That looks awesome, can't wait to read it.

Earlier in the season someone posted a story about the Pats using one-word play calls to speed up the tempo, and it mentioned that Belichick pretty much learned it from Chip Kelly. I'm really excited to see what Kelly can do in the NFL, now that the Eagles have snagged him.

I thought this season was as dominant as any. Problem is, you go 16-0, you expect it to happen every year. Immediately after a loss, I would be livid. How the **** do you lose to a scrub team like Arizona. Fact is, Pats were arguably the best team in the league this year, and maybe finished with one less win than you might expect given how they played. There is way more variance in a game like football then we give credit.

Not enough variance to keep us from double digit wins for a decade straight

I usually worry about upcoming games like it's my job but I have the Pats winning this one going away-- 35-17.

I think the Pats offense will put up points and the secondary isn't going to allow Flacco to just chuck it over their heads. Since the big changes in the secondary it seems like they have given up far fewer big plays, especially when Talib and Dennard are both healthy.

If the Ravens continue to call plays so predictably (run, run, pass) and hope to rely on completing a bunch of bombs I think they're going to get smoked.

I think barring numerous DPI flags that the Patriots win this convincingly. I think Pats have a better overall D and obviously a much better Offense.

Weather for Sunday is a high of 46 (should be well below that at 6pm) and windy (21 mph).

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Foxboro+MA+02035

last year's CG was cold as balls from what i remember

I'm always at least a little nervous, but confident.

Mumbles Menino with a couple of more gems today: WilKawk and Gonk lolz.

Just ride this positive variance one time and we can freeroll as fans forever. That's how I felt in 2007 and 2011. It's been painful in between, but we're on the precipice again. It gets tiring defending their excellence. One. time. dealer.

I just cant picture a scenario where the Pats lose. Obviously **** happens and either team can win but barring some combo of Brady laying an egg/multiple turnovers/multiple DPI, i just dont see how they lose this game.

I think this Pats offense is just too complex for the aging Ravens D to stop. They will exploit Ray in coverage across the middle and Lloyd had a big game earlier in the year against williams so i expect him to win that battle again. Webb their #1 cb who usually takes Welker is out, so i expect him to have a decent day also. If Ravens start to sell out to stop the pass this isnt like previous years where Pats handed it off to the Law Firm for 4 yards a carry, Ridley or Vereen can break runs off for 20 yards a pop.

Ravens will obviously move the ball on offense aswell but as long as they force flacco to drive down the field and dont give up 60 yard bombs I am pretty confident in them getting some stops.

I think the D might have a statement game this weekend.

I like the reasoning in the above post and would add that the Ravens should be physically and emotionally spent from travelling cross country last week and playing a long overtime game in altitude. First sign of adversity, they should crumble.

I like our chances today. Just watched the week 3 game again and there are some match ups that will be exploited by the Patriots. Welker will have another big game against whoever tries to match up against him in the slot on defense (Webb out), Lloyd will have a big game again on the outside, and the front four on defense should get great penetration against the Ravens OLine.

On defense the Pats need to make the Ravens one-dimensional. They need to take Rice out of the game and try to make "Fluke-o" throw those deep 50 yard bombs to Smith which will be difficult today in the 25 mph wind and cold weather.

If the Pats don't give up a 30 yard DPI on 3rd and 9 with 45 seconds to go, they probably win the week 3 game. Not to mention they had about 6 defensive holding penalties throughout the game. I don't see this one being as close.


Slightly nervous though with the whole Ray Lewis story line and Flacco trying to make a name for himself and be a part of the "elite" qb club.

Brady and Welker **** the bed again in another huge game. Sucks that Talib went down too because everyone it bumped up on the depth chart is a complete joke. Also, why did the Pats not call TO right away after Brady scrambled near the end of the first half? That seemed so bad to not even try and take a shot at the end zone.

BB really butchered the game. The end of first half stuff a clear example.
Rough game, sorry guys, I know how it feels.

Yeap. McDaniels AIDSed it up too with the playcalling. It's really hard for the offense to do well when you have Brandon Loloyd and Branch on the outside. Losing Edelman, Gronk, and, hell, even Stallworth killed the offense. They had absolutely no outside deep threat on the team.

silver lining. Lol mdorand.

Lol at people hating on me that I've never heard of.

Meh we ran real bad and lost to a good team. Suckouts happen but good players shake them off an continue to play their A game. That's what I do, and that's what the Pats do. We will once again have to run bad to not win it all next year, and there's almost no other team that can say that. Strangely this one didn't hurt very much. The Ravens are easy to pull for. I hope they win in two weeks.

Just finished watching the game on DVR--Pretty shocked.

Really came down to the Ravens red zone defense coming up huge and also the Ravens opening it up on offense. I thought they would eventually tire on D but it seemed like they had the ball most of the 3rd quarter.

Once Ridley fumbled the Pats were in a tough spot, especially since the D couldn't stop anything by that point. I don't see how anyone can say Welker **** the bed--he seemed to have a pretty good game to me except for one drop. He also took some hard hits. If anyone **** himself it was Wilfork imo. At least I hardly noticed him and he was even off the field on some obvious running downs.

It sucks at the moment to digest this but they exceeded my expectations and had a good year. Hats off to the Ravens they played a great game.

Are you really saying that the Pats are the outright favorites to win the sb next year before we see the draft/ and off-season additions/subtractions? Would you say that if they played in a division that didn't completely suck?

Real strong chance of no welkah next year. That's a bummer.

Yes and I'm pretty sure me saying that isn't the least bit controversial.

LOL at thinking it was "running bad" that the Pats lost. They just got beat and made poor decisions that may or may not even of mattered.

It's not. The sportsbooks agree with you. LVH opened their future book on next year's SB last week, and they made NE the favs, at 6/1. And the first bet they took was on NE.

I think they ran bad, too...but if you took all the 'run bad' out of it, I'm not at all sure they would have won today. Congrats to the Raves, can't take anything away from their great playoff run.

I heard yesterday that NE has $18M in cap space next year. They should use every bit of it, if they need to, to sign Bernard Pollard. We simply can't afford to let that guy line up against us any more. He's made four plays in his life, and every one of them has been catastrophic for us.

Yup, worst in game decisions I can remember as a whole and never adjusted in the passing game post Talib injury. Can blame the players on D, but he picks the groceries there too.

Brady didn't play well, missed chances on O. Oh well, more deserving team won.


Edit: no run bad there, Ravens crushed in the second half.