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Yeah, doesn't change what I said. The link didn't really work for me, but assuming the other top AFC teams were the Steelers (young defense, Ben's road woes) and Chiefs (A. Smith), you don't see them as flawed?
This Falcons team is better than that Falcons team. That team was lucky to beat Minnesota after Gary Andersen missed his first fg in two years and was just happy to be in the super bowl. Combine that with our team leader getting caught with a hooker the night before the game, and it was a recipe for disaster.
Yeah, the quality of Atlanta's coaching worries me more than any of their weapons. Should be a great game but as of right now laying the 3 points seems like a really good bet. Seeing Goodell having to hand over the trophy to a drunk Bob Kraft with Belichick and Brady staring him down would be priceless.
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He works for a major apparel manufacturer and has always provided cool insight into that side of things. Not sure why you are getting butthurt about something like that.
Not butthurt ... I just found it to be strange.
Wait . . . wasn't this the propaganda that was being distributed to make the Steelers look like they would win?
It really bothers me that Athletic Director Bill Belichik continues to schedule Iowa State, Middle Tennessee State and UMaine for the Pats out-of-conference games...
It really is amazing the transformation of that defense this year.
I don't think many people gave the Steelers much of a chance, I certainly didn't. The Falcons are much better and it's not close. The patriots defense isn't much more than average and the stats are deceiving. Don't know why you are arguing about this, it's not a secret.
Hogwash.
Well you're wrong. Pretty much 99% of people would say the Falcons are way better. If you think the patriots are going in and blowing them away you're in for a rude surprise.
You win the SB and they will come out of the wood work and become fans. The franchise has been a joke for most of it's existence. They really need this win. Matt Ryan really needs this win.
Lol. That's my point. It's easy to say all this NOW vs. prior to the game.
Interesting spread. Not because that is the spread but because the final score in every SB they have been in in the Belicheck era has been 4 or less. As much as they have dominated getting there, that last game has always been a tight game. ATL barring mistakes turning it over, this one should be close. I don't think ATL can blow them out because when needing to move down the field fast, NE has always been able to do it.
from an ownership standpoint, the extra revenue gained by getting to the SB should help fund that new stadium.
The patriots allowed the fewest points of any defense in the NFL this year, by a good margin (which is the true measure of a "bend don't break" defensive style like the one schemed by Belichick and Patricia). They allowed 156 points fewer than Atlanta who had the 2nd worst mark in the NFC and among the worst in the entire NFL. New England's weighted DVOA places them 11th in the NFL in Football Outsider's defensive efficiency (with recency bias included).
Naw, it just makes you someone unable to admit they were wrong, and unwilling to let it go despite being proven so.
Using the Football Outsiders rankings, NE faced 16 teams better than the Falcons ranked 27th defense and went 14-2 in those games. Toss the games Brady missed and they went 11-1. However, I suspect both pass defenses are getting a bum rep here as both teams were usually playing with the lead and opponents were just chucking the ball late in the game and accumulating garbage time passing stats.
Now let's shift the focus to offense on those teams they beat:
I can't argue with any of this.
No one is saying that. I didn't imply that it was posted either. I was just saying that it appears that this game is being somewhat billed as the best offense vs the top defense in the league. Or at least that stats were posted comparing success rates with top offenses vs top defenses in the SB. That is all fine and well. Then one poster (not me) said that the whole NE being the top defense is a fraud. To which another poster brought up the fact that NE can't help who is on their schedule. My post was meant to say that there should be a grain of salt included with talks of top offenses and top defenses in the SB.
I agree with you. I think both offenses are potent and I believe NE has a fine defense. Both defenses have improved as of late, but I'd agree that NE has the better defense right now. I think it'll come down to the offense and QB play. The 3 point spread is certainly justified. Brady is phenomenal and relentless. On the other hand, this is all new for Ryan. Edge to Brady.
voiceofunreason said:
This is my concern - the moment may be too big for them, especially the defense, as it's really young. I thought that may be the case against GB but they were so beat up (before and during the game) that we were able to just overpower their D. If Ryan doesn't make mistakes I think it will be close.fruity pebbles said:
Not to over sell the D but some of those stats were racked up by teams after the game was in hand - we had several of those this year.bigmarc27 said:
Just as NE may not really be the #1 D is ATL's D a little overrated because of these situations where the D could pin their ears back up a ton? Doubt that will happen against NE. From what I recall in these blowout games, things tended to snowball for their D...ints, defensive TDs, etc.
I've watched all of NE's games this year, and they don't pass the eyeball test. They always look suspect and that at any moment the sky will come crashing down on them. But at the end of the game, you look at the scoreboard and the suspect defense allowed the opposition to score in the teens.
