To the brainwashed souls out there, the Patriots do not need to win the Super Bowl for this season to be labeled as a success. Even if they don't win the Super Bowl, they still proved themselves to be the greatest team that ever existed in the regular season.

Listening to a lot of people everywhere including the Patriot players themselves is a bit nauseating, and I'm as devoted a Patriots fan as there is. At least when Patriots players say that the season won't mean anything if they don't win the Super Bowl, I understand that they have to say it. They're still playing football, and since they have a game coming up, it's no time to rest on laurels.

But that doesn't mean that there are no laurels to rest on already.

Let's figure out the reasons why the Patriots winning season has already surpassed the '72 Dolphins.

1) length of season. If we want to compare apples with apples, then let's look at overall games. The Dolphins won 14 regular season games (17 overall) and the Patriots so far have won 16 straight. Last time I checked 16 was a higher number than 14, but some of you may be using the "new math" to figure things out so you may come to a different conclusion.

2) the competition. Here are the teams that each played, the season records, and their conference standings.

                      2007 Patriots                              1972 Dolphins 

@NYJ    4-12       3rd   AFC East                @KC    8-6       2nd   AFC West

SD          11-5       1st    AFC West              HOU     1-13     4th    AFC Central

BUF        7-9        2nd   AFC East                @MIN  7-7       3rd    NFC Central

@CIN     7-9        3rd   AFC North              @NYJ   7-7       2nd   AFC East

CLE        10-6       2nd  AFC North              SD         4-9        4th    AFC West

@DAL   13-3       1st    NFC East                BUF       4-9-1    4th    AFC East

@MIA    1-15       4th   AFC East                @BAL    5-9       3rd   AFC East

WAS        9-7       3rd   NFC East                @BUF    4-9-1   4th    AFC East

@IND    13-3       1st    AFC South              NE          3-11     5th    AFC East

@BUF     7-9        2nd  AFC East                 NYJ       4-9        4th    AFC East

PHI          8-8        4th   NFC East                 STL       4-9        4th    NFC East

@BAL    5-11       4th   AFC North              @NE      3-11      5th    AFC East

PIT         10-6        1st   AFC North             @NYG    8-6       3rd    NFC  East

NYJ        4-12       3rd   AFC East                BAL        5-9-2    3rd    AFC East

MIA        1-15       4th   AFC East                          67-124-2  = .360 winning %

@NYG   10-6       2nd   NFC East 

            120-145  =  .453 winning 

                 

The overall winning percentage of the teams the Patriots played was 0.453 vs. 0.360 for the Dolphins.

 

note: I counted games against divisional rivals as if they were separate teams to be merciful to the Dolphins. How so? Calculating it this way helps the Dolphins. Don't believe me? Here are the standings 

 

     AFC East in 2007                                AFC East in 1972                              

TEAM     W-L     Win%                       TEAM     W-L-T   Win%                    

NE          16-0     1.000                        MIA        14-0-0    1.00                      

BUF          7-9     0.438                        NYJ          7-7-0    0.500                     

NYJ          4-12   0.250                        BAL          5-9-0    0.357                    

MIA          1-15   0.063                        BUF          4-9-1    0.321                     

                                                             NE            3-11-0  0.214

 

Still think that the '72 Dolphins had a better regular season than the 2007 Patriots?

Let's rearrange the season records according to division rankings and then overall records:

 

             2007 Patriots                                     1972 Dolphins 

@DAL  13-3     1st  NFC East                            ----

@IND   13-3     1st  AFC South                          ----

SD         11-5     1st  AFC West                          ----

PIT         10-6    1st  AFC North                         ----

 

CLE       10-6     2nd  AFC North           @KC    8-6       2nd  AFC West

@NYG  10-6     2nd  NFC East              NYJ     7-7        2nd  AFC East      

BUF       7-9       2nd  AFC East                           ----

 

WAS      9-7       3rd  NFC East             @NYG   8-6      3rd  NFC East

@CIN    7-9       3rd  AFC North           @MIN   7-7       3rd  NFC Central

NYJ       4-12     3rd  AFC East              BAL       5-9      3rd  AFC East)

 

PHI         8-8       4th  NFC East              SD         4-9      4th  AFC West

@BAL    5-11     4th  AFC North           BUF       4-9      4th  AFC East

MIA       1-15     4th  AFC East              NYJ       4-9       4th  AFC East

STL        4-9       4th   NFC East             HOU    1-13      4th   AFC Central

                                                               NE       3-11      5th   AFC East*

 

[* in 1972 both the AFC East and NFC East had an extra team. sorry about the alignment problem. the NE score is obviously for the 1972 Dolphins column, but i can't get it to align correctly.]

 

Kind of brutal for the '72 Dolphins.

 

Also, they beat 2 teams tied for the 2nd best record in the entire NFL while playing them on the road.

 

Folks, it's not even close. Now how about the rest of the reason?

 

3)   the players. No offense meant to guys playing in 1972, but the players today are bigger, faster, and more athletic. Not by a little but by a lot.  

 

4)   the parity. Today's NFL was created with parity as a major underpinning. The '72 Dolphins never had to worry about it. Parity was created by introducing the salary cap (in 1994) and free agency (in 1989). Therefore, in 1972, a team like the Dolphins had a far easier time keeping key players.

 

5)   the drugs. Any team with a sharp enough trainer could get their hands on drugs to make the team play better. For the NFL amphetamines and steroids were common friends until drug testing began in 1987. Does this mean that any or all of the '72 Dolphins were using them? Nope. But it's a factor in considering the nature of the game.

 

 

Only an idiot (and maybe not even an idiot) would try to argue that it was harder to play in the NFL in 1972 than today.

 

In this age of "we're just taking it one game at a time" and "it don't mean nothing unless we win the Super Bowl", it's easy to brainwash ourselves into not appreciating what has been accomplished.

  

As my stat friend UltraMega likes to point out, regular season and post-season stats are kept separate for a reason. So be it. We keep the stats separate because the regular season and post-season are different.

 

The idea that "records don't mean nothing if we don't win the Super Bowl" has become a mantra, but we all know it's a lie. Regardless of what happens, Tom Brady should be proud of owning the single-season record for passing touchdowns, Randy Moss should be proud of getting the single-season record for touchdown receptions, and the Patriots should be proud of setting the single-season record for most points scored.

 

Any Yankee and/or A-Rod fan who points out that he's the greatest offensive player at this point in his career should keep quiet at this point. You should be supporting this post, because if there was ever a guy who epitomized why the regular and post-seasons should be kept separate, it's A-Rod. He's a regular-season wonder and a post-season miss.

 

Probably a lot of Patriot fans will be angry about this post, because they too have been brainwashed into thinking that anything less than a Super Bowl is failure. As for me, I "gather (my) rosebuds where (I) may".

 

Here is another couple of things to chew on. First, to the naysayers out there who think that anything less than 19-0 is complete failure, let me remind you that since the advent of the 16-game regular-season schedule, do you know how many years a team has won the Super Bowl? EVERY YEAR. During that same time frame and until this season, do you know how many teams have gone 16-0? ZERO!!!!! You tell me which one is more precious.

Second, Manning did not get his single-season touchdown passing record and his Super Bowl victory in the same season. How many people really care that he did it in two separate seasons? ZERO. We honor his accomplishment for exactly what it was. No matter what happens in this postseason, for a long long time QBs will be chasing Brady, wide receivers will be gunning to beat Moss's record, and all teams will be trying to break the 2007 Patriots single-season points record and undefeated regular season record. See? 16-0 really does mean something.

 

Regardless of how the Patriots do in the post-season, they are indisputably the greatest team to ever take the field during the regular season. When you combine overall record, strength of schedule, scoring and defense, it's undisputable.

 

Congratulations Patriots!!!!!! Now let's go win the Super Bowl.

 

P.S. for all of you who think that this season was marred by "spygate", get a life. I'm sure they really needed to cheat against the hapless Jets.

P.P.S. And if the Patriots were to go 19-0, then they would not share the perch with the '72 Dolphins, they would be a notch above them for the same reasons that they are already in a higher plane for the regular season record.

P.P.S.S. this is a repost due to a slightly altered state this morning leading to an accidental deletion.

P.P.P.S.S. does anyone know how to work with the alignment on this blogsite?