Don't take yourself down to this level. Dalton is in his third year. He is likely going to take the team to the playoffs for the third time in three years (not very many teams can say this). He will only get better. He's not Payton Manning, but he will only get better. And if you do ditch him you run a significant risk of running into a run very similar to the one in the 90s.
Lived up to the billing, that should convince any doubters that the Panthers are for real. I'd say that's the best I've ever seen Cam play. Still impressed with us hanging in the game against that monster D. Having Gronk, Amendola and Vereen makes the offense click like it's supposed to.
In a perfect world, this would encourage the NFL to look at the rules regarding pass interference on underthrown balls cause I think its unfairly benefiting the QB right now for making bad throws in which a DB simply playing good D is often penalized as the WR abruptly changes course to adjust. But its the NFL, so we know that wont happen. That being said, that call last night was interesting.
I think it was totally a fair call. If you saw the interview before that, Brady knew he lost the game on the 3 previous plays. But we did get a sneak peak into what the offense looks like with all cylinders firing and that makes me fully tumescent. Carolina is a good team, so it works out. What Cam did to the defenses ankles still has be spooked. I mean goddamn.
The Panthers D is hardcore. Every year there's a sneaker, this year I think it's them. And what in the holy fuck was Talib doing in the first few plays of the game? Why was he not ejected for taking his helmet off on the field in that first series? Why did they not throw a flag when he grabbed Smiths facemask during their jawing after the second altercation? It's like the dude had roid rage or something. I understand he and Smith have a beef of some kind but fuck man, they let him get away with some shit last night.
Doesn't matter if the pass wasn't catchable, it's clearly defensive holding. The guy was bearhugging Gronk. Hopefully in the long run it doesn't matter, since we're making the playoffs either way. edit: Barnwell agrees.
I actually passed out during halftime. I hope ESPN isn't slamming the Patriots for shitting away a home game.
A TIE! Yes, it's better than a loss but fuck man, close the deal. The end is getting closer and closer.
Am I the only one who imagined Bill Belichek at halftime shooting some luckless assistant trainer in the back of the head in front of the team screaming "THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR WIVES IF YOU LOSE THIS GAME!!!!" No one, just me? Ok, then. Guess I'm weird.
Bruschi claims Belichick never yells. <a class="postlink" href="http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/page/bruschiontap-1125/ne-patriots-good-lucky-beat-denver-broncos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/p ... er-broncos</a> ^ Pretty interesting analysis all around. Also, you guys are lucky I got all my gloating out of my system elsewhere. Peyton "one-and-done" Manning was a non-factor outside of maybe 2 drives, and that offense was shockingly unable to ice the game up 24 points. They're both great, but I hope this settles the stupid "who's better" debate.
No, it'll have very little influence on that debate. Anybody can have a bad day, or fail to close. Anybody can be great and have an amazing comeback. One game doesn't make a tremendous difference overall. Brady will always be the better pure quarterback. Peyton will always be the better quarterback overall, because (besides being one of the greatest pure quarterbacks ever) he's also, for all intents and purposes, the O coordinator.
Nor am I. As soon as we settled for a field goal instead of a touchdown to go up by 16, I said out loud, "Well, we're not going to win". Such is the faith of the Vikings fan.