You guys are hilarious, turtling up like this.
~15th ranked OL by many measures in terms of pass protection, and it's actually the #1 OL in terms of run blocking by FO. While being injured.
Leading the league in pretty much all statistical categories offensively.
White filled in fine for Degone Whois last game.
Amendola seemed to fill in fine for Edelman (Squicken was right, I was wrong).
LaFell is still fine.
Not to mention having the #1 D in the NFL facing what amounts to Denver's backup.
When Brady or Gronk or Belichick goes down, then I'll get all the cliff diving.
I find this hostility towards Patriots fans thinking that the Patriots are susceptible to a loss amusing, because if they win, your response will inevitably be "See what I told you you're so stupid for pretending the Patriots might lose," but if they lose, the general response will inevitably be "TAKE THAT PATRIOTS FANS FOR THINKING YOUR TEAM IS GOOD, BRADY IS A FRAUD!" If we properly recognize that, yes, the Patriots are the best team in the NFL
right now then we're over-confident, but then if you properly recognize that
the Patriots going into Week 12, 2015 are the weakest they've been in a year then you're ... turtling or whatever.
Only 2 teams in NFL history have gone undefeated for an entire regular season, and so it's a very reasonable thing to think that the #2 or #3 team in the AFC has as good a shot as any team beating New England this week,
especially given their injuries.
Also you can't watch the last game and think that James White filled in for Dion Lewis. If you're comparing them on Fantasy Football numbers, sure because White had 2 touchdowns, but if you actually watched the game there is a huge dropoff from Lewis to James White and not having Lewis and Edelman significant changes the Patriot's offensive gameplan. Also, their #15 offensive line
going into last week was also the same offensive line that was #31 in pass protection last season. The law of averages is going to take hold here and if you have generally a
worse O-line roster from last year, they may be able to outplay themselves for 8 or 9 weeks, but eventually, it's going to settle back close to that.