Given the relative ease in which the Patriots have dispatched the Colts as of late, it might be easy for some to dismiss Indianapolis’ chances in the AFC Championship Game this Sunday at Gillette Stadium.

This attitude is now being transferred to the region as a whole. Shows are being introduced and based on the strawman of “Are we taking the Colts too lightly? Are we assuming too much in just saying the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl?”

Or as Steve Buckley closes his column today:

You? You probably think the Colts can’t win.
You should worry a little about that.

Of course, it matters not one bit how the fans and media view the Colts. It’s how the Patriots coaching staff and players view them, and they seem to be taking them seriously.

While Dan Shaughnessy has made his annual proclamations about the opponent on the radio and on television, he hasn’t yet put them into column form. It’s probably only a matter of time. Each of the past two seasons, he’s made a similar proclamation about the opponent, which has generated all sorts of attention for himself, and gotten him booked on all sorts of shows all over the country. (Usually where he ends up saying something like “I don’t know a ton about football.”)

As I’ve said before, it’s genius, really. We should be honored to be in the presence of a trolling master. He’s the Tom Brady, the Bill Belichick of trolling.

Catch all the Patriots stories today at PatriotsLinks.com.

Let’s get onto the top five links of the morning:

Reversal of fortune: Why Tom Brady finally could be poised to post big numbers in an AFC title game – Christopher Price looks at Tom Brady’s historical struggles in the AFCCG, and why this time could be different.

Pastrnak’s love of game shines through – Joe McDonald with a look at the Bruins rookie, who has sparked the team with his scoring.

New Red Sox scouting director on lookout for next Kevin Youkilis – Alex Speier with a look at Mike Rikard, who will seek to find gems in the lower end of the draft.

Brian Bannister joins Red Sox analytics team – Scott Lauber looks at the hiring of the former pitcher-turned-advanced-statistics-analyst.

Remade Celtics turn it up a notch – Steve Bulpett examines how the remaining Celtics are still playing hard despite the non-stop personnel movement around them.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

29 thoughts on “This Week’s Meme: YOU People Think The Colts Have No Chance!”

  1. That argument isn’t being used DB & YARM. Instead, they are trying like crazy not to admit defeat on their Broncos “all in” argument from earlier this season.

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  3. Don’t worry, after reading Tedy Bruschi’s chat wrap on Monday, I’m sufficiently terrified that this Indy team can come into Foxboro and win, so Shank, Buckley, et al, certainly don’t speak for me. Bruschi was pretty adamant about this not being the “same” Indy team the Patriots played in November, and he’s probably correct about that. The question is just how much different are they? The Denver game was a tough measuring stick because we really don’t know how much of Indy’s dominance on defense was because of their players, or because Manning simply couldn’t generate any juice behind his throws. Still, you have to respect, and even fear, any team that allows just 23 points in two playoff games, and hangs 24 on a pretty good Denver defense, on the road in a very tough environment like Mile High. By the way, Shank and Felger both liberally used the “Tomato Can” term to describe Indy on CSNNE last night, so all is right with the sports media trolling world. I must say, however, that I’m a bit shocked at the usually level-headed Tom Curran’s dismissive attitude towards the Colts’ chances this week. That concerns me a bit as well, because Curran predicted an easy New England win last week, and things didn’t exactly play out that way.

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    1. Agreed, this is the AFCCG, it shouldn’t be a cake walk. But I can’t see Arthur Jones being that much of a difference maker. Good player, sure, but game changer, I don’t think so. Tedy seems to be putting a lot of stock in him. I just hope that the Pats don’t outsmart themselves this week (another topic brought up by Tedy.) I really do think the offensive game plan was solid last week, so hopefully level heads will prevail. Run the ball. They haven’t stopped it in the last 3 games played. Keep it going. If Stork is out I hope Fleming can go instead of Devey. Then bring in Steve Maneri to block as the 6th lineman.

      Reiss said in his mailbag that Akeem Ayers could be in for a big week, and I couldn’t agree more. Let the Pats go back to their traditional 4-3 look and use Ayers as a spy for Luck on 3rd and 6 or 7 (down where he could scramble for a first.)

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        1. I don’t see the Colts running the ball effectively. They’ll make some plays in the passing game, but, as good as he is, Luck still makes some very questionable decisions. And with the running game hindered, those bad throws will lead to turnovers. If the Patriots offense can execute even half as well as they did earlier this season in Indy, then this game isn’t even close. I expect them to lead wire to wire.

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    2. Not to get in a pissing contest, but I don’t recall Curran predicting an easy victory. Then again, I didn’t see or read a final score prediction from him. From what I read, though, my takeaway was that it made no sense to fear the Ravens based on 2009, 2011, and 2012 as both teams are vastly different from those seasons.

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      1. Curran’s published prediction on the CSNNE website was 27-9, Pats. It’s probably still out there if you search for it. He (and I must admit, me too) believed that the Pats’ defense would be able to handle the Ravens’ offense without much trouble. Hence, the prediction of Baltimore scoring fewer than 10 points.

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  4. So I heard Minihane yesterday hint that a show host from the Hub is going to get fired in a few months. Anyone know anything? Does this line up with Holly’s impending free agency in March?

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    1. Maybe it’s Mr. Panic the sky is falling just saying. Jones could be out and we get The D A Show back. How nice that would. A true late Xmas present

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  5. Adam Himmelsbach of the Louisvlille Courier-Journal is joining the Globe as their new Celtics beat writer

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    1. Does it seem a little off that F&M got reupped and there was no word on Bertrand. I know he was angling for the night gig when DA left. Is it possible a Bertrand is jumping ship to ‘EEI to be paired with Minihane in the afternoon slot? This seems to make the most sense to me.

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      1. Interesting, He does have 2 more kids to feed so at some point I think this guy is gonna have to get a gig that pays more than doing flashes.

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    2. Is it possible Entercom is swapping out Holley for Bertrand in PM drive to save some money? For Beetle, I’m sure the move would still be a significant bump in pay from what he’s getting at 98.5. But for EEI it’s a savings from what they would have to pay Holley to re-up his deal.

      Most interesting would be if all this was true, because why wouldn’t Beetle be asked to leave 98.5? Is he under some type of contractual obligation to stay until a certain date? Also wonder how that hypothetical last day with F&M would go…perhaps similar to Wiggy’s last appearance? Maybe Bertrand quietly disappears some Friday and resurfaces a couple weeks later on EEI.

      Also not sure how an Arnold/Bertrand/Thornton trio would sound together. But out of all the possibilities suggested, it seems to have the highest probability (unless Ordway is coming back at a significant pay cut).

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  8. Did he really phrase it that way? The Patriots are trying to win every year. So if he is saying that, then he is miswording things, or he finally admits that the Patriots philosphy is the correct one (yeah, sure -_-). Their philosophy is to never extend themselves too much in any one year with the reasoning being that the more playoff appearances they get, the more chances they have to win a championship. They would rather be an A- or B+ team every year than an A+ team for 2 or 3 years and a C or D team for the next 2 to 3 years.

    Felger’s argument is that rather than do what they currently do, the Patriots should go “all in” like he claims the Broncos do. Hold on to veterans like Logan Mankins rather than get rid of them a year to early. Extend themselves on large free agent deals for flashy players. And if this means that 2 to 3 years from now, the team suffers a down year because of taking such actions, that is okay.

    Of course there are several falacies with this opinion. The first being that sports, the NFL especially often have matters that a team cannot account for such as injuries or luck having a big impact on the overall results. Then you have extended yourself and mortgaged your future while never getting the benefit you were willing to mortgage it for (a championship). For example at the end of the day, all the deals that the Broncos made this year ended up being completely meaningless because by the time they got to the playoffs Manning was hurt and couldn’t throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field. And I think we have all seen that even with health, you could have a crazy fluke play like the Tyree catch singlehandedly costing you the Super Bowl no matter how much you have put into that particular year.

    Of course the second falacie is that the media in this town would never accept a down year. The Patriots are absolutely massacred by the media in this town, and that’s with a team that wins 12+ games a year, has a hall of fame QB, a hall of fame coach and gets to at least the final 4 every year. Can you imagine what things would be like here if we got even one year where the Pats went 8-8?

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    1. I think the way the Patriots team build is pretty simple and everyone on boths sides of the argument over thinks it. If you are a good player and he has a need on the team that Bill doesn’t think he can fill through the draft then he will pay that guy. Bill has never made absolutes about anything. He judges each season on their own and according to what their needs are and how much it’ll cost. This guy is just about winning. If he thought he needed to spend another 10 mil to do it he would. If he thinks he could win with cheaper options he will. But make no mistake this man is focused on winning.

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      1. Completely agree that all he cares about is winning. However, I would add that what tempers him is the future. He will never sacrifice the future to win today. He tries to balance both which leads to hard decisions like releasing Milloy, trading Branch at his peak, trading Seymour, trading Vrabel, and trading Mankins. Let’s also not forget his constant trading of draft picks to get more picks. Most fans and media members do not understand or see the big picture. I admit I don’t understand or like every single thing he does but I have given up second guessing him. Simply because what he does works. The team wins and is in position every year to win the SB and since all I care about is a Patriots win I am good with it.

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        1. I think the argument that Felger makes only works in his world because he takes the cap out of it. When you set the narrative that the “cap is crap” essentially implying there is no limit to what can be spent then yes in that narrative he set up the Patriots are cheap. The guy is really good at that. You can tell that he was raised by lawyers.

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  9. The Broncos lost last week and scored 1 TD in the process. That game wasn’t a close one and it was played IN DENVER. Every single last moron in the media that kissed Elway’s ass, for “loading up” and bashed the Patriots, for taking Jimmy Football in the 2nd round, instead of a another TE or WR, would, in a just world, be forced by their employers to immediately find a new job. However, we live in a world in which Moronic Trolls rule the media landscape.

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    1. You know what I really hear in that rant? “I can’t believe that that Brady came back twice down by 2 touchdowns to beat my Ravens! We should’ve won!”
      Ray is just pissed that his team lost. sour grapes

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