by Ryan McGowan
After watching yesterday’s NFL divisional playoff games, I feel like a jaded father whose son has just gotten suspended from school for the third time for misbehavior: When are you going to learn?
Specifically, when is Sports Nation going to learn that when it comes to the NFL, this is Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s world, and everyone else is just paying rent?We all read the pundits last week. We watched the experts on ESPN and we read the sages of the sports pages who predicted the Indianapolis Colts would blow out the New England Patriots on Sunday. Peyton Manning was too good, they said. Peyton Manning was going to cut up the depleted Patriots secondary like meat. The Patriots had no answer for Reggie Wayne, Brandon Stokley, and Dallas Clark. The Patriots weren’t going to be able to “cheat” this year. The Colts were going to win in a laugher on their way to Jacksonville and the coronation of Peyton Manning as the best thing either before or since sliced bread.
Because that’s all the Patriots were, right? Frauds? There was the famous “Tuck Rule” call in 2002, which still has people (including people on this website) clinging to the claim that the play was in fact a fumble when the rules clearly state that it is an incomplete pass. (Maybe it is a dumb rule, but as the rule was written, it was definitely incomplete, and correctly ruled by Walt Coleman.) Then there was the fraudlent AFC championship win against the Steelers, helped by a punt return and a blocked field goal, both returned for touchdowns. But special teams aren’t really part of football, right? The Patriots might have clicked on all cylinders that day and beaten Pittsburgh, but it was a fluke, right? Just like that Super Bowl one-in-a-million win over the Greatest Show on Turf. They got lucky… again.
Last year was more of the same. They got lucky against Tennessee in the divisional playoff. The temperature was 0 degrees with a -30 wind chill for a night game in January. They needed the weather to win for them. Then they clutched and grabbed the Colts receivers all the way to the AFC championship, and then only beat the Carolina Panthers when John Kasay landed a kickoff out of bounds (in one of the all-time underrated goat plays, by the way), giving Tom Brady the ball in great field position with a chance to repeat his performance of two years before. It was all fraudulent, right? And that 21-game winning streak? Purely the result of an easy schedule and fortunate bounces.
It seems that people are very slow to give the Patriots credit where it is due. Their greatness was certainly on display on Sunday. The truth is that despite winning two out of the last three Super Bowls, having a 32-4 record over the last two seasons (including an undefeated mark at home), having the best coach in the league as well as the most clutch quarterback, and never having lost to Peyton Manning in Foxboro, the Patriots still have surprisingly few believers. Virtually no one outside of the six New England states gave the defending champs any chance at all on Sunday. They figured that with Ty Law, Tyrone Poole, and Richard Seymour out, the game was merely a formality, a forgettable blip on the path to Peyton Manning’s Hall of Fame induction in Jacksonville.
A funny thing happened, though. The Pats came to play. And in so doing, they showed the sports world that they are not going to let go of the Lombardi Trophy without a dog fight. They might lose to Pittsburgh and even to Philly (I don’t think the Falcons are a complete enough team to win on the road against the Eagles), but the Patriots certainly will not roll over and die. As the mantra was repeated in the Pats locker room before the game, “Not in our house. Not today.”
Even the most die-hard Patriots homer wouldn’t have bet money on the defense holding the seemingly unstoppable force of the Colts offense to 3 points (a field goal, by the way, that was an inch away from being prevented by a Eugene Wilson dropped interception one play earlier). That would have been like hitting on 18 in blackjack. Not the smartest bet in the casino, and you’d have to be nuts to try it.
Personally, I did believe the Patriots would win, but I also gave Manning the due respect that he has earned by putting up probably the greatest offensive season (and easily the best fantasy season) of any player in history. I thought yesterday would be the day that Manning would break through against Belichick and Romeo Crennel’s defense, probably for three or four touchdowns. However, I thought that Corey Dillon, Brady, and the Patriots’ unheralded but efficient offense would be able to edge them out by just a bit. Boy, was I wrong.
The Patriots dominated the Colts in all aspects of the game. When I say “dominated”, I mean in a USC over Oklahoma sense, or a Globetrotters over Washington Generals sense. They must have gotten a pregame pep talk from Coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (“Leave no doubt!”). They left no doubt who the better team was. This time, there were no questionable challenges of calls. There would be no whining from Manning (though the same probably won’t be said for the ultra-annoying drunken idiot kicker, Mike Vanderjagt). There would be no question who the champs were. A lot of people were made to eat crow yesterday, and as a Patriots fan, it was damn fun to watch.
So, the game that every Patriots fan wanted to see is finally here. Pats vs. Steelers, rematch of the 2002 AFC title game, rematch of the Game That Ended the Streak. Yes, the Steelers beat the Patriots 34-20 in that game this year, albeit without Dillon. Yes, the Steelers went 15-1 and haven’t lost since around the time of the Republican National Convention. They have the number one defense in the league and they will be playing at home. But who in their right mind can doubt Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the Patriots after what they pulled off Sunday? Who can honestly assess the AFC Championship game and say, “Well, the Patriots are good, but I don’t think they have what it takes to get to the Super Bowl?” Who would ever pick against a team that has consistently met challenges straight on, and emerged victorious virtually every time? Who can doubt that the Patriots can win another championship?
Certainly not me. Can you?
3 replies on “Who Can Doubt the Patriots Now?”
I actually was a Non-New England State believer I had the Pats, like always, SU (not always ATS though).
Actually, correction.
I picked 3-8 Cleveland over New England based on some idea that I had. Enough said. I was wrong.
But I have believed in the Pats since 3 weeks before the Tuck Rule game and I have believed in them ever since. Pats 19, Steelers 10. My Falcons 20, Eagles 48. Pats 34, Eagles 3.
Simple enough.
BTW: Steelers have a chance to ’72 Dolphin it if they win the SB.
Counting week 1 and week 2 as the Preseason of a 14 game schedule, they went 14-0 and are now in the Playoffs. Hmmm…. I guess it is possible.
I picked the Colts but I never said they’d carve up the Patriots. I just felt that they had way too much momentum going into the game. All year long (check my Power Rankings), I said the Patriots were the team to beat in the AFC. But that doesn’t mean I didnt think they could be beaten.
This week, I’m rooting for the Steelers. I (Eagles fan) don’t want to see Brady in the Super Bowl. I’d rather face Ben “no longer a rookie…ooops.. played like a rookie…” Roethlisberger.
Ya, I picked the Pats… too, and would bet on them again this week, even though I’m (obviously) rooting for the Steelers. You’re right, you simply cannot doubt the Pats until they lose an important game.