Thanks fellas for fighting through all of those injuries and making us proud with an 11-5 record.

Coach BB, this might be your best coaching job yet, ty as always.

Here's to the 20th selection in the draft and whatever Cassell fetches us in a trade.

2009 will be another juggernaut. Draft a lB and a safety with ball skills and power in the 1st round.

Thanks again 2008 Patriots- we are VERY PROUD!

a great year-- tough way to end, but 11-5 is real good considering the year they had. they will have an extra long off-season to be nasty again in '09. can't win 'em all, even though these patriots over the past 8 years always has a team that seems on the brink of winning it all (or they actually win it all). this year is no different, they are a tough team to beat in the play-offs if they made it--

great season!

The Pats will be awesome for many years to come. The Pats will win the AFC East again next year. Then there will be a new wave of jealousy and hate from the outside. The price we pay for continued greatness. I am so proud of this organization. The Pats are truly the flagship of the NFL.

And special thanks to Matt Cassell for stepping in, stepping up, and proving his worth when things looked bleakest. Heck of a performance.

^{Let the Kevin O'Connell ERA being. Thanks Matt for a GREAT year!!! too bad we won't be able to have you hear next year..
Hopefully Tom will back by mid season.... Welcome back Romeo!!}

Great season for Cassell and the Pats. Looking forward to seeing Brady back under center in 2009!

Great job by the Pats this year 11 - 5 with all the injuries was a phenomenal effort. I believe missing the playoffs maybe a blessing in disguise as it allows a team and coaching staff added time off after going deep into the playoffs for years. It may freshen some players up and give BB more time to plan for the draft/free agency and also gives a higher draft pick

This is a nightmare. I don't care about our record. I want to win the f*cking playoffs.

With all the injuries that the Pats were best with this year, what they accomplished was nothing short of amazing.

THANKS MATT!!!
CONGRATS PATS!!!

[Quote]This is a nightmare. I don't care about our record. I want to win the f*cking playoffs.[/Quote]

Mighty, what happened to the positive, upbeat attitude? C'mon now, we had a great season and still finished better than the Jets. Better yet, they have no QB and no coach for next year. Smile!

Get em' next year boys. We will be even better with either a more prepared Cassel or BRady. We also Get AD back and a couple decent draft picks. Good season anyway, 11-5 is nothing to sneeze at.

What I hope I do not see ANYWHERE on this site is a post in which some Pats fan will say the Pats screwed it up! IMHO, they didn't!

They tried to win every game and were in all games except three, the blowouts to Miami (ouch) and the Bolts plus the second half collapse against the Steelers. Hard to believe that Miami is in considering the Pats blew them out recently and wouldn't you say how a team plays towards the end of a season is a good barometer of how good they are? Would you say Miami is a championship team with how they finished? I do not think the Raven's are quaking in their cleats! The Pats have played their best when they have had the most players out! How many of you at mid-season thought they'd finish 11 - 5? I think most teams in the AFC are glad the Pats aren't in given their play the last few weeks. EVEN the COLTS and Steelers!!

tip of the hat to the good guys. they played hard, never gave up, and as usual, really clicked in December. All the things that went right for us last year somehow seemed to course-correct itself and go wrong for us this year. But the guys never got down. Here's to the 2008 pats. Cheers.

Congrats Pats on a very respectable season, enjoyed the ride. Thanks also for not using injuries as an excuse, Coach B always seems to have players to plug in when others go down and this year was no different.

Once again, thanks for the memories, will be waiting anxiously for next Sept.

Also with all of the injuries this year we have young guys who stepped in and got a lot of playing time and experience. And, played well. Cannot help but think that Merriweather (2nd year), Mayo, Guyton, , Wilhite and Wheatley all got a lot of that "game speed". Also, Crable on injured reserve is still in the system and would have been learning. That is only getting the defense younger, and then you still have a couple of good years from the front 3, and Vrabel! Man, with a great defense again we will be back in the superbowl!!!

I cant wait to see what Mayo brings next year with a season under his belt now.

Losing sucks hard! I don't like it.

Thank you for a well fought hard season. Living in Nebraska, it's hard to catch all of the games without paying a lot of money for Dish Network and subscribing to NFL Sunday Ticket or the NFL Network.

So any chance I get to watch a game, I'm happy.

I can't wait for next season!

"Go Patriots!"

Good job overall. The 2008 season goes to show that Belichick is indeed the Man Behind the Curtain.

Just think what the Patriots can do in 2009 when they learn how to tackle, especially the pathetic secondary.

Truly scary offense of historic NFL proportions, peaking at the right time. 48 points at an away game in Miami (where Miami has the second best home field advantage in the NFL, Denver is first). 49 points in the pouring rain, then 47 points in a blizzard.

The team fought through a historic set of injuries to deliver what should normally be a playoff-caliber 11-5 record. That's the mettle of this team. In some ways I'd rather see a team get up and fight when the odds are against them.

[Quote]Truly scary offense of historic NFL proportions, peaking at the right time. 48 points at an away game in Miami (where Miami has the second best home field advantage in the NFL, Denver is first). 49 points in the pouring rain, then 47 points in a blizzard.

The team fought through a historic set of injuries to deliver what should normally be a playoff-caliber 11-5 record. That's the mettle of this team. In some ways I'd rather see a team get up and fight when the odds are against them.[/Quote]

In many ways, Belichick's best coaching job yet. When Brady went down, I was thinking 8-8, maybe 9-7. He did an excellent job of scripting game plans for Cassel. A break or two in the game against Indy or the Jets OT game would have given them another win.

Belichick's overall coaching superiority was evident right down to the closing minutes of the last game. Contrast the Bills' ridiculously bad clock management at the end of the first half with the brilliant call on the pooch punt by Cassel.

In any event, no one has any reason to complain about this team going 11-5. It's much more than anyone could have reasonably expected given the many injuries. The glass is definitely half full.

Kudos to the Pats for making this year fun to watch despite all of the injuries. They should feel proud of how far they came this year!!!

It's so crazy that anyone can take anything positive from this season. The schedule was a complete joke (statiscally the easiest in NFL history based on previous years' records). There was only 3 teams that had winning records on the schedule and all those opponents beat the Patriots. Most of the season was played against awful football teams who had as many or more injuries than the Patriots. From 16-0 to out-of-the-playoffs with that creampuff schedule is nothing but disappointing no matter how you look at it.

mcozzy1,

You have no idea of what it takes to be a true fan, do you? There was a time when the Pats couldn't beat anybody, believe me I know being a fan since the 70's. So I will take a winning record anytime when it comes to them as being a good year, regardless of who was on their schedule. One more quick one. The Steelers are the number 2 seed, right? Look at their schedule, they got 6 wins against teams that finished 8-8 or lower.

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This year had everything but The Ring. We DID get a moral victory though.

From the moment Brady went down, and the temp dropped 20 degrees all across New England, to nail-biting our way through yesterday's Jets loss -- and even hoping they won -- it was a real roller coaster.

CBS yesterday showed a list of starters that the Pats had lost to injury during the year, a list that would have flattened any other team. But the Pats bench played better than almost all of the rest of the NFL, and if there were any justice, would have been re-seeded into the playoffs.

My hat's off to all the great players on the Pats, which is to say, the entire roster.

Third String? Taxi squad? Those are terms of honor in this town.

Someday, when he is old and gray, an ex-Pat, when asked what in life he was proudest of will tell his grandchild, "I played third string for the Patriots in 2008." His eyes will flash and a tear will escape, and the little boy will say, "Gosh, granddad..."

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I say we owe these guys a parade.

Winning Super Bowls is great, but playing through adversity the way the team did this year might mean just as much. Those guys played their hearts out, never thought of rolling over, and gave us heroes new and old, yet again.

I say we owe these guys a BIG parade.

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A parade for the coaches, too, especially BB who not only brought the team back from a truly dismal situation, but made them a team that could have gone a long way in the playoffs, and lost the division by only one game -- and that was somebody else's game.

And the coach who still loved the game enough to call in a quick kick in the last game -- "You little devil you!"

BB for coach of the year!

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By the way, trade Maroney (now!), but franchise Cassell. The man is real, and many of his stats are better than Brady's first year numbers.

And most importantly, we don't know about The Knee, and Brady's re-hab is not going as planned.

Franchise Cassell, to hell with the money. You want a two headed monster, we'll give you a two headed monster!