Patriots Fanatic

ThunderThumbs has a very interesting way to rank teams — by looking at their “beat paths”. I don’t know that I’d say it necessarily ranks them well, but I do find the graph intriguing. I’m also trying to figure out how does the beatpath method handle things like: NE beats PIT, PIT beats SD, SD beats NE?

(via)

UPDATE:
Never mind — I found the earlier ThunderThumbs post that explains how cycles are dealt with. As TT himself says, his system is inferior to FO’s DVOA, but I really do like it since (a) it is a fresh way of looking at rankings, (b) does give some new insights into how teams relate, (c) is still way better than usual power rankings, and (d) appeals to the math geek .

Is today’s story by Solomon a deliberate counterpoint/whack at Wrong Borges’s seizure column the other day?

Grrrrrrr….

Last year the Patriots forced 36 turnovers and had a plus-9 turnover ratio. This season, the Patriots have a minus-6 turnover ratio. The last time New England finished on the negative side of the turnover tally was in 2000, when it was minus-2 and posted a 5-11 record in Belichick’s first year.

Repeat after me, stupid journalists — quantity A minus quantity B is a difference, not a ratio (and don’t go calling it a “differential”, either).

I’ve really been enjoying Rick Eisen’s weekly columns over at NFL.com.

Check them out!

Borges turns in a sane, rational column today.

When does the asteroid hit?

Because (1) I think that’s the best the Patriots will do this year, and (2) because they aren’t going to be able to get in as a wild-card.

So says SI’s Don Banks, anyways.

Some people have pointed out online that Brady seems more volatile this year. And having read that, I definitely remember pre-season articles talking about him getting really jazzed up himself when making bad plays in practice. Then there was that sequence with Dillon in the Oakland game, and then in the Carolina game we had hands-on-head, slumping, etc.

Now, I’m not one of the mediots who thinks “bad body language” demotivates the entire team, so in that sense I don’t care about what Brady was doing. But I do wonder if Brady, especially with Weiss gone and no replacement OC, is overdoing the self-pressure thing. Sure, getting frustrated about a bad day is normal (and make no mistake about it — if Brady had been sharper, they likely could have won, even with all the other idiocies that happened in that game), but you can’t let it get to you.

As I said in a previous post, the upcoming game against Pittsburgh is going to be an important test in many ways. If the bad and questionable stuff continues, I think it’ll be time to be worried.

In the context of an article on BB’s lack of challenges on Sunday, there’s a good discussion going on at Football Outsiders.

(1) At least it was to an NFC team.
(2) My productivity should be up this week.