Wednesday, February 06, 2008

No Excuses

I'm a little disappointed.

More in my fellow Pats fans than in the game.

I'm beginning to see the excuses surface from Patriots fans. The clock was mismanaged by the refs, the Patriots gave the game away, Arlen Specter brought up Spygate at an inopportune time. It's all a crock.

The Patriots were outplayed, pure and simple.

We saw from week two that the this team could put aside the distractions of Spygate, and there was nothing unusual about how the clock was run (I saw the film, and all I can say is the guy who did that didn't have a full understanding of how the clock gets run, and maybe he should look up the rules before he starts any conspiracy theory. I won't justify his theory any further by posting a link to it).

The team was lucky that the defense played as well as they did, or this could have been a rout because our offense was smoked. The defense, in spite of two crucial misses in the last minute (the missed sack and the missed interception), kept the team in the game.

As for the excuses - do you, as a Patriots fan, really want to be lumped in with the Ravens fan conspiracy theorists, or the Raiders fans that still whine that they had the game stolen from them based on a rule that's in the books?

Stop the excuses, stop the whining and deal with the pain. After decades of last minute losses by the Red Sox and Patriots, have we really become so soft that we can't recognize the Giants' accomplishment?

Get it together people, I don't want to be embarrassed to be a New England fan. Make me proud and take it like a fan that actually knows the game well enough to know that our team was handed their hats.

9 comments:

David Sullivan said...

I make no excuses except we lost to th eteam that played better that day, barely better. Spector, Spygate, etc...are all media concoctions that took away from my enjoyment of the game as much as losing did.

How about that asshole Strahan with his "stomp 'em out" shit he was spouting at the parade or his comments about "they be wearing black in New England today".

Kevin Smith said...

Honestly, I haven't been watching. I figure all I'll be seeing are the knee jerk reactions to the game without any great perspective. And really, I'm not sure that's any worse than Larry Izzo starting the crowd in a "Yankees Suck" chant at a Super Bowl parade. I get that he was pandering to the crowd, but the day was supposed to be about the Pats, not the Sox. You didn't hear Bobby Kielty yelling "Colts suck," to the crowd.

All that said, I think the Giants have a harder road to go to get back than they currently realize, and that won't be over until the post-Super Bowl hangover is gone...and for a lot of the younger ones, it might not go away until they start seeing how teams are playing them come September.

David Sullivan said...

I hear ya, but Strahan made this physical motion like he was stomping out someone with army boots. Are you kidding me? He better retire because making a general statement like Yankees Suck is childish, but doesn't hurt anyone. Saying you stomped someone when with 35 seconds to go you were losing not only is inaccurate, but begs a violent response, not from the Patriots fans, but the players. If you haven't been listening to Strahan, good for you, but he is out of control and should be happy he won. He sounds bitter, like they lost and were disrespected.

Kevin Smith said...

It's a shame he feels he has to act that way. I'm sure it's born out of a league wide resentment at what the Patriots have accomplished this decade - I'm not excusing it, I'm just guessing at the motivation.

Teresa said...

A nice post.

Believe me, I feel your pain. We lost to San Diego because we played poorly. I don't think that they are overall a better team, just on that day and that was what counted, just as in this instance.

If the Pats had lost in about week 1-14 and the outcome would have been different, I bet.

I certainly believe that the Giants will have a tough road to make it back next year, but who knows, eh? That is why they play the game.

Chris Stone said...

The Pats defense really stepped up. I don't have a t.v. ... and I've been avoiding sports news on-line because I just don't want to hear about it... so I'm missing the whining.

The only excuse I'd make is, having a near perfect season must be incredibly draining. But the Giants were really on a roll.

I do think that if BB can pull things together team wise... they should be great again next year.

Kevin Smith said...

Thanks for the kind words T. I'm looking forward to the renewal of the rivalry next season.

And Chris, I'm sure that the perfect season wore on them - maybe more than a season in which they lose a regular season game, but they still need to finish. I know you're not making excuses, just saying, you gotta finish what you start.

As for me - I've been trying to avoid the television myself for a couple of reasons - one, I think I was on overload from the coverage the last two weeks. Two, I just don't need to hear the knee jerk reactions. I know what they are, I don't need to hear them right now.

As for my statement - I realize that not everyone is making excuses - but there are enough that I'm seeing plenty of it, and I for one don't want to be lumped in with the whiners who still complain about the Immaculate Reception, the Tuck Rule, or the the idea that the NFL had some big conspiracy that caused one of my team's coaches to call a timeout and help my team lose a game that they should win.

Sorry that was rambly - I just put my daughter to bed.

Anonymous said...

I don' think anyone is making excuses, really...but it's just fun to plant a seed of doubt about the veracity of the Giants' win in the minds of haters and watch them get all stirred up again.

David, really, there's no need to agitate youtself by watching any of that crap. Strahan has ALWAYS been a classless jerk, so why should a SB win make him any less so? I'm like Chris...I haven't really watched any sports online or on tv since the SB because I don't have to. I will in another week or so, probably, when ST starts for real.

sugarshane024 said...

Like David said, we lost to a team that played better on that given day. I'm not saying the Giants are a better team because they are clearly not. The Pats win that game 9 out of 10 times.

It's just a shame that the game unfolded the way it did. The offensive line crumbled, which opened up opportunities for the Giants D to get to Brady all game long. That set the tempo from the start.

Hat's off to the Giants, but the Patriots are a far superior team.