- A few gazillion observations to catch up with after all these months of inactivity, starting with — drum roll, please — the amazing, indescribable, history-making New England Patriots.
The Patriots of BBK (Brady, Belichick, Kraft) have ALL the pressure on them in their date with the Los Angeles Rams February 3. Eerie that the game is being played on the exact same date in which the Pats began their dynastic dominance of the NFL 17 years ago. Yes, we are thrilled they are back in their third straight Super Bowl and ninth in the BBK era (never underestimate Robert Kraft’s impact on the creation and maintenance of the greatest championship run in NFL annals). But now that we are sobered up after the euphoric post-game feeling from last Sunday night’s spectacular win in Kansas City, now comes the really really really hard part.
The Patriots may only be slight favorites in the eyes of the oddsmakers, but they are a bigger favorite in the perception of their faithful fans and a second straight Super Bowl loss, after last year’s heartbreaking setback to the Eagles will be devastating to the team’s “best-of-all-time” image locally and around the NFL world.
A 6-3 Super Bowl record is a trillion times better in every way than a 5-4 record. Try the two sets of numbers on for size. The Pats are so good at reaching the Super Bowl, that achieving eight straight AFC Championship games don’t mean that much in contrast, not when you’ve lost three of your last five appearances in the Big Game.
The team’s detractors — and there are millions of them (“You hate us because you ain;’t us,” as Germaine Wiggins famously proclaimed) — will have a field day if TB-12 and Company does not win this one, simple as that. What they have accomplished is mind boggling, brain-numbing, you name it. But the feat is diminished when you see a 5-4 Super Bowl record.
And the haters will emphasize how bloody lucky the Pats were in both the Seattle/Pete Carroll screwup and the Atlanta meltdown victories, never mind the fact the other three they won way back more than a decade ago were also all nail biters, two them being won on a final-seconds Adans Vinatieri field goal.
We do NOT want to have to listen — and read — all about that stuff for the next year, until the Pats show up at their 10th Super Bowl in the BBK Era.
Needless to say Brady and Friends are incredibly motivated to NOT screw this one up after last year’s defensive unit’s total collapse the second half.I’m not sure if we’re better off without Malcolm Butler, but the marvelous defensive successes against San Diego and KayCee (the first half anyway) give me infinite hope that the Pats can continue their record book-breaking spree.
In fact, I will not be surprised if the Pats win by two touchdowns. But the Pats do not win Super Bowls by two touchdowns. They win — or lose — Super Bowls by the narrowest of margins. So have the alcohol beverage of choice at hand and in good supply. I fear we’ll need it to get through another heart attack/stroke inducer.
Bottom line, though ——– I love the Pats’ chances of winning Number 6. And to think back in 2000 I wondered if I’d see even one Patriots Super Bowl victory before I go to my favorite golf course in heaven; when now I’ve seen five, could have been eight!!!!!!!!!!!, or might have been three. But here we are at 5 and counting.
- We loved Welker. We loved Amendola. Now, we don’t just love Julian Edelman (and Gronk, and Hogan and Dorsett and Patterson). We love No. 11 to the point that we can’t explain or quantify. The catch he made against the Seahawks will stand in Super Bowl Hall of Fame status forever. But the clutch catches he made in Arrowhead Stadium place him on a pedestal reserved previously only by Troy Brown. And remember we almost lost him for the game after the Brady pass that went off his fingertips into the hands of a KayCee defender led to him almost getting decapitated by a Chief defender-turned-blocker.
- And delighted to see Hogan find his groove, and Gronk resume his “big catch” habit.
- Could you be any happier about the Pats’ running game with the Michel-Burkhead-White troika?
- Or that the offensive line has attained All-World status the last two playoff games with their hole-opening efficiency and phenomenal protection of Brady?
- Final score: Patriots 34, Rams 24