How about them Patriots

Yes but Jets with Darnold and Bills with Allen will be better next year as far as Dolphins I feel bad about Pats losing Flores , I wish him luck with the owner , and to start from scratch , but he will make that team better .

 

A win is a win is a win. A dynasty is a dynasty. Split hairs. Name-call. Justify. Rationalize. Make excuses. Six is six.

 

Come on man

It doesn't take anything away from what the Pats have accomplished, but the rest of that division is now, and has been for almost the entire Pat's run, a complete dumpster fire; and will continue to be a dumpster fire next year.

Outside of 2 seasons of the Jets under Rex Ryan, the division has been hopeless.

 

Nah, NE was going after Goff the whole game so he couldn't do much. And the run game was nonexistent so put more pressure on the QB. LA tried to put pressure on Brady and did so much of the game but NE still had a run game (whereas LA didn't). The pressure on Brady wasn't as bad for Brady as for Goff IMHO.

I still think the MVP award should have gone to the NE defense. While the LA offense seemed off kilter much of it was because of the NE defense.

 

Some good articles from 2016 tackling the "Pats are good only because of the division" argument.

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/11/22/believe-it-or-not-afc-east-is-one-of-nfls-strongest-divisions/

There's a lot of good math in some of these articles, specifically pointing out the AFC East's relative strength many years. And the authors make it clear that at times the division seems bad BECAUSE of the Pats, meaning they have a winning record against everyone, so the other teams are basically in an 0-2 hole to start the season. Article points out the weak NFC West, which the Seahawks took full advantage of.

Of course the Jets have been turds for years, and the Bills are the Bills, but the argument falters some. Just like the related "they only have to play two games to get into the SB". Well yeah, they beat a lot of teams, that's the point. I don't really get that one.

 

So, the NFL negates CFB's lesser-divisions-don't-cut-it argument?

 

It was classic smothering NE D. They could have given the MVP to Jason McCourty just for coming out of nowhere to break up that TD.

 

Come on man.

The Pats aren't who they are only because or the division. They have an all time coach and an all time QB. That's why they are who they are.

That being said... Their division is trash. That is an absolute bonus to the Pats. And it's almost always trash, and not because of the Pats, but because because the Jets, Bills and Dolphins are horribly run franchises.

Take this year's Steelers. They were a very good team. A team nobody wanted to face, and arguably just as good as this year's New England team.

They didn't make the playoffs. Their division was tough this year. The Ravens won the division, and the Browns were better than they've been in a long time. The Bengals were competing for a playoff spot before Dalton went down.

Meanwhile over in the AFC east the damn teams can't get out of their own way. So even though the Pats were struggling at one point this season, they we're never in danger of missing the playoffs. And the teams in the AFC east are always bad.

It absolutely gives the Pats a boost. It allows them to work through their issues without a legitimate fear of missing the playoffs. When you have the greatest playoff coach and playoff qb to ever live, that's a pretty big advantage.

 

It says something about recent years that having a 5 loss season seems terrible.

I’d take a division realignment. In reality though it’s the triumvirate of Belichick, Brady and “oh shit it’s Belichick and Brady”

 

Just a FYI the only game Pats have outside EST is at Houston, all road games on East coast, At Wash,Phil,Miami,Buff,Balt,Cinn,NY Jets This will be a huge advantage IMO

 

So the Steelers were good, even though they finished 2-4 to end the season? I think you need to point to their offensive underperformance which seems stuck in a familiar pattern without much innovation and a very predictable setup, a suspect defense, and the Antonio Brown situation. There's been several years where the Bills are decent, the Dolphins play the Pats hard. The math doesn't show the AFC East teams are ALWAYS bad. That's just not true. The Pats are just better.

 

Man if you think the other teams in the AFC east aren't bad then I really don't know what to tell you.

Doesn't take away from their accomplishments. But it sure as hell helps. Denying that is denying reality.

 

But they've won against the rest of the NFL at about the same rate. Every division has shitty teams. The average NFL team has multiple problems. The NFC North and AFC West both had terrible runs of years the past 15. Sure the other AFC East teams have often been bad, but so have the Bengals, Browns, Raiders, Giants, Cards, Bucs, Lions... Crappiness is not just in the AFC East.

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/patriots/patriots-win-same-rate-vs-rest-nfl-they-do-vs-afc-east

 

Watching the parade of champions Live on NESN.COM
They need to sign some of their free agents , And get a good guy to replace Flores on the Defense and they will be fine. I Don't think they will redo it again , cause The NFL and Godell will crap in their pants , But with Belichick and The Goat who knows , might be in Miami for the next one.

 

https://weei.radio.com/articles/column/hannable-bill-belichick-about-enter-most-difficult-offseason-he-s-had-long-time?utm_source=second-street&utm_medium
Just what I said , It wont be easy.

 

I was watching the parade on the NBC Boston station.
Their entertainment fluff reporter who is a former Miss MA in 2008 and placed in top 10 in Miss USA that year said it was too warm to wear a jacket and said it was bikini weather.

 

There was a big fight during the parade.https://nesn.com/2019/02/watch-huge-brawl-break-out-between-patriots-fans-at-super-bowl-parade/ It's a shame when people ruin something nice.

 

It was 65 degrees. This was probably the biggest turnout of all the parades.

I work downtown in the financial district, I had a short meeting at 11:00am and then high tailed it for the subway to get the hell out of town, watched the parade on TV at a restaurant near where I park.

There's been lines all afternoon outside North Station of people trying to get on commuter rail trains. And now adding the regular commuters to it.

That fight wasn't really at the parade, it was in the North End. Obviously parade goers though, lol. Still, more offense than the game.

 

Go Pats

 

there's a video on barstool sports that show gronk taking a football to the face....
i don't think he felt any pain. lol