The 2008-09 National Football League Thread

[tyzack]

To the birthday Wolf:

Brave enough to start the weekly 19-0 posts this year?

If he doesn\'t, I will.

[Drew_Kingsley]

Haha, I have absolutely, positively nothing to prove in the NFL Fan Bravery Department.  I started the 19-0 countdown in week 1 last year and I booked my Super Bowl trip including airfare, 4 nights hotel, and Super Bowl ticket in week 5.  Find me anyone else who has ever come close to that.

In fairness, it\'s not like the Super Bowl was going to be canceled if the Patriots didn\'t make it, or that you would have had trouble unloading your ticket on eBay if you didn\'t want to go.

If I had the money to go to the Super Bowl, I would book it right now even if you told me that the Eagles were going to go 1-15.

[Wolfman]

I\'m sorry Booz and Drew, but no matter how much you try to egg me on to do the 19-0 countdown, I\'m not doing it.  I understand that this is a disappointment because now there\'s no way this thread will be even remotely as fun as it was last year, but I\'m not getting suckered into the countdown just so you can celebrate when the Patriots lose a game.

[tyzack]

They will not go 19-0 (I never thought they were going to this year)

They will go 12-4 in the regular season, then win the super bowl over the eagles, again.

[Drew_Kingsley]

I\'m sorry Booz and Drew, but no matter how much you try to egg me on to do the 19-0 countdown, I\'m not doing it.  I understand that this is a disappointment because now there\'s no way this thread will be even remotely as fun as it was last year, but I\'m not getting suckered into the countdown just so you can celebrate when the Patriots lose a game.

I\'m not trying to egg you on to do the countdown, just pointing out that attending a Super Bowl that your team isn\'t in wouldn\'t have been the worst consolation prize in the world.

Anyway, I won\'t be gloating when the Patriots lose a game; I am a devout member of the Church of Acting Like You\'ve Been There Before. Unless somebody is being excessively boastful, I say nothing until the Lombardi Trophy is raised.

So, Wolfy, please come visit this thread every once in a while (win or lose). I\'m sure you can still be entertaining at 8-8.

[Wolfman]

Now that reality has set in and I\'ve started to climb out of Brady Shock, I have a good feeling about Cassel.  I actually think he\'s going to be pretty good.  How bad can he be if Bill Belichick kept him for 4 years while dozens of other QBs were available?  He\'s not going to set the world on fire, but he doesn\'t have to for the team to be good.  In 2001 Brady\'s average line was 17/23, 190 yds and a TD.  Nothing spectacular.  He threw 1 TD in the entire postseason (to David Patton in the Super Bowl) and they won the championship.  Over the course of the season, Cassel will prove to be servicable and able to run the system.  I think the length of the Patriots season actually depends on their defense more than Cassel.

[tyzack]

Now that reality has set in and I\'ve started to climb out of Brady Shock, I have a good feeling about Cassel.  I actually think he\'s going to be pretty good.  How bad can he be if Bill Belichick kept him for 4 years while dozens of other QBs were available?  He\'s not going to set the world on fire, but he doesn\'t have to for the team to be good.  In 2001 Brady\'s average line was 17/23, 190 yds and a TD.  Nothing spectacular.  He threw 1 TD in the entire postseason (to David Patton in the Super Bowl) and they won the championship.  Over the course of the season, Cassel will prove to be servicable and able to run the system.  I think the length of the Patriots season actually depends on their defense more than Cassel.

I agree that the success this season depends on the defense to play "Patriot\'s football" as it used to be known.

However, I remember turning to my friends one fateful night in feburary and saying "We\'ve got this, the defense will hold. This is Patriot\'s football."

[Wolfman]

I agree that the success this season depends on the defense to play "Patriot\'s football" as it used to be known.

However, I remember turning to my friends one fateful night in feburary and saying "We\'ve got this, the defense will hold. This is Patriot\'s football."

Seriously, this is not the 2001 defense.  I certainly won\'t be booking any advance Super Bowl trips this year.  But while many Pats fans bemoan (or Pats haters celebrate) the fact that Cassel can never be 2007 Brady, I think that Cassel will equal or even somewhat exceed 2001 Brady who won a championship.  Thus the success of the season would actually be predicated on something else; in this case the defense.

[zuke583]

I agree that the success this season depends on the defense to play "Patriot\'s football" as it used to be known.

However, I remember turning to my friends one fateful night in feburary and saying "We\'ve got this, the defense will hold. This is Patriot\'s football."

Seriously, this is not the 2001 defense.  I certainly won\'t be booking any advance Super Bowl trips this year.  But while many Pats fans bemoan (or Pats haters celebrate) the fact that Cassel can never be 2007 Brady, I think that Cassel will equal or even somewhat exceed 2001 Brady who won a championship.  Thus the success of the season would actually be predicated on something else; in this case the defense.

with that secondary, do you honestly think you have a legitamate chance to win the super bowl?  where would you rank the patriots in the AFC right now?

[stefpav]

Go Giants!!!  :stoned:

[Drew_Kingsley]

Today\'s the day to unfairly judge Matt Cassel based on one game. I am so ready.

[Wolfman]

Today\'s the day to unfairly judge Matt Cassel based on one game. I am so ready.

Week 2: Patriots 19, Jets 10.  

Well, it\'s fair to say that Belichick and Co. are doing exactly what I mentioned in my previous post; they are trying to make Cassel into a reincarnate of 2001 Brady.  Simple, efficient, manage the game, run the clock, no big mistakes.  These first two games have played out exactly like every Patriots game from 2001.  Low score, drag it out, make enough plays to win, get contributions from tons of different guys, regard the QB as just 1 of 22 equal parts.  Cassel looked overmatched at a couple of points today, but so did Brady in some of his first games.  Over the course of that season, Brady got better and better each week.  No reason Cassel can\'t do the same.    

I certainly don\'t mean to understate the horror of the Brady injury, but when you get past the shock of it and remember how this team did it in 2001... and how Belichick is capable of singlehandedly making up the difference between the Pats and a superior team through his gameplanning... and how the Pats have such an easy schedule... and how the AFC is impossible to figure right now... it\'s hard to make a case for the Pats winning the AFC, but it\'s just as hard to make the case for anyone else.  Well, maybe except for Pittsburgh, but the Pats never lose to Pittsburgh in the playoffs.  So who knows what will happen?  Not me.  But the fact that I don\'t know that the Pats are sunk after Brady goes down is as good a sign as I can get.

[tyzack]

Punchless Chiefs have become a punch line
By JOE POSNANSKI


OK, see, we didn’t need this. Sure, we all knew the Chiefs were going to rebuild this year with young players. We all knew they were going to make mistakes, lose games, commit penalties. We all knew this was going to be a long season, and we would make the best of it by gritting our teeth and appreciating the little things. We braced ourselves.

But we didn’t need this. We didn’t need the Chiefs to become a national joke. We Kansas City folk have had enough Far Side humor with the Royals for a dozen years now, with their outfield burlesque, their base running antics, their managerial merry-go-round, their attempts to sign a professional softball pitcher. We didn’t need the Chiefs to step over that line. Hey, it was OK if they lost. We figured they would lose. We just didn’t need them to take the Nestea plunge into comedy.

Then, there they were on Sunday, playing three different quarterbacks, inventing a Scooby-Doo mystery about dizzy spells, allowing 300 yards rushing to a Raiders team that could not throw and, it goes without saying, losing for the 11th consecutive time. Oakland crushed the Chiefs 23-8. The only thing working Sunday was the concession stand.

[bezerker]

damn pats got owned.  guess jake long was a pretty good idea.  yikes

[Wolfman]

My god.  A Pats regular season loss.  I think I\'m going to be suicidal.  I don\'t even know what to do with myself.  Has this ever even happened before?

Just kidding.  In all seriousness, watcing my team actually play poorly I now know what it must feel like every week for about 2/3 of all NFL fans.

As I mentioned earlier, while most people are tunnel-visioned on Cassel, the season comes down to the defense.  Last week D plays great, team wins.  This week, they\'re nowhere to be found, team loses.  Cassel was pretty bad this week too, but it\'s not like he was responsible for a 25-point difference.  It all comes down to the D this year.