Be interesting to see how the Patriots do next season
stevek
Posts: 29,034 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
Lately, the Super Bowl loser has gone in the tank the next season. This trend makes sense after playing 19 hard fought games and then losing the big game - has to be depressing, as well as the extra wear and tear on the body. Kinda tough imagining the Patriots not making the playoffs next season...but we'll see.
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If anyone can motivate his team next season, Belichick can, but I'm predicting no way the Patriots get to the Super Bowl next season - too many factors against them.
Bosox1976
I hope!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last modified Tue., February 08, 2005 - 05:15 AM
Originally created Tuesday, February 8, 2005
History frowning on Eagles
Losers of past Super Bowls rarely make playoffs, let alone win the big one.
By GARRY SMITS, The Times-Union
History hasn't been kind to losers of the Super Bowl in their next NFL season.
Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, whose team lost Super Bowl XXXIX 24-21 to New England Sunday at Alltel Stadium, is well aware of the trend. He and his players think they've got the team that can reverse it.
"I do understand the history," Reid said Monday of the fact that only two Super Bowl losers have gone on to win the game in their next season, and that the last four Super Bowl losers haven't even made the playoffs the following season. "But I think we've got a great nucleus of young players who have been tested, including a great quarterback, offensive line and defensive line who will continue on next season."
Reid will have to guide his team past some long odds to get to Super Bowl XL in Detroit. The last four Super Bowl losers have an average record of 6-10 the next year, and only this season's Carolina Panthers (7-9) came close to making the playoffs.
The last Super Bowl loser to make the playoffs was Tennessee in the 2000 season. The Titans received a first-round bye, then lost to Baltimore 24-10.
The only two Super Bowl losers to return to the game the following season and win were the Miami Dolphins, which beat the Washington Redskins 14-7 in 1973 to finish 17-0 the year after losing to Dallas 24-3; and the Cowboys team that beat Miami in 1972, after losing to the Baltimore Colts 16-13 in the Super Bowl V.
Reid pointed out that injuries hit recent Super Bowl losers hard in their quest to get back to the game. Oakland lost quarterback Rich Gannon, St. Louis lost quarterback Kurt Warner and Atlanta lost running back Jamal Anderson.
"You have to get a few breaks," Reid said. "You have to stay healthy."
Players are usually going to be optimistic, and in the aftermath of their loss to the Patriots, the Eagles were no different.
"I don't think we'll be like that [Super Bowl losers that failed to make the playoffs the next year]," said center Hank Fraley. "I don't think this team is going to give up. We have to stay hungry and be competitive, because teams [in the NFC] are still going to try and knock us off. We'll take some time off and then get back into it. We want to be in Detroit."
Safety Brian Dawkins said the core of the Eagles is hardened by three consecutive losses in the NFC Championship Game, and now in the Super Bowl.
"The hunger on this team is something I can't put into words," the Raines High graduate said. "We were hurt three times in the NFC [title game] and we know what it takes to get back up, dust yourself off and come back. This one [the Super Bowl loss] hurts more because it's the big one. But we got knocked down three straight years and I think we're just a little tougher."
Reid was vague on the team's plans for pursuing free agents, saying he still needed to meet with Eagles vice president of player personnel Tom Heckert. But the team might lose only defensive tackle Corey Simon, and most of its key players are in their prime. Quarterback Donovan McNabb won't turn 29 until late November, versatile running back Brian Westbrook won't be 24 until September and the starting receivers -- including tight ends Chad Lewis and L.J. Smith, even factoring in Lewis' age of 33 and Terrell Owens' age of 31 -- average 28 years old.
Lewis, Owens, guard Jermane Mayberry (31) and tackle Jon Runyan (31) are the only players 30 or older on the starting offense. Dawkins (31) is the only defensive starter in his 30s. Kicker David Akers is 28 and punter Dirk Johnson is 29.
"I can't speak for the other teams [which went from a Super Bowl loss to finishing out of the playoffs]," said defensive end Jevon Kearse, a former Florida star. "I can only speak for the Eagles. And if we can keep this group together, we'll have a team with playoff experience that knows that it takes."
McNabb said the Eagles won't all of a sudden lose the knack for winning, after compiling the NFL's best record (59-21) in the last five seasons.
"I feel pretty good where we are right now," McNabb said.
That's an amazingly strong trend. After this article was written, I know the Eagles missed the playoffs the next season, and then the next season I don't remember if Super Bowl loser Seattle made the playoffs or not, and last season the Super Bowl loser Bears didn't make the playoffs and "everybody" thought that the Bears would easily make the playoffs this past season, and I believe the Bears were the preseason favorite to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
The Patriots could reverse that trend and make the playoffs, but no way do they get back to the Super Bowl - just ain't gonna happen! And considering my Eagles are going to represent the NFC in the upcoming Super Bowl, I would actually like to see the Patriots get in there for a chance at payback!
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Bosox1976