TheFunPolice

Oh the Patriots were so persecuted... Try this though experiment out: Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy go to 9 Super Bowls together, winning 6. Are the Colts "hated" the way NE was? Why is that? No, NE wasn't "hated by the haterZ because they were good." They were a bunch of cheating jerks who acted like heels, took every advantage, got every call, and had ridiculous luck fall into their lap time and time again. And when you thought they lost (Tuck Rule, Baltimore playoff game in NE) they went to page 361 of the rule book and found some obscure ticky tack BS wrinkle to pull out.

Totally spontaneous and unplanned too!

Dak wearing a nice suit but no socks is so ironically symbolic of his career

McD trusted his coordinators too much in the key moments and it bit him, IMO. That defense was NOT a McDermott type defense. I just can't imagine it. That special teams play was also NOT a McDermott type call, I also can't see that. I think he trusted is coordinators to make the calls and it was botched. Hopefully in the future he takes charge in those moments, because it's going to be on him either way.

I look at it this way: EVEN IF Baker plays really well, he is the 3rd best QB in that division behind both Burrow and Jackson. If the Steelers bring in a veteran QB he will be trying not to be the 4th best. Baker can be fine, but he's nothing spectacular. That team bases its offense around the running game, which you don't normally do if you have a top QB. Ravens are an exception, because the QB has a unique skillset.

Also, New England skewed peoples' ideas about Super Bowls. Even GREAT players, all-time HOF players, are BLESSED beyond belief to win 1 or 2 rings in a 15 year career. Many win 0 or only get 1 SB shot, if any at all. Because of what NE did, going to 9 Super Bowls with Brady, people look at someone like Peyton Manning who went to 4 Super Bowls, 2 with each team he played for, and won 2, 1 with each team he played for, as some sort of "letdown" who couldn't win the big games. People STILL say that stuff: Peyton was great, but couldn't win the big games... Yeah, he has 2 SB rings and played in 4, BUT.... As we are seeing, it is REALLY hard to even GET to 1 Super Bowl, let alone WIN 1. If by the end of Josh Allen's career he has Big Ben's career: 3 SB appearances and 2 wins, that is an all-time HOF level career.

I just did a little self-check and I'm still as mad as I was when it happened. The BENGALS are in the Super Bowl... THE BENGALS! We're getting to the place with McDermott where it's time to get the team to the next level. I think he will. Some players might need to be let go if they can't deal with doing what it takes to win, and that's fine. We also REALLY missed Tre White in that game. He'll be back and that will be huge.

Donald and company showed vs Tampa what they can do when the OL is not up to speed. They even had some success against SF's OL, which is one of the best. The more I think about it, the more I see a beatdown coming. Donald and Miller are going to eat!

To me, it seems like there was some kind of tension on the team this year. Could be the COVID/vaccine stuff, pressure to win, or just people getting tired of each other. McKenzie's show in the restaurant that was posted on YouTube after the season ended seemed odd to me as well. When made the comment "oh, with that defense, that's how" referring to how the Chiefs went down and scored I took it as a window into some sort of mixup going on. Also when he basically said there was no explanation of what happened and you just do whatever coach (McD) says and that's it it also struck me as odd. There could definitely be something to all this, but maybe McDermott is just demanding and wants everyone dialed in and some people don't like it, thinking they have "earned" a bit more leeway. If I'm McDermott I remind them they haven't won squat or earned a damn thing yet. When Tom Brady acts like nobody believes in him and he needs to earn his spot on the field after 7 Super Bowl wins maybe McD doesn't want to hear or sense that anyone feels like they have arrived just because the team made the playoffs.

that drives me nuts too. There's basically a flag on every punt return these days. It totally ruins the play. 90% of the time if there is a runback of nay significance it's cancelled out by a penalty and now you're at your own 10 yard line instead. Kills 1/3 of the game.

maybe Miles Garrett will write a poem about how playing for the Browns stinks and we can trade for him.

there was NO WAY the refs were going to allow the Jaguars to win that game. It was totally 1-sided officiating that cost the Jaguars points and gave NE points. A 14 point lead on Brady? LOL That's 1 well-timed PI penalty and one great pass from being tied up.

Agreed! surest way to lose a close game is to muff a punt and give the other team free points.

McDermott might have trusted his coordinators a little too much there. You are the HC. Nobody even knows who the Special Teams coordinator is. I'll bet 50% of Bills fans couldn't have named the ST coordinator at the time of the 13 seconds kickoff. All anyone knows is that "McDermott blew it." Some blame Frazier too, but who was Andy Reid's OC/DC/ST for all of his big game blunders? All anyone remembers is Andy Reid lost. And yes I know I made a big thread about Reid recently. Dude had it all set up for him and blew it. I thought he was past that.

It would cost a LOT more than that. More like 2-3 1st round picks plus maybe a 2nd or 3rd. No thanks. I'd rather trade a 1st for a proven DE that a team wants to move for cap reasons.

The Patriots created a mystique, a sort of psychological warfare that had teams and players looking over their shoulders expecting the boogeyman at every turn. Walking into Gillette in a playoff game was like being left alone in a haunted asylum. Your mind plays tricks on you, and you build them up into something much more than they are. That was their greatest edge. You just KNEW something was up, even if you couldn't put your finger on it. They found a way to pressure teams psychologically and in a game of inches that little edge can be huge. When you're expecting disaster to strike it has a way of happening for you.

Lamar is going to be fun to watch. I think he's at a bit of a crossroads career-wise. Injuries and defenses caught up with him a bit this season. How will he respond in 22? He starting to suffer some injuries due to his playing style, and he isn't the biggest guy out there. He also has some mysterious "illness" that kept him out of games as well, so I hope he is OK just on a human level. He seems like a great person and a guy you root for (except when he plays the Bills, of course!) Now, the Ravens suffered an insane number of injuries in their run game, which really hurt their offense and set them back, so the fact that they were even in the playoff conversation late in the season was amazing. It'll be fun to see them back to full strength in that division. Poor Browns fans... You have AT BEST the 3rd best QB in your division, let alone the AFC. That's assuming Rodgers doesn't go to Pittsburgh.

As much as I hated New England at the time, it just seemed like a silly thing to freak out over. So the balls are a little deflated... Just seemed weak, although I did enjoy their misery. Of course, like always, Brady and Co. got over on everyone by beating Seattle in the Super Bowl that year so there is that.

NO For one, he can't run anymore and can only play like 2-3 games a season. Two, what he did to Tre White is unforgiveable. Screw Gronk. Go play for the Bengals, who don't even have a real practice facility because their owner is so cheap.

What's amazing is that Mularkey got 2 other head coaching jobs after he quit in Buffalo. Actually, what's more amazing is that the Bills had 2 head coaches QUIT in a roughly 10 year span. We've come SO FAR from that mess.

Oh well, just give it to them.

Obviously

I was re-watching old Super Bowls on YouTube recently (NFL uploaded a bunch to their channel in very good quality) Anyway, I was watching Steelers/Cardinals SB (amazing game). Near the end of the game when it looked like the vaunted Steelers defense just lost the game by giving up a huge TD pass (that was mostly RAC) to Larry Fitzgerald, Madden said this (it might not be 100% word for word, but here's the gist): So many things in football are about when you do them. You can have all the stats you want but did you do it when you had to do it? When I heard that my first thought was our #1 defense that no-showed at the end of the game.

So when do the Congressional hearings start, and has anyone checked on Florio to see if he is OK? He was SO EXCITED that this might bring the NFL to its knees a week ago. He must be despondent right now.

I guess it's more popular than I realized, so that's good for MLB fans! In WNY we get all up in arms when people mock the NHL, so I get it. Come to think of it, MAN do I miss hockey. It's like the Sabres disappeared 10 years ago and moved to the moon.