16 posts tagged “undefeatedwatch”
Well, that didn't last very long...
If you know what I am like as a fan, then you will have been expecting this...
The historic regular season concluded today with the Patriots' 16th win of the season against zero losses. On top of that, the Patriots broke their own record for longest regular season winning streak (now at 19) and broke the all-time NFL record for most points scored by a team in one season.
16-0 is truly amazing. Only a true football genius could have predicted such a thing back in week 1.
Note the title of my week 1 post: "Brady to Moss, TD! Get used to it." Well, Tom Brady broke the record for most touchdown passes in a season and Randy Moss broke the record for most touchdown catches in a season, so I think we are all used to it by now.
Now it's time to start breaking all the NFL playoff records (and tie the most important one: 3-0)!
And so I present the full-color, completed New England Patriots UndefeatedWatch 2007:
15-0. Never been done before in the regular season.
On top of that, the Patriots have scored more touchdowns than any team in history. They also tied the all-time record (owned by the '04 Pats) for longest regular season winning streak at 18. And Tom Brady and Randy Moss are each one away from the single-season touchdown records at their respective positions.
And that was all in the first half. (The second half was marred by some pretty lousy offense but still worry-free due to consistently excellent defense.)
Meanwhile, next week's opponent, the Giants, clinched their playoff spot today, so maybe they won't try so hard against us. (Not that I think it really matters.)
Oh yeah, and 2 of those 3 are against the 3-10 Jets and the 0-13 Dolphins.
Tom Brady: 399 yards, 4 touchdowns and no interceptions against the #1 defense in the league? Ridiculous.
Today we clinched a first-round bye in the playoffs. One more win and we clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
OK, maybe I was a little worried this week.
Seriously, though, if Ben Watson and Randy Moss hadn't both dropped touchdown catches, we would have won it relatively easy.
The Patriots are 12-0 with only 4 games left in the season. Although the last 2 weeks should be enough for Patriots fans to stop taking them for granted, here's some more reason. If we were to assume the Patriots have a 90% probability of winning each game (which is ridiculous in the NFL, though less so when you have Tom Brady), they still would have only a 28% chance of going 12-0. 18.5% chance to go undefeated. (At 80% per win -- closer to reality -- the odds of going 12-0 and 16-0 go down to 7% and 3%, respectively.)
This is truly amazing what they're doing. Toughest test left is next week vs. Pittsburgh.
Nonetheless, we're 11-0 and just 5 weeks away from an undefeated season. Even before we played tonight, we had won our division, the first team to lock up a playoff spot (and tied for fastest team ever to do it). I had to reset the magic number on the UndefeatedWatch. It's now the number of wins or opponent (Colts) losses needed to lock up the #1 seed and homefield advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
The defense looked awfully beatable tonight, but Tom Brady was still Tom Brady. He padded his usual amazing 4th quarter stats and led the team to the game-winning drive, as usual.
The bad news today was the choke job by the Arizona Cardinals, missing a field goal in overtime then fumbling in the endzone to give San Francisco the win. How are we going to get the 1st pick in the draft if teams give the 49ers wins?
With the Pats at 10-0, almost 2/3 of the way to an undefeated regular season, and their toughest supposed competition remaining (the Steelers) losing today to the 1-8 Jets, things are looking good.
Unfortunately, there IS a major threat to the undefeated season looming. The Patriots only need 1 more win in the next 6 games to sew up a playoff spot. But the magic number for the best record is also down to only 5. That means that the Patriots could very easily lock that up by week 14 (or even week 13, if the Colts really choke), making their last 2 games completely meaningless. And teams generally lose meaningless games.
Let's hope Belichick and the players are all really lying when they say they're not thinking about 16-0.
Randy Moss and Wes Welker aren't half bad themselves.
And the Patriots are more than halfway to 16-0 (and just won their least winnable game).
