Neither would I.
The AFC Championship was a strange brew of astonishment and inevitability. After a week of hearing about how the Jaguars were a team genetically engineered to beat the Patriots, the Coughlin Curse, and Brady's thumb, when it was 20-10 and Gronk had been knocked out... I had a moment of doubt. All good things come to an end and maybe this was it.
Yeah, yeah. 28-3. I shouldn't have doubted but I did. Then like Ali after 11 rounds of rope-a-dope, the Patriots put together a barrage of complementary football in the 4th quarter. All three phases contributed to a dominant 15 minutes of football when they needed it most. It was astonishing. Was this the same team we'd been watching in the first three quarters? Does any other team, any other quarterback do these things?
And yet when Amendola streaked across the back of the end zone for the TD catch that made it 24-20, it felt utterly inevitable. Tom Brady leading the Patriots back from a double-digit deficit? Yeah, we've seen that movie before. Two TD passes to Danny "Playoff" Amendola? How do you think he got the nickname "Playoff?" Capping it off with Stephon Gilmore's remarkable pass breakup on 4th down and Dion Lewis' redemptive run for a game-sealing 1st down was just more Hollywood movie montage magic.
New England is in the Super Bowl. Again. For the 10th time overall and the 8th time for the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady Patriots.
It's no longer possible to put this New England Patriots team in context; they are the context.
Pigskin pundits and bobbleheads are left to compare Brady to Michael Jordan. They rank the previous 51 Super Bowls and the Patriots dominate the Top 10; Bill Belichick gets a shout out for SB XXV and his defensive game plan that took down the Bills K-Gun offense, too. The comps are to teams that played without a salary cap, that managed a roster before true free agency.
The New England Patriots of the 21st Century are sui generis.
Some random thoughts…
Watching Brady and Belichick hug it out after the AFCCG it was obvious they really, really hate each other. #sarcasm
No, the white jerseys don't matter. Correlation is not causation. Still, I'm glad they're going with the white jerseys.
A statistical outlier that Tom Brady doesn't have on his curriculum vitae? It isn't that Brady or the Patriots are playing to have TB12 become the first quarterback in Super Bowl history to lead the league in passing during the regular season and win the Super Bowl. How often is the phrase "No other quarterback in NFL history" linked to Tom Brady's name? It just seems so Brady for him to be the first and only QB to do it.
It's akin to his record when throwing 50+ passes in a game. No other quarterback in NFL history has a winning record in such games. Brady is 19-9-0. Quoting from the PFT post (emphasis added):
Brady has won six postseason games when throwing 50 or more passes. No other quarterback in NFL history has won more than once when throwing 50 or more passes in the postseason.
I Googled "no other quarterback in NFL history" and the third link returned was Tom Brady's wikipedia page. His name appears 12 times across the top 10 results returned.
I've said before I don't think Brady retires after this season, even if the Patriots win. Why? Because if New England does win, he'll have a chance to add three consecutive Super Bowl wins that to that "no other quarterback in NFL history" list.
Assuming (fingers crossed) Rob Gronkowski is cleared to play, the Patriots will have their full complement of skill position players. So, who'll play the hero if New England wins? I have to assume the Eagles will make Gronk, Brandin Cooks, and Dola coverage priorities. Chris Hogan? James White? It's even harder to say when you realize Josh McDaniels and Brady will work to manipulate matchups to their advantage.
Does defense win championships? I think Bill Belichick might argue all three phases of the game win championships. Still, I think the key matchup in the Super Bowl will be Eagles offense vs. Patriots defense. If New England holds Philadelphia under 20 points, I think they win the game. McDaniels, Brady, and the Patriots offense will figure out a way to score 21.
And yes, I'm afraid that will be the final score.
Patriots 21, Eagles 20.
I'll take it.
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