The Inflection Point

The rules of the game, applied to the letter of the law, have once again allowed the Patriots to cheat their way to victory.

Excuse me on this fine winter morning as I make a hot cup of tea from the tears of my enemies.

It was a game that seemed all too familiar to this Patriots fan; in many ways it was paradigmatic Patriots' pigskins. It was a game New England could have easily lost multiple times yet somehow they managed to hang around. It felt like the Steelers were winning by 20 or 30 points when they were only up by 11. The 4th quarter comeback led by Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Then the reversal of fortune on the gut punch pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. The touchdown that wasn't on a controversial but correct application of the NFL Rule Book. The bizarre fake-spike call by the Steelers as yet another Patriots' opponent overthinks the moment. The game-clinching interception as New England's defenders stayed in the moment. Coaching. Mental toughness. Execution. A great win on the road for the Patriots who made just one more play than the Steelers.

Yet all the pigskin pundits and bobbleheads want to talk about is how the losers were treated so shamelessly by fate and the officials' slavish devotion to the rules of the game.

A quick sampling of the NFL's chattering class says the consensus is that the zebras got it right. According to the rules, Jessie James did not complete the catch (which was clear and obvious from the replay). Somehow, though, this "unfairly" deprived the Steelers of a victory they deserved.

Forget the tackle Malcolm Butler made that took Darrius Heyward-Bey down inbounds and kept the clock running.

Forget the Patriots defenders being ready for the fake spike.

Forget Eric Rowe recovering from giving up the huge play to Smith-Schuster and making a great play to deflect the pass intended for Eli Rogers to the waiting arms of Duron Harmon.

Forget Brady to Gronk to Gronk to Gronk on what turned out to be the game-winning drive, capped by the Dion Lewis TD run.

Forget all of that.

The Steelers deserved this one!

Yeah.

Well, I have some bad news for the haters.

This was a big game for all the reasons you heard before it was played. Two powerhouse franchises playing for the #1 seed and home field throughout the playoffs. Check. Two of the greatest QBs to ever play the game. Check. Yet another opportunity for one of the Patriots' rivals to "kill the monster." Check. The Patriots coming off their worst game of the season (perhaps one of their poorest performances of all time), playing on the road off a short week, facing a team that was confident they were the better team and was already packing their bags for Minneapolis. Check.

This was supposed to be a passing of the crown game. For whatever the reasons may be, the pigskin world seems to love the Steelers every bit as much as it hates the Patriots. Following the massacre in Miami, everyone west of the Connecticut River was looking forward to a big, blowout Steelers win.

But that didn't happen.

Instead, the Patriots won the kind of game that often becomes an inflection point.

New England didn't play their best and still won. They were missing some key players and still won. They were on the road playing an arguably more athletically talented team and still won. For most of the game Pittsburgh dominated the line of scrimmage. And the Patriots still won. The Steelers only needed to make one more play. Just one. And still New England won.

Pigskin pundits and bobbleheads are so busy bemoaning the NFL's complicated (and totally unfair!) catch rule that nobody is talking about how Brady and Gronkowski simply put the team on their backs and carried them to victory. Two of the greatest to ever play their positions. The shoe top catch. The two-point conversion.

You got to believe.

Julian Edelman is right about that. Belief is the edge and now the Patriots have it. It's more important than tie-breakers. It's more important than raw talent. New England believes they will make a play. They will never give up. They know they will always have a chance with Tom Brady at quarterback. They know the last play is unimportant; the only thing that matters is the next play. And all of that was hammered home in the 4th quarter of that game in Pittsburgh.

As a naturalized citizen of Patriots Nation, I'm tempted to say, yeah, that's who the Patriots have been for the last seventeen years but then again, every year is different.  

Or perhaps, as we saw in Pittsburgh, it's the same.

When teams come to Foxborough in January, they'll be playing a team that believes that when they need a play, they will find a way to make it.

We're on to Buffalo.