Shaunodon said:
You can get away with lack of throwing weapons if you have a good o-line and running game. Last year their weapons looked spent but they still had a good o-line and the running game was great in the playoffs. This year their weapons are even worse, the o-line is a shambles and the running game is non-existent. They just had 104 rush yards and 20 of them were from Tom Brady. 104 rush yards against the 30th ranked run defense and 20 were Brady. The just got boo'd off the field in New England, where they won 21 straight games. I think that's pretty gross, but I can't blame them for being frustrated with the embarrassing product being put on the field. |
Well, the 2006 team went to the AFCG with neither, so, yeah.
And our running game was awful in 2018 until the last couple weeks of the season. Even then, we were subaverage in Y/A, and the perception of the team's running success is just mostly due to playoff success. Which is...well, yeah, the team getting it together at the end of the year.
More to the point, though, I've just heard all this shit before. The Patriots have been "done" on so many different occasions that I can't take it seriously. They were done back in 2012 when they were 1-2 and getting lit up by Buffalo before turning it around. They were done in 2014 when they got blown out at Kansas City. They were done in 2017 when their defense got shredded four straight games at the start. And then they were really, really, for realsies done after they lost two games in a row last year to the Dolphins and Steelers (both teams that missed the playoffs). Those 2018 Patriots were really done, for good that time. So many analysts declaring they would go one and done. Hell, one dude on ESPN claimed that they were the worst team in the divisional round. Every single one of those years, they at least went to the AFCG.
Anything that seems bad at this point, has been worse before, and the Pats have made it through. Weapons on offense? 2005/2006 was worse, both teams won playoff games. Running game/offensive line? 2005/2006 was worse, to say nothing of 2015. Getting booed at home at halftime? Happened in 2013. Like for the love of biscuit, this is Bill Belichick and Tom Brady we are talking about. They are a 10-3 team. They have the Bengals, Bills, and Dolphins to get their collective shit together before the playoffs. If anyone can find a way to work through this, it's the guys who have won six Super Bowls together.
I'm not going to sit here and claims that everything's wonderful, or that the Patriots will win the Super Bowl, or something. But anyone who thinks that out of everything the Patriots have overcome in the past, this is somehow the obstacle that's too great to overcome is just being controlled by recency bias.
