09-08-2015, 03:37 PM
With all of the speculation and reports coming out today concerning possible cheating beyond just Spygate by the Patriots, it made me recall our team's last two visits to Foxboro.
Basically, they got murdered both times. The first score (season opener 2010) was 38-24, and was comprised of many disasters such as a Palmer pick 6 and a Brandon Tate kickoff return TD before that was a good thing. The team looked helpless vs the New England offense. Welker scored a couple of times and both NE tight ends were factors.
From jump, this loss could very easily be dismissed as a much better team housing a very bad team (which the Bengals undoubtedly were in 2010) in their building.
Then we have last season. I believe the Bengals lost 42-17. Bengals weren't nearly as bad a team. In fact, they were on quite a roll leading up to that game. Some called them the best team in football up to that point. New England, on the other hand was coming off of an embarrassing loss in KC. The pundits were giving eulogies for the careers of Brady and Bellichick leading up to that game. Good call on that one.
This game was just an embarrassment. No tackling, the defense couldn't get lined up (despite all of the awesome "leadership" guys we have collecting paychecks), and the New England offense always seemed to run the right play at the right time. The offense couldn't get it going either, despite a relatively mistake-free game by Dalton.
Could these games have been the result of possibly locker-room bugging or play-sheet theft by NE? Was there extracirricular gamesmanship that was less apparent to the casual observer? I'll also submit that the Bengals actually beat NE in the game between these two disasters, back in 2013. That game was in Cincinnati. The Pats gave them a game, but hardly looked like pros playing against a bunch of high schoolers as they have in the two Foxboro tilts.
An SI report came out today that says at least 19 teams take precautions against sabotage when visiting Foxboro. Anyone think we're one of those teams? Do the players on this team just piss themselves with fear at they idea of playing in NE or are they just that much worse of a team? Both possible, but IMO, I think the cheating advantage is worth discussing in our case.
Basically, they got murdered both times. The first score (season opener 2010) was 38-24, and was comprised of many disasters such as a Palmer pick 6 and a Brandon Tate kickoff return TD before that was a good thing. The team looked helpless vs the New England offense. Welker scored a couple of times and both NE tight ends were factors.
From jump, this loss could very easily be dismissed as a much better team housing a very bad team (which the Bengals undoubtedly were in 2010) in their building.
Then we have last season. I believe the Bengals lost 42-17. Bengals weren't nearly as bad a team. In fact, they were on quite a roll leading up to that game. Some called them the best team in football up to that point. New England, on the other hand was coming off of an embarrassing loss in KC. The pundits were giving eulogies for the careers of Brady and Bellichick leading up to that game. Good call on that one.
This game was just an embarrassment. No tackling, the defense couldn't get lined up (despite all of the awesome "leadership" guys we have collecting paychecks), and the New England offense always seemed to run the right play at the right time. The offense couldn't get it going either, despite a relatively mistake-free game by Dalton.
Could these games have been the result of possibly locker-room bugging or play-sheet theft by NE? Was there extracirricular gamesmanship that was less apparent to the casual observer? I'll also submit that the Bengals actually beat NE in the game between these two disasters, back in 2013. That game was in Cincinnati. The Pats gave them a game, but hardly looked like pros playing against a bunch of high schoolers as they have in the two Foxboro tilts.
An SI report came out today that says at least 19 teams take precautions against sabotage when visiting Foxboro. Anyone think we're one of those teams? Do the players on this team just piss themselves with fear at they idea of playing in NE or are they just that much worse of a team? Both possible, but IMO, I think the cheating advantage is worth discussing in our case.
