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Patriots to Win This Year

By WestBayYoungn, Section NFL
Posted on Wed Nov 01 2006 at 11:34 PM EST Printer Friendly Page
More on: Rankings, NFL, Super Bowl, Patriots (all tags)

We all know it's impossible to guess who will win or even make it to  the Super Bowl.  We were all witnesses last year to a Pittsburgh Steelers team that was a Wild Card and eeked out a couple games that could have gone either way against superior teams.  I'm not coming out and saying that the Patriots are a shoe in to win the Super Bowl this year.  In the NFL playoffs, anything can happen.  However, you can't deny yesterday's win over the previously 5-1 Minnesota Vikings makes you think a little bit.

The Bears were proclaimed widely as the cream of the crop after a blowout victory over a Shaun Alexander-less Seahawk team.  The Bears are still undefeated but, their offense only put up 19 against the Vikings while the Patriots put up a good 30 spot.  The way Brady was throwing the ball last night, it looked like he could pick apart any defense in the league, with any group of wide recievers in the league.  But back to the widely acclaimed Bears.  Who have they beaten?  They crushed a bunch of bottom feeder teams including the Lions, Bears, Bills, and 49ers.  They barely beat an offensively stagnant Minnesota Vikings team.  They beat an overrated Seattle team that didn't have their MVP, and they almost lost to a 1-6 Cardinals squad with a rookie quarterback.  I won't go as far as saying the Bears are overrated because they are dominant defensively and on any given sunday can shut down even the most potent offenses.  But there is no way we can crown them over the Colts, the Patriots, or even the Broncos.

I think the team that is closest to the Patriots are the Colts.  This is simply because Peyton Manning and the Colts offense is unstoppable.  They played against a Broncos defense that before this week had been dominant and put up 34 points.  Not only that, Manning had an amazing completion percentage and didn't turn the ball over.  The one (huge) knock on the Colts is their inability to stop the run on defense.  That game should have been a blowout but the Colts gave up 31 points to a mediocre offense in the Broncos.  Now when the Pats play the Colts this weekend, I want you to pay close attention to their rookie back Lawrence Maroney.  He is a big strong back with explosiveness that will take him to an elite status within the next couple of years.  This weekend's Brady-Manning showdown will be a shootout, but I think the Pat's defense is far superior to the Colts and will be able to stop that offense one more time that the Colts can stop the Pats.

Now a lot of skeptics out there will point out their disappointing loss to the Broncos.  THIS IS NOT THE SAME PATRIOTS OFFENSE.  In the loss to the Broncos, they couldn't move the ball down field.  Brady has since worked with his recievers to develop some more chemistry.  The result?  His 6th 300+ yard 3 TD game.  The no huddle spread offense yesterday looked unstoppable.  Brady exploited every mismatch, showed great pocket presence avoiding at least 3 sacks, and showed off what might be the best arm in football.  

In support of the Patriots, they have no glaring weaknesses.  Their front 7 on defense is among the best in the league.  Seymour along with Wilfork occupy the line while those great linebackers fly around the fiels making plays.  Harrison leads a solid secondary that doesn't make many mistakes.  On offense, they have to great backs that can get your defense tired.  On top of that, they have the best (yes, better than Manning) QB in the league.  They have a mismatch waiting to happen in Ben Watson, and several wideouts that are reliable.  The line is solid and doesn't have many breakdowns.  I don't think any other team in the league is as solid all around as the Patriots.  Oh yeah, not to mention their mastermind head coach Bill Belicheck.  Now in the coming weeks, I want everybody to pay close attention to the Patriots.  When the Patriots beat the Colts 35-31 this weekend, you'll all be hopping on the bandwagon.

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Patriots to Win This Year | 4 comments (4 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Parody (#1)
by Shawn on Wed Nov 01 2006 at 2:26 PM EST
New England is the best coached team in the league and Bill Belichick and staff proved their prowess this Sunday.  Completely abandoning the adage 'you need to run the football in order to set up the passing game' they simply handed the keys to Tom Brady and let him pick apart a helpless Minnesota pass defense.
The author softens up Chicago's schedule, and rightfully so. Yet he fails to mention that New England has two wins against the same Buffalo team that Chicago blew out, a paper tiger Dolphins club and an improving but very average Jets team.  
The NFL is great because of its parody.  Each Conference has a few teams every season that stick out a bit but by and large once the playoffs begin all bets are off.  The Patriots are good, but are they better than the Colts, Broncos or Chargers?  For that matter, the Bears, Giants and Falcons?  I don't know, but could we please refrain from organizing the Super Bowl Parade until after Thanksgiving at least?


There will be NO... (#2)
by matt Jordan on Wed Nov 01 2006 at 4:41 PM EST
...hopping on the bandwaggon for me. I still think calling them a dynasty is a sham, beacuse my standards of a dynasty are that you AT LEAST make the playoffs every year of it (people forget that between Superbowls #1 and #2 they went 7-9 and missed the playoffs).

This is not quite the AFC title game, but this will go a very long way in who wins home field in the AFC. Peyton Manning has had that one house of horrors in New England, he has to prove he can win there in order to get over that hump.

I might be a bitter Jets fan, but the whole dynasty thing just sickens me, beacuse they aren't a true dynasty.

informative article. (#3)
by TheGateKeeper622 on Wed Nov 01 2006 at 7:47 PM EST
Good Information.  A month or so ago I wrote a column predicting Laurence Maroney is going to be the next big thing in the NFL.  He has burst on to the scene and he has been arguably the best offensive rookie of the year so far.  Look for things to only get better for him.  he is a force.  Could you imagine Maroney and Marion Barber III of the Dallas Cowboys playing together as a 1-2 punch in college.  Well, they did.  Minnesota Gophers.  I knew both of them would be beasts.

Bears (#4)
by Jackson Govatos on Wed Nov 01 2006 at 11:34 PM EST
I don't care that Seattle didn't have SA. Whenever you beat last year's conference champions by 31, you're a pretty good team. You point out that they have beat up on some bottom feeders, but so have the Patriots. Both teams have played to their schedule.
I'd like to see the Bears face either the Colts or Pats but that won't happen unless they reach the Super Bowl. These next two weeks will show us a lot about both teams.

Patriots to Win This Year | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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