No, I meant September 6th. The point of my post was that there'd be no need to even PLAY the games at all if the "Any Given Sunday" rule weren't true.
No offense taken...but stats aren't just for "losers". I didn't post them in the aforementioned thread to act like a loser, but to show something that some may find interesting. I NEVER said the Pats win all of thier games by penalty, nor have I ever claimed foul play among officiating squads. And, if my memory serves, I mentioned how much I respect the Pats as a sucessful team.
I only brought up the stats-behind-the-penalties to show an interesting fact. Just a simple "This vs. That" thing. I didn't make the numbers...they were there for anyone to read and compare.
Factually speaking, the Pats DO benefit more from penalties than any other team. That's just a simple matter of yards and numbers. HOWEVER...that ALONE will not hand a team a 13-1 record. But it does help. Let's get realistic for a moment...someone who played in the NFL should KNOW that a lot of intangibles make up the final score of a game. You can have the best offense in the league but eventually, some guard or tackle is going to make one single bonehead hold or illegal block that hands the other team 10 yards...or jump early and cost you 5. Add those yards up over a game and there are times when you've got the entire length of the field. That will not lead to a score in and of itself, but often leads to one through giving the other team phenomenal opportunities that they wouldn't have had otherwise. So, having all those penalties didn't make the Pats 13-1, but it sure as hell helped them NOT go 10-4. At least three games this years saw the Pats win by three or less points scored directly off a penalty. Add up all the times they do get favorable calls, and that accounts for some portion of your point total.
Math 101. 😎
But, penalties alone don't win championships.
