| 1. | | | 2. | PACKWERS WIN | | 3. | | | 4. | | | 5. | indy's d | | 6. | How dominant the Colts were. | | 7. | Randy Moss | | 8. | saints sucking it huge | | 9. | Randy Moss | | 10. | | | 11. | The complete ease with which Randy Moss got behind the defense. | | 12. | | | 13. | Not so much surprised by the Patriots camera thing, just thought it was odd. What surprised me was the fallout. Its pretty widely accepted that every team tries to steal signs. The point people make is that the Patriots were so brazen and their offense (using a camera to RECORD signs)so egregious that it lent extra weight to the severity of their "crime". Why would people be surprised? The Patriots do everything better - at least organizationally - and to a greater extent than everyone else. Why would anyone think they wouldn't go one step beyond what other teams do? And the result was probably no different than what other teams get from having a backup or assistant coach try to observe signs. They probably didn't gain any in-game advantage, and the signs of opponents they will meet again will probably change. So why bother with the camera is what a thinking person might ask, and there are a few potential answers: 1) Belichick is an information pack-rat, whether the information is historical or currently relevant, which is related to 2)with the Pats, its everything to the nth degree, due diligence, above and beyond.... 3) maybe teams have "dialectic" tendencies regarding signs - they might change signs every so often, but the "language" probably stays the same. Having film to study might help someone looking across the field to understand what he is seeing, which ties into 4)maybe the Pats have people practice the "art" of stealing signs visually. It wouldn't surprise me, but even still you have to wonder what they were thinking because they had to know they would get caught. In every other instance that has come to light since Sunday (Green Bay, Detroit, Miami) they got caught. Plus, Mangini probably knew that the Pats did things like this, he was with the team for quite some time.
The bottom line is people get too worked up about these things, which shouldn't surprise me. Why can't people just accept that a team whose widely heralded commitment to excellence has led to a historic run of success went a little too far trying to get an edge, broke a rule, got caught, will be punished, and move on. Its just not that big of a deal. The Pats are still loaded, still have the best coach in the league and the most sane and stable organization, and not having a camera trained on their opponents' sideline will not change that. | | 14. | Texans over chiefs | | 15. | Indy Defense | | 16. | Indianapolis can stop the run. Who'd'a thunk it? Incidentally, I've picked both the Lions AND the Vikings to be 2-0 after this weekend. There's something impossible brewing in the North... literally impossible. Injuries as well. There's been a lot already. | | 17. | | | 18. | | | 19. | | | 20. | | | 21. | poor dallas defense | | 22. | | | 23. | | | 24. | Jax defense | | 25. | Raven's turnovers | | 26. | | | 27. | Just how amazingly bad Kansas City is | | 28. | Patriots spy accusations | | 29. | | | 30. | Finding my neighbour naked in my back yard |
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