The 2007-08 National Football League Thread

[davepeck]

19-0:

I DON\'T FUCKING THINK SO!!!







cannot wait to read the next edition of the super blog. wolf, hope you had excellent seats to witness your team LOSE in one of the greatest games ever played. congrats on all the cute stats and records from the regular season - those made for some really fun message board write-ups on a weekly basis. but at the end of the day (err, season), it means nothing. confidence can only take you so far. it took you to arizona, but couldn\'t take your team to a championship. eli manning is your super bowl mvp, and the new york football giants are super bowl champions.

wow. just wow.

[leith]

If the Giant receivers could have caught the ball better earlier in the game it would have been a rout by the Giants. SER!

[Klout]

I agree Leith, coulda been a blow out. Our defense played AMAZING ALL GAME. THe offense scuffled but came around in the very end when it counted.

So wolfy was at the game dave?

[davepeck]

I agree Leith, coulda been a blow out. Our defense played AMAZING ALL GAME. THe offense scuffled but came around in the very end when it counted.

So wolfy was at the game dave?

yep. bought everything a few months ago..

and yes, absolutely the best game i\'ve ever seen. i\'m flying out to cali in the morning and have no idea how i\'m supposed to sleep...

[Klout]

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAHAH. WIsh I coulda seen the look on his face! Wonder if he will even show his face in this thread! hahahahhahah. that much sweeter.

and no question hands down....

from what I have seen in this life.....

best superbowl

best football game

best tv sports moment

best win

best defensive preformance

best game winning 4th quarter drive


EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[leith]

18-1 and still not the best team ever. haha
1985 Bears 18-1 Super Bowl Champs
1984 Niners 18-1 Super Bowl Champs
2007 pats 18-1 Super Bowl LOSERS!!!!!!!!!

[Klout]

steve spagnoula is a fuckin genius as far I am concerned. THe players gave it 150% but spags was brilliant.

[Rujah]

as much as i hate the giants, they played a great game and deserve to win.

to quote antonio pierce on the New York Giants new slogan "18-1: New Giants Super Bowl Champs."

Amazing game by Eli. Thank you from younger brothers everywhere! You are the man and you have arrived.

as for his dad, archie, who never won a Super Bowl, this must feel real special.

is it me, or did maybe wolf\'s trash talk all season sort of jinx the Pats? I\' happy Eli won. Now maybe Giants fans will leave him alone.

guess the Pats weren\'t as great as they thought they were, still it\'s a good season. And when i say good season, i mean not quite great, but good.

Again congrats goes out to the New York Football Giants.
 
Can\'t wait to go look back and see some of the more recent posts in this thread from Wolfman.

Did I mention how good it feels to know Tiki won\'t be a Superbowl Champ. I sure am glad he retired before the season. What a fucking moron. If I was him, I\'d never talk shit about the Giants again.

[Klout]

who was it that said the Giants got a false sense of confidence playing the patriots last time? anyone know?

a season like this is never going to happen again

welll your probably right about that! hahahahhahha

[davepeck]

just a little consolidation in case anyone wants to revisit...

19-0: 18 to go.  

Think \'86 Celtics, \'96 Bulls, \'80s 49ers, \'92 Dream Team...teams that were on completely different planes of existence than anyone available to play against them.  That\'s the 2007 Patriots.  None of us are going to forget this team for the rest of our lives, Patriot fan or not.  Be glad you were here to witness it.

19-0: 17 to go[/B]

Wow.  Take that, NFL world.

The Chargers were undisputedly the 2nd or 3rd best team in the league coming into this game.  And they just got absolutley destroyed.  Completely, totally, and utterly used.  If you were watching this as a Pats fan, a warm glow filled your soul.  If you were watching this as any other fan, you had to be simultaneously humbled, mezmorized, and terrified of what the 2007 New England Patriots are capable of.  I mean look at leith\'s humble post.  The words leith and humble have never been in the same sentence until now.  The Pats don\'t just beat you, they actually go further and make you resign yourself and surrender to their greatness, whether you\'re an opposing player or opposing fan.  Like I said last week folks, you are watching history unfold before your eyes.  You don\'t have to like them, but at least take a moment to look and admire their majesty while they\'re here.  You\'re not going to see anything like this again.    

I vowed last week not to talk trash about other teams because I don\'t have to.  I am going to stick to that, even with the Chargers talking mad smack again before this game, most notably LDT who is averaging 1.9 yards per carry this year.  No, I am going to do the complete opposite of trashing other teams.  I am going to THANK another team from the bottom of my heart, and that team is the New York Jets.  

Thank you, Eric Mangini and the Jets, for pissing off the 2007 Patriots.  As heavy favorites to win the championship from day 1, the only thing that could possibly stop the Patriots would be complacency.  They had no reason to get fired up.  No dates to circle.  No scores to settle.  Maybe they would enter a lull after a few wins and start to slip.  But now, as if this beast of a team weren\'t already beastlier than everyone else, the beast is PISSED.  Hear this now and hear this clearly: Bill Belichick is going to use this season to put on the greatest display of coaching in the history of professional sport.  He is going to have this team light years ahead of every opponent, every week, every second of every game.  He is already in the coaching pantheon, but this season he is going to prove, beyond any possible argument, that he is the greatest coach to ever patrol a gridiron sideline.  Period.  If I\'m another coach in the NFL right now, I\'m calling Eric Mangini and saying, "Don\'t even think about pulling this ^$%& after our game, and by the way thanks a lot for pissing off Bill, that\'s the last thing we all needed."  

Tonight\'s game was a 60-minute statement, but you know what moment really sent shivers down my spine?  When the Patriots had the ball, 4th and goal at the Charger 2, up 17 late in the 4th quarter, and instead of kicking the field goal they went for it and scored.  Everyone in the building knew they didn\'t need the 4 extra points.  But this team is hellbent on complete destruction of everything in their path.  This is like when Uma Thurman woke up in Kill Bill.  This is going to be fun, historic, and frightening all at the same time.  This team has absolutely no ceiling whatsoever.  Like it or not, be glad you were here to see it.

19-0: 16 to go[/B]

19-0 isn\'t all that crazy when you remember that the Patriots have already won 22 in a row in this era.  OK so it was over 2 seasons but so what.  That\'s 22 NFL wins in a row yet the team they have right now is the best team they\'ve had yet.  What\'s another 19?

19-0: 15 to go

Remember that time earlier in the week, when you were working on convincing yourself that the Bengals might be able to outsling the Pats?  You actually thought this might happen.  Now it\'s the morning after and you\'re looking at the sobering reality that the Patriots just beat a good team, on the road, by three touchdowns.  NEXT!

19-0: 14 to go[/B]

You know what\'s funny?  The Boston College Eagles football team is about to enter the Top 5 for the first time in their history, and not a single person in this town cares.  I mean, anywhere else in the country, having a top-5 college football team is the toast of the town..and if it\'s a college town and not a city such as the case is with most of the big programs, it\'s the only story in town.  I bet that 99.4 percent of everyone in Gainseville can name at least 3 Gators, same goes for Lincoln, NE...Blacksburg, VA...wherever there\'s a big program.  Boston?  Maybe 1 in 8 people can name an Eagle, and if you take out Matt Ryan, make that 1 out of 15.  I mean I went to a BC game last week and I can still only name Matt Ryan and the RB Andre Callendar.  It\'s unreal.  BC might run the table and play for the championship, and nobody here would have any idea.

19-0: 13 to go[/B]

OK, so the Pats just tooled on a 5-0 team that was supposed to give them a game.  And yes, I give the Cowboys credit for being the first team to take a 2nd half lead on the Pats this year.  But you know what that cute little 3-point Cowboy lead did?  It pissed the Pats off.  And do you know what happens when the Pats get pissed off?  They hang 17 unanswered points on your ass before you can get up and back from a bathroom/beer run.  They were in 3rd gear while the Cowboys were redlining in 5th just to get a 3-point lead.  The Pats just brushed that little distraction of a deficit off their shoulder like a flea, stepped it up 3 gears, and left the Cowboys way, way, way back in their dust.  Unreal.  

I know a lot of you have been downplaying my countdown, not giving it its due serious consideration.  And that\'s fine, that\'s your roll as a non-Pats fan.  But now you really have to start sweating.    You better start convincing yourself that the Colts are fan-frikin-tastic right now, because if they don\'t pull it off.........who the hell is?  And here\'s a scary little newsflash for you: The Colts are not better than the Patriots.  Not this year, boy.  Look out.

19-0: 12 to go[/B]

I was gonna just post "Yawn." and be done with it, but that wouldn\'t do justice to the utter destruction we witnessed in the first half.  5 TD passes and 42 total points in the first half for the Pats...are you kidding me?  Did you see Moss\' second TD?  He caught it in his elbow, between his forearm and his bicep, no hand.  That was insane.  What a show.

19-0: 11 to go[/B]

52-7, where does it stop?  Well, nobody wants to read about this game, it\'s all about this week\'s greatest regular season game ever between the 8-0 Pats and the 7-0 Colts so here we go...

I am very excited. Good luck to all you Pats fans. This will be very fun to watch. To the winner goes homefield in the AFC and bragging rights until the AFC Championship game.

Good luck to you too and great to meet you at the Freakout.  For this week\'s prediction, I find myself torn in a mindgame of Good Wolf, Naughty Wolf.

Good Wolf says: Give the Colts their proper respect.  They beat you last year, they\'re the defending champs, they\'re undefeated and playing at home.  What other degrees of worthiness could you possibly ask from an opponent?  Pick the Pats by no more than four.  Respect the Colts...

Naughty Wolf says: Dude, run up your pick the same way the Pats run up the score.  Show no mercy, for the Pats will show none either.  In this game 9 months ago, same place, the Colts won by the thinnest of margins.  In that game the Patriots had no receivers, three out of four starters in the secondary out, and the whole team mysteriously got food poisoning and was puking on the sidelines in between drives.  This time the Patriots are showing up with Adalius Thomas, Rodney Harrison, Asante Samuel, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, their own chef, and are hellbent on utter vengeance and destruction.  The Colts are more or less the same team.  That\'s at least a 17-point swing from the last game.  The Pats are going to unleash the most unholy fury the NFL has ever seen.  They are going to make their previous games look like they weren\'t even trying.  Take them by three touchdowns and stick it in everyone\'s eye!

I am going to go with a happy medium between Good Wolf and Naughty Wolf.  Patriots 35-24.  And whatever happens, we\'ll see you again in 11 weeks for the AFC Championship!

19-0: 10 to go[/B]

QUOTE=Wolfman after Week One - Think \'86 Celtics, \'96 Bulls, \'80s 49ers, \'92 Dream Team...teams that were on completely different planes of existence than anyone available to play against them. That\'s the 2007 Patriots. None of us are going to forget this team for the rest of our lives, Patriot fan or not. Be glad you were here to witness it.

...I understand it seemed cocky at the time, but now when you read that, even you, the Pats hater, are cowering in fear at the inevitable reality of that statement.  Who the hell stops them now?  Great game all around, well except for the refs.  Colts and Pats both brought the heat.  Just awesome.    

Hilarious now that the Patriots were called for the most penalty yards in the 60+ year history of the franchise.  Riiiiiiiiiiight. :rolleyes: As if this year\'s team, the mighty 2007 Patriots under Bill Belichick, would ever play the most penalized game in Patriot history in the biggest game of the year.  If you\'re a ref and you\'re standing there and you and your crew have just penalized this team the most in the history of their franchise, you know you are totally blowing it by definition.

I need say nothing else.  The AFC playoffs go through New England, and we\'ll probably see this game again.  Take away the horrible officiating and put the game in New England, Patriots win by 13 and cruise to Phoenix 18-0.  

Love them, hate them, fear them, do what you will.  You are witnessing football history being written before your eyes.  Don\'t miss it.

19-0: 9 to go[/B]

Who watched tonight\'s game against Buffalo?  It was a thing of pure beauty.  Moss doesn\'t even have to run patterns, he just trots into the end zone, turns around, and there\'s the ball.  Early in the fourth quarter the Patriots had 7 offensive posessions and 8 touchdowns.  They had scored a TD every time they had the ball through 3 quarters and they had a defensive TD.  Astonishing.  The Bills came in over .500 and winners of 4 in a row, this is not a bad team.

The Patriots really are a beautiful team to watch.  It\'s breathtaking how effortless they make it look.  This is football being played at the highest level it ever has in the 110 year history of this great, great sport.  The Patriots take this violent, bone-jarring game and make it elegant, even on defense.  You have to watch this while you have the chance.  Imagine if you could tune in once a week and watch Picasso paint, or Michaelangelo sculpt, or watch John Coltrane play the saxophone, or Martin Luther King speak.  You\'d have to watch that.  Or for a competitive analogy, imagine if you could tune in once a week and watch Picasso paint against your high school art teacher, or watch Bobby Flay cook against your 7th grade home ec teacher, or watch Gary Kasparov play chess against your valedictorian.  

No matter what the discipline, there\'s something moving to the human soul watching the best there has ever been do their work.  This is especially true when you are gifted with the rare opportunity of knowing that what you are watching, right now, is the best there has ever been.  In the particular discipline of football, this opportunity lies before us today in the form of the 2007 New England Patriots.  The sports fan had this opportunity 15 years ago with the 1992 USA Dream Team.  This is the next chance.  Enjoy.

*   *   *
In other news, I will be attending the Pats v. Eagles game next week, as well as the Steelers and Jets games in December, and will report back with full notes for everyone.  This is only going to get hotter...

19-0: 8 to go[/B]

They say a lot of things about great teams.  Amongst the truest is this one: Even on their worst night, they find a way to win.

If you can find ways to win while playing your worst game, then when do you lose?  

This game is a greater testament to the Patriots\' greatness than their usual 30-point wins.  They made clutch plays when they needed them most.  Mid 4th quarter down 4 they had to go stop-score-stop to win, nothing else would suffice, and they did it.  They\'ve only had to prove themselves in the clutch 3 times this year, and they have delivered every time.  Sure, you have to be pretty badass to win by 4-6 touchdowns every week and threaten the NFL\'s alltime points differential and offensive scoring records.  But that\'s not going to last forever.  Not in December, when the weather gets cold, your good opponents have more on the line, and your weak opponents circle you as their personal Super Bowl.  

Now we get to see the other side of the Patriots\' greatness.  This is the clutch side, the Brady side, the Belichick defense side, the side that built the Patriots legacy over the last 6 years.  It\'s a different type of greatness than blowing teams off the field, and in the end, it\'s a more important type.  They\'ve been winning so easily this year that the casual Pats observer can easily forget that games like last night are really the norm that have built the legacy of the 21st century Patriots.

19-0: 7 to go[/B]

Wow.  OMG.  Holy &$^%.  That was the most sensational, confrontational, thrilling, chilling, heart-stopping gut-wrenching football game I\'ve seen since...since...since last season\'s AFC Championship!!!  Hehe.  

For real, all due props to the Ravens, they played their hearts out.  Monday night home game + team\'s personal Super Bowl to knock off the Pats + 3 former Sean Taylor teammates at Miami=uber-jacked Ravens.  They were awesome.  

I have a question for the readers of this thread, answer honestly: This week, were you more excited to watch your team win or to watch the Patriots lose?  The highs and lows you experienced tonight as the Patriots were pushed to the absolute brink...were these peaks and valleys greater than what you felt watching your team yesterday?  Tell me if I\'m wrong, but I think for many people it has gotten to that point.

There was one very lucky play tonight, the rest of it was just superior gameplay when it mattered.  Remember, luck has to be rooted in something chaotic, such as how a football bounces or when the wind blows.  The lucky play was the Brady pass on the last drive that got deflected about 20 feet in the air and perfectly bisected 4 Raven defenders such that none could intercept it.  That\'s as lucky as it gets.  When the Baltimore sideline calls timeout right before their defense makes the game-winning stuff on 4th and one, that\'s not luck, it\'s poor gameplay.  So the Patriots were lucky to win based on that one play, but hey, you\'ve got to win some of those games too if you\'re going to be perfect.  You\'re just not going to beat everyone by 30 every week.  The Pats played the far superior 4th quarter, which is of course what matters most.  They scored 10 unanswered points in the 4th while posting 3 consecutive 3-and-outs when Baltimore just needed one more score or even just a couple of first downs to seal it.  The Ravens did an amazing job for 3 quarters, but it wasn\'t enough to overcome the Patriots doing a great job for 1 quarter, because of course the Patriots played their best in the 4th quarter.          

And how about that last Pats kickoff from the Baltimore 35!.  Never seen anything like that!

The Patriots look exhausted.  They have to be.  They\'ve played three straight night games, the last two as draining and exhausting as can be.  And now, with two less days of rest and prep, they take on a very tough Pittsburgh team.  This game coming up is the toughest game the Patriots will play the rest of this season, regular or postseason.  Obviously I\'m not going to predict a Pats loss, but lets just say that it wouldn\'t shock me this week.  Haters unite, this is it.  After this it\'s Jets, Dolphins, and a final game against a Giants team with nothing on the line who will be taking the week off to rest for the playoffs.  The Patriots are going 16-0 if they can get through this Pittsburgh game, there is no doubt about it.

19-0: 6 to go[/B]

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

No brilliant last-minute TD drives.  No controversial calls.  No doubt about it.  Just another day-at-the-office 3-touchdown win and second-half shutout over a 9-3 team with the top-rated defense in the league.

Incredible seats today, just 20 rows up at the goal line where the Patriots scored both TDs in the 3rd quarter including the alltime classic Brady>Moss>Brady>Gaffney.  Then the Steelers drive to make it first and goal...oh, end of the 3rd quarter, bring that action right back over here to our side!...Stuffed, stuffed, stuffed, and stuffed, right in front of us, good night!  Best moment of the night (besides the 3-pass TD) was Moss\' first catch, seen above, which also happened right in front of us.  Moss was totally covered but reached right over his defender and grabbed the ball, sending the entire section into conniptions.  Even the Steelers fans started laughing.  Look at that picture, he is behind his defender!  To cap the night off, being behind Pittsburgh\'s bench, we unleashed a little "guarantee" chant.  I guarantee that if the Steelers show up here again, the results will be the same!      

This is going to make the Playoffs much more difficult for them to run, imo.

Sorry, that\'s not how it works.  You\'re thinking like yourself, not like a Patriot.  What you are really saying is, "If I were a Patriot, the pressure of entering the postseason 16-0 would weigh heavily on me."  But you have to understand these guys and how they think.  They are invulnerable to mental handicap.  They know no past.  They know no future other than the very next game.  They never believe they have accomplished anything until the confetti flies.  They are programmed by Belichick and they all think and act this way all the time.  If you listen to their radio shows and mid-week media sessions, they all say these things every time.  This is nothing new.  There are a lot of things that will affect what happens in the playoffs, but their season record isn\'t one of them.  When you take the field against the Patriots, you have the mental disadvantage by default.  

(I know this will be a lost analogy on most people, but if you watched Star Trek The Next Generation, you remember The Borg.  The Borg were a collective being that all shared the same thoughts that were programmed into them by one mastermind.  They were absurdly efficient and an impossible enemy.  Check out this quote from their Wiki page: "The Borg have become a symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against whom \'resistance is futile\'...They operate towards one single minded purpose: the pursuit of perfection...This is achieved through forced assimilation..."  The Patriots are The Borg.)          

And finally, what the hell are the Colts doing running up the score on Baltimore right now?  They go up 30-0 in the second quarter and Peyton Manning is still throwing the ball in the second half?  They should be missing tackles on purpose and punting on first down!  What a classless organization!  

19-0: 5 to go[/B]

All week I had been a little bummed that the impending storm would inevitably derail the Patriots\' vengeance-fueled uberthrashing of the worthless Jets.  But then in the lot this morning someone said, quite simply and elegantly, "I don\'t care about the score, just give me win #14."  That was all I needed to hear.  I was pumped for victory regardless of whether due humiliation would be visited upon the R-A-T-S.

I don\'t know how anybody could throw or catch a football in this weather.  It was windy and 30-35 degrees all day.  I am STILL cold.  Made it through the whole game though.  There were periods of snow, freezing rain, rain, and mist.  When I took my glove off my hand went numb in about 30 seconds.  First the ice and rain hit it, then the wind blew over it.  Hand = dunzo.  To simluate this at home, take a bucket of ice water and a large fan into a walk-in freezer.  Dip your hand in the ice water for 30 seconds.  Then have the fan blow over your hand.  Now try to throw a football.  

That\'s the story of the game.  The weather had a much bigger impact on the outcome than anyone\'s vendetta.  Though frigid and drenched, I was just honored to be there, watching the greatest team of all time play their bone-crunching concerto before my eyes.  As Eugene Wilson crossed into the end zone with the Patriots\' first touchdown, the snow fountains rose majestically from the stands like the fountains of the Bellagio.  And like the cast at the end of Ocean\'s Eleven, I simply looked up and smiled as the water triumphantly skirted my face, reminding me how lucky I am to be able to witness such greatness in my lifetime.

19-0: 4 to go[/B]

Did the Pats look good today?  No.  
Does it matter?  No.

The greatest offense ever set the record for most touchdowns in a season and the greatest team of all time became the first ever to go 15-0 in a 16 game season.  Next week they go for the incredible 16-0 season.  Next week is actually much more exciting than this week, so let\'s talk about next week:

The Great Conflict Of 2007 takes place next Saturday night.  The situation: The Patriots play the Giants at 8, while The Breakfast plays Toad\'s at 10.  To make the matter even more complicated, the game is inexcusably being broadcast on the derelict NFL Network, which is unlikely to be available at Toad\'s.  Where do I go?  How can I not watch the Patriots in this historic moment?  How can I not watch The Breakfast take the stage in their penultimate show of the Spears era?  

DavePeck and the rest of Giants/Breakfast nation ducked the conflict with today\'s Giants victory.  They clinch a playoff spot and don\'t need the game anymore.  Chrispitch, NFL Historian, is still heavily conflicted, assuming he\'s alive after the Browns horrifying loss to the Bengals.    

I think I might get an easy out here.  I get the first two hours of the game by default since The Breakfast won\'t be playing yet.  By that point it\'s midway 3rd quarter and with the Giants not trying I think we\'ll see the Pats up 3-4 touchdowns and at that point I will take off for the show and not miss a note.  The Giants win today really helps, otherwise the game might be closer. I need to draw the line somewhere and it will ultimately be a gut decision in the moment, but to leave the game by 10pm I most likely need a 3 TD lead.  I\'d say there\'s only a 20% chance that I\'d need to watch the whole game.  Although I do want to see the postgame reactions, they\'re not going to be that great.  The Pats are not going to celebrate 16-0.  The Pats know better than anyone that the goal is 19-0.  So I can pass on postgame for The Breakfast.  Worst case scenario I miss first set, but like I said, I think that\'s highly unlikely.  Can\'t wait!  Let\'s do it!

19-0: 3 to go[/B]

The Great Conflict of 2007 turned out to be The Greatest Moment of 2007.  What a night.  Peace and greatness surrounding me.  I\'ve certainly never been bombarded with such incredible action on all sides of me at once.  Check this out:

The Brady-to-Moss bomb to break all the records and take the lead in the 4th quarter came during Buquebus.  BUQUEBUS!  Toad\'s had the game on right there in the room.  I didn\'t even have to go to the back bar and listen through the wall.  I was dancing in the crowd to Buquebus and watching the Pats go undefeated at the same time.  I was hands-on-my-head ecstatic...almost overcome with joy.  Then while the Pats are holding the lead and sealing the game, the Breakfast played Reba (which they nailed).  In fact, Mike Vrabel made the game-ending onside kick catch at the exact moment Reba ended.  So let me get this straight...

The Breakfast is playing Phish and the Patriots are going undefeated at the exact same time.

You have to be kidding me.  It was my George Costanza perfect moment.  All I needed at that point was a blowjob and a Sally\'s apizza.    

So that\'s the personal side of the night.  Where does the greater football world stand now?  It pretty much boils down to this: we are all heavily invested in this team.  If these guys win the Super Bowl they will indisputably be the greatest team to ever play football, and arguably the greatest team in the history of American sport.  Every conversation will start and end with them, every time.  You can toss around the usual mentions of the \'85 Bears and 70\'s Steelers and whoever and that\'s cute, but nobody will hear it as anything more than another way of saying "Look, I just personally don\'t like the Patriots."  It will be this way for the rest of your life.  If you don\'t like the Patriots, you really, really, really need them to lose.  If you\'re neutral on them, just be glad you were alive in this era to see this.  And if you\'re a Pats fan, you really, really, really need them to finish.  

This is going to be fun for all of us.  Bring on anybody.  See you in two weeks.

19-0: 2 to go[/B]

I love the critics who are saying that the Patriots didn\'t look good in this game, and that they look beatable next week.  They\'re right.  I love them because they\'re inadvertently heaping onto the pile of validation that this is the greatest team ever.  When you win playoff games against very tough opponents by double digits...and that makes you look weak...well, that\'s never happened before.  The bar has never been so high for any team.  When the 80\'s 49ers or the 90\'s cowboys won a tough playoff game by 11 points, it would be "Wow, what a team, another double-digit playoff win over a tough foe."  With the 2007 Patriots it\'s "Hmmm, they\'re not playing as well as they could...perhaps they may actually lose a game."  This is unprecedented.  

The claim of greatest team ever is theirs for the taking.  They do, of course, still have to take it.  This game against the Chargers will be the toughest yet for sure.  Tomlinson and Rivers are both definitely playing, no question.  Even if LT isn\'t 100%, Turner and Sproles are very, very tough.  To be fair, I don\'t think they\'d have any chance if Billy Volek played the whole game, but I also don\'t think he\'s going to play at all so it doesn\'t matter.  You know who else is scary?  Their punter Mike Scifres.  OMG who saw that last punt...66 yards IN THE AIR.  If the Colts had let it bounce, that ball could have easily rolled another 14 yards for an eighty yarder.  Do you understand what that means?  The Patriots could stuff the Chargers on the Charger\'s own 20 (great field position, right?) and then this guy could punt and pin the Pats at their own 1.  That\'s just wrong.  And he\'s consistent too.  Yes, kicking outdoors is obviously tougher, but it also gives you the potential for a tail wind.  The Chargers are not the same team that the Pats smoked in September.  This will be war.  

A fun sublot for everyone will be to see who can produce more roid-rage moments: Shawn Merriman or Rodney Harrison.  

On the other side, congratulations to all the Giants fans on the board.  No matter what happens, you now have the upper hand on division rival Cowboy fans forever, because the one time they met in the playoffs, you got them.  That in and of itself is huge.  What a day of football yesterday.  Two absolutely riveting games.  

One final thought: last year the AFC Championship was obviously the real Super Bowl.  The Pats and Colts were so far and away superior to the NFC finalists Bears and Saints that it was pretty sad.  This year, the AFC team will be at least a touchdown favorite, but the gap has shrunk significantly.  Any of these four teams could win the Super Bowl.  Let\'s do it.

19-0: 1 to go[/B]

Think \'86 Celtics, \'96 Bulls, \'80s 49ers, \'92 Dream Team...teams that were on completely different planes of existence than anyone available to play against them. That\'s the 2007 Patriots. None of us are going to forget this team for the rest of our lives, Patriot fan or not. Be glad you were here to witness it.

You didn\'t believe it.  You wrote it off to meaningless internet bravado.  But I believed it with all my heart when I wrote that back in week one.  I believe it with the same passion and fervor that we all believe that The Breakfast is such a great band.  I wasn\'t joking at all.  Do you want to know just how much I believed that statement when I wrote it?  I\'ll tell you in a minute....

First, today\'s game.  Electric energy in the building.  The assembled fans were incredibly cocky.  The victory party started in the pregame tailgate, no lie.  Everyone just talked and acted like the game was already over.  Everyone took the win for granted, even some of the older grizzled Boston sports fans I go to these games with who never think or act that way.  This actually annoyed me because I am still pretty business-like about these games and I expected a very close game today.  I refused to talk as if the game were already won.  But hey, what can you really expect from people when your football team is 17-0?  Any fanbase would be cocky with a record like that.  

As I mentioned way back in week 2 against the Chargers, I am not talking any trash about any other teams this year because I don\'t have to.  I have stuck to that all year and shall continue.  I salute the Chargers for a great effort.  They\'re just not on the same level as the Pats this year, no shame there.  But they\'re going to be around for a long while to come here.  They\'re on the way up.  I can see the Chargers being similar to the Colts \'01-\'03 where the Colts were on the way up but were just owned by the Pats.  Eventually they broke through one time.  I could see the Chargers having the same thing happen in a couple of years.  Cromardie is unreal, he was in on every play.  This is the Pats\' year plain and simple, but we haven\'t heard the last of Pats-Chargers in this era.      

Congrats to all the Giants fans!  I was pulling for them since I know about 10 Giants fans and 0 Packers fans.  All year it was take your pick Dallas/Green Bay, hard to believe Eli took down both of them on the road.  Good luck in the Super Bowl guys.  You\'re gonna need it  At least as a Giants fan you\'ll have a more carefree experience with the whole ordeal of the next two weeks.  Talk about a team riding the gravy train.  Meanwhile, I\'m sitting here and absolutely have to win this game and bear the pressure that comes with that.  Obviously I\'d rather be in my shoes but I remember doing the gravy train thing in \'01 against the Rams and let me tell you, it\'s a lot of fun, so enjoy.

So now comes my little secret I\'ve been keeping from the board since week 5.  I didn\'t post this because I didn\'t want to jinx it, although I did tell DavePeck and ChrisPitch right when it happened and I also let it slip to booztraveler at New Year\'s.  After the Patriots beat the Cowboys in week 5, I did the deed and booked the Super Bowl trip.  Flight to Phoenix, 4 nights hotel, car, and Super Bowl ticket.  Saved thousands by booking early as opposed to waiting until now.  I just completely knew this was the greatest team ever and banked everything on them, and now it is paying off BIGTIME!!!  I will be in attendance at Super Bowl XLII as the Patriots play for the most significant championship in football history.  I plan on doing a Super Blog so everyone here can get a feel for the scene in Phoenix!  Stay tuned!

Finally, I just want to say thanks to everyone who reads and writes in this thread, be you Pats lover, Pats hater, neutral Pats rubber-necker, and even the Giants fans who stand before us.  It\'s been an amazing year and you have all helped make the experience better and helped produce some of my best writing.  I\'m glad everyone has been here for the ride.  

XLII: That\'s What We Do!  Let\'s do this!  

[Rujah]

Dave - You are the Man.

Klout - I\'m not sure, but I think it was Howie Long that said it.

[Klout]

 I just completely knew this was the greatest team ever and banked everything on them, and now it is paying off BIGTIME!!!

[Gordo]

Holy Shit!

That was the best super-bowl game I\'ve ever watched. All I hoped for was a good game and fuckin-a\' we got it. With everything at stake! Damn.

Ya\' know, I really couldn\'t stand the Giants all year. Now that this has happened, I\'m very happy to be watching a wild-card celebration than a staunch reception of perfection. Congratulations G-Men and all victorious fans involved.

I look forward to Wolfman\'s solid (oh, it will be good...) attempt at disguising personal anguish. I can already sniff out the ol\' tail-between-the-legs masked by well-written hazy bitterness.

Sorry brosef, but this season, as a TEAM, is VOID.

[leith]

Well, no reason to waste anymore time with this.

Patriots 38, Giants 17

MVP: Moss

Well ya got the Giants score right.

Holy Shit!

That was the best super-bowl game I\'ve ever watched. All I hoped for was a good game and fuckin-a\' we got it. With everything at stake! Damn.

Ya\' know, I really couldn\'t stand the Giants all year. Now that this has happened, I\'m very happy to be watching a wild-card celebration than a staunch reception of perfection. Congratulations G-Men and all victorious fans involved.

I look forward to Wolfman\'s solid (oh, it will be good...) attempt at disguising personal anguish. I can already sniff out the ol\' tail-between-the-legs masked by well-written hazy bitterness.

Sorry brosef, but this season, as a TEAM, is VOID.

anyway have fun out in Az. Seth. I truly hope the trip is worth it for the trip alone and you are coming home with at least that because the dream was crushed by Eli"The little QB that could" Manning.

I am sure he will give us the whole trip was a trip of a lifetime yada yada but we will all know how he really feels.

"The Patriots are the Borg."

Awesome :lol:

The Borg were defeated in the end though.

[Blackieshamps]

just got home. my building is shaking. my halls smell like glory. i love New York. Klout, espn is locked on til spring! nobody has made me feel even CLOSE to this since Aaron Boone.  and even that fell short. Everything i could say has already been said in this thread, but what an unbelievable accomplishment.  The Giants heart crushed every opponent they were put up against after being denied any credibility or respect.  No need to poke fun or spit at boston at a time like this.  The satisfaction of victory can not be ballooned any bigger (short of Eli Manning going home and banging out Giselle tonight).  I CANT WAIT TIL WEDNESDAY!!!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO! goodnight.