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Could the Patriots have fivepeated by 2007?


Championshiporbust

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12 minutes ago, DontTazeMeBro said:

That 05 team wasn’t Super Bowl caliber.

It could've been if it was healthy. Injuries decimated that roster. Here are key players by games missed (bolded were guys who were out for the playoffs):

Corey Dillon: 4

Kevin Faulk: 8

David Givens: 3

Troy Brown: 3

Daniel Graham: 5

Matt Light: 13

Dan Koppen: 7

Tedy Bruschi: 7

Richard Seymour: 4

Rodney Harrison: 13

Randall Gay: 11

Chad Scott: 13

 

It was especially rough in the secondary and at RB. There were games when they had to start the likes of Michael Stone and Artrell Hawkins back there. They also had to sign the likes of Amos Zereoue and Mike Cloud to play RB because all the others were hurt. 

 

As for '06, the NFC was so weak that year that whoever emerged from the AFC was almost a lock to take the Lombardi. The Pats weren't the best team in the conference, but they also would've won the AFCCG if Reche Caldwell had any awareness. Take that as you will. 

Edited by Starless
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37 minutes ago, DontTazeMeBro said:

That 05 team wasn’t Super Bowl caliber.

06 & 07 possibly. But they were really fortunate to get by San Diego both times. 06 the fumbled interception. 07 LT and Rivers being injured. 
 

In that span I think they should’ve won 2 and they did.

I’ll go in the dirt thinking they should’ve gone Billy Volek.

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1 hour ago, Starless said:

It could've been if it was healthy. Injuries decimated that roster. Here are key players by games missed (bolded were guys who were out for the playoffs):

Corey Dillon: 4

Kevin Faulk: 8

David Givens: 3

Troy Brown: 3

Daniel Graham: 5

Matt Light: 13

Dan Koppen: 7

Tedy Bruschi: 7

Richard Seymour: 4

Rodney Harrison: 13

Randall Gay: 11

Chad Scott: 13

 

It was especially rough in the secondary and at RB. There were games when they had to start the likes of Michael Stone and Artrell Hawkins back there. They also had to sign the likes of Amos Zereoue and Mike Cloud to play RB because all the others were hurt. 

 

As for '06, the NFC was so weak that year that whoever emerged from the AFC was almost a lock to take the Lombardi. The Pats weren't the best team in the conference, but they also would've won the AFCCG if Reche Caldwell had any awareness. Take that as you will. 

2005 and 2006 were both just weird years all around, in comparison to the years on either side of them where the best teams basically took care of business. 

The only legitimately great team in the AFC in 05 was the Colts but Peyton Manning was still working through his playoff yips. 2nd best team that year probably should have been the Bengals but then Carson Palmer got rolled up on and tore his knee throwing a dime on the first play of the game against the Steelers. That Steelers team that won it all wasn't really that great as much as they just ended up getting hot at the right time and taking advantage of the power vacuum but all things considered there's no reason it couldn't have been the Pats who did that instead. 

in 06 IMO the Chargers and Ravens were the clear cut two best teams in the league but they both completely choked in the playoffs, Chargers because of of Marlon McCree and divine intervention and the Ravens because McNair's arm was basically falling off by the end of the year. The Pats obviously had a clear run at the title that they threw away in the 2nd half of the AFCCG but it was another year where if they had won it wouldn't have been like their 03 or 04 seasons where they were clearly one of the few elite teams throughout the season. 

In 03 the elite tier of teams was the Pats, Chiefs, Rams and Colts IMO and in 04 it was the Pats, Steelers, and Eagles and they won championships while occupying that clear upper bracket. In 07 they were in that top tier all by themselves but obviously didn't go all the way. In 05 that top tier was the Colts and Seahawks and in 06 it was the Ravens, Chargers, and Bears, so while the Pats could have won the title either year I don't see either season as examples of them necessarily blowing it or ruining what could have been a fivepeat. 

Edited by SalvadorsDeli
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Am I being dumb here for not really understanding the point of the question? I understood the thread about the 1999 Broncos, because that carried the what if of Elway not retiring. But this question just feels like, if something different happened than what did, could something different have happened? And like...sure? They could have? But they didn't. And they weren't really particularly close. You'd have to change the results of 6 different games to get there. With no real driving force to actually change those results. You may as well be asking if the 2020 Bengals could've made the playoffs. They were as many games away, and deserve the result that didn't happen just as much.

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2 hours ago, FinSting said:

What if a team won, instead of losing? It's not rocket science. 

Now multiply this for every team for every season. Discuss. 

Yea, I mean it's really getting kind of pointless to follow the NFL given that the Jets could have won every super bowl from 2000-2020. Why even watch games when you know the same team could have won every year.

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