so let me get this straight..the Pats are better than 8 playoff teams, including the #1 NFC seed and the #2 NFC seed and the AFC East champ Dolphins? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/01/11/divisionals/2.html He also goes onto say that the Cardinals should thank NE for their success. Since NE beat them in a meaningless (to the Cards) week 16 game, The cards are a much better team because of it.
That makes my blood boil. A complete f*ckin' Chowderhead! Him and Bob Ryan perform fellatio on Bellychicken every Tuesday. How has no one in the media called these fools out for this blatant Chowderistic flaunting?!
New England finished 11-5 with Matt Cassell at the helm, getting better every game. Getting left out of the playoffs was just odd coincidence. They deserve that spot.
The #5 spot though? I mean, I can see an argument for putting them ahead of Miami and San Diego, but basically what he's doing is just bumping them up ahead of teams that have already lost the in the playoffs. The Patriots lost straight up to Indy and it's really hard to make a case of how they're better than Carolina, New York Giants, and Indy. Looks like sour grapes to me
At the risk of saying you guys were overrated....which might be true. The entire AFC East had a bloated record because of the crap teams in the AFC West and NFC West they had to play. Cassel HAD to look good against those chumps. None of em play particularly well on defense. of the bottom 8 teams for yardage allowed in defense. SIX of them were NFC/AFC West teams. Arizona....the lone remaining playoff team from those divisions ranked 16th. To be honest..the only reason the Jets didn't make the playoffs as the East representative was because you guys managed to lose to a few of those chump teams. A lot of people want to give Sparano a lot of kudos for turning round that program..and he does deserve some of it...but a lot of that had to do with who he got to face this year.
Yeah, that's dumb. The Dolphins and Atlanta are defensible, but I think it's pretty clear that the Giants, Cardinals, and Panthers ale definitely deserve to be higher than New England. Bob Ryan's not bad though. He's one of the few remaining good Globe sports columnists.
The Pats are better than every team below them with the possible exception of the Giants. Don't let missing the playoffs fool you, they are still one of the elite teams in the NFL. Quite likely still the best team overall.
