DHL Dan CCLXXX - Back To The Top?

Sorry, Buffalo - Shank thinks you were just filling in for the Patriots for the past few years:

Patriots can win the AFC East title against the team that’s been ‘filling in,’ the Bills, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for Patriots-Bills kickoff . . .

⋅ They are the Mike Vrabel-Drake Maye Patriots now, and Sunday at Gillette Stadium they have a chance to clinch their first AFC East championship.

Not so long ago — when we watched the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots, winning the division was something that happened here annually — like February Fenway Truck Day, the Pops on the Fourth, and Allston Christmas on Labor Day Weekend. From 2001-19, the Patriots won the AFC East 17 times in 19 seasons.

That all ended when Brady left. Belichick lost his way, and the Patriots wandered aimlessly across the NFL landscape. Five long years came and went with no division titles and no playoff victories.

Now it is the holiday season and we have this unexpected gift of the 2025 Patriots. A franchise that won four games in each of the last two seasons comes into this weekend with the best record in the NFL (tied with the Broncos), 10 straight victories, and a chance to win the AFC East Sunday.

One More For The Road

A bit out of sequence, but this one was the Patriots - Bills pregame column:

The Buffalo-Boston sports history is glittered with, well, not much

Buffalo-Boston. Sports History for $200.

What have we got?

How about the beloved C. Montgomery Burns/Jeremy Jacobs owning the Bruins and running Boston’s vaunted hockey franchise from Buffalo since 1975?

How about scoring-machine Bob McAdoo and NBA rookie of the year Ernie DiGregorio leading the Buffalo Braves against the John Havlicek-Dave Cowens-Jo Jo White Celtics in the first round of the 1974 playoffs? It took the Celtics six games to beat the Braves. Tommy Heinsohn’s championship-bound Celts had to go through Buffalo again in 1976. Two years later, there was a complicated NBA ownership/franchise swap where the Celtics stayed put and the Buffalo Braves moved to San Diego.

How about when the Buffalo Sabres and the French Connection line played vs. Bobby Orr and the Big Bad Bruins in the early 1970s? Anybody remember the Terry O’Reilly-coached Bruins beating Buffalo in a six-game set en route to the Stanley Cup Finals in the spring of 1988?

Great Early Gameday Calls, By Dan Shaughnessy

Couple of shrewd moves by Bills before opening kickoff. They whisk Patriot staffers off field during their warmup, then defer after winning toss.
Still, they will lose. By a lot.

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) September 29, 2019

Is it possible the Bills are worse than the Jets and Dolphins? Patriots have never had it easier and that is saying something.

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) September 29, 2019

The game, of course, was close with a final score of Patriots 16, Bills 10.

Patriots Path To The Playoffs

Shank avoids in-game commentary (to avoid the jackass experience) on the Patriots / Bills game to deliver this incisive commentary:

Here it comes. Same old, same old. Pats easy win. Philly will beat Texans. Pats vault to 2 seed. 1st rd bye. Easy home game. KC knocked off in divisional round. AFC Championship again at Gillette. Even when Pats not that good, they get to Super Bowl. #MarchoftheTomatoCans

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 23, 2018

Reverting To Form

You didn't think the recent run of semi-decent columns & tweets was going to last, did you?

Wow. I take it all back. The Bills are a Wagon. Look like they're be a threat in the mighty AFC East for years to come. Given this level of competition, it's actually amazing that the Pats can win this division every year.

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) October 30, 2018

This, after the Patriots beat the Bills 25-6. Keep working on that sarcasm thing - you'll get it eventually.

Second Guessing - A Christmas Pasttime!

I don't think Shank has ever had a firm grasp on 'good ideas':

Might be good idea to keep Gronkowski on bench now

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 24, 2017

Jerkoff Tweets, By Dan Shaughnessy

Second half Bills / Patriots tweets, presented without comment:

NFL just overturned David Tyree catch and declared Patriots winners of SB XLII

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 24, 2017

Just give Patriots the game

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 24, 2017

Discordant Tweets, By Dan Shaughnessy

The brontosaurus of the dying newspaper industry doesn't seem to think we notice when he says two completely different things about the same close game within 40 minutes of each other.

Bills paying attention. They knew enough to make the Patriots take the ball to start the game. No double score today. Wonder where Alex G is watching from?

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 24, 2017

Embarrassing two play calls by Bills. This is why everybody sucks against the Patriots. #Cans

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 24, 2017

The only thing that should be embarrassing is Shank not feeling that emotion for saying the same god damn thing week after week, year after year.

Whoops!

Shank, Sunday afternoon:

The best part about the Patriots playing “Monday Night Football?”

Easy.

It’s Sunday. The day before the Patriots play. That’s the day you get to sit in your den and watch the Pats’ pitiful competition in the AFC.

Seriously. I know you’ve all heard plenty about the annual Waltz of the Tomato Cans, but has it ever been easier than this? Has the Patriots’ conference competition ever been more pathetic, more injured, more hopeless? Every team in New England’s path just falls down, crashes, and burns. Seeing what happened to Denver, Miami, Baltimore, and the Jets on Sunday — coupled with Cincinnati’s embarrassing performance at home last Monday night, I thought the Patriots might mathematically clinch another AFC East before setting foot on the Foxborough turf Monday night. Truly. Do we really have to go through another seven regular-season games and three weeks of playoffs before stamping the Patriots ticket to Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara?

Shank, after last night's win over the Bills:

The Revenge Tour has become the Survival Tour.

Once dominant, once a bully, the perfect Patriots find themselves struggling to play at a championship level.

Sounds strange, and a tad greedy, doesn’t it? I can think of fans in 30 other markets who’d be happy to have our “problems” here in New England. But because of their own success, a Super Bowl championship is the expectation in Foxborough, and the latest trending is not favorable.

The Patriots just got their butts kicked by both the Giants and Bills . . . and won both games because the other guys could not finish the job. The Patriots staggered to a 20-13 victory over the (ever-able-to-beat-themselves) Buffalo Bills Monday night.

No surprise here that Shank turns on a dime yet again at the first sign of trouble. On the bright side - guess the Bills are Tomato Cans no more!