Football Outsiders and Cold Hard Football Facts are my two most favorite sites for football analysis. Each have their own methodology that goes beyond simple stats.
Here’s a round up of where the Pats rank in each of CHFF’s categories…
new england patriots
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/player.swf
OK, like Bill Belichick, there’s no other quarterback I’d rather have than Tom Brady. You could write a thousand articles about why one is the better quarterback like some moron Colts fan on Bleacher Report used to do. Seriously, he would write one daily on why Peyton was better. And would pull random stats to back him up. It was maddening and he seemed completely clueless that no one took him seriously, except himself.
You could also look at NFL Films Top 100 players ranking and argue about that. The truth is it’s all subjective and there will never be a final definitive conclusion. Though if Brady wins one more Super Bowl and Peyton doesn’t win any more, it kinda puts the final nail in the argument for me, (not that the final nail isn’t already in and about half way into the coffin but hey, I’m as biased as they come). But even then you’ll have people who say Peyton never had the team around him and blah, blah, blah…
But there is one thing that is not debatable. And that is that Peyton Manning is the better actor than Tom Brady. Sorry Pats fans, but it’s absolutely true and it’s not even close. This skit is hilarious and unfortunately given the same script Brady would’ve never pulled it off in the same way Peyton does. It would’ve been awkward and stiff like every time Brady “acts”.
Maybe we could just convince Peyton to go to acting full time?
(Source: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/ok-like-bill-belichick-theres-no-other/
CHFF: Patriots – Colts Prediction
The only thing I hate more than power rankings are score predictions and as you can probably tell I rarely post them. But the Cold Hard Football Facts always lays out some nice stats to back up their reasoning and they’ve got some good stuff here.
Indianapolis at New England (-3.5)
The Colts and Patriots square off for the eighth year in a row – easily longest streak of non-divisional competition in the NFL. (Before 2002, they faced each other twice each year as divisional foes).
As usual, this annual matchup of AFC heavyweights has big post-season implications. Remember, the winner of the season series has gained homefield advantage over the other in each of the past nine seasons that both have made the playoffs. The winner of the regular-season series has also gone on to win the AFC title six times in nine years.
Those are some heavy-duty implications.
The main difference between the teams right now is Indy’s ability to play halfway decent pass defense (15th in Defensive Passer Rating; 8th in Passer Rating Differential).
The Patriots continue to slog along near the bottom of the Defensive Passer Rating table (27th) and they’re merely mediocre (16th) in Passer Rating Differential (+2.35) despite the fact that Tom Brady’s have another excellent, highly efficient season (17 TD, 4 INT and fourth in the NFL with a 98.8 passer rating).
New England’s pass defense is a huge liability in this game. The only hope? Peyton Manning is in the midst of a rare streak of mediocrity: a dismal 5.6 average per attempt and 75.5 passer rating over the past three weeks.
New England’s No. 3-ranked Offensive Hogs versus Indy’s No. 22-ranked Defensive Hogs should be a concern for Colts fans. Indy is dead last in run defensive, allowing opposing runners an average of 5.0 YPA.
But elsewhere this game pretty even. Brady has not lost a regular season game at Gillette Stadium since 2006 and is one win away from tying BrettFavre’s NFL record for consecutive home (regular season) wins.
We’ve been fairly dead on predicting Indy’s consistent string of wins over the Patriots in recent years. And a snap back to form by Manning could quickly make this game a runaway in favor of the Colts.
But Manning’s recent struggles, New England’s ability to control the tempo on Sunday, and the long string of home success by the Patriots leads us to believe that they’ll eke out a win against a team whose only road wins have come against the struggling Broncos and Redskins.
New England 27, Indianapolis 26
And now something to distract you from the building anticipation of Colts-Patriots this coming Sunday… let’s meet some of the Patriots cheerleaders in this Dirty Water TV segment from Ned Devine’s “celebrating” the release of the 2011 calendar.
The cheerleaders at my high school weren’t quite as cute as these girls. In fact, we called them “The Herd”.
But these Patriots cheerleaders are classy all the way. I think. Great job, ladies. Keep up the great work.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/and-now-something-to-distract-you-from-the/
http://www.hulu.com/embed/G0rCExlvY-lja9B7sBgi6g
And here it is, the crown jewel of disappointing Colts losses. Do yourself a favor and only watch the first half.
NFL Network was recently replaying this game with commentary and I was feeling a little too good so I decided to watch it. This was the first time I had seen a single frame of this game since turning the TV off after it ended and not turning it back on until the draft in April.
Tedy Bruschi made some comments saying basically they just physically beat up by the Colts in this one, and that the Colts had earned it. Whatever. But this was the first time we saw how quickly a lead can evaporate against the Peyton Manning.
This of course is the second worst loss of the First Patriots dynasty.
(Source: http://www.hulu.com/)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/and-here-it-is-the-crown-jewel-of-disappointing/
Happy to see that other people have caught on that Brady is so past the Bieber phase. The Keanu phase is a great call. See below:
(Source: http://cdn.tauntr.com/)
https://www.patspropaganda.com/happy-to-see-that-other-people-have-caught-on-that/
Defensive Backs Snap Graph 11/17
What can we determine from what we see here? Sergio Brown and Patrick Chung ate into James Sanders’ play time a bit this past weekend. Chung played a lot of nickel corner at the expense of Jonathan Wilhite. Brown came on the field before Wilhite did as well. Not sure what this is a reflection of, especially since Wilhite looked okay against the Browns.
McCourty/Meriweather/Arrington don’t leave the field and I suspect Chung might be the same way if he wasn’t cramping/coming back from an injury.
Excel made a good choice in assigning Darius Butler’s line the color brown, we have no reason to suspect that he’ll get back into a heavy playtime rotation any time soon. That of course is unless the Pat decide to put 8 defensive backs on the field against Peyton Manning.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/defensive-backs-snap-graph-1117-what-can-we/