It came to me during a bad dream.

My point isnt that our special teams is bad just that I thought the Jets had the edge. I googled to see if there were any rankings and this came up where the Jets are 5th and we're 8th fwiw.

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamst

Pats really missed all those kickoff touchbacks after Gostkowski went on IR.

Two things:

You didn't mention coaching where I think a significant edge still goes to the Pats, even though I do think Rex is a good coach.

Some of these categories are not close and are extremely important, namely QB. And that category alone affects hugely the most important stat when looking at wins and losses which is turnovers.

I think if you take those two things into account, the Pats are still the favorites to win the division again next year but it's certainly still somewhat close.

Going forward I have no worries Goodie, it was this year I was referring to.

Actually, the gap in QB's is probably going to get smaller in the coming years. This year, it was extremely apparent. The gap in coaching will likely be there as long as Belichick and Ryan are the head coaches.

I wouldn't be hanging my hat on our alleged big edge in coaching when BB got so clearly out coached in the last game.

the jets also ran the ball a ton more than the pats. bulk yards are just so awful. not to mention the pats had a tougher schedule against the run. and running backs are fairly interchangeable with few exceptions, so even if LT/Greene > greenellis/woody, it's not that big of a deal.

But I disagree on the OL thing for sure. The Pats OL, especially with Mankins playing a full season, is as good as any.

And finally, you say QB edge goes to pats, whereas every single other component you give an edge to the jets. that says to me jets o >>>> pats o, which is clearly not the case. just compare pass o and rush o and whatever. stop breaking down things that are nearly impossible to compare.

pats o >>>>> jets o
jets d >>>> pats d
pats st > jets st

yes sir, whatever you say sir.

Lets just compare seasons. The Jets ran hot in the playoffs and made a deeper run than the Pats but did ANYONE in the entire world think the Pats would be 14-2 this year? That was an epic coaching job that BB did this year. And I don't think that the Jets, with their talent, out performed expectations by much and I think they underperformed in the regular season. A couple of things don't go their way and they actually could have very easily not even made the playoffs.

One game doesn't mean a heck of a lot. The advantage in coaching is still pretty clearly with BB.

Pats won 3/4 FG's with a combined PD of +6, just gotta take the good with the bad.

I take solace in the fact that we'll open as the fav to win the next SB and should be a great team next year

this team needs very little

Really? part of the reason why they went 1 and done this year is because the oline couldn't block even the lol jets pass rush. Made 33 year old Shaun Ellis look like Bruce Smith in his prime.

I don't think the o-line played particularly well, but many of those sacks were coverage sacks.

2 out of the 5, yes were coverage sacks.

6th in adjusted sack rate. i'm aware that a lot of that may have to do with brady's awareness and whatnot, but i think it's as likely that the jets defense just had a monster game, and if not, then maybe the pats ol had a bad game. whatever. but i'm not going to put too much stock in one game. also, the jets had 40 sacks this year. it's not like they had zero rush all year.

the 2001 Rams had a terrible offense b/c of the way they played in the SB, and also the 85 Bears had a terrible defense b/c of the way they played in Miami

All fair points. Just strange 2 out of the past 3 years this great oline can **** the bed in 2 big games.

o-line definetely needs some help. Or at least they need to start drafting some pieces to take over at left guard (or right if Volmer moves to the left side) and center a year or two down the road, or sooner if Light moves on. Also if they don't retain Mankins then throw the tackle spot in there too as even if Connolly can start they will need some depth.

when u discredit the playoff games we played the last 2 years you also discredit the opponent DUCY

They were a double digit favorite in both games.

i mean, it could be that they are choke artists. or that they've run insanely good over the last couple of years before regressing to the mean in a high leverage game. who really knows. but personally, i think it's a combination of both a little bit of variance, and going up against very good defenses who have both gameplanned well, and executed that game plan well. obviously i don't have any proof to back it up, but logically, that makes more sense than assuming the first 16 games of the regular season were a fluke.

and they were double digit dogs in 2001. **** happens

And BB ends the season with two humiliating losses. I don't think Peyton liked those plays being called in for him. This is what happens when GOATs butt heads.

I hope BB took his galpal on the trip and had some fun.

I guess I'm ok with their first pick given the O line situation but I kind of wish they would have used their second 1st-round pick while there were still some stud pass rushers on the board. (At least there seemed to be according to the draft analysts.)

I mean wow - great now we have two more first-rounders next year (probably both relly late in the round) that we won't use anyway.

The excuse about only having 5 picks next year is kind of bogus since I think it's only rounds 6 and 7 that are gone. Who cares about missing those when they're going to have a million young guys on the roster after the last couple of drafts.

It seems to me we already have a ton of young depth type guys to fill out the roster and it would have been nice this year to go for some stud players instead of another pile of second and third round value players.