The Football Diner Big Top 5
The Patriots will run the table this season
by Jody Jamieson
6/11/2007
 
I have always been one of those staunch traditionalists that believes that no matter what happens in the NFL, no team is going to have an '0' on either side of their record come the end of the regular season. The Dolphins and Rams are both 0-8, but in truth, both of those sides will get a win from somewhere. Famous last words perhaps, but they're not that bad, are they? But I'm going against my conventional thinking after all these years. Yep, I think the New England Patriots will go undefeated this year. They've drubbed the Dolphins, battered the Bengals and this week took their biggest scalp of the season by conquering the Colts in Indianapolis 24-20. Indy played good football, and the Pats did struggle at times, but made the key plays when it mattered. They sit 9-0, and in this weeks Patriots-heavy Top Fives, I will give you the reasons why this team can buck the trend and run the table this season.
 
5. Remaining Schedule
 
The Patriots schedule for the rest of the season is actually not that bad. Three of their remaining seven games sees them take on their divisional rivals in Foxboro. Buffalo look like a team who could give anyone a game but will more than likely be brushed aside. The Dolphins will be brushed aside, and the Jets will talk a lot of smack in the build-up because of the spy-gate scandal before being smacked-up on the field. Baltimore have been disappointing and will likely go down at home. The Eagles and Steelers visit Gilette Stadium in Weeks 12 and 14 respectively and while the Steelers should give them a game, it should be too much for them. The Eagles won't be able to get anything going more than likely and should lose. That leaves New England 15-0 with just one game to go. Last game of the season? How about the Giants in the Meadowlands! This is the biggest stumbling block. I think the Patriots will be 15-0 going into this game, barring injury disasters or something equally ridiculous in the build up. Mark December 29th in your calender as the date the Patriots could make history. Conventional thinking will tell you that most teams will put in the back-ups in the last couple of games. But will this team? Only time will tell.
 
4. The passing game
 
This goes without saying. Last year Brady wasn't secretive about the fact that he was underwhelmed by the receiving options he had. So the Pats go out and add Moss, Stallworth and Welker to just make things ludicrous. Brady is a happy camper and proceeds to throw touchdown pass after touchdown pass to these new weapons and sits on 33 for the year. Another topic for another time, but what if they were to add Chad Johnson to the mix next year? Doesn't even bear thinking of! The Pats have been missing tight-end Benjamin Watson to a certain extent in recent times, although he was back for the visit to the RCA Dome. But with Randy Moss capable of making 1 handed catches in double coverage, Dante Stallworth making catches and then breaking tackles when he has the ball, and Welker good for 8 or 9 catches in every single game, I think not having Watson is far from a disaster. The running game has done it's job over the season. The only reason it doesn't have a whole host of yards is that it hasn't always been called upon. With Laurence Maroney going down injured for a few games early on, Sammy Morris had done well before he went down, Kevin Faulk is a dual threat, and even 4th stringer Heath Evans has got in on the act, scoring a touchdown against Dallas. Although in fairness another part of the reason he's got in on the act is that the Patriots normally have the game beyond doubt with 30 minutes to play. Morris is out for the year, but Maroney is back and doing a good job. The Patriots don't use the run as often as most teams, but they make sure to make it work when they go to it. Add all this together with arguably the best offensive line in football and the Pats could probably never run the ball again and still win games. Brady is on course to have the greatest season of any quarterback in NFL history, and doesn't look like slowing down anytime soon. Which leads me nicely on to number 3.
 
3. The quest for history
 
Tom Brady doesn't just want to set a new record this year by passing for the most touchdowns in a season. He wants to set a mark that will still be there long after he's gone. I thought when Peyton Manning threw 49 in 2004 we had seen history that may never be touched. Just 3 years late that record is a goner, barring an injury for Brady. The biggest question is when the record will go rather than if. Week 15 against the Jets would probably be a tasty week to throw touchdown number 50, but in truth, it could be done and dusted before then. This isn't the only record the Patriots will be chasing, and this season could see them go down in the record books as the greatest offense of all time. They are on course to beat the 556 points the 1998 Minnestoa Vikings put up. Randy Moss has his eyes on Jerry Rice's receiving touchdown record for a season (22 in 1987) and of course, there's the small matter of being the first team to go undefeated since 16 games were introduced to the NFL season, and since the 1972 Dolphins went 14-0 on their way to victory in Superbowl VII.
 
2. Spy-gate
 
Say what you want about this event, but it has given Bill Belichick the extra motivation that you really didn't want to nor need to give him. For those who've beeen living on Jupiter during this season, the Patriots were caught filming the Jets defensive signals and were fined $250,000 and stripped of a first round draft pick for 2008. It would have been a second and third draft pick if they didn't win the play-offs but that is more than irrelevant right now. Belichick was fined $500,000 and at the time it left people wondering how valid the Patriots three Superbowl titles really were. Belichick seems to have made it his reason for living to prove that the Patriots were for real and didn't have to take short-cuts to be the best team in the NFL. The best way to prove you didn't need to cheat to beat the Jets 38-14? Beat a better team 38-14 the next week! Since then they haven't slowed down, and are actually scoring more points, albeit to the dissatisfaction to some claming they have been running the score up. I'll come back to that later on. Without the aid of video cameras they have looked better than they ever did. I have grown up an Aberdeen supporter in our football and part of the pre-Sir Alex Ferguson mystique was the ability to make his players think that it was them against the world and everyone was against them, a trick he later carried on at Old Trafford. I see it happening now in New England as Belichick is making sure his players are sticking two fingers up at the world with every week that passes. A siege mentality can be a winning mentality.
 
1. The best team ever?
 
This team, in my view even at this early point of the season will be the best team to ever do one of two things. the 2007 New England Patriots will go down in history as either the best team ever, or the best team ever to not win the Superbowl. At this moment in time you can put up a strong argument for claiming they have the best coach, the best quarterback, the best receiving core, the best offensive line, and the best defense in the league with only a couple of arguments. I never got to see the 1972 Dolphins play firsthand, but from what I have seen, this is the best team in football from this decade, and barring a collapse, will be thought of by many as the best team of all time. I know it's could be seen as a little early to say that, but they are so dominant on both sides of the ball, it's hard to see anyone stopping them. A team with more than it's fair share of future Hall of Famers, with a Hall of Fame coach, and we're seeing history unfold. They've played excellent football this season, and in truth the 73 yard touchdown catch by Joseph Addai was the only awful defensive play I've seen the Patriots make this season. Addai did well, but in truth, he was gifted the room to run as the Patriots got themselves in a real mess for the first time this year. You may not like them, and hell, you may not even respect them. What you cannot deny is that they are a great football team, and will be hard to stop not just this year, but for a few years to come.
 
Interesting Fact
 
One of the things that has impressed me most about the Patriots this season has been their discipline. Not giving up too much penalties. But did you notice the stat that New England set a franchise record on Sunday for the most penalty yards in a game? 146 penalty yards was pretty monstrous, but at the end of the day, it didn't cost them as they ran out winners.
 
And Finally...
 
There has been the issue of running up the score needlessly cropping up, but at the end of the day, it's up to the defense to stop them. Instead, some seem to prefer to cry about it when they lose over 50 points, like Redskins linebacker Randall Godfrey did, complaining about the the Patriots "lack of class" for continuing to run up the score when the game was clearly over. I'd prefer to try and stop them, than moan about it later on. After all it's not up to New England to show mercy if Washington haemorrhage 38 points in the first half. I guess it's all easier said than done, but still, Godfrey in my eyes showed a bigger lack of class than the Patriots. Two plays stuck out for me in as New England demolished Washington in the first half last week. Play action on the 5 yard line and 11 Redskins bite, letting Mike Vrabel wander into the endzone and catch a touchdown pass with absolutely no pressure. If I was so alone in the endzone, I'd have been sniffing my own armpits to try and get a reasonable explanation that no-one was near me. Then for those who watched the Dolphins game and saw Brady attempt a fake spike, but threw it slightly out of the reach of Randy Moss. When they came down to "spike the ball" late in the second, the only thing that was going through my mind was "fake spike, lob to Moss" which they would probably keep doing till it works, and will probably keep doing. Apparently when the Redskins were going through Patriots game tape, they didn't buy into the thought that New England might just try this trick again. Yet I'm sitting in my living room looking forward to seeing if it works second time round. It's easy to coach football from the living room, and people do go over the score sometimes in criticising coaches, but for me it all seemed so obvious what was coming to everyone bar the Redskins. Because of this I have no sympathy and if the Redskins don't want the score to be run up, then they shouldn't be making it any easier than it already is.