For Patriots, 16-0 Could Be Forgotten, but Not 19-0 By JUDY BATTISTA FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots’ pristine run through this National Football League season has drawn increasing scrutiny for two months, building to Saturday night’s regular-season finale against the Giants. Interest in the game, which could complete for the Patriots the first 16-0 regular season in N.F.L. history, has prompted an unprecedented national triplecast by television networks and a flurry of ticket scalping. For the Patriots, however, the game presents contradictions. With no playoff implications, it has only marginally more import than a midseason trip to Buffalo. Yet it is significant for posterity: Only three other N.F.L. teams have entered the postseason undefeated. Of them, only the 1972 Miami Dolphins are still remembered 35 years later because they won the Super Bowl. The others, the 1934 and 1942 Chicago Bears, lost in the league championship game and were largely forgotten. If the Patriots defeat the Giants, then fall short of a championship, what will they have accomplished? The spotless 1972 Miami Dolphins, whose perfect regular season was considered so unremarkable that they entered Super Bowl VII as underdogs against the Washington Redskins, understand the honors and the burdens that the Patriots have accumulated with each victory. “What was on the radar was, ‘Hey, it would be nice to win all your games, but if you win all your games and then flicker out in the playoffs, you’ll be known as the greatest team not to win the Super Bowl,’” tight end Jim Mandich from that Dolphins team recalled in a telephone interview this week. “That’s your tag. And the Patriots know it, too. They know, we know, everybody knows — it’s run the entire table or it’s a forgotten season. Nobody will remember 17-0 or 18-0.” Don Shula, who coached the 1972 Dolphins, was particularly tense before the Super Bowl. His team had lost the title game the year before, and he had coached the Baltimore Colts when they fell to Joe Namath’s Jets in Super Bowl III. On the Dolphins’ bus ride to the stadium in Los Angeles, he snapped at safety Jake Scott to keep it down. “What are you worried about, being the chokingest coach in the history of the Super Bowl?” Scott fired back, according to Mandich. Sports history is studded with teams that conquered the regular season only to fall short of championship glory. In 2001, Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners won 116 regular-season games, tying a record for regular-season victories set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Neither team is immortalized in baseball lore, though, because neither won the World Series. “It doesn’t matter if we had 80 wins and got to the postseason or 150 wins and got to the postseason,” the Mariners’ Mark McLemore told The New York Times after the Mariners lost to the Yankees in the 2001 American League Championship Series. “If you don’t end up winning the World Series, it’s a definite disappointment.” In the N.F.L., the Minnesota Vikings may best appreciate the peculiar standards the Patriots now face. In 1998, they put together the most dazzling offensive season in history, scoring 556 points for a record that the Patriots need only 6 more to break. The Vikings — including a spectacular rookie receiver named Randy Moss, who joined the Patriots before this season — finished that regular season at 15-1. Then, with injuries undermining them, they were stunned by the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football Conference championship game. After their seasonlong rampage, the Patriots find a similar fate nearly unthinkable. But if they lose to the Giants and lose at some point in the playoffs, they would plummet into the netherworld of teams remembered by fanatics and few others. Professional athletes are famous for their ability to compartmentalize, the better to block out the distractions and disappointments of their profession. The Patriots talk constantly about their 16 one-game seasons. The former Vikings coach Dennis Green still views 1998 that way. “You almost consider it separate,” Green said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “You’ve experienced relative success, and now you have a whole new challenge. You never can discredit what you’ve done. But no one is ever going to say it’s a successful season if you don’t win the Super Bowl.” At the Patriots’ practices this week, there was a single-minded focus on the Giants. Coach Bill Belichick has not mentioned a perfect season to his players — perhaps because he does not want them thinking about it, perhaps because he knows that even if they beat the Giants, a real perfect season is still three victories away. “We recognize what it would mean,” linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. “When you do something that’s never been done before, you should feel special about it. No matter how the regular season finishes, 16-0 or 15-1, we have to put it behind us. Because after that, there are bigger goals we want to accomplish.” If the Patriots win Saturday night, they will be celebrated for having constructed the greatest regular-season in history, a model of dominance in a league designed to thwart it. A loss in the playoffs would not mean the season would be forgotten; it would surely be remembered for all the wrong reasons. “Believe me,” quarterback Tom Brady said. “If we go 16-1 this year, no one’s going to be happy about that.”
Vindication for DolfanDale. She's basically saying the exact same things he's been saying for the past few days.
The Patriots aren't going to lose. Let's be real here..Bill Belichek is more focused this year than he's ever been and he's going to do whatever's possible to win this game to spite everybody who talked trash about them when spygate happened. I'm not scared of an Eli Manning-led team one bit. If the Giants are smart they'll play their starters for the first half, try to gain an offensive groove that can be carried into the playoffs and then rest their players for the second half. It's really no big deal whether or not the Patriots play their starters until the outcome is decided because they have a bye week next week. My only real fear today is the risk of an injury to Tom Brady because of the Giants elite pass rushing ability. So we should run in the shotgun formation as much as possible with a back staying to block everytime, throw short passes, get some records, take Brady out of the game when it's in hand and run the ball for the rest of the game. I honestly don't care if we win by 30 or if we win by 3. A win's a win and it will be momentum to carry into the playoffs.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (playaofthegame @ Dec 29 2007, 11:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Patriots aren't going to lose. Let's be real here..Bill Belichek is more focused this year than he's ever been and he's going to do whatever's possible to win this game to spite everybody who talked trash about them when spygate happened. I'm not scared of an Eli Manning-led team one bit. If the Giants are smart they'll play their starters for the first half, try to gain an offensive groove that can be carried into the playoffs and then rest their players for the second half. It's really no big deal whether or not the Patriots play their starters until the outcome is decided because they have a bye week next week. My only real fear today is the risk of an injury to Tom Brady because of the Giants elite pass rushing ability. So we should run in the shotgun formation as much as possible with a back staying to block everytime, throw short passes, get some records, take Brady out of the game when it's in hand and run the ball for the rest of the game. I honestly don't care if we win by 30 or if we win by 3. A win's a win and it will be momentum to carry into the playoffs.</div> This game is of equal importance to both the Giants and the Patriots. If the importance is zero, then its zero for both. If its important, then its important for both. The question is, who will pull starters out first? I will argue that the Patiots DO NOT need this game, and that it is in fact meaningless for them as well. If Belichik is *true* to his word, then he will do as he said and do "what's best for this football team". The best thing for his football team is to keep his star players out of harms way in an effort to preserve them for a long post season run. If Belichik does "whats best for this team", then he treats this game as a preseason game, only giving the starters time in the first quarter. Going for a perfect regular season record is strictly based on "vanity", and not on logic. The Pats have nothing to play for in this game. If you think that they should go beyond that, then the same should be said for the G-men, as vanity would also dictate that they keep all their starters in and go for the win, so they can have the distinction of stopping a team from going perfect.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (playaofthegame @ Dec 29 2007, 11:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>The Patriots aren't going to lose. Let's be real here..Bill Belichek is more focused this year than he's ever been and he's going to do whatever's possible to win this game to spite everybody who talked trash about them when spygate happened. I'm not scared of an Eli Manning-led team one bit. If the Giants are smart they'll play their starters for the first half, try to gain an offensive groove that can be carried into the playoffs and then rest their players for the second half. It's really no big deal whether or not the Patriots play their starters until the outcome is decided because they have a bye week next week. My only real fear today is the risk of an injury to Tom Brady because of the Giants elite pass rushing ability. So we should run in the shotgun formation as much as possible with a back staying to block everytime, throw short passes, get some records, take Brady out of the game when it's in hand and run the ball for the rest of the game. I honestly don't care if we win by 30 or if we win by 3. A win's a win and it will be momentum to carry into the playoffs.</div> Yeah, but going for records in this game is the equivalent of bragging about penis size. They need to not stress their starters too much, because its much more important to be healthy in the Superbowl.
There are hardly any chipped up player on the NE Patriots. The whole team is healthy and the defense is starting to peak. The only type of unhealthy thing in this game would be a freak injury to one of our glue guys. The only player who is hurting a little is OL Kazcur but the Patriots are deep at O-Line and can play this game without him. The biggest concern health-wise to me is TE Benjamin Watson.
