Thanks - this is exactly true. It's great to watch the methodical beatdown of the Broncos, as it was to see Bird or Orr take over a game, or Pedro deflate another team's fans. As an aside, it's also great to hear his philosophical observations on management and success in pre-season press conferences!
And to chime in - I remember the Stupor Bowl and Ken Sims all too well. After the Rams SB, I had to keep walking around the house rather than walking in, because every time I said the phrase "The Pats are the Super Bowl Champs," I'd think back to the Sullivan days and crack up laughing, again - if it hadn't been so cold I might have needed to walk until sunrise. "What is" is a really, really great place to be!
Trivia question: this is the 14th division title in the BB/TB era. How many of those division titles were wrapped up prior to week 17?
13. The only division title that they wrapped up in week 17 was 2001, at Carolina
So, to extend this a bit and throw a bunch of fun facts against the wall for your viewing pleasure...
Since 2001, the Patriots haven't played a single game while eliminated from playoff contention. The only three times they didn't have the division wrapped up going into Week 17, they won in Week 17. In 2002 and 2008 they needed help and didn't get it, but they held up their end of the deal. It's really absurd. Zero games played as an eliminated team in 16 seasons. They've never finished a single game out of first place in that time.
This is the 7th consecutive season that is better than any pre-2001 Patriots season. If you were in a terrible accident and fell into a coma in 2000, if you woke up in any of the following years you would have seen the best Patriots season of your lifetime: 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016.
The best pre-BB season in Patriots history is now the 13th best season in Patriots history. Mind boggling. 12 of his 17 seasons were better than the best the Patriots had ever done, in just over 40 years of existence.
The pre-Parcells Patriots won a total of 228 games in 33 seasons. The BB-era Patriots have won 221 games in 17 seasons, with a chance for up to 5 more this year.
The BB-era Patriots have only played Wild Card weekend 3 times out of 14 playoff seasons. They have never opened the playoffs on the road.
The BB-era Patrios have only played 7 road playoff games. IF they can lock up the #1 seed and make it to the Super Bowl this year, they'll have played as many neutral site games (i.e. Super Bowls) as road games.
Brady's 10 conference championship game appearances are more than 28 franchises have. It's as much as the Giants and Bears combined.
Brady's 6 Super Bowl appearances is more than the NFC South or AFC South has as a group in their histories. Brady has as many Super Bowl titles as the AFC South and NFC South combined.
This is spectacular.
As a kid who grew up in Foxboro and who's first Pats memory is of the 2-14 1981 season when I was 8 years old, I'll never take this unfathomably amazing run for granted.
I always love this time of year when people start posting this insane trivia in a thread such as this. And each year they get just a little more unbelievable.
To really appreciate what is, go read thru the coaching carousel thread and consider that we haven't had to wonder about the Patriots head coach in 16 years.
Then think about what the alternative is, to have to weigh such decisions as "should we give Marvin Lewis another year to try to win a playoff game" or "is Todd Bowles the solution" or "maybe this team is the one where Jeff Fisher (or Rex Ryan or Norm Turner) will finally break thru"
Then think about what the alternative is, to have to weigh such decisions as "should we give Marvin Lewis another year to try to win a playoff game" or "is Todd Bowles the solution" or "maybe this team is the one where Jeff Fisher (or Rex Ryan or Norm Turner) will finally break thru"
After a three year head coaching run of Raymond Berry, Rod Rust and Dick MacPherson we were owed some amount of stability by the football Gods.
Enjoy this article from April 13, 2010
http://www.espn.com/new-york/nfl/columns/story?id=5078659&columnist=howard_johnette
http://www.espn.com/new-york/nfl/columns/story?id=5078659&columnist=howard_johnette
You could've stopped after Gronk. Bothers me to this day that Bill picked Cunningham ahead of Dunlap (who isn't even that great a player, but still).
Either way, it's awesome to see the Pats being proclaimed dead almost 7 years ago, when they are arguably going stronger than ever. We are ridiculously spoiled, and yes, I fully include myself in that group, as you can see from the opening paragraph of this post.
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I think anyone still claiming that Brady is still a "system QB" has long since been assigned to the dustbin of irrelevancy, assuming that such folks still actually exist.
Those folks most certainly do still exist, and they were everywhere when the Patriots started the season 3-0.
After a three year head coaching run of Raymond Berry, Rod Rust and Dick MacPherson we were owed some amount of stability by the football Gods.
They are like the ceolacanth if you go fish in the deep dark places of the world god knows what prehistoric beastie you might find.
My favorite part is: "New England suddenly has to defeat a Jets team that features the best defense in football from this past season and an offense that should be among the top three or four in the league if second-year quarterback Mark Sanchez doesn't muck it up."
The only way it could be better is if, you know, January 16, 2011 never happened.
That's pretty funny. Although, I guess they did get the last laugh that year. They were a pretty good team that year.
Not saying much -- if as an NFL team you decide you want to be really good for a year at the expense of the future the league is constructed so you can make it happen.
That said, I hate that playoff loss as much as if not more than any other other non-Super Bowl loss the Patriots have ever had.
Yeah, it's been a solid decade since I've heard anyone make the system qb argument with a straight face. 2007 pretty much obliterated that idea.
"The Jets' acquisition of Steelers wideout and former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes in the wee hours of Monday morning made the already eventful makeover the Jets have undertaken since Ryan came to town look even more breathtaking and edgy."
Hahahahahahaha!!!!
Hahahahahahaha!!!!
I knew that Brady has something like a 60% winning percentage in games in which the Pats are underdogs, which is bonkers, but this article is about the Pats being 11-3 against the spread this year and averaging beating the point spread by 3.6 pts/game since 2003, which is nuts. (I'm thinking it must be at least that since 2001 since they famously beat the spread almost every week in 2001). Basically, the Pats have been undervalued by the public during this run.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/20/bookies-beware-the-patriots-are-king-spread/BsYvaydsP0Js3r9zXfS03M/story.html
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/20/bookies-beware-the-patriots-are-king-spread/BsYvaydsP0Js3r9zXfS03M/story.html
Nice. And I completely agree.
Bracketing even the political philosophcial implications of the fact that America, the values and principles it alleges to hold, cannot accept greatness without believing it must be tainted with deception, as the very success of the Patriots somehow forms an implicit assault on the assumed equality of all (Seriously: When excellence, especially that achieved through appropriate and good channels is considered suspect, we find ourselves at crisis.), that Belichick continues to excel with even literally draconian punishment is a testament to... I lack even the words.
This has literally become a "go to" teaching point" for me: One of the reasons I haven't been around much lately is that I've been starting a tutoring "busyness" (such as it is) because I need to eat and stuff. Anyway, in running through various ways to connect with students, I've come to realize:
I do not what the full list would be or in what order I would put them, but if we had to name the Top 5 Most Famous Educators in America, Belichick would be on that list and I don't think it's even questionable.
(Well, as a scientician, I would have to concede that anything is quetstionable, but the writinger part of me would point us back to the idiom...)
si.com: The dominant, Wayne Gretzky-led Oilers won about 57% of their regular-season games during their heyday from 1981-92. The Yankees teams of the mid-’90s/early 2000s—six World Series trips and four WS wins in nine seasons—won at approximately a 60.5% clip. Michael Jordan’s Bulls, during a stretch of six titles in eight years, posted a 74.6% win percentage. Since 2003, their first of 14 straight double-digit win seasons, the Patriots have won 78.4% of their games in the regular season.
Some pretty fascinating insight into practices from a press conference. Left in a question about Rexy for SJH. Love the bit about all the times that Gaffney gets punched in practice
Q: Michael Floyd mentioned that Jacoby Brissett has been helpful in putting extra time with him in order to get up to speed on the offense. Is that something you'll ask a player to do from time to time?
BB: Well, I think in a lot of cases we would facilitate it. I think in this particular case it helps both players. I think when you have to explain what you're doing to somebody else it helps you understand it better in Jacoby [Brissett]'s case. The coaches are involved in a lot of - I mean we all have the things that we have to do on a regular weekly basis. Preparing our different position groups, and breaking down film, and getting ready for practice, and organizing meetings and so forth, so it's hard for a coach just to drop what he's doing for two or three hours and go meet with a player. I mean we do that and we balance it all, but there's also a place where if you have a player that's available that can do it that it's kind of the right situation like this one is, then that can be beneficial to the coaching staff, can be beneficial to the player, can be beneficial to the new player to have somebody to go through that with. Not as a coach, but in this case probably the guy who's more important than the coach, the guy that's throwing him the ball. That's an important relationship to have between the receiver and the quarterback. Sometimes it works out. Again, there's no set formula or way to do it. In this case we happen to be in a situation where that has I think, again, there's a lot of benefit all the way around. I think it's been good. It's helped [Michael] Floyd and it's definitely helped [Jacoby] Brissett and it's helped Chad [O'Shea] and Josh [McDaniels] too.
Q: With Jacoby Brissett back in the fold as a third quarterback at practice how has that changed Jimmy Garoppolo's reps?
BB: A little bit. I mean the past couple of weeks that's also been a function of Tom [Brady]'s availability. So there's been a few times here in the last two or three weeks where Jimmy [Garoppolo]'s probably gotten more reps than he's gotten all year since the Cleveland game. But there have been practices where he's taken literally every snap, like he did prior to Arizona or prior to Miami. As it's worked out he's gotten actually more work not because Jacoby [Brissett] but that's actually helped us with Jacoby, too, by having two quarterbacks instead of just one if he wouldn't have been available. But again, Jacoby can do some other things in practice, too. There are things he can do to help the defense and, again, there's times where he can take individual receivers and work with them. Again, we try to use everybody that's available, figure out a way to be productive.
Q: How important is it for the scout team quarterback to approach practice with a competitive mindset in terms of helping the defense get ready for your opponent?
BB: Yeah, I mean that's an important part of that person's job. That extends to all of the other people who are doing the same thing. So the player who's playing [Jarvis] Landry, the player who's playing [Kenny] Stills, the player who's playing [DeVante] Parker, the player who's playing [Dion] Sims, [Jay] Ajayi, right down the line, all of them, the guy that's playing [Branden] Albert, [Laremy] Tunsil, all of them. The same thing on defense - [Tony] Lippett, [Michael] Thomas, and [Xavien] Howard and so forth. We spend time talking to those players about how that individual plays or maybe how they play a particular play like ‘On this coverage here is what they're going to do. Here is how they're going to handle a vertical route, handle a cross route, handle a whatever it is,' and try to get the best look we can at those plays. That certainly helps our players prepare the best they can to see what they're going to see in the game during the week as opposed to seeing something else that's a facsimile but not really what it's going to be. It doesn't help the timing. So I think our players do a really good job of that. They understand how important it is for the people who are showing them what they need to see, and then they know it's incumbent on them to return that same look. And our practice squad players, that's probably their main role, which is a very important role that we recognize every week and they take that very seriously and professionally. That's their role, is to get somebody else ready. Someday that'll change, or might change like it does for a lot of our practice squad players where they're the one that's getting ready and somebody else is doing it for them.
Q: Are you going to miss the element of competition that came along with coaching against Rex Ryan in the AFC East?
BB: Yeah, right now we're just thinking about Miami. We're not thinking about anybody else.
Q: How valuable has Tyler Gaffney been the past few weeks on the scout team in mimicking some of the really big backs you've faced and will face again this week?
BB: Yeah, he's done a good job for us. Again, he's another guy similar to Jacoby [Brissett]'s situation. Sometimes it's a ball-security thing we talk to him about like ‘This back kind of swings the ball around a little bit,' and even though he shouldn't do that he'll do it to kind of help our defense prepare for it or ‘This is the way he runs a certain type of route.' Again, there are a lot of little things and the players do a good job with him, too. The linebackers - they'll say ‘Hey, he'll cheat on this,' or ‘He'll cheat on that when he's got protection or a certain route. He lines up deeper on certain plays or closer to the line on certain plays,' just as we go through the week to sort of help each other there. But yeah, he does a great job. Tyler [Gaffney] - he's a smart guy, very team-orientated. If you ask him to do something he's going to give you a great look. There's nobody that takes more punches than he does. He must get punched in the stomach 10 times a day. The defense is trying to take the ball out. That's his role. That's his job. But they're slapping at the ball, they're pulling at it, they're trying to punch it, half the time they miss. He does a great job.
Q: Michael Floyd mentioned that Jacoby Brissett has been helpful in putting extra time with him in order to get up to speed on the offense. Is that something you'll ask a player to do from time to time?
BB: Well, I think in a lot of cases we would facilitate it. I think in this particular case it helps both players. I think when you have to explain what you're doing to somebody else it helps you understand it better in Jacoby [Brissett]'s case. The coaches are involved in a lot of - I mean we all have the things that we have to do on a regular weekly basis. Preparing our different position groups, and breaking down film, and getting ready for practice, and organizing meetings and so forth, so it's hard for a coach just to drop what he's doing for two or three hours and go meet with a player. I mean we do that and we balance it all, but there's also a place where if you have a player that's available that can do it that it's kind of the right situation like this one is, then that can be beneficial to the coaching staff, can be beneficial to the player, can be beneficial to the new player to have somebody to go through that with. Not as a coach, but in this case probably the guy who's more important than the coach, the guy that's throwing him the ball. That's an important relationship to have between the receiver and the quarterback. Sometimes it works out. Again, there's no set formula or way to do it. In this case we happen to be in a situation where that has I think, again, there's a lot of benefit all the way around. I think it's been good. It's helped [Michael] Floyd and it's definitely helped [Jacoby] Brissett and it's helped Chad [O'Shea] and Josh [McDaniels] too.
Q: With Jacoby Brissett back in the fold as a third quarterback at practice how has that changed Jimmy Garoppolo's reps?
BB: A little bit. I mean the past couple of weeks that's also been a function of Tom [Brady]'s availability. So there's been a few times here in the last two or three weeks where Jimmy [Garoppolo]'s probably gotten more reps than he's gotten all year since the Cleveland game. But there have been practices where he's taken literally every snap, like he did prior to Arizona or prior to Miami. As it's worked out he's gotten actually more work not because Jacoby [Brissett] but that's actually helped us with Jacoby, too, by having two quarterbacks instead of just one if he wouldn't have been available. But again, Jacoby can do some other things in practice, too. There are things he can do to help the defense and, again, there's times where he can take individual receivers and work with them. Again, we try to use everybody that's available, figure out a way to be productive.
Q: How important is it for the scout team quarterback to approach practice with a competitive mindset in terms of helping the defense get ready for your opponent?
BB: Yeah, I mean that's an important part of that person's job. That extends to all of the other people who are doing the same thing. So the player who's playing [Jarvis] Landry, the player who's playing [Kenny] Stills, the player who's playing [DeVante] Parker, the player who's playing [Dion] Sims, [Jay] Ajayi, right down the line, all of them, the guy that's playing [Branden] Albert, [Laremy] Tunsil, all of them. The same thing on defense - [Tony] Lippett, [Michael] Thomas, and [Xavien] Howard and so forth. We spend time talking to those players about how that individual plays or maybe how they play a particular play like ‘On this coverage here is what they're going to do. Here is how they're going to handle a vertical route, handle a cross route, handle a whatever it is,' and try to get the best look we can at those plays. That certainly helps our players prepare the best they can to see what they're going to see in the game during the week as opposed to seeing something else that's a facsimile but not really what it's going to be. It doesn't help the timing. So I think our players do a really good job of that. They understand how important it is for the people who are showing them what they need to see, and then they know it's incumbent on them to return that same look. And our practice squad players, that's probably their main role, which is a very important role that we recognize every week and they take that very seriously and professionally. That's their role, is to get somebody else ready. Someday that'll change, or might change like it does for a lot of our practice squad players where they're the one that's getting ready and somebody else is doing it for them.
Q: Are you going to miss the element of competition that came along with coaching against Rex Ryan in the AFC East?
BB: Yeah, right now we're just thinking about Miami. We're not thinking about anybody else.
Q: How valuable has Tyler Gaffney been the past few weeks on the scout team in mimicking some of the really big backs you've faced and will face again this week?
BB: Yeah, he's done a good job for us. Again, he's another guy similar to Jacoby [Brissett]'s situation. Sometimes it's a ball-security thing we talk to him about like ‘This back kind of swings the ball around a little bit,' and even though he shouldn't do that he'll do it to kind of help our defense prepare for it or ‘This is the way he runs a certain type of route.' Again, there are a lot of little things and the players do a good job with him, too. The linebackers - they'll say ‘Hey, he'll cheat on this,' or ‘He'll cheat on that when he's got protection or a certain route. He lines up deeper on certain plays or closer to the line on certain plays,' just as we go through the week to sort of help each other there. But yeah, he does a great job. Tyler [Gaffney] - he's a smart guy, very team-orientated. If you ask him to do something he's going to give you a great look. There's nobody that takes more punches than he does. He must get punched in the stomach 10 times a day. The defense is trying to take the ball out. That's his role. That's his job. But they're slapping at the ball, they're pulling at it, they're trying to punch it, half the time they miss. He does a great job.
B-b-but he never answers any questions and he's a jerk!
Thanks for posting those answers. They're really great and you can see even there the distinction between the questions about practice time and preparing for a team where he'll go into fascinating detail and praises a practice squad guy and the third string QB. Then the "how about Rex getting fired hehe" questions where he won't waste his time.
Thanks for posting those answers. They're really great and you can see even there the distinction between the questions about practice time and preparing for a team where he'll go into fascinating detail and praises a practice squad guy and the third string QB. Then the "how about Rex getting fired hehe" questions where he won't waste his time.
Yes those were terrific. It's like the old JD Drew test: if you think Belichick is lousy in interviews you are an idiot.
Playoff wins by AFC East Coaches, 2000-present:
1. Belichick 22
2. Ryan 4
3. Edwards 2
4. Wannstedt 1
5. 16 way tie (0)
Two coaches (Bowles and Ryan) coached two teams but are counted once each.
Edit: I hear people saying all the time that NFL teams fire coaches too quickly. But almost all of the other 19 AFC East coaches during Belichick's tenure in fact sucked. Obviously the Dolphins would probably have been well-served to figure out how to keep Saban, and maybe Gase is the real deal but what about the Bills? They'd likely have been best off with an 80+ Marv Levy. And the Jets? Maybe they should have just kept Herm.
Edit2: The Patriots only have two wins in the Wild Card round since 2000. The Jets have four and the Dolphins have one. So there's that oddity.
Playoff wins by AFC East Coaches, 2000-present:
1. Belichick 22
2. Ryan 4
3. Edwards 2
4. Wannstedt 1
5. 16 way tie (0)
Two coaches (Bowles and Ryan) coached two teams but are counted once each.
Edit: I hear people saying all the time that NFL teams fire coaches too quickly. But almost all of the other 19 AFC East coaches during Belichick's tenure in fact sucked. Obviously the Dolphins would probably have been well-served to figure out how to keep Saban, and maybe Gase is the real deal but what about the Bills? They'd likely have been best off with an 80+ Marv Levy. And the Jets? Maybe they should have just kept Herm.
Edit2: The Patriots only have two wins in the Wild Card round since 2000. The Jets have four and the Dolphins have one. So there's that oddity.
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So if I read you right - outside of wildcard games that function as play-ins to the games involving the really good teams in each year's playoffs, BB has 20 wins (22 minus two wild card wins), and the rest of the AFC East combined has 2? (total of 7 minus 5 WC round wins - both by Ryan, I think). Pats 10x the rest of the division combined? That's insane.
Speaking of which, the Patriots have only lost 2 Divisional round games (out of 12) since 2000.
In retrospect, those two Jets AFCC appearances really were the highlights for not just that franchise, but the entire non-Pats AFC East over the last 17 years—they're the only times another AFC East team has played in the championship game in that span.
The Patriots have played as many games in the AFCC and SB since 2000 (16 games) as all other AFC East teams have in the playoffs total.
In retrospect, those two Jets AFCC appearances really were the highlights for not just that franchise, but the entire non-Pats AFC East over the last 17 years—they're the only times another AFC East team has played in the championship game in that span.
The Patriots have played as many games in the AFCC and SB since 2000 (16 games) as all other AFC East teams have in the playoffs total.
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In case you know a Jets fan tell them the Jets have won 11 or more regular season games 4 times in franchise history (1960). Tom Brady has done it 13 times. Their franchise record is 12 wins, which Brady has matched or eclipsed 11 times, including the last 7 seasons.
So, the best record in football, without a healthy Gronk, trading Jamie Collins, and the greatest player of all time missing 4 games. The defending Super Bowl teams will be watching the playoffs at home. It's hard to overstate the greatness that is the BB/Brady Patriots.
Know what's crazy about this season? They were really, really close to actually going undefeated again.
They lost at home to Buffalo because TB12 was out due to a suspension that should have never happened. With TB they win that game, what, 9/10 times? 19/20 times? Hell, with JG they probably win that game 8/10 times.
Then they lost on a goal line stop against Seattle.
Unreal. A BS suspension and one great goal line stop by SEA away from a possible 16-0.
They lost at home to Buffalo because TB12 was out due to a suspension that should have never happened. With TB they win that game, what, 9/10 times? 19/20 times? Hell, with JG they probably win that game 8/10 times.
Then they lost on a goal line stop against Seattle.
Unreal. A BS suspension and one great goal line stop by SEA away from a possible 16-0.
The team would be much much much worse off heading to the playoffs with an undefeated season hanging over their heads.
No, not saying that, just saying that without DFG, they're merely a play away - at the goal line - from at least tying that Seattle game and then...who knows.
I suppose the larger point is nobody really outplayed them all season. Seattle won, but that game was close to a coin flip. There was no Arizona at home, Cleveland on the road, or Philly at home "WTF?"-kind-of-loss this season where they just didn't show up ready to play 60 minutes.
They busted ass all year. This team is scary as shit because they don't seem to lose focus or fall into occasional mental lapses. They could have won every game, sans the BUF game, but that was basically because the NFL gifted that game to the rest of the league.
I'm not saying I wish they had done it; I'm crediting them for being so efficient all year that had they not been forced to play 1/4 of the season with one hand tied behind their back, and had they completed that comeback against Seattle, they're undefeated. They were really, really close to actually doing it again. Nobody "ran away" with a legitimate W over them all year.
Joe Thomas has made every single start at left tackle for the Browns since being drafted in 2007. He has lost 112 games, which is three fewer than Belichick has lost in 22 years of coaching.
(Edited to do correct math. Sorry.)
(Edited to do correct math. Sorry.)
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Holy shit I love this one.
Here's mine for today:
20 teams in NFL history have won at least 14 games in an NFL season. The Pats in the BB/TB era represent 1/5 of those seasons (2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2016).