Football Category Poll (2/1/18 SPOILERS)

[Blue Lion]

I'm just glad we can finally put that awful "defense wins championships" trope permanently to bed now.

The adage that an NFL team can't win without a top-tier quarterback also took a beating.

Hoss, Brad Johnson and Dilfer took care of that years ago.

Tell that to the Lions' front office, which agreed to pay Matthew Stafford $135 million over five years. That contract has been the number-one debate topic on sports talk radio all season long--and now into the off-season.

[twelvefootboy]

I'm just glad we can finally put that awful "defense wins championships" trope permanently to bed now.

The adage that an NFL team can't win without a top-tier quarterback also took a beating.

Hoss, Brad Johnson and Dilfer took care of that years ago.

Tell that to the Lions' front office, which agreed to pay Matthew Stafford $135 million over five years. That contract has been the number-one debate topic on sports talk radio all season long--and now into the off-season.

I'll bet there's some buzz about their new head coach (Matt Patricia) and defensive Svengali who just got torched by a so-so offensive team. I do think he will be a good one. The Pats just don't have the on-field talent and they know how to get the most out of a weak hand.

[Anachronism]

I'm just glad we can finally put that awful "defense wins championships" trope permanently to bed now.

The adage that an NFL team can't win without a top-tier quarterback also took a beating.

Hoss, Brad Johnson and Dilfer took care of that years ago.

Tell that to the Lions' front office, which agreed to pay Matthew Stafford $135 million over five years. That contract has been the number-one debate topic on sports talk radio all season long--and now into the off-season.

I'll bet there's some buzz about their new head coach (Matt Patricia) and defensive Svengali who just got torched by a so-so offensive team. I do think he will be a good one. The Pats just don't have the on-field talent and they know how to get the most out of a weak hand.

All the buzz seems to be about the inexplicable benching of Malcolm Butler. It's hard to sustain excellence in a system built for parity (the NFL's hard salary cap). What the Patriots have accomplished under Belichick and Brady is, IMO, a standard that far exceeds anything ever done in any sport.

So what happened yesterday defies logic. The offense did its thing. A 40-year-old threw for 500 yards despite his only real deep threat getting concussed early on. The offense never punted against an elite defense. But the defense did not do its thing, and part of that was replacing Butler with a cast-off former Eagle who even Eagle players didn't respect enough to bother preparing to play. And even when the Patriots' notorious "bend don't break" defense bent and broke and broke again on deep throws, Butler stood on the sidelines, uninjured.

That's the first real chink in almost 20 years of armor. Players are asking questions that don't get asked where the climate is healthy. McDaniels is leaving. Patricia is leaving (for our Keystone Kops of a franchise here in Michigan). Brady, at an age when no quarterback has ever avoided a dismal season (Favre had one last hurrah amidst a sea of suck - which puts him one hurrah ahead of Pete Rose), has to come back to earth very soon. I just don't see how becoming the Gwynneth Paltrow of Foxborough, Massachusetts can reverse the ravages of time.

So what happened? And is Patricia responsible?

Nick Foles had a great game by any standard - as he's done in the playoffs, as he kept doing a few years ago before earning a shot and failing. Foles is an odd NFL case, perhaps the oddest in a league where odd usually means unemployed. When he's in a system that favors his strengths, he plays at a high level. And when he doesn't, he's an average backup.

One thing's for certain: Patricia is a smart guy. I don't know if he can fix Detroit, but I think it's the right approach to bring in a guy who has had experience with just about every position group and has built a reputation on defense. Because Detroit's offense is fine - they just need to establish a rushing attack - in much the same way the Patriots do. Stafford has an ARM and they can build around that.

[Blue Lion]

I'll bet there's some buzz about their new head coach (Matt Patricia) and defensive Svengali who just got torched by a so-so offensive team. I do think he will be a good one. The Pats just don't have the on-field talent and they know how to get the most out of a weak hand.

One of the hosts on 97.1 The Ticket (Detroit sports talk) ran a poll this morning, and found that Patricia's approval rating was in the low 80s despite last night's trainwreck on defense. Lions fans are that relieved that management showed Jim Caldwell the door.

There is much suspense as to whether Patricia will show up at Wednesday's press conference with his bushy beard in full flower. Old-school NFL guys say that he won't be taken seriously with all that facial hair.