Posted on 10/24/2007 11:07:54 AM PDT by Boston Blackie
Patriots at Colts has a powerful, compelling narrative. Namely -- Good vs. Evil.
Argument for the Indianapolis Colts as paladins who carry the banner of that which is beneficent: Sportsmanship, honesty, modesty, devotion to community, embrace of traditional small-town life, belief in higher power, even love of laughter.
Argument for the New England Patriots as scoundrels in the service of that which is baleful: Dishonesty, cheating, arrogance, hubris, endless complaining even in success. The Patriots have three Super Bowl rings, but that jewelry is tarnished by their cheating scandal. They run up the score to humiliate opponents -- more on that below -- thus mocking sportsmanship. Their coach snaps and snarls in public, seeming to feel contempt for the American public that has brought him wealth and celebrity.
The team's star, Tom Brady, is a smirking sybarite who dates actresses and supermodels but whose public charity appearances are infrequent. That constant smirk on Brady's face reminds one of Dick Cheney; people who smirk are fairly broadcasting the message, "I'm hiding something."
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
Anyone with any ideas as to why it is only the losers that whine about running up the score. I can’t seem to come up with anything - it’s dreary and rainy here in Baltimore and I’m not thinking clearly.
Although, clear thinking leads me to believe that my Ravens will not win against the Colts or the Pats. And I will not whine when Brady puts up 35+ points on the Ravens D, while the Ravens O generates 2 or 3 field goals. For the Colts, I just want Bart Scott to give Peyton the same treatment Roethlisburger got last year. As a QB, Peyton does not spend near enough time picking his teeth up off the ground.
And yes, it pi$$e$ me off to think that Johnny U will lose his place to Peyton as the Colts all time touchdown pass leader.
What if the Pats-Colts game ends in a tie? It does happen once in a while, it’s a possibility. But of course in the end it doesn’t matter, play better football. And some of this stuff is overblown anyway. In the Dallas game Dallas called a timeout in the final two, if they hadn’t done that time would have expired before the last play went off. In the Miami game the Phins were down 21 and at the exact same time the Texans were erasing a 29 point deficit, and lets not forget week 4 Chicago and Detroit, then there’s always Heidi. No lead is safe in the NFL, stack up the points until the gun.
The odds of those two teams going 15 minutes in a dome without points, each knowing they only need a field goal, are so remote as to be not worth considering.
Well nobody physically matches up ideally against Moss—he is a freak— but still, the Colts DB’s are better than that trash Miami put out there. Besides maybe using a LB at the LOS (who’d more than likely whiff) to pound on him I can’t think of any better solution. Can you?
That is a thought that has occurred to me. Nobody ever complains when a team losing by a bunch gets some garbage time points, like when KC avoided being shut out in week 5. If it’s OK for losing teams to get garbage time points what’s wrong with the winning teams doing it.
It’s slim but it exists, and if it comes to pass the point differential could be the difference between playing the AFC Championship in Foxboro or Indy. It’s always worth considering, it’s never too early to jockey for post season position.
And really how is it running up the score to just re-establish a 4 score lead with lots of time left in the 4th? The Pats put up 42 points in the first half and 7 in the second, obviously they let the foot off the gas. A 4 score lead with 10 minutes left in the game is not running up the score.
I think that is the only way to defend Moss, blow up the route before it gets started. Unfortunately, if you miss ...
Despite what is claimed elsewhere on the thread, that's exactly what the Colts did against Jacksonville with a slimmer margin, because the game wasn't as close as the score indicated.
There's only two possible reasons why the Pats insist on running up the score (and against weak opponents -- 17-28 overall, 11-27 if you exclude Dallas, the only winning team on their schedule): 1) after getting caught cheating, they want to reinforce through total domination that they don't need to cheat to win (but in that case, why do it in the first place?), and/or 2) since Brady is on a record pace, try and get him the record, and soon enough to start focusing on the playoffs rather than stats.
Th second option is more reasonable, but it's still a stupid risk to put your starters, and especially the one irreplaceable member of your offense, in the position of possibly being injured on otherwise meaningless snaps.
You also have to put pressure on Brady -- if you let him just sit back in the pocket, he'll adjust. Ditto for Manning. Either one will torch you if you give him long enough.
Ditto for Manning. Either one will torch you if you give him long enough.
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Don’t tell me. I’m a Ravens fan, and I attribute our loss in the first round of last year’s playoffs to the Colts entirely to the lack of pressure we put on him. Well, that and our abysmal offense.
Yes. Someone should tell Billick that 3 < 7.
An alleged offensive genius with an aging and arrogant D. Not a great combo.
The best O the Ravens ever had was with Testaverde as the QB.
Not necessarily. For one thing remember the Pats run game is weak because of injuries, and actually wasn’t that great before the injuries. Even if they’re just trying to grind clock it’s going to be primarily with a short passing attack not the run.
Sorry but I don’t buy they’re running up the score. In Miami there were 8 minutes left in the game when the Pats got their final score and it came right on the heals of Miami scoring two TD and shrinking that Pats lead to 21, meanwhile there was a 29 point comeback going on so clearly a 21 point lead with most of the 4th quarter left isn’t that secure. In Dallas the Cowboys called a timeout with less than two minutes on the clock, the Pats then used their 2nd string FB (4th on the RB depth chart) to do three runs which eventually resulted in a TD, had Dallas not called a timeout the game would have ended before the TD (that ball snap was with 23 seconds left on the clock, subtract 40 seconds for the gap between plays and it never happens). Against Cleveland the Pats final score was a fumble recovered by a CB. Against the Bengals it was again in answer to an opposing score, protecting the margin, and also came at the end of a long clock grinding drive. Week 3 against the Bills I’ll give you, of course it was only week 3 at that point nobody knew the Pats were going to lock up the division that easily yet. Week 2 against the Chargers was exactly the kind of drive you say is OK, lots and lots of runs, they just ran out of field before running out of clock. And finally week 1, probably a run up score but again, beginning of the season nobody knew how easy the devision was going to be for them.
So sorry I don’t buy that they insist on running up the score. 5 of their 7 final scores were perfectly reasonable and not score running up, 1 was completely avoidable by the other team if they just don’t call that TO, 2 actually did involve lots of runs, 1 was a defensive play. And 3 of these games actually had non-starters in the game at some point in the 4th, Cassel and Gutierrez have taken a few knees, and Cassel threw a pick-6, plus of course 2nd string FB in Dallas. Teams actually can win big without running up the score, and really looking at the play-by-play for the Pats games at NFL.com shows for the most part they’re just killing clock and protecting margins.
Wow... that's a scary thought.
Come on now, Vinny was a pretty damn good qb. Look up his career stats in yards and td’s and see what kind of company he is in.
He is 6th all time in completions, attempts, and passing yards, and 9th all time in touchdown passes. Not that bad at all.
Perhaps, but he also had a blind spot for the safety in zone coverage.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that he is the best qb ever, it just bugs me that so many people think of Vinny as this worthless joke of a quarterback when he is anything but that. Sure, he has alot of interceptions, but so does Brett Favre (all time leader) and no one questions his ability and skill (I am in no way, shape, or form implying that Vinny is as good as Favre).
You're wrong on two counts here;
1) Pats won't win the SB. When every single commentator is convinced that the pats ARE THE GREATEST TEAM ever, you can be sure that they are headed for a collapse. My guess is first round of the play-offs.
2) They weren't accused of cheating, they were CAUGHT cheating.
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