Unclear, Id expect a couple of weeks at least. He had surgery this weekend.

the pass defense was actually pretty solid this year

still hold out hope we get Dennard + Talib healthy for the playoffs.

Finally get a solid unit together and get ravaged by injuries...ugh.

Honestly, after this weekend, I say give Talib as much time as he needs to get healthy. I think we could still run the table or go one loss the rest of the way (they don't play another team with a winning record after Denver). Having him 100% for the playoffs is paramount.

I've seen two Sports Science pieces.

On the first one, they set out to prove that a softball pitcher throws the ball harder than a baseball pitcher. They set up a device to measure the force of the ball hitting it, and had pitchers throw at it. The baseball traveled faster, but the softball hit it so hard, it broke the device! So obviously, the softball pitcher is throwing "harder". At no point did they mention that a softball weighs more than a baseball, thus has more momentum.

The second one, they posited that Drew Brees can throw a football more accurately than an Olympic archer can shoot an arrow! Sure enough, Brees hit a bullseye ten out of ten throws, while the archer only got 7 or 8 bullseyes, so obviously Drew Brees is more accurate. They never mentioned that the nose of the ball can miss the bullseye by several inches and still score a hit, but that doesn't work with an arrow; and most egregious of all, while they told us how far away Brees stood from the target (10 or 20 yards, I forget), they never told us how far away the archer was! Olympic archers shoot from 70 meters! Brees can't even throw a football that far!

Cliffs: Sports Science is FOS.

I would agree but not with Dennard out and Arrignton banged up too.

Nice! Haven't seen either of these but that's pretty classic.

Alrighty then, I'm gonna go ahead and disregard what sports science has to say on the subject. Carry on.

Fair enough but I'm fine with sitting Talib if he can recover if either Dennard or Arrington is back.

I'm seeing 18 as a low for Sunday. Gonna suck for us at Gillette but that seems like good news for the game. Hoping the cold slows Peyton down a bit.

accuweather has low of 21. so figure game time temps in the low 20's. however forecast is also for lots of wind.

Lots of wind would be very good.

I don't know why people are hoping for cold and windy as a factor in our favor. Brady sucks in windy conditions just as much as Peyton or any other good QB. I think we're going to establish a lot of false hope on the Gillette cold conditions of old being a huge advantage. This offense is so powerful that holding them to 27 on the road at Arrowhead is a "victory."

The Broncos are no joke, and our secondary is decimated. This could be a dismantling on national TV. The good news is the AFC sucks and the rest of our schedule is manageable.

Just don't expect any love from the national media the rest of the way.

The key will be to keep up with the Broncos pace. You can't let them run away with the score. If you can keep it close everything is possible. Manning is always good for a INT or a fumble.

wind is bad for both teams. Broncos have a better short passing game than we do which wind would affect less. but Peytons velocity is really bad at this point so wind might affect him more

so, I dunno

Any thought to experience in these conditions? I mean, does it make a difference that Brady is used to the Cold and Peyton isn't?

Just asking, really not sure if that makes a difference.

Its probably not going to be a dismantling. Pats pretty much never get routed. Might lose 42-27 or something like that, but I doubt its going to be like 49-3 or something.

I think adverse weather generally favors the weaker team.

I think the weather hurt us more than it helped us in the loss in to Cincy earlier this year.

Ten years ago I would have said Peyton would crumble if things weren't set up perfectly for him. But I think he's much tougher mentally now than he used to be. In fact, I can't think of a single athlete whose career evolved like his, going from whiny prima donna talented choker to leader and champion.

Yeah, when I say generally there are obviously exceptions. That was one, although we lose that game most times anyways.

Our Offense was a lot different in the Cincy game so I'm not sure we can use that as an example. No chance our offense is that inept this weekend.

Apparently BB showed the video of this play to the team this week. I actually find it pretty odd that he showed this play to them since I would think he'd be a "move on to Denver" type of guy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-...151929636.html

It does look pretty similar. I have to say. Not exactly the same and maybe more "catchable" but pretty damn similar.

The flag stood in this case.

Too bad the refs didnt blow the call Monday. If it was in Foxboro they probably would have.

Hope the motivational technique works.

I'll drop it with you letsgambool. But be honest, would you have said to anyone, irl, or on this board, that it was a blown call if they didn't pick that flag up?

I mean, you sound like it's not even REMOTELY close. That the call was SO CLEAR that how anyone could think different than you is just crazy. Yet, the majority of all people that saw that play think you're wrong.

Just annoys me how sure you are.

Last post on the subject.

The ball was never going to be caught by Gronk. If you think it could have been, you are wrong.

The LB could have shot Gronk in the face or dropped dead at the five yard line and the play ends the same. Interception by Lester. Fact.

The Panthers wouldnt have had a beef if the call was made because their linebacker made a moronic brain dead play that gets called PI a significant % of the time even though uncatchable balls, by rule, shouldnt be interference.

Most imporantly, I hate having so many whiny bitches rooting for the same team as me.

The fact that everyone in Boston is talking about how the refs cost the Pats the game and that there are posts on it days later like the Pats got completely screwed has me on tilt.

Calls went both ways that game, including an obvious leg whip missed on a Pats TD drive that injured an opponent. The game was lost because the defense didnt make enough plays on third down, Ridley made a huge mistake, and the Pats f'd up in the redzone late. Refs...not a factor.

Continuing to focus on not getting bailed out on a passthat never would have been caught on the last play is a ****ing embarassment and embodies all the worst stereotypes of Pats fans.

The Panthers deserved to win and were the better team Monday Night. Period. Full stop. End of story.

Some of us think it was a marginally bad call to pick up the flag, and yet still moved on from it days ago. I hope that's ok with you. You might want to try moving on from it yourself.

I also couldn't give two ****s about the stereotypes of Pats fans considering the large majority of SE are mouth-breathing trollers who are at least equally if not more biased against the Pats than all but a handful of regular Pats fans in the forum.

No, the Patriots got pretty badly screwed on that call, should've had another shot at the end zone from the two yard line or whatever.

I'll drop it with you letsgambool. But be honest, would you have said to anyone, irl, or on this board, that it was a blown call if they didn't pick that flag up?

Also, the above post would never, ever exist nor would you have had any of those thoughts about how the Pats played if the flag wasn't picked up.