The Most Improbable Championship: the 2001 New England Patriots

This is part two of a decade retrospective. Part one is here.

Looking back, it’s hard to appreciate just how absurd the 2001 Super Bowl championship Patriots season was.

This was a team that had gone nowhere in 2000 and looked to be going nowhere once again. The Pats had made moves, to be sure, but they were all veterans on the downside of their careers (Bryan Cox, Otis Smith, Roman Phifer), players who hadn’t done anything yet (Mike Vrabel, David Patten), and castoffs (Antowain Smith, Jermaine Wiggins).

In fact, they opened the season by losing to the woeful (as in “just coming off a solid decade of losing seasons” woeful) Cincinnati Bengals. (Though the Bengals did go on to post an 8-8 record that year behind Jon Kitna. Go figure.)

Then came the events of Sept. 11, and everything was thrown into chaos. The nation, looking for something to distract itself from an ever-darkening world outlook, turned to sports.

The NFL cancelled its games that weekend, moving the Patriots’ contest with the (then 1-0, but eventually 1-15) Carolina Panthers to the end of the season. Instead, the Pats would face off against their hated rival, the New York Jets.

In that sloppy game, Bledsoe took a hard hit from linebacker Mo Lewis, and the franchise’s fortunes changed forever. In stepped a young, unknown sixth-rounder from Michigan: Tom Brady. The Pats, though, still lost the game.

(To continue my Bledsoe love from the last installment: Bledsoe was ridiculuously injured—he had a sheared blood vessel and was bleeding internally. He came back in on the next series. He took an insane amount of punishment to give his team the best chance to win. Again, underrated.)

Brady was an odd choice to start the next game, against a ferocious Indianapolis team. After all, the Patriots had Damon Huard, a veteran who had backed up Dan Marino (and had filled in admirably during Marino’s occasional absences). Yet Belichick had confidence in the young player and had the chutzpah to bet his career on that feeling.

The Pats crushed the Colts, 44-13, in a day where the defense reigned supreme. Cox set the tone early, nailing Colts receiver Jerome Pathon over the middle. Otis Smith and Ty Law each got a pick-six, and the Pats had put up 20 points before the Colts even got on the board.

Someone once said (I think it was Charlie Weis) that the 2001 Patriots had suffered in the first few games because Bledsoe had become the franchise guy—that is, when things got rough, everyone would stand around and wait for him to make a play.

Thing is, you can’t play football that way. Plays develop when everyone on the field is trying to make things happen. So Bledsoe wouldn’t be able to change things, and the team would lose.

That theory is true, and I think this game shows it. Brady actually did very little to win this game—he was 13-of-23 for 168 yards and no TDs—but everyone else stepped up their game, and they crushed a superior team.)

The Pats also dropped their next game to the Dolphins, with Brady going a lackluster 12-of-24 for 86 yards (though opposing QB Jay Fiedler only threw for 87 yards in a game that set offensive football back 75 years).

The next game, though, is where the legend of Brady truly began. New England was facing off against a resurgent Chargers team (3-1 after a 1-15 season) and Doug Flutie. The Pats were down by 10 in the fourth, but Brady let the team on field-goal and touchdown drives (the latter coming with 36 seconds left in the game), tying the game up. In a recurring theme, Adam Vinatieri kicked the game winner in overtime.

(This game sent the Chargers into a tailspin. They finished 5-11 and dumped Flutie for then-rookie Drew Brees. Essentially, this game ended Flutie’s career. Sorry, Doug.)

(Also, this was the only game in which then-star-receiver Terry Glenn played, because he got into a tiff with Belichick. That’s right—with Bledsoe injured and Glenn deactivated, the Pats played 13 of their 16 games without either of their offensive stars.)

The Pats were 5-4 heading into a game with the reigning Super Bowl-champion St. Louis Rams.

They made it a tight game, even leading at one point, but Smith fumbled on the goal line, and they ended up losing by seven. Still, the game showed that the Patriots could face off against the top teams in the league.

The Pats would not lose again that season.

Their first-round matchup was against the hated Raiders, and became one of the few games in NFL history to receive a nickname: The Tuck Rule game. It was played in a driving snowstorm, and much of the game was unremarkable.

The Pats were down by 10 when Brady dropped back, pumped his arm and was hit by corner Charles Woodson. The ball came loose, and it was ruled a fumble on the field, with the Raiders recovering.

Upon further review, referee Walt Coleman determined that Brady’s arm was still moving forward and, though he obviously had no intention of passing, the loose ball was still a forward pass.

The rest of the game seemed inevitable. The Patriots tied it up, and Vinatieri hit the hardest kick of all time to win the game in overtime.

Raiders fans, of course, claim the call was unfair. Even if this call was completely wrong (it wasn’t), you could claim it was karma from 1976, in which an infamous “phantom roughing the passer” call was made against the Patriots in a playoff game against these same Raiders. The call gave the Raiders the game, and they ended up as eventual Super Bowl champions.

It all balances out.

The AFC Championship game against the Steelers was when it became apparent that this team was living in some alternate-universe sports movie.

Brady was knocked out of the game in the second quarter, leaving – who else – Drew Bledsoe to lead this team to victory. Bledsoe completed his first pass in months, then took a hard hit as he was running out of bounds (in a play eerily similar to the one that ended his tenure as Patriots starting quarterback). He responded by nailing a pass to David Patten in the corner of the end zone.

(What few people remember, though, was that Bledsoe’s performance for the rest of the game was somewhat… lackluster. He went 10 for 21 and 102 yards, and the team’s only other offensive points that day came from a Vinatieri field goal in the fourth quarter.)

(By the way, check out Troy Brown’s punt return touchdowns that year. The dude would just run straight ahead, parting defenses like the Red Sea. I haven’t seen anyone do that since.)

The only team standing between the Pats and glory was the Rams.

This team looked laughably overmatched, like the team that lost to the Bears 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. Hell, the game was even being played in the same building—the Louisiana Superdome.

From the start, though, things seemed to break the Patriots’ way. Even the introductions seemed charmed, with the Pats choosing to be introduced as a team, instead of player-by-player.

Watching the team video from 2001, you can see Ricky Proehl, just before introductions, saying, “Tonight, the dynasty is born.” That must’ve really pissed the Pats off, because not only did they beat him in this Super Bowl, but they came back and defeated his Panthers team in 2003.

The lesson? Never say anything camera-worthy before a big game.)

The Patriots jumped to a 14-3 lead, behind an overpowering defense (which led to a 47-yard Law interception return for a TD).

The first game against the Rams had helped, after all. In David Halberstam’s book “The Education of a Coach,” he recounts how Belichick solved the Rams’ “Greatest Show on Turf” offense.

According to Halberstam, Belichick realized the Rams attack was centered around running back Marshall Faulk. In the first game, Belchick had though Kurt Warner was the key figure, and attacked him without effect. Through film study, Belichick saw that Faulk set the team’s rhythm, and told his players to constantly hit Faulk, no matter where he was on the field.

Many said Rams coach Mike Martz was foolish for not using Faulk enough. Belichick’s defense, though, kept Martz from using Faulk in the way he wished to use the back. Martz was unwilling to change to a more successful, but less comfortable, way of doing things.

The Rams rallied quickly, scoring a quick 14 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game.

The Patriots got the ball with 1:21 left in the game. John Madden said Belichick should play for overtime. Belichick disagreed.

(Tom Brady said offensive coordinator Charlie Weis gave him the tactical plan for the drive – try a few safe throws, and see where things go. He then went to Bledsoe, who told him to “just sling it.” Who says that? If you needed further proof that this season was life imitating some insane sports movie, there it is.)

Brady threw a couple of passes to running back J.R. Redmond, then found Troy Brown with a 23-yard strike.

Spiked ball. Vinatieri kick. Patriots win, 20-17.

(Catch part three on Monday)

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Patriots of the 2000s: Part One of a Retrospective

It’s hard to remember now, but before the Super Bowls, before the undefeated regular season, before the ascendancy of Bill Belichick and the dominance of an unknown named Tom Brady, the New England Patriots were the laughingstock of the league.

The Patriots began their life in the American Football League and were odd even for a new league. Their owner, Billy Sullivan, had essentially bluffed his way into “The Foolish Club”, and never really had the financial resources to compete with other teams—especially after the AFL-NFL merger. They were vagabonds, playing in a number of venues before settling into Foxboro Stadium.

(Calling Foxboro Stadium, aka Schaefer Stadium aka Sullivan Stadium, “cheaply made” would be generous. It was perhaps the most generic stadium ever built, in addition to being uncomfortable and small.)

Time moved on, and the Patriots began to settle into the role of the weaker sister of the Boston franchises. They didn’t have the tortured history and high-profile advocates of the Red Sox, nor the tradition of success that defined the Celtics and Bruins.

What’s more, they weren’t even a Boston team—they were practically situated in Rhode Island.

And so the Patriots existed, ignored except for a few die-hard fans, sparking interest only during short-lived bouts of success (1976, 1985 and the mid-to-late 1990s).

2000

In the beginning of the century, it appeared that little would change that fact. The Patriots were “recovering” from their latest flirtation with relevance—the years in which Bill Parcells had taken the team and performed the type of turnaround that would later become his signature.

The Pats had just ended the tenure of one Pete Carroll, who had overseen the erosion of the team from Super Bowl loser in 1996-97 to 8-8 also-ran in 1999.

(The fact that Carroll has become a de facto god with the University of Southern California, by the way, is reason #46 why I have no respect for college football.)

What’s more, the team was entirely reliant on rapidly-aging, onetime franchise hero Drew Bledsoe and the aging nucleus that had taken the team to the Super Bowl three years before.

(For my money, Bledsoe is the franchise’s most-underrated figure. He restored respectability to a team that desperately needed it, produced some wildly productive years early in his career and was the best thing about the team for many of his years here. He always gave the Pats a chance, even if it wasn’t much of one.

His reputation has become somewhat sullied by his rapid decline, his lack of success with other teams and the revelation that his relationship with Belichick was somewhat…strained.

For those who doubt Bledsoe’s value to the team, consider the following: Kraft was considering moving the team to Hartford, Connecticut in 1998. If Bledsoe hadn’t come along, how many people would’ve cared?)

The intervening years of drafts, run by Bobby Grier (who should occupy a Bill-Buckner-esque place in New England sports purgatory), had produced precious little in terms of talent.

The Patriots had just hired a coach who, like the franchise, was down on his luck. Bill Belichick had first caught the eye of owner Jonathan Kraft during the tenure of Parcells. Parcells, Belichick’s mentor, had rehired the coach after a disastrous stint in Cleveland.

(The Belichick-Parcells relationship is worthy of a Greek tragedy. As chronicled in David Halberstam’s “Education of a Coach,” Belichick at this point had been saddled with the kiss-of-death “good coordinator, but not head coaching material” label, and Parcells never let him forget it.

This was probably what led to Belichick’s bizarre one-day tour as head coach of the Jets. Belichick couldn’t stand the concept that Parcells would run the team from near-retirement and he would once again be stuck under the big man’s shadow. The subsequent brouhaha sent him to the Pats.)

Nonetheless, the 2000 New England Patriots team was one that was going nowhere fast. Aging players, a new system and little young talent consigned this team to a 5-11 record. Only back-to-back wins against the Denver Broncos and the Indianapolis Colts (who were starting to make noise as a league power) gave any sign of what was to come.

Indeed, the biggest development for the Patriots that year probably came from off the field—the team picked Tom Brady in the sixth round of the draft, off the recommendation of then-quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein.  What’s less widely known is the fact that the team made the odd choice of retaining four quarterbacks (Bledsoe, Michael Bishop and the immortal John Friesz) on their roster in 2000 so they wouldn’t have to cut Brady.

No one at the time could have possibly known the impact of that move.

(Catch part two on Friday, covering 2001 to 2003)

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Let ’em Play: Why The Patriots Starters Must Play Sunday

Some prominent sports journalists, including the Boston Globe‘s Chris Gasper, have suggested that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sit out Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans.

Have they lost their minds?

Let’s look at the facts here. The Pats have just put together their first complete game in a month, a game in which all facets of the team finally seemed to gel.

The game against the Jaguars showcased the team this Patriots squad should’ve been all along: a dominant passing game, a good running game, and a retooled defense. This is how the 2009 Patriots were supposed to look.

Instead, we frequently saw a directionless collection of individual parts that seemingly couldn’t help from shooting itself in the foot.

Last week, Tom Brady looked at ease and confident in the pocket. Randy Moss looked like, well, Randy Moss again.

The offense had rhythm, and the defense was stifling.

Now, these people would take this team—a team that hasn’t strung together two good games since October—and destroy any continuity it might have had? Madness!

History is replete with situations in which resting starters has come back to cause trouble, even ignoring the Indianapolis Colts’ recent PR backlash. (Note to Santa: thanks for that one.)

Just look at the Colts in the early part of the decade. In both 2004 and 2005, the Colts rested Payton Manning at the end of the season. Both seasons, the Colts failed to make the Super Bowl, despite a franchise record 14 wins in 2005.

They didn’t win the Super Bowl until 2006, a year that they, yes, played their starters in the final game of the season.

And who could forget the Giants of 2007? A mediocre team during the regular season, they played the 15-0 Patriots tough during their final (and meaningless) game of the season. That close game was widely credited with spurring the team to its Super Bowl victory.

Are these outcomes solely attributable to resting or playing starters? Probably not.

Still, is there any sense in getting an offense that has struggled with consistency all season off the field?

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A Christmas List For The Patriots

Dear Santa,

As Bill Belichick and staff are currently preparing for the Buffalo Bills, it falls to me to send you their annual Christmas wish list. As you know, things haven’t quite gone that well this year, but these gifts would really bolster the spirits of a disheartened team.

(As a reminder: thanks to the magic of video surveillance, Coach Belichick knows when you’re sleeping, awake and violating elf labor laws. Capisce?)

1. A Pass Rush. Yes, Saint Nick, the team certainly could use one of these. In the past few weeks, they’ve made Drew Brees look god-like and Chad Henne look, well, competent.

Why, you may ask?

Because they had enough time to drop back in the pocket, look for receivers, complete a crossword, fill out their taxes (and they had plenty of deductions) and browse Wikipedia for famous people who were born on their birthdays (Jon Bon Jovi? Who knew?) before a Patriot came within five yards of them.

Even Matt Moore had the time to find a few wide-open receivers. Thankfully, he missed them by about 20 yards, but the point stands.

2. Randy Moss’ heart. Father Christmas, if you could track down the evil voodoo priest who went all Temple of Doom on our troubled receiver, we’d appreciate it.

I know Moss has a reputation for quitting on lousy teams, but this is a team that (believe it or not) is still leading the division. Is it too much to ask that he run solid routes and secure the football?

3. Tom Brady’s vision. We know Tom likes Wes Welker. We all do. He’s gritty and scrappy and all those other things sportswriters like to write about because they don’t know how to write stories about players who aren’t gritty and scrappy.

But there are other players on the field, too. Randy Moss can catch the ball. Ben Watson can catch the ball. Sam Aiken and Julian Edelman seem game to try.

And we know (because every announcer tells us ad nauseum) that Brady think Wes is open on every single play. Sometimes he’s not, though, and sometimes he’s running a five-yard route when it’s third and 10.

4. A new offensive coordinator. Santa, you know that you shouldn’t call a stretch play when our lineman can’t hold their blocks. You know that throwing to the same receiver every down isn’t the best idea. You know sustaining drives in the second half is the best way to protect and build on a lead.

Why doesn’t whoever calls the plays for the Pats know these things?

I know, I know… criticizing play-calling is the lowest form of fan complaint. Still, it’s not a good thing when every second-half possession goes: unsuccessful run, incomplete pass, complete pass to Welker for three yards, punt.

We noticed old friend Charlie Weis is available. So what if he wasn’t great running a college football team? God created college football to make pro ball seem even better in comparison. Put a bow on ol’ Charlie and express-mail him to Foxborough.

5. More generous opponents.  If you could impress upon the Pats’ remaining opponents (the Bills, Jaguars, Texans and any possible playoff teams) that it is better to give (turnovers) than to receive, that’d help so much.

And all that giving would be good for their souls as well.

Oh yeah, and 6. Peace on Earth , 7. Goodwill toward men , and all that other stuff, too.

Sincerely,

Mike Gleason

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Saints Demolish Patriots: Can They Rebuild?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team demolished like that.

There’s really no other word to describe it. The Saints took every part of this Patriots team and smashed it to the ground.

The defensive backs couldn’t cover anybody. The defensive line couldn’t generate pressure on Drew Brees. The linebackers couldn’t stop the Saints’ running backs.

The offensive line couldn’t protect. The receivers couldn’t get open. The running backs couldn’t gain consistent, positive yardage. Tom Brady couldn’t throw the ball accurately.

Every unit of the team was prone to boneheaded mistakes and miscues.

Did the Patriots do anything well? (This is not rhetorical. I’m dying for something positive to take from this game.)

The mind-boggling thing about this season is the fact that the Pats could still wind up 12-4. 12-4? For a team that has looked so utterly hopeless at times?

If the Patriots do indeed end up with that record, it will seem (even to Pats fans like yours truly) fraudulent.

This team has had the good luck to play some truly awful teams and a bevy of mediocre ones. They have failed nearly every test they’ve come across (except against the Ravens, who are a legitimately tough team).

They would enter the postseason tournament as this year’s paper tiger—the one team every year that looks impressive, but does so because it’s dealt with subpar competition all year.

I’m sure this isn’t pleasant to read (it sure isn’t pleasant to write), but can anyone who watched last night’s game still hold out Super Bowl hopes for this team?

It seems to have become easy to throw this team’s offense out of sync. Teams still respect Randy Moss a bit, but I think they’ve increasingly realized that Brady has lost his deep-ball accuracy.

Therefore, they’ve decided to stop Wes Welker, tackling him immediately after he catches short patterns, the bread-and-butter of this Pats offense.

They’ve started to cover both receivers well, and the team’s next options at receiver aren’t very scary (Sam Aiken? The suddenly disappeared Julian Edelman?).

Laurence Maroney is probably the one Patriot who you could say played well (trust me, that’s weird to say), but he’s not the type of workhorse through which one could run an offense.

The less said about the defense, the better. I think, had Brees and company simply been playing against air, they would have had a tougher time of it.

Bill Belichick has said he believes the problems with this team are correctable. I hope so, because week 13 is a little late to rebuild a team.

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The Patriots Must Eliminate Mistakes To Compete With Saints

Next week, the Patriots have their last shot to prove they can win against the league’s elite.

They will face the Saints, quite possibly the best team in the league and one of two unbeaten teams left (and they’ve appeared a lot more dominant than the Colts, who have struggled to win their last few games).

Though the score of last Sunday’s game (a 31-14 victory over the Jets) would appear to indicate the Pats are firing on all cylinders, the numbers belie the facts: That this team has struggled mightily to close games out.

One need look no further than that game to see why.

The Patriots began the game running the ball and making short, efficient throws to counteract the Jets’ blitz. This proved an effective strategy, and were able to pile up a 24-0 score with four minutes left in the first half.

In the end of the second quarter and beginning of the second half, though, the Pats mysteriously seemed to lose their way.

One big factor was the passing game. The Patriots seemed to stop throwing the short and intermediate passes that led to their early success. Suddenly, Tom Brady started holding on to the ball longer, and the Jets’ blitz, held so wonderfully in check early, roared back to life.

It seems to me that the Pats were trying to prove Randy Moss could beat Darrelle Revis deep, and were sacrificing efficiency on offense to do so. This is unwise, as the gulf in talent between teams in the NFL is not large enough for one team to start proving points.

The Patriots have been working under the assumption that Moss cannot be covered by a single player. This assumption has been proven faulty and, if the Patriots do not adapt to this fact, it could end up hurting them down the road.

What’s more, the offense took two delay of game penalties. These penalties are bad enough on the road, where crowd noise can legitimately throw off an offense, but at home? What possible excuse is there?

Thus, short offensive possessions meant the Jets had an opportunity for a comeback.

Indeed, New England’s defense (and an overly-generous Mark Sanchez) bailed the offense out.

Had Sanchez not committed five turnovers (one fumble and four picks), the outcome of the game would have been very much in doubt. Put simply, Sanchez is a rookie quarterback and made rookie mistakes. We have no reason to expect Drew Brees, or indeed any quarterback in the NFL’s elite, to do the same.

Can the Patriots defeat the Saints? It is certainly possible. In the game against the Colts, I think the Pats showed they could compete with any team in the league.

Will the Patriots defeat the Saints? Only if they avoid the miscues, penalties and woes that have plagued them in the second halves of their losses.

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Patriots-Jets: Keys to the Game

After a week of debate over “the call,” the Patriots have another bitter rival to face this week.

The Jets, of course, handed this team a bitter loss in Week Two, meaning the Pats have extra incentive to focus this week.

Though the Patriots typically rebound the week after a loss, it would be a mistake to assume this game will be a rout. Though the Jets have struggled as of late (losing their last two games and five of their last six), they are still perfectly capable of making this meeting miserable for the Pats.

The following are the keys to the game:

Establish the run early. In Week Two, the Pats were only able to gain 83 yards on the ground, despite a respectable 4.2 yards a carry.

The Patriots must run to keep the Jets defense on its heels, rather than in attack mode. Using a passing-intensive scheme early would allow the Jets blitzers to tee off on Tom Brady, rather than worrying if they’re running past a back.

Lawrence Maroney has been playing relatively well lately (or had been, until that fumble at the goal line last week), and Kevin Faulk showed he retains the elusiveness to run from the shotgun. Both should see some action this week.

Make sure the pocket holds. Jets coach Rex Ryan has said he wants Tom Brady out of the pocket, mentioning that the QB’s accuracy declines significantly in those situations.

The Jets were able to accomplish exactly that in the last meeting, ensuring Brady never got comfortable via a number of overload blitzes.

Hopefully, this should be less of a problem this time around. Bill Belichick has had time to look at the team’s problems on film, Brady has gained confidence in his knee, and rookie Sebastian Vollmer is looking like a star at left tackle.

I think the game will hinge on this more than any other factor.

Bottle up the Jets’ run game. This Jets team can be explosive in the run game (Thomas Jones, for example, exploded for 210 rushing yards against Buffalo). Indeed, the Patriots gave up 117 yards to this team in their previous match-up.

Remember, Mark Sanchez is a rookie, and teams with rookie quarterbacks always want to provide the security of a successful running game. Deny them that.

Do whatever you can to make Sanchez uncomfortable. If the Pats have done well with the previous bullet point, they’ve done half the battle.

Limiting the Jets’ running attack on first and second down will leave them in obvious passing situations, never good if your quarterback is still learning the game (and can be generous with the football).

Playing unconventional may help here. Try to show Sanchez something he’s never seen before.

He likes to throw on the run, so make him stay in the pocket.

I think the Pats should play well here, and set up an extremely interesting match up against the Saints. The Jets can clearly be beaten, but the Pats can’t afford to let their guard down.

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Bill Belichick’s Fourth Down Call Not Patriots’ Undoing

I’ll be honest. This one hurts.

The Patriots tonight were somehow able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They embarrassed themselves in front of a national TV audience against a hated rival, and likely destroyed any chances of getting home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

As the media and fans digest this loss, conversation and analysis will undoubtedly center on one play—Bill Belichick’s decision to go for it on fourth and two at the Patriots 28-yard line.

This is sensible. After all, it flies in the face of traditional thought. Indeed, Cris Collinsworth was immediately critical of the move, questioning the call even before the play unfolded.

The strategy’s failure, of course, makes it more likely to draw fire.

I don’t, however, believe it was that decision that cost them the game.

Consider the situation. The Patriots defense had just been gashed for a long drive in a relatively short period of time (around 1:52 in game time, if I’m not mistaken). The team’s linemen had been unable to either pressure Peyton Manning or stop the run.

Giving the Colts the short field isn’t exactly the boneheaded move it seems at first glance. With a long field, the worn-down Patriots offense would have to run with Indy’s receivers. Within the red zone, players don’t have to cover as much area, giving them crucial rest.

Also, remember that the play called would have relied on Tom Brady and Kevin Faulk, both of whom have been reliable over the years and had been playing especially well that game.

Let’s also not forget that it almost worked. If not for a bobble and an odd call by an official (I’ve seen a lot of football, and never seen that called), Pats fans would be celebrating instead of mourning.

If anything cost them the game, I think it was the sequence that began the drive. Calling a timeout and then coming back with a run that everyone on the planet saw coming was completely devastating.

Really, it was bad enough that the team burned a crucial timeout (one that could’ve been used to challenge the fourth down play, mind you), but at the beginning of a drive? Before the team could even line up?

Don’t get me wrong—if I had a time machine (and, presumably, access to the Patriots sideline), I’d go back and beg Belichick to punt.

The call, though, didn’t kill the Pats.

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New England Patriots and Competitive Balance in the NFL

This year, the NFL’s much-vaunted parity has become something of a joke.

The league has clearly been stratified this year—there are the top contenders, and then there’s everyone else. We have a bevy of teams that are just plain horrible: the Titans, Browns, Bucs, Chiefs, Rams, Redskins, Raiders, and Lions are all haplessly running out the clock at this point.

Pundits everywhere are decrying the blowouts and questioning what can be done.

Why does this matter to the Patriots? Well, the team has been on the winning side of some awfully lopsided games. Since the team is part of the NFL’s current ruling class, it behooves fans to know when guillotine sales go up.

Successful teams should listen very closely whenever there is talk of leveling the playing field.

What complicates matters is the current collective bargaining agreement talks between the NFL and the players’ union. This means the league would be ideally positioned to launch a large, system-altering change like the salary cap and free agency.

I believe, though, that a substantial change to the way the league is set up is unlikely.

When you look at the league’s changes over the years, they have always intended to right a tangible wrong: free agency took away a team’s ability to control a player’s career, and the salary cap prevented the sort of payroll disparity we currently see in baseball.

What, then, would be the tangible wrong in today’s NFL?

The teams mentioned earlier aren’t there because they lack the money to compete, or because players are unavailable. No, those teams are currently losing because they have been mismanaged over several years (with the exception of the Titans, whose downfall this year has been unexpected).

Their personnel staffs have evaluated players incorrectly. Their front offices have signed ill-advised, cap-killing deals. They’ve likely had a revolving door at the coaching positions, each new one seeking to implement his own system (and consequently resulting in a whole lot of mismatched pieces).

Teams like the Pats, Colts, and Steelers succeed because they evaluate talent well, properly manage their caps, and have stable coaching situations.

How, then, could the problem be fixed? The league doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have the power to completely reshape noncompeting teams.

The NFL has spent years protecting teams from those factors typically blamed for imbalance, but it has finally found one that cannot be solved easily: organizational incompetence.

Perhaps things are as they should be—well-run teams (like the Pats, Colts, and Steelers) are seeing their foresight rewarded. Poorly-run teams are performing miserably.

Perhaps imbalance is the natural state of things.

That won’t stop people from bemoaning 59-0 games, though.

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Patriots-Dolphins: Keys To The Game

The schedule-makers (and pure luck) have been kind to the Patriots the past few weeks. Two games against certifiable NFL have-nots and a bye week were the greatest gift possible to a team that was struggling to find its way.

Now, the Patriots must face a team that, while not in the top strata of the suddenly-polarized NFL, isn’t exactly a pushover.

The Dolphins are a team that has been known to give the Patriots problems. Its linebackers, particularly Joey Porter and Jason Taylor, have long been a thorn in Brady’s side, regardless of how their teams as a whole perform.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the keys to a Patriots victory.

Make their passing game beat you. Chad Henne may be playing Chad Pennington’s old role well, but the passing game is still not the forte of this team. The Dolphins currently have the 29th-ranked passing offense in the NFL, with Henne rated as the NFL’s 23rd-ranked passer.

Contrast that with Miami’s third-ranked rushing attack, and it becomes obvious what this team wants to do.

Bill Belichick is well-known for trying to take away the other team’s strength, forcing them to beat him in another way. This week, I bet he does everything possible to entice the Dolphins into throwing the ball.

Special teams, special teams, special teams. Ted Ginn Jr. showed last week exactly how important this often-overlooked aspect of the game can be. Without his two electrifying returns for touchdowns, the Dolphins clearly would have lost against the Jets last week.

Beyond the touchdowns, Ginn is averaging 34.9 yards per return, good for second in the league.

It will be important to limit his return yardage—it means nothing to stop their offense if you allow a score on a return.

Prepare for a Wildcat wrinkle. It’s telling that the Dolphins debuted their Wildcat offense against the Patriots last season—it was a situation where there was a clear mismatch in talent (the Patriots were coming off an undefeated regular season, and the Dolphins had narrowly avoided 0-16), so it made sense to take unorthodox measures.

This year is not much different. Tom Brady has returned and, after the last two games, looks almost his 2007 incarnation. Miami, though improved, is still the underdog in this fight.

It seems the perfect time to try and throw the Patriots off-rhythm.

One of the weaknesses of the Wildcat as the Dolphins run it is that neither Ronnie Brown nor Ricky Williams is much of a threat to throw the ball. Once the defense has ascertained who has the ball, they merely have to tackle well.

Perhaps Sunday the Dolphins will throw Pat White in more, giving the offense an entirely different dimension.

Whatever the case, the Patriots must prepare for a wide range of contingencies.

Be careful with the ball. This is, of course, always a priority, but it should be doubly so in this game. There is no better way to keep an underdog in a game than to give away the ball.

Turnovers are especially useful to teams with mediocre offenses, as short fields make any offensive unit look good.

Hopefully, the Patriots will continue their form as of late, and cruise to victory. If so, this team could again begin to build its case that it is part of the NFL’s elite.

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