Bill Belichick's team won't have that advantage this year like they've enjoyed throughout the 2000s. Even after Belichick was busted for taping hand-signals last year, it was too late for the other teams to come up with new ones, teach them to the players, and implement them into their games.. So even though he wasn't allowed to tape them from that point on, he was still one step ahead of the other teams and knew what plays they were going to run from all his previous tapings.
This year will be different though. Teams have had the time to incorporated new signals and Belichick will have to guess like everyone else.
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My Pats: Lying Low or Faded Glory?
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The offense at least had an excuse what with NFL MVP Tom Brady sidelined with a foot injury that, in the best Pats' tradition, wasn't detailed any more than his ankle injury was before the Super Bowl. The defense, however, had no excuses. And in each game the opponent marched virtually unmolested to a touchdown the first time it had the ball. Key free-agent signees expected to shore up weaknesses at linebacker and cornerback didn't even make the squad and the entire defense appeared a step or several too slow.
So now I'm terrified that the Super Bowl loss was not just a bump in the road, but rather the first precipitous decline that will mark the end of our dynasty. Most of my Pats brethren still embrace the bump theory. They, as well as most experts, insist that with a weak division and a remarkably easy schedule, the Pats are a lock for the playoffs. A few even suspect that the poor preseason showing may have been deliberate, reflecting Belichick's adaptability. Having seen his team falter down the stretch last season—and there were signs long before the Super Bowl—he may be opting for a slow build. After all, the 2001 Patriots that won the franchise's first Super Bowl started 1-3 and 5-5 and didn't find its rhythm until after Thanksgiving. Does anybody doubt that 11-5 ending with a championship beats 16-0 that ends without even the Miss Congeniality award. Belichick doesn't need to channel Vince Lombardi to know winning is indeed the only thing.
I deplore that sentiment, but fear I've come to share it—at least when it comes to being a member of the Foxboro faithful in the stands each home Sunday. I have been spoiled for most of a decade now and, at least for me, there's no turning back. I look at those San Francisco 49er fans, folks who witnessed the NFL's greatest glories, and wonder how they have endured the decline and the long years now of wretched football. If the Pats' Super Bowl loss to the Giants was, in fact, the beginning of the end, my stoicism and good sportsmanship will be exposed as frauds. And Terry and I will spend a lot of time planning Sunday brunches with our wives and, of course, weeping copious tears.
© 2008
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