The defense also go to play with huge leads all year, and didn't really have to play the run.
They really should though. Maybe / probably the best Patriots D of the BB era.
That's a bold statement. Here are the contenders, I think (top ten in both yards and points):
-2003: 1st in points, 7th in yards, 2nd in DVOA
-2004: 2nd in points, 9th in yards, 6th in DVOA
-2006: 2nd in points, 6th in yards (I misspoke earlier), 7th in DVOA
-2007: 4th in points, 4th in yards, 10th in DVOA
-2016: 1st in points, 8th in yards, 16th in DVOA
-2019: 1st in points, 1st in yards, 1st in DVOA
Despite the disappointing way the season ended, it's really hard to ignore 2019. The 2018 super bowl was probably the most individually impressive performance of the dynasty, but as a whole that team was just 7th in points, 21st in yards and 19th in DVOA. I may give a slight edge to 2003, but even though they won the super bowl, they spent the entire 4th quarter getting ripped apart by Jake Delhomme (3 TDs allowed!). Gotta go with 2019 (this D may be viewed more favorable in a few years, when the bitterness of how the season ended fades and we can appreciate the historical significance of a team finishing first in points/yards/DVOA all in the same year).
The only game, really, that I was disappointed by last year's defense was the Miami game. Tennessee by that point was really really good. Miami was...not. Yet Fitz carved them up in a bad way, in a game they really needed to have.
Against the Titans, the Pats' defense only allowed 272 total yards and 14 points. That was a Tennessee team that had entered the game averaging 33.4 points and 438 yards of total offense over their previous 7 games. They were an offensive juggernaut at that point, and New England held their offense to nearly 20 points and more than 160 yards under what they had been averaging.
Against the Titans, the Pats' defense only allowed 272 total yards and 14 points. That was a Tennessee team that had entered the game averaging 33.4 points and 438 yards of total offense over their previous 7 games. They were an offensive juggernaut at that point, and New England held their offense to nearly 20 points and more than 160 yards under what they had been averaging.
Yeah, you're right. I would say 2019 1st, 2003 2nd, 2006 3rd, 2004 4th, then maybe 2014 or 2016 I guess.
If there was a way to somehow combine the 2018 postseason with the 2019 regular season, they'd have an argument as one of the 4-5 best defenses of all time. The 2019 regular season was unequivocally amazing (hiccup against Miami at the end notwithstanding). In the 2018 playoffs, the Pats faced the Chargers, Chiefs and Rams, who were also the top 3 teams in offensive DVOA during the regular season (probably doesn't happen too often). They shut down the Rams, blanked the Chiefs in the first half and only allowed 7 points in the first 43 minutes against the Chargers (at which point the score was 38-7 and the game was long over.
Here's a quote from Lamar Jackson following yesterday's loss:
"I feel like people want us to lose," a dejected Jackson said after the game.
Heavy is the head that wears the division winner crown...
Amazing what the Pats were able to do wearing bullseye jerseys for almost 2 decades.
"I feel like people want us to lose," a dejected Jackson said after the game.
Heavy is the head that wears the division winner crown...
Amazing what the Pats were able to do wearing bullseye jerseys for almost 2 decades.
It feels like the title of this thread should be "Celebrating What WAS", since what IS....isn't very good anymore. -sigh-
Yes. But if it's five years from now following a fifth straight losing season, will those banners feel like what IS or what WAS? I mean, the Yankees have won 27 championships but, uh, only one in the last 20 years. We can't exactly be talking about the "Yankee Dynasty" as an IS kind of thing.
Not a post here since my birthday! A little off here, but while building a playlist on Pandora, the tune below showed up, related to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra tune. Anyway, pretty sure this was used on Three Games to Glory DVRs. A lot of nostalgia with this one.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2iC1aCPbKA
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2iC1aCPbKA
I was actually trying to remember what the name of this thread was just the other day -- perhaps in itself a commentary on "how far we've fallen" ha ha.
Now I can't remember what I wanted to post here.
Watched the SB49 mic'ed up clip for the first time in awhile today:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urYnkhU5t3w
I'd completely forgotten in the celebration Wahlberg's conversation with Brady (14:14):
"best ever. EVER. you're gonna add a couple more to the resume, so what are they gonna say?"
I remember watching that originally and chuckling. We'd just won for the first time in a decade, winning "a couple more" seemed unbelievably greedy. Just unreal what followed.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urYnkhU5t3w
I'd completely forgotten in the celebration Wahlberg's conversation with Brady (14:14):
"best ever. EVER. you're gonna add a couple more to the resume, so what are they gonna say?"
I remember watching that originally and chuckling. We'd just won for the first time in a decade, winning "a couple more" seemed unbelievably greedy. Just unreal what followed.
That’s excellent. I just love how confident the Pats were before that game. As soon as they were introduced as a team, I blurted out “we’re gonna win this fuckin’ game”. Such a joy.
I remember discussing with my buddies which unit was going to get introduced. The Rams obviously chose their offense. I thought the Pats would introduce their field goal block team, or punt return team. I was blown away by the team entrance and had similar goosebumps and hope of a win.
That game was for me the ultimate Belichick. I'm not sure there's another coach in history who wins it---you needed a brilliant defensive mind to scheme it with a completely different approach than what you showed that same team in the regular season; you needed a head coach who drilled it into the defense (there's great stories of him whistling a stop in practice and asking all 11 players on the defense to point to "Faulk"....where is he? where is he? wehre is he? all week); you needed the guts to go for the FG with your second-year, recently fourth-string QB at the end. And of course, you needed all the guys on all three units to execute in the top 10% of what they could in that one game. It's just a nearly impossible task to accomplish in a week, which they had to due to the 9/11 schedule delay.
The 1980 US Olympic Hockey team is the only thing a bit like that in terms of chutzpah, vision, and execution I can think of.
I had attended the regular season game against the Rams that year, and although the Pats lost it I remember thinking they had punched them in the mouth and gave them one hell of a fight. If Smith hadn't fumbled towards the end of that game the Pats could have easily won it. That was their last loss of the season that year. They obviously took what they learned in that game and built upon it for the SB.
Jeff Howe with a fun mini-oral-history of Dan Connolly's kickoff return, a play I had forgotten.
https://theathletic.com/2265702/2020/12/17/dan-connolly-patriots-kick-return/
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCa3YMd7f88
https://theathletic.com/2265702/2020/12/17/dan-connolly-patriots-kick-return/
Here's the video:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCa3YMd7f88
That was great. Surprised they didn't call the Block in the back on the kicker by Sammy Morris
Yes
Yes.
It's hilarious how many of these slights (real and perceived) still grate on me years later. The obvious one being the lack of an "in-the-grasp" call in the Scottish Game, but also things like Champ Bailey fumbling out of the end zone, the 4th and 2 (terrible spot!), and, more recently, the utter bullshit TD called in SB52.
So yeah, celebrating what *is* indeed.
Worse than In the Grasp was that O'Hara had his hand around Seymour's throat on the play and choked the shit out of him to get him to let go of Manning. He even admitted it. Obvious holding/PF call needed to be made there.
I’m pretty stunned the illegal formation on PHI was missed, that’s actually the one call the officials tend to be all over and that the vast majority of viewers miss.
That was a Sunday night ESPN game IIRC. And I had the exact same takeaway as you. It sucked to lose, but we were right there with the Greatest Show on Turf. Made me really believe in that team.
I could talk forever about that team. I remember the last regular season week that year, when a couple games broke our way and we got the bye. At that point, getting a bye seemed almost impossible for a franchise that was 5-11 the year before (and still carried the scars of a truly bizzare 1990s).
Forget week 17, I remember watching the 10-3 Raiders playing against the Titans on SNF in week 15. I was rooting hard against the Raiders, and my brother and dad couldn't figure out why I cared so much. The Titans won 13-10, then the Raiders followed it up with losses in both week 16 and 17 (week 17 to the Jets on a 50+ field goal by... Doug Brien maybe?), and the Pats squeaked into the 2 seed.
I also fondly remember listening to the week 5 game against the Chargers. The Pats were 1-3 and had just been blasted by Miami. I was at my sister's fall softball game, listening in the car while it was drizzling out. I was psyched when they pulled off the win, again my dad thought I was looney toons for thinking that getting to 2-3 on the season was huge.
Another fond memory was my college roommate (a Bledsoe guy) saying "they will never win anything of consequence with Brady at QB" sometime mid-fall that year. I wrote it down on a post-it note and stuck it on my desk. It was still there the night of XXXVI.
I was convinced at the time that the 2001 Pats were a team of destiny after the Bills' fumble recovery was overturned because Patten had touched the ball out of bounds while he was laying there unconscious. These were the kinds of things that just didn't happen to Boston teams back then.
In typical Foxboro fashion, that night after the game I was stuck waiting in the parking lot for hours trying to get out of there, so I turned on my radio to listen to the postgame and my buddy and I mocked the drunken idiots in the car in front of us as they did stupid shit. When it was finally time to go....my car battery was dead and the car wouldn't start. Those same drunken idiots promptly offered me a jump.
Just goes to show you never can tell.
I grew up in Foxboro. The great benefit was having a buddy who lived a mile from the stadium, in one of the neighborhoods just off Route 1 heading towards Walpole. Could park in his driveway, take the shortcut down North St., and be home in 10 minutes.
John Hall baby! That 50+ FG not only gave the Pats the bye, it also won me Bill Simmons' 800+ person fantasy football league (bumped me from 6th to 1st, jumping over BS in the process) and put me in the top 100 out of 250,000 people nationwide. One of the best sports moments of my life that almost nobody else cares about.
Not only that, do you remember the TD catch in the Falcons game that bounced off someone's head, up in the air, and into the hands of a streaking Troy Brown? That 2001 Pats team had more crazy ball luck than I can remember any other team having. Team of destiny indeed.
View: https://youtu.be/CVskuXc9TBA?t=5462
Watch at the 1:31:00 mark.
On the Troy Brown TD, someone (I’m guessing Givens) had a monster block that would be a penalty today (for blocking while moving toward his own goal line).
Was John Hall the dude whose helmet always looked way too small for him? Made him look like he had a crazy long neck.
Was John Hall the dude whose helmet always looked way too small for him? Made him look like he had a crazy long neck.
Givens was a rookie the next year...looks like it was #85, which was Wiggins. Who had a lot more weight to throw around than Givens.
The situation is different, but that play was a shot for shot remake of the immaculate reception. wow.
I was at the game and Troy game right at me in the Club level end zone area.
It’s funny though - I’ve watched the 3 Games to Glory and Super Bowl highlights so much, I almost forget being at that game.
I hear you man. The first game I ever went to was the Pats-Rams 2001 regular season matchup. The historical significance of that game was not at all evident in real time and so the stories feel bigger than my memories.
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFC1-YfCZM
That play is at 1:08 in these highlights. But you might want to see the whole clip to enjoy more luck such as Gregg Williams not bothering to challenge a missed Peerless touchdown and Brady surviving a near-decapitation.
I was in the dome, too! First flight after 9/11.
We were in the nosebleeds and I drank way too much, so I may have to revisit this one. I do recall thinking that they were on to something - not as in twenty years of unprecedented dominance - more like maybe they had enough pieces in place to go on a little run. Also, Vick was terrifying at times.
On the flight back to Logan, we were getting updates from the cockpit on NY-AZ game 7, with the winning run scoring right after we landed. Great day all around.
I was in grad school in Atlanta at the time. My memory - and a quick internet search - says that game was Vick’s debut. I do remember the energy from the crowd when he came in - and yes, being terrified of him
I also spent the game telling my Dad why Brady was better than Bledsoe - and him disagreeing. Something I didn’t let him forget about for the last 20 years.
(A related memory from that time - I flew two weeks after 9/11 to the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis. I drank a lot before and during that flight!).
It was one of his first games. In the video of the game, it shows him as having 200+ yards passing 0 TD, O Int.
I always love this article about the 2001 Patriots season...
http://web.archive.org/web/20111228105918/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/news/2001/09/25/power_rankings/
Wow. That article is fantastic. A pretty serious football writer had the eventual Super Bowl champions with a dead last in the NFL power ranking. And, somewhere, Ron Borges was giving a Biff from Back to the Future style smirk and knowing nod.
There was an article written around the same time where the writer (Prisco maybe?) took a survey of all the GMs in the league to see which team was likely to go the longest without seeing the playoffs. The Patriots were the runaway winner.
I still think they're the gold standard of "where the hell did that come from?" championships, and the continued run of dominance remains unfathomable.
Heading into the Divisional round they weren’t a true contender even as a 2 seed. Heading into the AFCCG they weren’t a true contender even as one of the final four teams. Heading into the Super Bowl they weren’t a true contender even as the AFC Champ. That was supposed to be the 45-14 Niners-Chargers Super Bowl.
I remember in 2002 Chad Pennington took the Jets on that run and there was a lot of “Is Chad Pennington this season’s Tom Brady?”
Narrator: “He wasn’t.”
Narrator: “He wasn’t.”
I saw them beat the Saints in week 11 and remember in the postgame radio people seriously starting talking about the possibility of them making the playoffs. With a tone of incredulity. I remember a caller saying they had a chance at the super bowl and laughing my ass off at the thought!
I mean, in fairness that wasn't a terrible take at the time. Team coming off a 5-11 season, 0-2 and just lost their franchise QB and handing things over to a 6th round pick with close to zero NFL experience.
I've mentioned this before in this forum but I was in Vegas for Week 1 that year, and watched the Pats lose to the Bengals in the sports book at some casino or another (can't remember which one). I was in line to put $20 on the Pats to win the Super Bowl at 100-1 just for shits and giggles and got out of line and patted myself on the back for not lighting another $20 on fire after a disastrous weekend of gambling. There was just no reason to believe after Week 1 or 2 in 2001 that the Pats were anything other than a garbage football team.
And then losing who most of us probably thought were their two best offensive players, and somehow going on to win the super bowl from there...
