Start of the Season means diiiiick

The beginning of the season, hell the first three quarters of the season aren't that critical. Sure you got to win your share of games but don't kill yourself if the team isn't looking super bowl worthy.

A few years ago any time the Patriots lost I'd be up in arms and I think most people are like this. When you lose, the season's over and your team is screwed. Then the next week you win and all is well again. Well unless you are someone like the Titans, who had super bowl aspirations before the season and are now 0-4, then you aren't yet fucked. Recent history is on your side and allow me to show you some of examples of who gets to the super bowl and why most of these teams go on to win it.


2005. Ok not everyone can remember each season but let's go back to 2005. Two words - Indianapolis Colts. They started out 13-0 and made the best undefeated push (at the time) since the 1998 Denver Broncos. This was gonna be Peyton Manning's time and nothing was going to stop them. At midseason they molestered the Patriots for the first time in I think 1.3 billion games and stomped them at that. I want to say 40-23 off the top of my head. Hang on let me check http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200511070nwe.htm. Nope I was wrong 40-21. The Colts finally lost to the Chargers then played out the stretch with Jim Sorgi getting most of the snaps.

Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Steelers had a three game losing streak towards the end of the year (including getting rahhlled by Indy) that put them at 7-5. They didn't know if they were going to make the playoffs. The Steelers went on to win the last 4 games of the year to claim the #6 seed in the AFC. This, however, wasn't your 9-7 happy to be here #6 seed. The Steelers speared Carson Palmer in the leg to start their wild card game and beat the Bengals.

That brought up their 2nd round game with the Colts. Now taking a step back and looking at this from a history point of view you had two teams that were always good but always shat the bed cuz their wuss coaches played more conservatively & not to lose. So what would give here? Would Cowher shit the bed like he always did or would it be Dungy and Manning. The answer in this game is that they would both do their best to shit the bed but a 2nd Year QB - Ben Roethlisberger - for once didn't allow Pitt to paint their sheets brown.

The Steelers jumped out on the Colts and as the game went on, the Colts, along with some lucky calls, scrapped pretty close to the Steelers. In a key possession down 3 pts at the end of the game Manning was sacked on a 4th down and the game pretty much seemed over. However the Steelers tried their best to give this away. I can't say it any better than that video. Check out from the 2:10 mark on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFoT7FpEAcs&feature=related

Steelers sack, Cowher takes off the head set like they won, Bettis has the potentially worst fumble ever, and only the sickest, nastiest, off balance, slow qb tackle by Big Ben saves the day. Anyway the Steelers rode this momentum, beat the hell out of a shitty Broncos team and were able to win their first super bowl since Super Bowl XIV vs the Seahawks. Were the Steelers the best team all year? Nope. They got hot at the end when it counted.

2006. Who owned this year? Well early on no one played better than the Bears who came storming out the gate and had a defense/special teams unit like no one had ever seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYoApt68uhg. Is that actually Matt Leinart references, wtf?

The Chargers also were skinning babies out there going 14-2 that year followed by Baltimore at 13-3. Again, they don't give out Super Bowls for jumping out the gate early, you gotta finish strong.

The Colts had a super shitty defense. They had allowed I think close to 400 points and were if not dead last, then very close to last against the run http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/clt/2006.htm. This is not a formula to winning championships. BUT, what happened? Bob Sanders came back, the Colts played tougher, Manning played like he wasn't a deer stuck in headlights and they were able to get to the AFC Championship game. A few gay calls against the Pats, a few lame Reche Caldwell drops, a tired slow Pats defense, and a failed 3rd down to Troy Brown got the Colts to the Super Bowl where they destroyed Sexy Rexy and the Bears. The hot team down the stretch yet again took it home.

2007. Ughhhh, not one I want to delve into too deeply. I really do try my best to be objective and not just a complete homer so here goes... wheeew... Ok, the Pats came out this year just stomping people and rubbing it in. Every game was 38-14 it seemed to begin with a 52-7 and 56-10 sprinkled in. At around week 9 or week 10 this team was playing better than any other team in NFL history. Sadly they don't give out Super Bowls at this time.

The Giants meanwhile got rolled badly mid-year by the Vikings and New York tabloids were calling for Eli to be benched and Coughlin to be fired http://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/200711250nyg.htm. The Giants kept plugging away and by season's end gave the undefeated Patriots a run for their money in the regular season finale. The Giants had nothing to play for in position but the NFL playoffs are all about momentum. They got rolling after this, waxed the Bucs, beat the queermo Cowboys, and then went into Green Bay to watch Favre throw a bunch of critical INT's like he always does.

Come the Super Bowl, yes the Patriots were 18-0 to the Giants 13-6 but what does the record really matter??? It doesn't. It means diiiiiiick. Now I still think the Patriots win that match-up 80% of the time but what was more important was that the Giants were peaking while the Pats had already played their best ball.

The end result - the Giants pass rush tosses the Patriots O-lines salad and they scrap out a 17-14 victory thanks to Asante Samuel having no hands and a lucky helmet catch (I'm sorry I can't finish this paragraph objectively anymore). God, FML that is a loss that will follow me to the grave. Moving on....

2008 - Ok so the Steelers were a pretty legit team all the way through so you are probably saying to yourself "Joe you pube your reference about records is a load of shit, the Steelers were a top 3 or 4 team all season." HOWEVER, who did they play in the super bowl???? Who was 30 some odd seconds from winning it??? The 9-7, week 16 47-7 loser, Arizona Cardinals. I honestly don't know how they sparked up this momentum but something about that painful beating made Larry Fitzgerald turn into a superhuman player. I will full out admit that I have a man crush on Fitz. If I were a chick or gay I'd be on that like white on rice. Anyways the Cardinals rode their hot receiver (this is getting gay unintentionally now) and defeated the Falcons, Panthers, and Eagles on their way to the Super Bowl.

So to wrap it up. I wouldn't put a ton on how your team is playing right now. Yes, you obviously need to win games to get into the playoffs but an occasional dud is really no big deal. The Pats lost to the Jets week 2? Who fucking cares? The media runs with it like the Jets are for real and the Pats run is over. Get outta here, if the Pats don't thrash the Jets next time and win this division by at least 3 games then I'd be shocked.

Oh and check out this link... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=neumann/091002&sportCat=ncf ROLLLLLED!!!!!

thx to youtube, profootballreference, n espn for having awesome links