Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Rupert Patrick wrote:

Rupert Patrick wrote:I've been trying to figure out this Atlanta Philadelphia game, that the top-seeded Eagles are home underdogs to a number six seed, something we've never seen before. Reading this week's Peter King column, I am inclined to agree that Philly should go with their ground game against the Falcons, play ball control and keep the ball away from Ryan; in short, the same strategy that Bill Parcells did against the Bills in Super Bowl XXV. People seem to overlook the Eagles fourth-ranked defense, who were fourth in the league in turnovers, while Atlanta was 27th in turnovers. My gut says the Eagles should pull this out, but it will be close. 26-20 Eagles.

New England vs. Tennessee is the easiest game to pick this weekend. The Titans are a scrappy team, and I know the Patriots are not going to underestimate them, but it's going to be all New England. Make it 31-10.

I got the final point differences just about right - Eagles won by 5 and Pats won by 21.

The Eagles defense shut down Ryan today; I just don't know if they'll have enough offense to get past the Vikings defense, or if their defense can step up to an even higher level and shut down Brees and company. I doubt the Eagles will be the favorite against either of them next weekend, and for good reason, I just don't think the Eagles can beat either the Vikings or Saints at this point.

The Pats will be hard to beat next weekend.

Rupert Patrick wrote:

rhickok1109 wrote:

7DnBrnc53 wrote: It's a different sport, but in the 90's, there were critics that said that the Bulls won in a watered-down era. The same can be said for the Patriots the last 16 years. They have played in a weak division that whole time. The Bills, Dolphins, and Jets have combined for about 18 different coaches and 40+ different starting QB's, and they are way below .500 against teams that finished the season with a winning record.

You combine that with the preferential treatment that they get from the league (they covered up Spygate for example), and you see why they are so successful.

Hmmm ... let's see ... they've gone 25-9 in the playoffs under Belichick. How many of those games were against teams with a losing record?

The two times they lost in the Super Bowl, they lost in the final minute of the game.. They held off The Greatest Show on Turf, they came back from a 28-3 deficit in the third quarter in another Super Bowl, and they stopped Russell Wilson with a goal-line interception in the final minute to hold onto a victory.

Their games against the Colts are the stuff of legend. Brady vs. Manning is in my opinion the NFL's greatest rivalry, on a par with Yankees vs. Dodgers, Bird vs. Magic, and Ali vs. Frazier. Their meetings were postseason classics, and the regular season games were key games that often decided home field advantage in the postseason, and they rarely failed to deliver. New England was 8-5 in games against Peyton Manning teams regular season (Colts 2001-10, Denver 2012-15), and they split the six postseason games.

How did New England fare against the better AFC teams of the Belichick era? New England from 2001-17 is 8-2 against Pittsburgh in the regular season and 3-0 in AFC Championship Games. Baltimore has been one of the stronger AFC teams from 2001-17; over that span, New England was 6-1 against them regular season, 2-2 postseason. Cincinnati has been generally a pretty decent team during the Marvin Lewis era (2003-17); during that era, New England has been 6-1 against the Bengals. Denver was a team who did well against New England even before Peyton Manning showed up there; from 2001-10 NE was 3-4 against the Broncos regular season, 1-1 postseason.

According to my math, the Patriots from 2001-17 were 37-22 regular season against AFC teams that would go on to make the postseason during that particular postseason, and 17-11 regular season against NFC teams that would go on to make the postseason during that season.

JWL wrote:I don't care if it was bad quality football or not, seeing Pitt lose at home was great fun.

L.C. Greenwood wrote:

JWL wrote:I don't care if it was bad quality football or not, seeing Pitt lose at home was great fun.

The Jacksonville game was kind of similar to the Baltimore rout of New England in the January 2010 playoffs. The visiting Ravens jumped out to a 24-0 first quarter lead, on their way to an easy 33--14 victory. The Steelers will be back, Big Ben just confirmed he'll return for the 2018 season.