Conference Championships

Realt Dearg Sec

PhuckHugh wrote: »

It was great to see the plucky underdog come out with a win on the road. Hopefully they can keep it respectful against the Rams in the Superbowl but that's unlikely.

You're not from Kerry by any chance?

Foxtrol

Big Pussy Bonpensiero wrote: »

He's hardly twisting himself in knots when they've been subjected to considerable criticism in the media. The only laughable thing here is what has been said about him and the Patriots, because of their recent success, and him using it as motivation has been very effective.
Anyway, I'm gonna leave it at that, we're already going in circles here.

I hope for a day when my team is so successful that mostly reasonable questions about in season performance can dent our ego so much that it makes us feel that we can justify trying to take the underdog moniker.

bruschi

I'm not even sure what is the debate going on here at the moment. Some of the Patriots players are taking a huge chip on their shoulder and using the plenty of media negative talk against them to dig that bit deeper and perform. How much of it is useful to their performance? Probably little, but it might help them focus. One of the hardest things in a winning side is to sustain that energy and passion to go win, so if the way some of the players wants to do it by declaring themselves slighted by fans or media, then so be it, whatever works for them.

With regards to the Patriots and the perceived slighting, it is as much to do with where they are historically and the team now. This team, in my opinion, is vastly inferior to last seasons one and of the last 4 teams to contest the Superbowl (v Seattle, Falcons, Eagles) this is the worst by a long way. However, it might be good enough to be the best team in the NFL. So in a way, they are probably competing against themselves. The Patriots lost the Superbowl last year, their team is worse this year, ergo I genuinely didnt think they'd win it this year. Now that they are there, they have an excellent chance. The one thing I have to say, is having watched all 16 regular season games, the playoff victories have been miles ahead of all 16 performances in the regular season. Even good games they won, eg Bears, Packers, Vikings, Chiefs, there were serious flaws in performances, mainly on defence but also a lack of variation in offence. And considering a lot of the positives in some of those wins was Flash Gordon, losing him was another reason to not be overly hopeful in the playoffs.

There has been some serious media dissing of the Patriots, and Brady in particular, so its not exactly twisting himself to find these comments or people railing against him. Even after a very positive and clutch performance against the chiefs, a lot of the antagonists, Rob Parker, Max Kellerman, etc still came out and slagged him off after that game. At least Shannon Sharpe, another long time critic finally turned his opinion. If Brady feeds off those negative comments about him, then it wont bother me. Whatever he uses to motivate is fine, but I doubt those comments are the main motivation.

AbusesToilets

bruschi wrote: »

I'm not even sure what is the debate going on here at the moment. Some of the Patriots players are taking a huge chip on their shoulder and using the plenty of media negative talk against them to dig that bit deeper and perform. How much of it is useful to their performance? Probably little, but it might help them focus. One of the hardest things in a winning side is to sustain that energy and passion to go win, so if the way some of the players wants to do it by declaring themselves slighted by fans or media, then so be it, whatever works for them.

With regards to the Patriots and the perceived slighting, it is as much to do with where they are historically and the team now. This team, in my opinion, is vastly inferior to last seasons one and of the last 4 teams to contest the Superbowl (v Seattle, Falcons, Eagles) this is the worst by a long way. However, it might be good enough to be the best team in the NFL. So in a way, they are probably competing against themselves. The Patriots lost the Superbowl last year, their team is worse this year, ergo I genuinely didnt think they'd win it this year. Now that they are there, they have an excellent chance. The one thing I have to say, is having watched all 16 regular season games, the playoff victories have been miles ahead of all 16 performances in the regular season. Even good games they won, eg Bears, Packers, Vikings, Chiefs, there were serious flaws in performances, mainly on defence but also a lack of variation in offence. And considering a lot of the positives in some of those wins was Flash Gordon, losing him was another reason to not be overly hopeful in the playoffs.

There has been some serious media dissing of the Patriots, and Brady in particular, so its not exactly twisting himself to find these comments or people railing against him. Even after a very positive and clutch performance against the chiefs, a lot of the antagonists, Rob Parker, Max Kellerman, etc still came out and slagged him off after that game. At least Shannon Sharpe, another long time critic finally turned his opinion. If Brady feeds off those negative comments about him, then it wont bother me. Whatever he uses to motivate is fine, but I doubt those comments are the main motivation.

Even though Gordon was by some distance the Pats most talented receiver, I think losing him has forced the offense to innovate and improve in a fashion that had been lacking til then. I'm happy to see Dorsett getting more reps, he's been quality whenever targetted so far

bruschi

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Even though Gordon was by some distance the Pats most talented receiver, I think losing him has forced the offense to innovate and improve in a fashion that had been lacking til then. I'm happy to see Dorsett getting more reps, he's been quality whenever targetted so far

yeah probably a double effect, Sony Michel being back at full health was as much a factor that they went there. Burkhead too coming back gives another run/pass option. Not convinced on Dorsett though, very hit and miss. one huge catch on Sunday and it went for a TD, but some drops and bad routes otherwise in the game.

MileHighGuy

https://twitter.com/Alfonsovt/status/1087711178263068672

not sure if it has been posted already, but fan video from the end zone shows how much of a bang bang play the PI non-call was (it wasn't!)

eagle eye

Unreal stuff going on here. People were calling it the end of Tom Brady mid-season suggesting age had caught up with him. They were talking about our rag tag bunch of receivers, like including Edelman in that, saying that our defensive ends and linebackers were poor. Our offensive line were criticised too. They were saying we had no hope of reaching the Superbowl. I know we were favourites with the bookies for the Chargers game but a lot of the experts were saying the Chargers would win. Our performance against them meant we were only slight underdogs against the Chiefs.
A real hungry to win player doesn't need much to get him going. There was enough for Brady and Edelman and Gronk. There was enough for them to use to pump up other guys too.
How anybody can have an issue with players taking negative media and using it to psych themselves up is beyond me. I love that players can find ways to want it more.

Foxtrol

bruschi wrote: »

I'm not even sure what is the debate going on here at the moment.

Neither do I. It seems like posters are following Brady and trying to take the hump over a comment and blowing it out of proportion.

eagle eye wrote: »

Unreal stuff going on here. People were calling it the end of Tom Brady mid-season suggesting age had caught up with him. They were talking about our rag tag bunch of receivers, like including Edelman in that, saying that our defensive ends and linebackers were poor. Our offensive line were criticised too.

If the Patriots squad don’t want their egos hurt by people questioning them then they need to perform all season like they did the last two weeks. Justified criticism does not make a team an underdog.

They were saying we had no hope of reaching the Superbowl. I know we were favourites with the bookies for the Chargers game but a lot of the experts were saying the Chargers would win. Our performance against them meant we were only slight underdogs against the Chiefs.

It is just flat out wrong to make out the general consensus that they had no hope to reach the Super Bowl, from what I can find they didn’t drop below 4th favourite all season. If the Patriots fans and players are basing their ‘underdog’ status on clickbait and professional media trolls then every team out there is an underdog every week.

A real hungry to win player doesn't need much to get him going. There was enough for Brady and Edelman and Gronk. There was enough for them to use to pump up other guys too.
How anybody can have an issue with players taking negative media and using it to psych themselves up is beyond me. I love that players can find ways to want it more.

Why the constant need to strawman that people have ‘an issue’ with how players motivate themselves? I’ve repeatedly stated that motivating yourself that way is a normal thing to do, but to publicly try to force the narrative of the Patriots being some sort of underdog is laughable.

A decent comparison is that I’ve 'no issue' with the mad stuff that Brady and Wilson do/believe about how they prepare their bodies for games but I find it laughable when they push that crap to the public.

eagle eye

Foxtrol wrote:

If the Patriots squad don’t want their egos hurt by people questioning them then they need to perform all season like they did the last two weeks. Justified criticism does not make a team an underdog.

They went 11-5, Thurs best team in the AFC record wise. That's hardly not performing.

Foxtrol wrote:

It is just flat out wrong to make out the general consensus that they had no hope to reach the Super Bowl, from what I can find they didn’t drop below 4th favourite all season. If the Patriots fans and players are basing their ‘underdog’ status on clickbait and professional media trolls then every team out there is an underdog every week.

It was said before many that we had no hope. The players got to see and hear this stuff in the media.
This has nothing to do with the fans btw, it's about Brady's comments.

Foxtrol wrote:

Why the constant need to strawman that people have ‘an issue’ with how players motivate themselves? I’ve repeatedly stated that motivating yourself that way is a normal thing to do, but to publicly try to force the narrative of the Patriots being some sort of underdog is laughable.

If you pump yourself with that stuff you believe it. It's that simple, Brady was saying what he believed to be true.

Foxtrol wrote:

A decent comparison is that I’ve 'no issue' with the mad stuff that Brady and Wilson do/believe about how they prepare their bodies for games but I find it laughable when they push that crap to the public.

This has nothing to do with the issue being discussed here. Seems like you are trying to move the conversation on to something else.

Foxtrol

eagle eye wrote: »

They went 11-5, Thurs best team in the AFC record wise. That's hardly not performing.

And they were 2-2 at one point and 3-5 on the road for the season. If you cant see the difference between the performances the last two weeks and some of the poor performances from parts of the team during the season there's not much that can be said.

It was said before many that we had no hope. The players got to see and hear this stuff in the media.
This has nothing to do with the fans btw, it's about Brady's comments.

You're boardering on Trump now with the 'many people say'.

If you pump yourself with that stuff you believe it. It's that simple, Brady was saying what he believed to be true.

And it is laughable when he says what he believes to be true in public. 'Everyone thinks we suck'... but we never went past the 4th favourite team to win the Super Bowl.

This has nothing to do with the issue being discussed here. Seems like you are trying to move the conversation on to something else.

The only thing I'd love to move on from is Patriots fans swarming when anyone makes a comment that potentially questions anything about the team.

I really didn't think laughing at a claim of the Patriots being underdogs would be seen outrageous enough that it would need multiple posters to come on the defensive but here we are.

This really isn't going anywhere so I'm done.

eagle eye

Foxtrol wrote:

And they were 2-2 at one point and 3-5 on the road for the season. If you cant see the difference between the performances the last two weeks and some of the poor performances from parts of the team during the season there's not much that can be said.

Of course I'm aware of it. I haven't missed a Patriots game since 2003.
I don't get it. One minute you are saying that nobody said they sucked and had no hope, the next you are saying they did suck and that's why it happened?

Foxtrol wrote:

You're boardering on Trump now with the 'many people say'.

Very low level stuff. I won't be falling for that.

Foxtrol wrote:

And it is laughable when he says what he believes to be true in public. 'Everyone thinks we suck'... but we never went past the 4th favourite team to win the Super Bowl.

As above, one minute you say they did suck and deserve the slating, next it never happened. Which is it.

Foxtrol wrote:

The only thing I'd love to move on from is Patriots fans swarming when anyone makes a comment that potentially questions anything about the team.
]I really didn't think laughing at a claim of the Patriots being underdogs would be seen outrageous enough that it would need multiple posters to come on the defensive but here we are.
This really isn't going anywhere so I'm done.

Only thing that's going on here is you making a mountain out of a molehill and people disagreeing with you about it. I don't think anybody is getting too excited about it.

ELM327

That was one of the worst non calls I've ever seen.