2003 Patriots and their many close calls- what to make?

[rhickok1109]

"Deadly killing machine," lol. I can't take CHFF very seriously with their ridiculous Patriots obsession. I swear Kerry Byrne would have Tom Brady's baby if it were biologically possible.

Hahahahaha. Yeah the pro sports obsession in New England is beyond fanatical, it's disturbingly obsessive bordering on insanity. My company has a downtown Boston office and the running joke is that they always try to work one of their hometown teams into the first three minutes of any conversation.

I recall 30 Rock had a good parody of this on an episode.

Boston sportswriters are commonly mocked by sportswriters who cover other teams because of their unabashed cheering in the pressbox. I've been in the pressbox for Patriiots' games and it's absolutely embarrassing to hear them.

[CSKreager]

"Deadly killing machine," lol. I can't take CHFF very seriously with their ridiculous Patriots obsession. I swear Kerry Byrne would have Tom Brady's baby if it were biologically possible.

Anyway, back to your topic.

Well, he was kind of correct the other parts.

Rarely gave the game away? Rarely wilted under pressure? Took a punch and punched back harder?

Few teams stepped into those defensive slugfests and lived to say they won?

Maybe they weren't killing machines, but he wasn't off topic.

[74_75_78_79_]

Some champions do it by dominating just about every game like the '85 Bears and some, simply, tack on close-win after close-win such as this thread's subject. Hey, just remember, '78 Steelers and '89 Forty Niners were no strangers to close-wins either (regular-season, that is). These Pats simply seemed to have a way of, say, "setting the controls" ahead of time as to just how narrow the win would be ("okay, let's win by four today; next week: "okay, let's win this one by just two", etc). Win any-which-way, even at the expense of stats or 'style'-points. Reminds me of '81 in how Walsh/Montana went about their business vs Dallas ("by 1") then Cincy ("by 5"). Close, but in-control throughout nonetheless. Have to respectfully disagree with you, CSK, on the '90 Giants being the "worst"-SB-winner. What G-men missed the most the following year, was a HC who could turn the potential close-losses into close-wins. And just who was the DC of that '90 Champ? Yes, and he seemed to do some "setting of controls" himself - "allowing" Thurman 100 yards with his team still winning it!

Early-'00s Pats...'boring' team. Got no love for them, especially from this here Steeler-fan. However, I'm still willing to put aside any 'Spygate' theories and give them their due (they win at the 'Burgh '01 & '04 'cheating' or not IMO). I respect any of those three squads more than I do their '07 installment which, to me, was more back down-to-earth (on cruise-control) come playoff-time than either of those sharper, more-clutch three were.

A perfect college example are the '86 Nittany Lions. Beat #2 'Bama on the road soundly (like '03 Pats did at Philly) but pretty much close-wins otherwise (barely beat Maryland, barely beat...the U!).

[CSKreager]

This is gonna sound blasphemous, but that team reached SB 38 in spite of Brady.

Outside of a game winning TD at Denver on MNF, an OT TD at Miami, and the regular season game at Indy, it seemed as if Brady barely did much during the win streak. He basically was a glorified handoff machine all season other than those moments until the Super Bowl.

I really think that defense and the takeaways basically carried him.

And Belichick winning coach of the year over Marvin Lewis/Parcells was a joke. It was amazing how the media was fawning all over this incredibly lucky one-trick pony of a team.

[JohnH19]

Not blasphemous, just ridiculous.

[7DnBrnc53]

This is gonna sound blasphemous, but that team reached SB 38 in spite of Brady.

Outside of a game winning TD at Denver on MNF, an OT TD at Miami, and the regular season game at Indy, it seemed as if Brady barely did much during the win streak. He basically was a glorified handoff machine all season other than those moments until the Super Bowl.

I really think that defense and the takeaways basically carried him.

And Belichick winning coach of the year over Marvin Lewis/Parcells was a joke. It was amazing how the media was fawning all over this incredibly lucky one-trick pony of a team.

Dude, you took the words right out of my mouth. There are a lot of Brady bouquet throwers out there that have given him too much credit over the last 13 years or so, but do those fans really watch the Pats play, or do they listen to ESPN and NFL Network's narratives too much? I have probably watched as much, if not more NE football the last 10+ years, and I am not as impressed with Brady as a lot of people are. He is a manufactured star.

[rhickok1109]

This is gonna sound blasphemous, but that team reached SB 38 in spite of Brady.

Outside of a game winning TD at Denver on MNF, an OT TD at Miami, and the regular season game at Indy, it seemed as if Brady barely did much during the win streak. He basically was a glorified handoff machine all season other than those moments until the Super Bowl.

I really think that defense and the takeaways basically carried him.

And Belichick winning coach of the year over Marvin Lewis/Parcells was a joke. It was amazing how the media was fawning all over this incredibly lucky one-trick pony of a team.

So what you're saying is that, without Brady, they would have gone 11-5 instead of 14-2, which would have made them the third seed in the AFC, and they would have lost the Super Bowl ... if they would have been able too make it to the Super Bowl under those circumstances and without him.

[Jeremy Crowhurst]

This is gonna sound blasphemous, but that team reached SB 38 in spite of Brady.

Outside of a game winning TD at Denver on MNF, an OT TD at Miami, and the regular season game at Indy, it seemed as if Brady barely did much during the win streak. He basically was a glorified handoff machine all season other than those moments until the Super Bowl.

I really think that defense and the takeaways basically carried him.

And Belichick winning coach of the year over Marvin Lewis/Parcells was a joke. It was amazing how the media was fawning all over this incredibly lucky one-trick pony of a team.

So what you're saying is that, without Brady, they would have gone 11-5 instead of 14-2, which would have made them the third seed in the AFC, and they would have lost the Super Bowl ... if they would have been able too make it to the Super Bowl under those circumstances and without him.

I think what he's saying is, "Oops, I mixed up my seasons, and confused Corey Dillon's Pro Bowl 2004 season with Antowain Smith's train-wreck of a 2003 season."

[rhickok1109]

This is gonna sound blasphemous, but that team reached SB 38 in spite of Brady.

Outside of a game winning TD at Denver on MNF, an OT TD at Miami, and the regular season game at Indy, it seemed as if Brady barely did much during the win streak. He basically was a glorified handoff machine all season other than those moments until the Super Bowl.

I really think that defense and the takeaways basically carried him.

And Belichick winning coach of the year over Marvin Lewis/Parcells was a joke. It was amazing how the media was fawning all over this incredibly lucky one-trick pony of a team.

So what you're saying is that, without Brady, they would have gone 11-5 instead of 14-2, which would have made them the third seed in the AFC, and they would have lost the Super Bowl ... if they would have been able too make it to the Super Bowl under those circumstances and without him.

I think what he's saying is, "Oops, I mixed up my seasons, and confused Corey Dillon's Pro Bowl 2004 season with Antowain Smith's train-wreck of a 2003 season."

Yeah, the Patriots' running attack was pretty sad in 2003.

[JWL]

This is gonna sound blasphemous, but that team reached SB 38 in spite of Brady.

Outside of a game winning TD at Denver on MNF, an OT TD at Miami, and the regular season game at Indy, it seemed as if Brady barely did much during the win streak. He basically was a glorified handoff machine all season other than those moments until the Super Bowl.

I really think that defense and the takeaways basically carried him.

And Belichick winning coach of the year over Marvin Lewis/Parcells was a joke. It was amazing how the media was fawning all over this incredibly lucky one-trick pony of a team.

As a Jets fan, I would someday love for my team to have a quarterback as mediocre as Brady.