[Semtex]

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Semtex,
My point is that Bill Simmons is one of the people who started writing about the Pats running about the score. Not some beat writer in Indianapolis or Buffalo, Simmons is one the main reasons this is a story.

Why are they listing the Jets as an example of running up the score? Isn't the whole reason they are running up the score a giant FU to people who called them cheaters?

Why is Buffalo listed? There were 10 minutes left to play they weren't going to kneel out for 10 minutes.

It's nice to think that the Pats are so awesome and vengeful that they intentionally score with one minute left in every game to rub it in the face of everyone else, but that isn't the case at all.This argument is much, much better than the lame rationalizations like "Well after the AFC championship game they can never be to careful" or "Peyton did it to so it's okay" or "They still need to fine tune the offense"


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yeah i don't know why people are listing those games or those touchdowns either. the 'running up the score' that i have been seeing is mostly in the final minutes, and involves trying to score touchdowns where other people would settle for the field goal or less. you wouldn't go for it on 4th and more than 5 inside the redzone in a close game so going for it when you are up by 30 seems insulting.



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I wouldn't run the ball up the middle three times and punt in a close game either, I'd open up the passing game. So is that ALSO wrong to do in the final minutes of a blowout? What specific alterations to my game am I supposed to make in order to show class and respect to the other team? I almost said that last sentence with a straight face, but not quite. If I have to make ANY adjustments to my game simply because I am up by a lot of points and the game is late, I am BY DEFINITION no longer showing my opponent any respect.

If I am a team that is getting blown out, and for some reason I am worried about respect, there are only two things I'd like the other team to do. 1, do whatever they feel necessary to avoid injury (and this is by far the most important). 2, play me as hard as you can and don't pull any punches. I'd like to think I've earned that much respect. But ultimately those are just the things I would LIKE my opponent to do. I don't demand or expect them to do anything, and I wouldn't think less of them no matter what they did. If I felt offended by what they were doing, I'm free to try and stop them. If I cant do that, thats my problem.

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Yeah I probably shouldn't have said that because honestly I don't care about the insulting aspect. Its about strategy mostly. We're talking NFL players here, not the knights of the round table. It doesn't matter what really is offensive or not it matters whether the other team takes offense, and I don't think it takes much to piss off an NFL defender who's team is getting the piss kicked out of it.