Running Up The Score, Part II (the argument in favor)

[WilliamPitt]

...and spare me the Bushian comparisons regarding the first paragraph, because this is only about football, and this is the Sports forum...GD is under the 'Discuss' link...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103102746.html

The Pats' No-Pity Party
By Sally Jenkins
The Washington Post

Thursday, November 1, 2007; Page E01

I have a weakness for world conquest, which may explain my fascination with the New England Patriots. You can have the sentimental underdog; I'll take the dynasty or the empire every time. There's an imperial marching quality to the way the Patriots have trampled their NFL competition, which I frankly appreciate. This is a team that clearly wants to sweep the board, own everything from Egypt to Babylon. There are those who don't appreciate the Patriots, who find their dominance cold and unappealing. This is merely weakness, a common complaint from those whimperers and whiners who don't understand what dark beauty lies in dominion and the exercise of total power.

A football game is one of the few instances in which it's okay to guiltlessly enjoy oppression of the weak. Critics complain that there's no honor in the way the Patriots run up the score, but there's nevertheless something sort of magnificent in the way they crush opponents, in their hard quantitative search for total victory, while Coach Bill Belichick watches from the sideline with that expression on his face, part Lord Sauron and part Doctor No.

(snip)

It's interesting that two people who defended the Patriots this week, and who seem to best understand them, are former Super Bowl quarterback Joe Theismann, and tight end Chris Cooley, who was the only Redskin to get into the end zone Sunday.

"If the Patriots want to play 60 minutes of football, good for them," Theismann told The Post's Mark Maske. "What happens if you play Tom Brady three quarters every week and you have your team used to playing three quarters, and then you go to Indianapolis and you can't get by playing three quarters?"

Cooley not only declined to criticize the Patriots, he was openly admiring. "We've had halftime leads, both times we lost, and it's a lesson that we can learn from those guys," Cooley said. "I think it's good they pile the points on. It teaches their guys to keep playing hard. . . . Right now they're killing everybody. I don't fault them."

The Patriots' philosophy is a lot more understandable -- and likable -- if viewed from the angle of what the alternative is. What should they do when the game gets out of hand? Let up? Pretend to play? Take pity? Eugene O'Neill said of that kind of pity, it's "the kind that lets itself off easy by encouraging some poor guy to go on kidding himself with a lie."

When you've already beaten a team so badly over the previous 45 minutes, why is it respectful to suddenly go easy, so they'll falsely feel better about themselves? What the Patriots are saying when they continue to go for the end zone is, "Hey, both teams out here on the field are pros, and this is what pros do." It would be far more demeaning to say, "We could score again, but we just feel too sorry for you to do it." When the Patriots score on an opponent, in an odd way, it's a gesture of respect. Albeit in a tyrannical, domineering, world-conquering kind of way.

...more...

The Pats were leading the Colts 21-6 at halftime during the AFC championship game last year.

They lost 38-34.

And they remember.

:toast:

[Awsi Dooger]

1. Actually, I think the margin was 21-6 at halftime of the AFC title game

After being as high as 21-3.

New England never led by 20+.

I'm fairly certain of that because I remember losing a first half bet on the Colts. It was 21-6. I seldom make halftime wagers but I was so damn frustrated I bet the Colts again, and was shocked at how easy it was in the second half.

[WilliamPitt]

2. I was fixing that when you posted.

I wrote from foggy memory (by the end of that game, my friends and I were throwing our shoes at the TV), and went to look up the facts. You are quite correct, it has been fixed.

Thanks.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. There were reasons to throw shoes

Very fortunate win by the Colts.

Two plays stand out in my memory:

* New England failing on 3rd and 5 during the final drive with about 2 minutes left. Convert that play and the game is over. Brady didn't have a Wes Welker and locked onto one guy underneath, but the Colts made the play. Might have been Bob Sanders

* Reggie Wayne nearly fumbling the game away on the final drive. He caught a pass in New England territory, but the ball briefly was ripped away and popped into the air. I think Asante Samuel was the guy who almost snagged it before Wayne pulled it back in

[Goblinmonger]

4. And the Pats

should eat the livers of the Redskins when they are done because that is what REAL men would do.

[madinmaryland]

5. If the Pats want to run the score up, that's fine.

But don't come crying when Brady or someone else is knocked out for the season, either by a cheap shot or a season ending injury.

Just sayin!

[cboy4]

6. That horrible invention called the prevent defense is

the reason why I don't have a problem with NFL teams scoring in the 50's.

A prevent defense TD and a fricken onside kick gone wrong, and D'OH.

The 49ers used to put me through that now and then when they were dominant because they were routinely up by so much starting the 4th.

But I have a different opinion about running up the scores in the NBA & MLB.