I'm quoting Steven Ruiz - As the season has worn on, this has become more of an issue. Watch Brady play in September, and he looks like a totally different quarterback. His feet are calm, he's more decisive with his throws and he appears to be more willing to hang in the pocket in order to hit on big plays. I'm looking forward to Dick Lebeau using the fact that Brady being paranoid about contact.

League will never allow NE to lose, so we can just hope Brady ruptures his achilles.

I think WC weekend was a mult-year low in ratings, and TEN/KC was absolutely abysmal. I would be absolutely shocked if NE and PIT don't advance.

Do you think the Cabal/league will allow fans to go to sleep Saturday night with the knowledge that TN, a team with a fan base of 2 million will be in the AFCCG? If by some extraordinary circumstances that did happen the league would never allow TN Jax championship. A hit on Brady, another freak play, something beyond league control.....

Just like Keith Butler, LeBeau has to employ the gameplan he used in 2011 - pressure up the middle + man coverage with zone sprinkled in. IDK if Butler has the personnel to pull it off. Early in the season, the Pats offense was parading up and down the field. Unfortunately for them, the pats defense was being paraded up and down the field as well. NE's offense became more pedestrian to hide its defense. Brady has long been a fainting goat when pressured - this is nothing new.

Brady is still good, and deadly in key situations, but he's in age decline. Brady this year reminds me of Manning in 2014. The following year, Manning was atrocious. Hope that holds up here.

I have some patriot fans on my social media feeds.

Some of them shared a teaser trailer for some video that some company did about Brady and his durability. The teaser seemed to focus on his fitness routine, diet, etc, etc.

All I could think about while watching it was "Of course the guy is durable, he's never taken a legit hit in his life."

11-2 and highest passer rating of any QB against any single team in over 25 years.

Lance Armstrong outliers

Brady's been less effective over the past month or so, off on his passes....is battling some injuries.

His best game? Against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

This may seem a little odd, but I've heard Brady say that he LOVES playing in Heinz Field, loves the venue, the energy, the excitement. Solely related to Brady....I'm hoping we see a less effective Brady in Foxboro.

I'm not being all the stuff about the league not allowing certain matchups. The Patriots certainly get some calls....but I don't think it's the point where it's determinitive.

I can think of one call that was pretty determinative off the top of my head...

I disagree. The calls/no calls they get are eerily right when they're needed.

First glance at the replay, I knew it was getting overturned.

NFL is not controlling game winners, incompetent refs are but not intentionally. Simply bad calls.

Me too. I was cheering, and then I saw the replay and said "oh fuck."

I don’t know about that. It looked like the dopes from ny overturned the call on the field by the refs that gave the patriots the win.

Brady never liked getting hit so common sense says to hit him. Shortest path to a cement footed qb is up the middle. Would like to see Javon Hargrave wake up from his season long slumber and get a few shots on ‘ol Tom...assuming the Patriots win of course

I don't know....that's their hand-picked Al Riveron doing most of it from NY. You'd THINK if for some reason he wasn't THE best, he'd at least be consistent.

Did you see my post where the Patriots lead the league in penalty first downs per game, and are also last in giving up penalty first downs per game? That seems like it would be determinative.

Also, its impossible to reconcile the Cooks TD and the James non-TD. That strikes me as determinative.

I am not claiming there is a grand conspiracy. But just like superstars get all the calls in the NBA, the Pats get all of the calls in the NFL.

My answer to this is beat their fucking asses then!

Stop playing scared and shit atrocious defense when you play them. Somebody make some big plays on defense for a change. Attack the ball. Play man with zero zone sprinkled in (that’s how they jumped out to a quick lead in the Pittsburgh game). Attack the pass and make plays on the ball and if you don’t have guys on defense who can do that by now then tuck you Tomlin/Colbert/Rooney.

Jessse James - catch the damn ball all the way to the ground if you want to win. The devil is in the details.

I am through with the bullshit excuses with this team.

We have a chance to go on another run with this team while we still have Ben. I hope they play, coach and manage desperate to win the next 3 games.

This one too:

yes that got a lot of press and quickly swept under the rug a few days later after the media official pundits correctly shamed the NFL for changing

that bullshit call cost me a win in Fantasy football.

This helps explain how all their stats are good, but not outliers---like their wins. For example, their qb
Isn't averaging 800 yards per game and they're not winning all those games 63-0. Kind of odd if you think about it.