The Return of the Underdog Patriots?

Usually, I’d be jumping into a film review in today’s piece, but given the fervor and excitement about the Patriots’ potential demise I just needed to vent a bit.

Yes, the sky is falling and the hot takers are more than happy to line up and start celebrating but after taking a day of reflection, I’ve returned to my state of enjoying the ride with Brady and Belichick.

Yesterday, the Boston Globe jumped on the old Trent Dilfer quote, sticking the “they’re not good anymore” on a headline that caught my eye. Isn’t a 9-5 team good even if they did just lose two close road games? Especially in today’s topsy-turvy NFL?

Maybe the problem is that this isn’t a “great” Patriots team. That got me wondering, which December Patriots teams were assuredly great? Certainly not the 2001 Patriots. The 2003 Patriots were, catapulting themselves from a thrilling win in Indy into the Super Bowl.

The 2004 team lost to the 4-12 Dolphins in December. The 2007 team started to really slow down after beating Pittsburgh at home. I think their late-year performance is one of the most interesting stretches of the dynasty. Were those cracks we saw in workmanlike wins over the lowly Jets and Dolphins a sign of what was coming against the Giants?

The 2010 team won their last eight games, including a fun 45-3 throttling of  the Jets, but all their flaws were exposed in their divisional round loss, the last time the Patriots haven’t at least played in the AFC Championship. That team hid their flaws well, but we knew we were there. Is that what 2018 is? Or is it better to be exposed in December rather than escaping with wins despite those flaws?

The 2011 squad also won their last eight games and made their way to the Super Bowl with a thrilling and gutsy win over the Ravens. They went toe to toe with the Giants, losing on the final drive despite being perhaps the most flawed defense team Belichick has had. Again, flaws completely swept under the rug late in the season until the most critical playoff moments.

The 2014 and 2016 teams both were pretty great and there were no excuses for either of those teams to not get to a last-play Super Bowl and both did. But both those teams had to show resilience in dogfight playoff games that easily could’ve swung the other way.

If there’s one hallmark of the Belichick Patriots, that resilience is it. They won two more titles because of it, and despite their warts, this Patriots team still has that kind of vital never-say-die fight.

So do the 2018 Pats stack up with 2003, 2014 and 2016? Teams that finished the season impeccably and rode things right to the Super Bowl title? Nope. But those teams are the exception, not only for our dynasty, but in the NFL. 

Would anyone have called the 2007 or 2011 Giants “great” when they wrapped up their regular seasons? No way. Some might not even have considered them “good” but they played lights out in the playoffs and won two Super Bowls.

The point is, these 2018 are still a good team. No one will argue they’re great, but great regular season teams don’t always win the Super Bowl. I know the last couple days have been a potpourri of Brady missed open guys and the defense can’t stop the run and Gronk is done and Edelman can’t catch and every other hot take that is getting spewed right now. Seriously if I see one more screenshot of James White circled underneath as wide open I’m going to lose my mind.

But this is still the New England Patriots Football Machine and the nerds in Foxboro are unquestionably buried deep in their desire to get better right this very instant. They still very well could end up with the second seed, facing a home divisional game, a matchup they’ve lost just once.

All of this is just to say that maybe it isn’t Super Bowl or bust this year and that’s a little weird, but it’s also a bit refreshing not having that pressure for once. If they fall short the post mortem will be even more manic than the past couple days have been.

We’ve known all along the end of the dynasty will be painful, as everyone takes their victory laps at the demise of Belichick and Brady, but I’ll still take the 2018 Patriots chances in the playoffs over anyone else in the field. And that includes a potential trip to Arrowhead, a place where the Pats will essentially face a pressure-free AFC Championship because NO ONE will pick them to win. 

We saw that in 2004, 2013 and 2015 and all of those games were interesting, especially factoring in how shorthanded the ’13 and ’15 teams were.

The bottom line is this is certainly another hard working Patriots team, and one that won’t flinch. The fact that they’ve had two disappointing losses, that everyone is questioning them and writing their obituary already, is a unique motivating factor this year and one that cannot be dismissed.

A pressure-off Patriots team for a Super Bow run? It’s been more than a decade since we’ve seen that, and it might just be why the under-the-radar Pats will be the most dangerous team in the playoffs.