Patriots: 7th straight AFCCG appearance

[viman96]

Having the greatest HC of all time and the greatest QB of all time while playing in the weakest division in football for most of their time there helps.

Having a great home field advantage come playoff time doesn’t hurt.

Yep. Just like the 49ers when they had Montana and Walsh.

 

[CATCH17]

The patriots are an anomaly. Their success cannot be duplicated because there's only one Brady and one belicheck

And 1 AFC East.

 

[Skillit]

We had Landry and Staubach
There was Walsh and Montana
The steeler dynasty really wasn’t about Bradshaw....but there was a long tenured coach.

I’m stuck with all this in terms of JG. I can’t stand it when organizations change coaches every two years and wonder why they can’t get anywhere.......but imho- the JG way is the path to a bunch of ‘pretty good guys’ going 10-6/ 1 and done most years.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

It's not like the NFC East has been all that great lately.

 

[hornitosmonster]

It's not like the NFC East has been all that great lately.

Way better than the AFC East. Not even a comparison

 

[TheHerd]

Weak conference. They win the East by default every year and at that point it is just one win to get into the conference championship.

And that one win is often against a southern team coming to a crap weather game.

I understand both teams play in the same conditions, but anyone who thinks it isn't an advantage to live and practice in this crap weather is either an arrogant northeasterner or is fooling themselves.

 

[khiladi]

Having the greatest HC of all time and the greatest QB of all time while playing in the weakest division in football for most of their time there helps.

Having a great home field advantage come playoff time doesn’t hurt.

Don’t forget the refs spotting them plenty of TOP on penalties to continue drives and wear out opposing teams defenses..

Once again a blown call reversal against the Steelers on the TE touchdown gave them their HF advantage in Gillette Stadium where a 1 second run off ends up being 10 seconds..

 

[TheHerd]

It's not like the NFC East has been all that great lately.

Way better than the AFC East. Not even a comparison

Quick, name two non-Patriot AFC East QBs during this entire Patriot run. It's sobering how bad that division has been.

 

[Jake]

The patriots are an anomaly. Their success cannot be duplicated because there's only one Brady and one belicheck

I'd settle for what the Giants, Steelers, Ravens, Broncos, Seahawks, Saints, and Colts have done this century.

 

[Jake]

Quick, name two non-Patriot AFC East QBs during this entire Patriot run. It's sobering how bad that division has been.

Mark Sanchez has been the most successful.

 

[EST_1986]

if the Steelers win today, I will most likely not watch the game next week. Maybe have it on as background noise off and on. But it will not get 100% of my attention.

Don’t like watching good games?

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

Way better than the AFC East. Not even a comparison

Slightly better.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

Quick, name two non-Patriot AFC East QBs during this entire Patriot run. It's sobering how bad that division has been.

Doesn't really matter. We had Romo for a decade and were mediocre for most of his time here. The Giants were mediocre except for 2 years when they had a SB run. And really they were mediocre when they won the SB's.

 

[TheDude]

If many Dallas fans feel this way, wonder what the Browns fans feel.....

We're finding out more what the browns experience vs them knowing what this franchise history is.

That is a shame

 

[GenoT]

As the Garretkeets will tell you, team-building is a process.

Okay, I’ll accept that.

So, then...can we like maybe scrap the process we’re currently using and switch to the one that the Patriots use?

 

[GenoT]

A

Doesn't really matter. We had Romo for a decade and were mediocre for most of his time here. The Giants were mediocre except for 2 years when they had a SB run. And really they were mediocre when they won the SB's.

AND...they beat the Belichick/Brady Pats in both of those SBs!

 

[Slim_JD]

It seems like they play the worst playoff teams in NFL history in the divisional round

 

[mcmvp]

1) Patriots need only 3 to tie, 4 to beat.

And if we’re being honest, to even come close to it in the free agency/salary cap era is enough to say its better. No one should really care about records like these that were set prior to 1993

 

[Londonboy]

Weak conference. They win the East by default every year and at that point it is just one win to get into the conference championship.

Not sure it's such a huge advantage as People think, back in Our glory years the NFC East won 5 SB's in 6 years, the Eagles had some strong teams too, only the sadsack Cards were never in contention, if anything that strength and competitiveness helped Us come playoff time IMO.

 

[Cowboys22]

Best head coach/QB combo of all time combined with a relatively weak AFC for the entirety of their run and this is what you get. Yes, there have been good AFC teams like the Colts and Steelers but the Patriots have had basically a cakewalk to their division, a first round bye, and the AFC championship game. If you can coast to the AFC championship every year, you likely will win at least half of them. If you get to the Super Bowl every other year on average and win half of them, you get 4-5 super bowl wins over a 17 year stretch.