Angrafan
Member
I guess it's tough for anyone outside of the home crowd to like a team that goes undefeated, no matter what the circumstances. I remember hating the Chicago Bulls so much during their 6 championship streak, and now in retrospect, whatever, they were a great team.
But keep in mind, the Pats won their first few Superbowls with NO particularly good players. You have to respect the fact that every single player on that team overachieved to make that happen. The Rams had Bruce, Holt, Prohl, and Marshall Faulk. I don't even remember who the Pats were countering with, and I'm an avid fan from Boston. Troy Brown....some other dudes. Brady won 3 Superbowls with no big name players. This year he got some talent and they tore everyone apart. Plus, everyone in the world was on the 'Randy Moss is washed up' bandwagon. I personally love seeing the Pats continue to persevere in the face of people doubting them and underestimating them - even through an UNDEFEATED season. The Jacksonville corner saying he wasn't impressed with Brady's performance was the ridiculous cherry on top of a whole season of similar stupidity.
The Pats are awesome because they started doing things teams should have been doing for YEARS. Going for 4th downs beyond less than a yard is the example that stands out most in my mind. Holmgren humiliated himself with a few decisions to punt against Green Bay, decisions that would be conservative to say the least, and stupid to speak frankly. There have been so many times this season that I would say about another team playing the Pats in a tight game that if they had any balls they would go for a TD rather than a field goal, or something of the like, because you have to let it all hang out against the Pats, but they never did and they all lost.
People who complain about the videotape thing lack perspective. There is not a single person who would, if it were their fav team that did that, be like 'oh man, I'm embarrassed for us, we suck'. For god's sake, its one thing if you find hidden cameras set up on their sideline, this was a guy holding a MONSTER video camera in plain sight. That's so obviously a dumb mistake that the PR guys decided 'whats better here, say we didn't know, have everyone not believe us, look like cheats AND liars... or just take it on the chin?' That was so clearly just a 'thought we were allowed to do this' deal. Its funny to be furious at that and then look at the 50 'official' cameras and the machines printing out still frames every 3 seconds, and the 30 designated radio frequencies.
I would predict the following for the Superbowl:
I think the Giants will come out with a very similar game plan as they did in the last meeting on the idea that the strategy of shutting down Moss with the trade off being freeing up a bit of the short range game was the way to go. They probably are thinking 'if we had executed a few key plays in that game we could have won - lets do the same thing, but execute in those key moments.' Unfortunately for them, I think the Pats figured them out. Eli cannot deal with pressure, he curls up like a pill bug. It'll be a decently good game because 1. Giants Defensive line is absurd 2. Pats have no good answer for Plaxico's speed and height 3. Jacobs is a tank and will make all 3rd and short situations far more likely to be converted for firsts.
That said, Lawrence Maroney will have a solid game and at least match Jacobs in yardage. Welker will be available all day for 10 yard passes. Expect Stallworth to be more of a factor than he has been in many games while the deep coverage leans towards Moss. Expect Moss to catch one huge bomb in a flat out one on one victory. Expect Brady to lead the Pats to victory with a stellar performance.
If Brady did not play, Pats would lose... but he will play and be fine.
Brady will go down as the best QB of all time. It's always easier to look to the past for things like that because you have no chance of being wrong. Half the people who laud Montana, etc, are probably not even that familiar with his career - it's just a well regarded name. Compare Brady's entire career with the same duration of any other quarterback's best years and Brady comes out on top. It'll be many years before people finally realize that, of course, safely in retrospect.
I don't mean to be an ass... but do all your posts need to be this long? I mean, it's a forum! It is supposed to be more dynamic than that... every time! Just compare the lengh of your replies to the others on the topic.. And that goes for every thread! I don't remember your last post that I read entirely...