Will All Sportswriters Please Calm Down?

So as you may know, New England was beaten by Denver over the weekend. The Broncos got help from a bad pass interference call, but they were in position to do that because they forced Kevin Faulk to fumble. Their punter forced a fumble on the next kickoff, actually demonstrating good technique, squaring up and putting his helmet on the football. And the Broncos pressured Tom Brady, making him rush some throws, which helped lead to two INTs. Basically Denver did to the Patriots what New England has been doing to teams the last couple of years. Force mistakes, take advantage of those mistakes, take advantage of any calls that go your way, don't make any mistakes yourself.

As for me, I'm pretty happy. I've gotten real sick of hearing about how New England is a 'real team', as if none of the other teams in the playoffs are 'teams'. And Tom Brady is the greatest QB since Montana, except when he gets picked off by the Chiefs sorry ass defense four times in one game. And of course they keep trying to tell us Bill Belicheck is the greatest coach in the history of football, which is something I'm sure Browns fans would dispute pretty seriously. So yeah, I'm glad New England lost, and that they lost by 2 TDs? Even better. That they lost to the Broncos, quarterbacked by the only player left in the playoffs I root for (except maybe Rickey Proehl), Jake Plummer? Fan-frickin'-tastic!

Still, as I've cruised the sports websites (Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Sportsline, etc.) I keep seeing people saying the Patriots Dynasty is dead. Huh? So they didn't win a SuperBowl this year. In 2002, they didn't even make the playoffs. But when people talk about a 'Patriots Dynasty' they still include that first Super Bowl, which should really be called the "Mike Martz is too stupid to hand the ball off to Marshall Faulk 25 times when the Patriots are basically giving it to him" Game. And if the Patriots come back next year and win the Super Bowl, probably embarrassing Peyton Manning in the process, everyone will count that as part of the Dynasty as well. And you know what? Four Super Bowls in six years would be a dynasty.

So will the writers please relax? The Steelers didn't win three Super Bowls in a row in the '70s. Neither did the 49ers in the '80s, or the Cowboys in the '90s (thank God). Just because a team can't manage that, doesn't mean they're going to fade back to the middle of the pack, although if that happened, I'd probably be quite pleased.

On another note, I must admit that my only preseason prediction failed to come to pass. Arizona did not finish with a better record than St. Louis, both teams ending up with 5-11 records. Arizona had a chance to beat Indy, but in typical Cardinals fashion, Josh McCown was ruled to not have crossed the goal line on fourth down, and they lost. Stupid replay. Of course Arizona didn't lose to San Francisco this year, while the Rams got swept, so I guess that's something.