Posts Tagged ‘New England Patriots’

Gronk To Tampa with Brady Tampa can Set it and Forget it

Posted: April 22, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
Tags: , , , ,

I was driving home today from work and couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this:

The Patriots agreed to trade retired tight end Rob Gronkowski and a 2020 seventh-round pick (No. 241 overall) to Tampa Bay for a 2020 fourth-round pick (No. 139 overall) Tuesday, sources told the Herald. The Pats are sending Gronkowski’s rights to the Bucs, who will soon reinstate him as a member of their team. The future Hall of Famer retired last spring after nine NFL seasons that thrust him into the conversation of greatest tight end to ever play.

To say this is a game changer is the understatement of the year.

Tampa was already heading for a playoff birth with Brady surrounded by a plethora of good targets to throw to. Add to that the greatest tight end who ever played the game and who has played with Brady his entire career, a man who draws double coverage on every play and you can just hand Tampa that NFC trophy and forget it.

Not only are you getting Gronk but you are getting a fully healed and rested Gronk which makes him even more dangerour, and not only are you getting a fully rested and healed Gronk, you are getting a highly motivated Gronk. This is disaster for every team in that divsion and a Godsend for every receiver on that team because as long as Gronk is on the field not a single Tampa Bay wide receiver will be double covered this season, PERIOD!

Now in fairness this is football and any player including Brady and the oft injured Gronk is one play away from being out for the year, but if neither of them goes down then you might as well hand that 1st round bye to Tampa Bay because the road to the superbowl is going through them.

Now I just have to find out if any local radio station will be carrying their games because if the choice between watching Brady and Gronk and watching the Patriots is frankly no choice at all.

The Patriots Post Tom Brady Expectations Game

Posted: March 19, 2020 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
Tags: , ,

The Tom Brady Era in New England has ended.

Although it was not known at the time the coming of Tom Brady to the New England Patriots was a sports earthquake, much like the coming of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in Baseball or Bill Russell to the Celtics in Basketball or Wayne Gretzky to Edmonton in Hockey.

In all of these cases it was quickly established that the coming of said superstar meant that the franchise in question was now considered the prohibitive favorite to win the championship in their sport.

And with the exception of the Yankees who amazingly thanks to the coming of Lou Gehrig during the Ruth Era and Joe DiMaggio during the Gehrig Era and Mickey Mantle & Yogi Berra during the DiMaggio era in succession kept those high exceptions post Ruth the departure of Brady means a re-evaluation of the expectation for both the Patriots and for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Let’s start with the New England Patriots.

The New England Patriots began playing in 1960 and played with a quarterback other than Tom Brady starting games from that year though the year 2000. They played a 14 game schedule from 1960-1976 and a 16 game schedule since. The Patriots had a winning record in 22 out of those 41 seasons. Of those 22 winning seasons the teams best pre Brady Years in terms of wins were as follows

  • 1964 10-3-1
  • 1976 11-3
  • 1978 11-5
  • 1985 11-5
  • 1986 11-5
  • 1996 11-5

During that period these were the years that they won their division

1963, 1978, 1986, 1996, 1997

During that period these are the years they made the playoffs

1963, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998

Of those playoff years these are the years they won at least one playoff game

1963, 1985,1996,1997

During that period these were the years they made it to the Superbowl or the AFL Championship game pre-superbowl

1963, 1985, 1996

They never won a championship

So as you can see over 41 years the aNew England / Boston Patriots

  • Had a winning record 55% of the time
  • won 11 or more game (10 in a 14 game season) 14.6% of the time
  • won their division 12% of the time
  • made the playoffs 24% of the time
  • won a playoff game 9.7% of the time
  • went to a championship game 7% of the time winning 0%

Tom Brady took over as the Patriots starting QB during the 2001 season and remained the starting QB through the 2019 season. During that 20 year period these are the season where they did NOT win at least 12 games

  • 2001 11-5 (partial Brady Season)
  • 2002 9-7
  • 2005 10-6
  • 2008 11-5 (Brady injured game 1 out for season)
  • 2009 10-6
  • 2018 11-5

These are the seasons during the Brady years that the Patriots did NOT win their division or make the playoffs

2002, 2008

These are the seasons during the Brady years that the Patriots dd NOT win a playoff game

2002,2008,2009,2010, 2019

These are the seasons during the Brady years that the Patriots did NOT go to the Superbowl

2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010,2012,2013, 2015, 2019

So lets sum up during the Tom Brady Years

  • Had a winning record 100% of the time
  • The Patriots won at least 12 games 70% of the time
  • The Patriots won their division & made the playoffs 90% of the time
  • The Patriots won at LEAST one playoff game 70% of the time
  • The Patriots went to the Superbowl 50% of the time
  • The Patriots WON the superbowl 30% of the time (67% of the times they went)

Or to put it another way, the best New England/Boston Patriots seasons in their pre-Brady years would be considered failures during the Brady years and their three appearances in the Superbowl/Championship would all be rated at best disappointments in the Brady era.

Now the Tom Brady Era has officially ended which means that unless Jarrett Stidham or any quarterback that they draft this season turns into the 2nd coming of Lou Gehrig logically our expectations for Patriots should return to a pre-Brady level to wit.

Any year that the New England Patriots post Brady:

  • Have a winning record: should be considered OK
  • Win 11 games: should be considered a success
  • Win their division: should be considered a big success
  • Make the playoffs: should considered a huge success.
  • Win a playoff game: should be considered an spectacular success
  • Go to the Superbowl: should be considered an extraordinary success
  • Win a Superbowl: should be considered a Miracle

Now there are those who consider that a fair amount of Tom Brady’s success in general and the Patriots success in particular should be given to Coach Bill Belichick who some consider the greatest coach in Football history. For those of you who consider this the case let’s make a slight adjustment.

Any year the New England Patriots Under Belichick post Brady

  • Win a Superbowl, it’s an extraordinary success
  • Go to the Superbowl it’s a spectacular success
  • Win a playoff game it’s a Huge success
  • Make the playoffs, it’s a big success
  • Win their division, it’s a success
  • Win at least 11 games, it’s an OK season
  • Win less than 11 games…fire the bum!

These are reasonable expectations. I suspect that Patriots fans after two decades of winning will not be as generous as me with their expectations.

Under The Fedora on Monday “Moderate” Opinion, Why Dems Attack, Selling China Rice, The Church following the rules, and a Pat’s still bring fear

Posted: December 1, 2019 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, business, culture, economy, media, News/opinion, nfl, politics, Sports, trade, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , ,

If you want to know why people don’t give “Moderate” Muslims the benefit of the doubt this is why

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

It wasn’t long ago when such a piece would be too fringe even for the Guardian.

I think this tweet is the single best political justification for the media/left’s actions on Trump that I’ve read

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

if you are the party out of power looking to regain it the last thing you want is for the people being “the happiest they’ve ever been” when your foes are in charge.

At the Doug Ross Journal (where I found the above tweet) I saw something that jumped out at me.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

It turns out this isn’t a new story:

The U.S. can now ship rice to China for the first time ever, signaling a win for President Donald Trump in his efforts to reshape the trade relationship just after talks between the nations broke down Wednesday.
Officials from the nations finalized a protocol to allow for the first-ever American shipments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday in a statement. China is the world’s biggest rice consumer, importer and producer.

That’s from 2017 and this is from Feb

While there’s no guarantee, farmers and millers are increasingly optimistic because the Chinese ban has been lifted, a handful of U.S. rice mills have been cleared for export, and China is looking to make the Trump administration happy with commodity purchases.
It was in December that China took a major step toward making that happen, changing its customs regs and officially lifting its ban on U.S. rice. Separately, China has now officially cleared seven of the 34 U.S. rice mills that USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has asked China to certify under the country’s sanitary and phytosanitary regulations, U.S. industry and government officials tell Agri-Pulse. The remaining mills are still under Chinese consideration, sources say.

Oddly I don’t remember reading it before. Remember Media Bias isn’t just what gets reported, it’s what gets promoted.

Apparently a judge in Michigan believes it’s discrimination when a catholic priest decides not to enable her in a state of mortal sin to commit further mortal sin.

Judge Sara Smolenski, the chief judge of Michigan’s 63rd District Court, received a call from the priest at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, requesting she not attend communion.
“This is not about me against the priest, and it’s not really me against the church,” Smolenski told CNN. “This feels like selective discrimination. Why choose gay people, and why now?”
Smolenski, 62, said that the Rev. Scott Nolan, the priest at St. Stephen for approximately three years, called her on November 23 and told her, “‘It was good to see you in church on Sunday. Because you and Linda are married in the state of Michigan, I’d like you to respect the church and not come to communion.’”

Actually given the Pope we have the idea of a church actually enforcing the rules of the church might actually be newsworthy.

Finally thanks to my injury I was able to watch the entire Patriots game this weekend and see them one guy keeping his balance on an onside kick away from a shot at yet another miracle comeback.

It’s a testament to what Brady has done in the past that when they managed to score the 2nd of the three scores they needed for a chance that even with under a minute to go and no time outs kicking the ball that you could hear double in the voices of the announcers in a game that should have been over and feel fear in the stadium after Edelman caught that touchdown, but in reality the Texan response was classic Patriot defense by a former Pats defensive coordinator, leave the other team just enough space and just enough time to get close but still lose.

Bill Belichick’s Antonio Insurance Now in Play

Posted: September 21, 2019 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
Tags: ,

Penny: Here you go, (to Leonard) Quesadilla, (to Howard) Salad, (to Raj) Here’s your pizza. And thanks to Sheldon’s heated discussion with my manager, one barbecue bacon cheeseburger, barbecue sauce, bacon, and cheese on the side.
Sheldon: Thank you!
Penny: Go ahead. Eat it. I dare you!

The Big Bang Theory: The Panty Pinata Polarization 2008

There was a rather amusing moment yesterday after the Patriots unexpectedly released wide receiver Antonio Brown Friday afternoon. Sean McVey is at a press conference and is asked if the Rams might be interested in Brown, here is the response.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Remember this is the same Antonio Brown who was voted 7th best player in the NFL for this season right behind Tom Brady and who caught a touchdown pass from that same Tom Brady last Sunday.

There are many reasons why the Patriots might have released Brown after only 11 days. Maybe they decided the charges against him are credible, maybe the text messages were the last straw, maybe they figured that the league was going to make him ineligible anyways and figured to get a jump on things, maybe after only 11 days they figured the distraction level wasn’t worth it or perhaps he just wasn’t picking up the system.

But one thing is sure, that the dynamic I mentioned in this post is now in play:

What’s the downside for the Pats if they cut him? The worst that happens is the betting line get slightly worse on them AND the best that happens is Tom Brady has yet another motivation to prove himself to the pundits who will all declare how losing Brown hurts the Pats chances.


Meanwhile what’s the downside for Brown? You not only become the guy in a contract season who has confirmed to every GM in the league that you are uncoachable,

Now in fairness to Brown this likely has more to do with new revelations that being coachable, but consider this.

If you’re Kansas City, or Baltimore or the Chargers or Dallas or Seattle or the Rams before the Patriots signed Antonio Brown you might have been thinking that the 7th best player in the league might be just the guy to put their team over to top to dethrone Brady and Co

Now that the Patriots have ditched him after only 11 days do you think there is going to be a single team out there that’s an actual threat to the Pats that will take the risk, and that’s of course assuming the league allows him to play?

Signing Antonio Brown on the roster for those 11 days might turn out to be the greatest insurance policy every written for a NFL team.

Older Entries
Newer Entries