I always felt like it was a slap in the face, but thats just me.

[BLU-RAY]

Aww, isn't that cute. It's like a whole paragraph's equivalent of "nuh uh, you are!"

You should have just cheated and said "nuh uh, you are!" rather than wasting all those words. That's what a true Patriot would do.

ETA:

Or, would a true Patriot write several more paragraphs when only "nuh uh, you are!" was needed? Things change so quickly these days; it's hard to tell if cheating or poor sportsmanship is the current fashion for Patriots.

Dude... did Belichick or Rockroi kill your dog or something? What the hell? I hate the Pats as much as the next guy, but you seem really, really interested in beating this dead horse. If you get so much pleasure from it, go back and read the NFL thread from weeks 1 and 2 when the story first broke; I think the rest of us have moved on from it to a significant extent. Between hoping for Brady to get hurt and the constant Pats fanbaiting... you're taking this way, way too seriously. And yeah, you do come off as a mite jealous. Chill out.

[Week]

Aww, isn't that cute. It's like a whole paragraph's equivalent of "nuh uh, you are!"

You should have just cheated and said "nuh uh, you are!" rather than wasting all those words. That's what a true Patriot would do.

ETA:

Or, would a true Patriot write several more paragraphs when only "nuh uh, you are!" was needed? Things change so quickly these days; it's hard to tell if cheating or poor sportsmanship is the current fashion for Patriots.

Weren't you the one banned for cheating in mafia? Kind of ironic for the holier than thou attitude, no?

[EHK for Darwin]

I mean Miami Dophins/Notre Dame level sucked

My team is a punchline.... :cry:

[DanteGabriel]

Or, would a true Patriot write several more paragraphs when only "nuh uh, you are!" was needed? Things change so quickly these days; it's hard to tell if cheating or poor sportsmanship is the current fashion for Patriots.

Yeah, how quickly things change. From Super Bowl participant to chump in the blink of an eye. Maybe your team should have filmed some signals, if only to avoid getting swept by the Lions.

[Swordfish]

Sword: This is what Belichick had to say on the subject.

http://www.allthingsbillbelichick.com/

Pffftt..... Funny he never did it before then, yes?

Either way, like I said, I have no moral objection to it per se, i just think it's dumb for the reasons i listed. You guys will change your tune if brady or moss goes down late in a game that has already been decided.

Not shocking that the pat nation will take this as an example of belichick being a stand up guy though.

My team is a punchline.... :cry:

Mine too. but at least it sort of ties back to the pats being evil, since charlie is at the helm.

[14th Dragon]

So, I take it Pats fans like Belichick better then Dungy. Go figure. Does that mean they also have a greater affinity for Tom Brady over Peyton Manning? Wow. Go Patriots fans.

"Me like team, New England. Me think good happy stuff, New England. But no likee horse from Indy. Coach man bad."

Every Pats fan should just cut and paste that line when the need to extol the virtues of New England becomes too great this week.

Close enough. I guess my rabidity as a fan is waning.

I can admit without any pangs of guilt: Tony Dungy is a good coah, Peyton Manning is a great quarterback, Bill Polian is an excellent evaluator of talent.

But, they are Colts, as a Patriots fan I don't like them. I would not take it to hate because I wish them no particular ill, just about 1000 losing sesaons between them. I find all of them annoying for thier own personilty quirks and since I take no pleasure in thier good qualities as NFL guys, or really as human beings, thier "bad" qualities are magnified since they are not balanced out.

Belicheck, Brady and Paoli all have thier own personility quirks or flaws. But becuase all thier accomplishments bring me great joy, the good overwhelms the bad. But I am certainly not going to name them a holy trinity. I want them to keep winning and wish them well after they leave the NFL and will always hope fortune smiles upon them.

Eventually this run will end and the PAtriots will fall back to earth and even possibly be an NFL punching bag again (for a season or two) and we will take it on the chin and get blown out 55-0 again. I am doing my best to vow to myself to not complian when it happens since I am not complaining when we do it now. Karma is a very long slow process. We all have had our teams blow out another and been blown out. It is the nature of the beast.

[Rockroi]

"Me like team, New England. Me think good happy stuff, New England. But no likee horse from Indy. Coach man bad."

Every Pats fan should just cut and paste that line when the need to extol the virtues of New England becomes too great this week.

Uhm… my post was a raging hyperbole parody on how other ssee the Pats as “evil†and thus embracing it… did you not catch that? Sorry. Next time I’ll put a disclaimer on it.

Not to give Dungy a pass, but I think you'd be hard-pressed finding too many people in the NFL who aren't raging homophobes.

Fair point. I would expand that to all four major sports as no pro athlete has ever come out of the closet in any of the 4 major team sports while playing on a team. I think people are more upset at the hypocritical pariose being heaped on Dungy; basically he is this great human being while being, basically, a homophobe.

Does Bill Belichick love homosexuals? Has he ever given his opinion on the matter? But we'll just assume he gets all cuddly on the couch to watch 'Queer Eye' because... ?

He loves the gays… Sodom and Gomorrah!!!! We’re evil, remember?

(In seriousness, this was the point I was making regarding the hypocracy of calling one a wonderful human being even when he deplores gay people while knowing NOTHING of the other).

The biggest thing I don't get about it is why? i mean, even beyond the risk of leaving your starters in too long and risking injury.

Good point, especially in light of defensive players getting frusterated and doing something stupid to Brady. I think this is reason #1 for not running up the scores. Howveer, in fairness, there is no reason #2.

Why do it? Why paint a bigger and bigger target on your chest every week?

THAT’S why! You are basically saying to a league of professionals- “You are not anywhere close to us.†Parity in the league is being knocked squarely on its ass, and we’re doing it. Don’t like it? Stop us! (is what the Pats are saying). It’s a GIGANTIC “fuck you†to a league that basically went ape-shit over nothing. And the players who came OUT OF THE WOODWORK to line up and say “They cheated!!!!â€

Oh, and meanwhile stealing signs and keeping track of opponents play calling- 100% legal. Just not on video tape. However, that is somehow reason to call into question everything? So, you forced our hand- we’re now just going to unleash Hell on you. Don’t like it? Be a professional and stop us.

Which is why “Evil Patriots†is funny, but close to apt. Most villains in comics or sci-fi series are those that were ONCE productive members of a society BUT through some problem, were shunned or exiled. They then return to civilization and ... wreck the place. And are fine with the bull's eye we have.

BTW, the Pats have defeated 4 teams with winning records, and 4 teams with losing records; the Colts? 4 teams with winning records (if you include TB which is at 500), 3 teams with losing records... so, yeah, I don;t see the point of our scehdule being terribly easy. Though, to be fair, the teams the Colts have been playing seem, overall, better than the teams the Pats have been playing, and the Colst are in a better division. That may or may not be relevant.

I can understand that, but I have a question: Was there overwhelming reaction and accusations from players and other coaches?

Off the top of my head, the following players and coaches made public statements about it: Donovan McNabb, Brett Favre, Hines Ward, Shaun Alexander, LaDanian Thomlinson, Tony Dungee, Mike Shanahan. TO did a celebration in the endzone where he winds a camera and points it at the fans. Some players wnet hog-wild and made statemenst to the effect of "That explains why we lost to them." Ward did that (which is hillarious because its impossible to steal Offensive signs- there are none). Again, I did not Google it or anything- this is 100% from memory. If you did a search, you would find LOADS more. That was all within the seven days between the Jets game and the Chargers game. It was OVERWHELMING! And does not include players and coaches who did not go “on the record.â€

Dude... did Belichick or Rockroi kill your dog or something?

WOW! I am in the same sentence as Belichick. And it’s a race to see which one of us killed kastor’s dog! I have truly arrived. And it was me.

[Jaime L]

but as far as the Skins go, there were plenty of Skins players talking about how they were going to shut down the Pats etc...

Name one?

The comments before the game were purposely non-inflammatory to keep from giving Belichick bulletin board material. They were all along the lines of: "The Patriots are good, we think we are too, we'll hope to show it on the field." Turns out they couldn't. But as someone, who reads everything Redskin related, I can't recall anything that could be construed as trash talk.

[kastor]

Yeah, how quickly things change. From Super Bowl participant to chump in the blink of an eye. Maybe your team should have filmed some signals, if only to avoid getting swept by the Lions.

I'd rather be the (true) fan of a losing team than one of millions of bandwagon fans of a team that cheats and then has a sore loser attitude while winning. Oh but I know, you've always been a fan of the Patriots... conveniently since 2001.

Weren't you the one banned for cheating in mafia? Kind of ironic for the holier than thou attitude, no?

Yes, because allegedly cheating in an online game is exactly the same as really cheating in a billion-dollar sport. Hey, if only I could be allowed to play mafia again, and then win handily every game while being a complete asshole about it, I could be the New England Patriots of the ASoIaF board!

[kastor]

Dude... did Belichick or Rockroi kill your dog or something? What the hell? I hate the Pats as much as the next guy, but you seem really, really interested in beating this dead horse. If you get so much pleasure from it, go back and read the NFL thread from weeks 1 and 2 when the story first broke; I think the rest of us have moved on from it to a significant extent. Between hoping for Brady to get hurt and the constant Pats fanbaiting... you're taking this way, way too seriously. And yeah, you do come off as a mite jealous. Chill out.

It's not that I'm jealous... it's that if this thread is going to be about the Patriots 24/7, I'm going to talk about the only thing that interests me regarding the team- their being cheaters.

[add-on]

I'd rather be the (true) fan of a losing team than one of millions of bandwagon fans of a team that cheats and then has a sore loser attitude while winning. Oh but I know, you've always been a fan of the Patriots... conveniently since 2001.

Yes, because allegedly cheating in an online game is exactly the same as really cheating in a billion-dollar sport. Hey, if only I could be allowed to play mafia again, and then win handily every game while being a complete asshole about it, I could be the New England Patriots of the ASoIaF board!

Jesus god, can we please not get back into that 'true fan' debate? That was truly absurd.

And seriously, dude, cut it out. You're worse than Caliban. At least he's fun to read. You, well you're just a bit of an ass.

[DanteGabriel]

I'd rather be the (true) fan of a losing team than one of millions of bandwagon fans of a team that cheats and then has a sore loser attitude while winning. Oh but I know, you've always been a fan of the Patriots... conveniently since 2001.

Yes, because allegedly cheating in an online game is exactly the same as really cheating in a billion-dollar sport. Hey, if only I could be allowed to play mafia again, and then win handily every game while being a complete asshole about it, I could be the New England Patriots of the ASoIaF board!

I was about to mention the posts where I talked about when I became a Pats fan, but then I realized I don't give a suffering fuck what a petty cheater with a broken team believes. Especially one given to such lame self-justifications.

If you don't like all the Pats talk, feel free to bring up other subjects. The way you keep going back to them is pretty pathetic. It's almost as if you'd rather talk about them than be a true fan who talks about your own team. In other words, get off the bandwagon.

[14th Dragon]

The comments before the game were purposely non-inflammatory to keep from giving Belichick bulletin board material. They were all along the lines of: "The Patriots are good, we think we are too, we'll hope to show it on the field." Turns out they couldn't. But as someone, who reads everything Redskin related, I can't recall anything that could be construed as trash talk.

I think the closest thing was Portis's comments on how they are just as good a team as the Patriots and that they have as good if not better recievers. Which was not really trash talk. He is not going to say, "Woe is us, our team sucks." and his point about the recievers has some small validity. I mean no Patriots reciever has thrown a touch down in the superbowl. The reason they have not caught a TD this year is much more likely due to the guy on the other end of the passes. I do not recall any horrendous drops or bad routes taken by the Washington WRs.

[Jaime L]

I think the closest thing was Portis's comments on how they are just as good a team as the Patriots and that they have as good if not better recievers. Which was not really trash talk. He is not going to say, "Woe is us, our team sucks." and his point about the recievers has some small validity. I mean no Patriots reciever has thrown a touch down in the superbowl. The reason they have not caught a TD this year is much more likely due to the guy on the other end of the passes. I do not recall any horrendous drops or bad routes taken by the Washington WRs.

Yeah, that was more a not-so-subtle dig at his own coaching staff. He was trying to make the point that the Patriots didn't have some absurd advantage in overall athleticism over the Redskins. It's what is being done with that talent that matters. And it's clear that Belichick has been infinitely better at it than Gibbs, Saunders and Williams.

As for the point about receivers, think he was trying to instill confidence in Moss and co. who've had more drops than any other team in the league and are suffering through a crisis of confidence. I don't think it's something he truly believes.

[Week]

Yes, because allegedly cheating in an online game is exactly the same as really cheating in a billion-dollar sport. Hey, if only I could be allowed to play mafia again, and then win handily every game while being a complete asshole about it, I could be the New England Patriots of the ASoIaF board!

Clearly they are different levels, but your moral outrage is humorous considering your own questionable actions.

Allegedly? OK Michael Vick.

The difference in your situation of being allowed back is that you'd have to continue cheating to win handily (asshole part I think you could pull off), meanwhile the Patriots are not cheating.

We are growing tired of your trolling and now that you've been caught you may meekly sulk in the corner with your tail between your legs.

This actually reminds me of something I saw on campus yesterday (although it is baseball related). (This is in MA) I saw a kid wearing a shirt that said "Boston Sucks" and a hate that said "GarBage" with the Red Sox 'B'. Really dude? The day after the Sox win the World Series? I asked him if the shirt came with a box of tissues .

[DanteGabriel]

Allegedly? OK Michael Vick.

Now now, give kastor the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding over interpretation of rules.