Is Atlanta/San Fran now what Colts/Pats used to be?

[21isSuperman]

The similarities between Atlanta and the Colts of the early 2000s are well documented on this board.  It suddenly struck me today that San Fran now is also somewhat similar to what the Pats used to be.  During the 2000s, the Colts and Pats were the two best teams in the AFC with Pittsburgh in a close 3rd.  It looks like for the next few years, Atlanta and San Fran could be the top teams in the NFC.  Green Bay could be in the conversation, but their defense and offensive line have a lot of holes (also sounds similar to Indy ). 

 

Both San Fran now and the former Patriots had stars all over the defense (Seymour and Justin Smith, Vrabel/Bruschi/McGinest and Bowman/Willis/Aldon Smith, Rodney Harrison/Whitner, Ty Law/Carlos Rogers).  Both teams have a very reliable kicker (Vinny and Akers, though Akers has struggled this year...ironically, so has Vinny).  Pretty solid coaching in Harbaugh and Belichick.  A good running game with Dillon and Gore.  Kaepernick also got his job due to an injury to the starter, just like Brady, and both were overlooked by many scouts.  While Deion Branch was Brady's go-to guy in the early parts of his career, Kaepernick's go-to guy looks like Crabtree.  Of course, there are some glaring differences (such as Kaepernick's scrambling ability), but there are still a lot of similarities between the teams.

 

With each game, we saw Brady develop into a better and better QB and we are seeing the same with Kaepernick.  I could see Atlanta and San Fran being this decade's Colts and Patriots.  Thoughts?  Also, this is not a Pats vs. Colts thread, so please don't turn it into one.  It's about drawing comparisons between the 4 aforementioned teams.

[oldunclemark]

I dont think Atlanta is as good as Green Bay ..that was shaky home win...earned without much 'D'

[manning04]

I kinda agree. but with our playoff history i hesitate to say they are Pats/Colts  more like Pats/Steelers. Again early 2000s.

[21isSuperman]

I dont think Atlanta is as good as Green Bay ..that was shaky home win...earned without much 'D'

But isn't that similar to early Indy?  We had multiple years of one and dones and we relied heavily on the offense to win games.  We didn't have the best defense or running game, but our QB bailed us out.  We would continually have playoff failure and people would say Peyton (and before today, Ryan) couldn't win in the playoffs.  Then we got that hurdle out of the way and the next hurdle was to beat New England (San Fran?)

[Dustin]

Falcons are definitely the modern version of the 2000's Colts, I hesitate to say that San Fran is on New England yet though. The Colt-Patriot rivalry was really intense because of the number of times we played in the playoffs. Though both teams are great and really young, they will probably meet in the playoffs multiple times.

 

I just don't think that I can compare San Fran to New England just yet.

[Synthetic]

How are they similar? We'll see when SF slaughters that one dimensional offense. Atlanta does not match up well with them. Often times I didn't see the whole deal about New England and Indy all those years, because most the time the Patriots would beat them down.

 

Deep down I think the 49ers and Packers was the NFC Championship. They had the one offense that could have beat the Niners, and they lost. I can't wait to see Roddy White push off on those guys, when they try and break his legs out there. The Niners don't let you get away with anything, you see that last night, they try and hurt you the way they hit you, they hit HARD. Justin Smith, Aldon Smith, and Patrick Willis will be all over Matt Ryan. They haven't seen anything yet. They blew a 20 point lead in the 4th quarter, too bad they aren't going to have that lead this time around. How people compare Ryan to Manning gets me. He's not even a top 5 QB in my book. Denver and Atlanta have a lot in common, they both played the easiest schedules in the league, only Atlanta got lucky Pete Carroll on the other side of the field wanted some camera time by trying to ice the kicker.

 

 

All the hype we heard about Denver getting to play New England again, I think people under estimate that Baltimore team. Ravens/Patriots is the new Colts/Patriots, and last year I feel like Baltimore got robbed bad. They beat them up and down the field, refs call back 2 interceptions. Then to win the game, WR drops the ball.

[Jules]

No

Kaepernick vs. Ryan is not sexy enough........

If we had gotten another Giants/Packers rematch this year then we might be talking about something that reminded me more of old Colts/Pats since the Giants knocked out the Pack in 2007 and 2011. And the Packers seem similar at times to the old Colts the last few years even though Rodgers has a ring, Giants fans brag Eli has two!!!

[21isSuperman]

How are they similar? We'll see when SF slaughters that one dimensional offense. Atlanta does not match up well with them. Often times I didn't see the whole deal about New England and Indy all those years, because most the time the Patriots would beat them down.

 

Deep down I think the 49ers and Packers was the NFC Championship. They had the one offense that could have beat the Niners, and they lost. I can't wait to see Roddy White push off on those guys, when they try and break his legs out there. The Niners don't let you get away with anything, you see that last night, they try and hurt you the way they hit you, they hit HARD. Justin Smith, Aldon Smith, and Patrick Willis will be all over Matt Ryan. They haven't seen anything yet. They blew a 20 point lead in the 4th quarter, too bad they aren't going to have that lead this time around. How people compare Ryan to Manning gets me. He's not even a top 5 QB in my book. Denver and Atlanta have a lot in common, they both played the easiest schedules in the league, only Atlanta got lucky Pete Carroll on the other side of the field wanted some camera time by trying to ice the kicker.

 

 

All the hype we heard about Denver getting to play New England again, I think people under estimate that Baltimore team. Ravens/Patriots is the new Colts/Patriots, and last year I feel like Baltimore got robbed bad. They beat them up and down the field, refs call back 2 interceptions. Then to win the game, WR drops the ball.

I have trouble seeing the similarities between Baltimore and Indy.  Baltimore's QB is average and their defense has stars and future HOFers.  Their offensive line is also doing well and they have a really good head coach.  Mora and Dungy were both ok in my book, but not great.