mheisig
11-06-2007, 12:44 PM
Excellent arguments all around. This may be the most coherent, intelligent debate I've read on the Warpath in a long time.
I have one (minor) caveat to a lot of discussions like this. In almost every discussion someone seems to jump in and argue something along the following lines:
"Here's the keys to our success: just get Campbell to not turn it over, have him complete 60% of his passes with a nice mix of short and long attempts. This will make teams respect our passing game which will open up the run and CP can start knocking 'em out with 6 YPC and 25 carries a game."
Or the "Run opens up the pass" alternative:
"Give the ball to CP 30 times a game and we're guaranteed 150 yards/game. This will draw the DBs up and open up the passing game and Campbell can just start bombing them down the field."
Not to sound obnoxious to all of this, but my response is essentially "yeah, duh." It sure would be nice if Campbell completed 60%+ of his passes, all our WRs got in the game and caught everything and CP ran the ball 30 times a game with no injuries and got 150+ yds/game.
Yep, that'd be cool. We'd basically be the Patriots.
Unfortunately that isn't the case. I enjoy discussion and debate as much as the next guy, but at a certain point we're just stating the obvious. No other team in the NFL does what the Patriots do, and we aren't going to either. Everyone expects us to go 10-6 or 9-7 or something pretty close. It ain't going to be pretty and we'll probably have a lot more games like the Jets game.
I have one (minor) caveat to a lot of discussions like this. In almost every discussion someone seems to jump in and argue something along the following lines:
"Here's the keys to our success: just get Campbell to not turn it over, have him complete 60% of his passes with a nice mix of short and long attempts. This will make teams respect our passing game which will open up the run and CP can start knocking 'em out with 6 YPC and 25 carries a game."
Or the "Run opens up the pass" alternative:
"Give the ball to CP 30 times a game and we're guaranteed 150 yards/game. This will draw the DBs up and open up the passing game and Campbell can just start bombing them down the field."
Not to sound obnoxious to all of this, but my response is essentially "yeah, duh." It sure would be nice if Campbell completed 60%+ of his passes, all our WRs got in the game and caught everything and CP ran the ball 30 times a game with no injuries and got 150+ yds/game.
Yep, that'd be cool. We'd basically be the Patriots.
Unfortunately that isn't the case. I enjoy discussion and debate as much as the next guy, but at a certain point we're just stating the obvious. No other team in the NFL does what the Patriots do, and we aren't going to either. Everyone expects us to go 10-6 or 9-7 or something pretty close. It ain't going to be pretty and we'll probably have a lot more games like the Jets game.