Can't Wait To See What Happens Next

Seven wins won’t get you much in this league.

Word.

 

7-2-0 heading into their Week 10 bye week, the Patriots find themselves back in the discussion. The simple math says that if they win out, they will have home field for the playoffs. Unfortunately, the math isn’t quite so simple. The composite record of their next seven opponents is 28-22 but that’s only because they play the Jets Week 16 in Jersey. Setting aside the Jets for a moment, the composite record of the remaining six opponents is 27-14. Ouch. And I should acknowledge, regardless of their record, you have to believe Rex Ryan and the Jets will empty the clip when the Patriots come to town.

As daunting as all of that sounds, I believe this Patriots team can do it. Will it be easy? Not a bit. But I had a serious flashback to 2004 watching New England beat Denver last Sunday.

The 2014 Patriots roster is deep and versatile. With their collection of hybrid defensive players – Jamie Collins, Dont’a Hightower, Rob Ninkovich, Akeem Ayers, Dominique Easley (if he stays healthy) and Chandler Jones (when he returns from injury) – they have the ability to disguise and disrupt.

It doesn’t hurt having Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner at the corners and Devin McCourty in center field. Good to have Kyle Arrington, Alfonzo Dennard, Logan Ryan and Malcolm Butler in various nickel and dime configurations, along with the safety combo platter of Patrick Chung, Duron Harmon and Tavon Wilson.

It’s too early to tell with Alan Branch but fellow trade deadline additions Ayers and Jonathan Casillas have already paid dividends. If Branch does produce and Sealver Siliga returns to form from IR, Vince Wilfork will have plenty of help in the trenches.

Casillas, Don Jones and Matthew Slater give the Patriots three of the better special teams’ aces in the league and one of the best – if not the best – place kickers in Stephen Gostkowski.

On offense, the Patriots can go 2TE with Hooman and Gronk, line up James Develin at fullback and run the ball with Jonas Gray or Shane Vereen. Or go play action from that same 12 package knowing they have a match up advantage in Rob Gronkowski. Sub in Tim Wright for Michael Hoomanawanui and maybe they have the defense thinking pass. Then they run. Bring tackle Cameron Fleming in as an extra tight end and now the defense has got to think run. Then they pass. Or they just run it down their throats.

Of course, Brady and the Pats like to spread the field on offense, too, with Gronk, Brandon LaFell (on pace for career highs in receptions and yards despite a slow start) and Julian Edelman with Vereen coming out of the backfield giving Brady plenty of options. Danny Amendola had the best catch of the season until Gronk defied two of Newton’s three laws of motion while making that incredible one-handed catch against the Broncos. Anything Aaron Dobson or Brian Tyms can contribute is just jimmies on the sundae.

They have all the chess pieces and a grand master in Bill Belichick to move them around the board. They may not be as talented up and down the lineup as the back-to-back champs of ’03 and ’04 but they have that look about them, that us against the world look, that “we know something you don’t” look about them. Maybe that 41-14 embarrassment in Kansas City was a blessing in disguise. Following that game the Patriots really had no choice but to pull together, to rally around their wounded captain and overcome the multi-layered adversity face-to-face.

That moment in the Broncos game when Brady ran out onto the field to congratulate Edelman after his 84-yard punt return gave us an ineluctable and indelible look into the heart and soul of these 2014 Patriots. Deep into the fourth quarter, these guys aren’t playing for a paycheck, they aren’t playing for Bill Belichick and they aren’t playing for some abstract construct called the New England Patriots; they’re playing for each other.

And it isn’t just Brady and Edelman. There’s McCourty and his posse of safeties, Revis and Browner, there’s a non-stop series of stories where various Patriots players are holding hands and singing “Kumbaya” but somehow it isn’t cloying or phony.

Back in 2001, I had no expectations of a Super Bowl but there was something about that team, the way they played. Somehow they were more than the sum of the parts. They just seemed to care about playing the game; they cared about the game itself. Football meant something special to those guys. I wanted to root for those guys. I couldn’t help rooting for those guys. It felt good rooting for those guys.

It still feels good. It feels good rooting for these guys.