Who will stop the Patriots?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Patriots W-L record inside and outside the division is basically the same during the Belichick/Brady era. The reality is that the Patriots have dominated across the board during their ridiculous run. It's not just getting fat on easy wins within the division. They've kicked ass across the board.

That's great - the point is that if the teams in the AFC East could come up with any kind of quality over a sustained period, the Patriots would play WORSE than their record against opponents who are less familiar with them and are playing without divisional tensions on the line.

You're not really going to argue that those haven't been 3 of the 5 worst run teams in the AFC for the last 20 years, are you? The Dolphins are probably the MOST successful of the lot and the best you can say about them is that they aren't generally embarrassing.

It's a bad division.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

That's great - the point is that if the teams in the AFC East could come up with any kind of quality over a sustained period, the Patriots would play WORSE than their record against opponents who are less familiar with them and are playing without divisional tensions on the line.

You're not really going to argue that those haven't been 3 of the 5 worst run teams in the AFC for the last 20 years, are you? The Dolphins are probably the MOST successful of the lot and the best you can say about them is that they aren't generally embarrassing.

It's a bad division.

Yes it is a mediocre division. Over 20 years, though, is it really much worse than the AFC South was for nearly all of those years, when it was Colts/Manning and a bunch of punching bags? How about NFC North where it was Favre/Rogers and three joke franchises most years. NFC West, with Seahawks and three lame ones?

One problem is that the Patriots run has been so ridiculously LONG. Usually teams aren't mediocre for that long, but as one team declines, another rises up. The Patriots haven't declined, so they just always hand out losses to those other teams, and they have not fared well.

The right way to do this would be to compare inter-divisional games, but I'm not going to bother with that. Is it a mediocre division? Absolutely. Has it been the ABSOLUTE WORST DIVISION IN FOOTBALL for 20 years? Nah.