No Pitt falls left for Pats
Team looks Super, just wish games were more compelling
This is everyone’s latest take on how the remainder of the 2017 regular season is going to play out for the Patriots: Only one so-called “big game” remains.
That would be Sunday, Dec. 17, against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Duh. Here we go again. Everyone’s on board. It’s all Patriots all the time, and heaven help anyone around here who dares to run against the Patriot grain.
How crazy have things gotten around here? The other day WEEI’s Glenn Ordway dredged out an old storyline from 2001 about how Patriots quarterback Tom Brady doesn’t get enough respect from the national media.
But watch me out-fanboy the fanboys as I tell you the Patriots will pick the Steelers clean when they travel to Pittsburgh next month. That both the Pats and Steelers are 8-2 is irrelevant. The Pats are the superior team. End of discussion.
Well, actually, let’s get this out there and then we’ll end the discussion:
Tom Brady’s record in regular-season meetings with the Steelers is 7-2, and his quarterback rating in those games is 114.7. That’s second only to his 116.7 rating against the Falcons, and here’s a little fun fact about
that: Prior to this season’s victory over Atlanta, Brady was 4-0 against this bunch and every one of the wins were against editions of the Falcons that didn’t make the playoffs.
Bottom line: Brady has pretty much played his best football against the Steelers.
Line below the bottom line: Except for the part where New England goes undefeated, which a lot of people were chortling about back in July, we were all correct in our assessment of the 2017 Patriots. They’re really good. They’re going to the Super Bowl.
But . . . and I am going to choose my words verrrrrrrry carefully here ... I wish the games were better. I’m not saying the Patriots should be “playing” better, because they’re playing so well that the “A” on Ron Borges’ laptop is broken from all the times he’s used it this season while banging out his weekly report card.
I’m talking about the
games. The Pats are so good, and most other teams are so bad, that some of these so-called showdowns lack anything resembling competition. Admit it: If you remember anything about the Pats’ 33-8 victory over the Oakland Raiders Sunday in Mexico City, it’s going to be the one-shot of Raiders owner Mark Davis devouring snack food like it’s nobody’s business.
It’s obviously not a bad thing the Pats are this good while the others are that bad. And nobody’s suggesting the Pats are “running it up,” for that hasn’t been the case at all. What’s been in short supply, however, is the kind of gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, back-andforth game that reminds you why you became a sports fan in the first place.
The epic back-and-forth game’s bunkmate is the epic comeback, such as we saw in Super Bowl LI when the Patriots turned a 28-3 deficit into a 34-28 victory. Such a shocking turnaround would have lived forever in our minds even if it had taken place during the regular season; that it happened in the Super Bowl means that a century from now there will be football fans hovering over the field in their jet packs, telling the folks next to them, “The Pats’ comeback against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI? My greatgrandfather was there.”
In the end, most people don’t care whether the game is a blowout or a nail-biter. As a for instance, the Red Sox switchboard wasn’t swamped with complaints following the team’s four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series. All that mattered was that the Sox had won their first World Series in 86 years. Style points took a back seat in that one.
But there’s “in the end” . . . and there’s “in the moment.”
And this past Sunday, in the moment, I was a little bored.
I even rewound the telecast a few times to rewatch Mark Davis munching snack food.
I bet you did too.