The New England Patriots Are Always Ready (Which Is Why They’re Back in the Super Bowl)
The Eagles were supposed to be done as soon as Carson Wentz went down. The Patriots… they were never done. They still aren’t done. Down 28-3 in the Super Bowl they’re not done. Down 10 points in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship game with their best receiver out and a 40-year old quarterback playing with 12 stitches in his hand and they’re not done. And that, folks, is your 2018 Super Bowl: the unexpected Eagles and the very much expected Patriots.
What will it take to end this Patriots dynasty? New records fall every season as their success stretches on beyond the depth of human vision. There are NFL diehards that weren’t even born when Tom Brady first threw a completed pass in a Super Bowl, plenty more that were born but simply don’t remember. Bill Belichick has been around so long he may as well have gone to school with Father Time. We’re several generations down the line of clutch Patriots receivers (shout out Danny Amendola). A constantly rotating cast of role players constantly serving up big plays.
They had to do it the hard way against the Jacksonville Jaguars. With Tom Brady’s hand full of stitches, an underlying confusion pervaded the first quarter as everyone tried to determine how much that might affect him. Good as this team is, Tom Brady’s probably the finest quarterback of all time and he just reeled off an MVP-calibre season at age 40 so his influence is everything. Unfortunately for those pining for the end of the Patriots domination, Brady also reckons he can play until he’s at least 45 so who knows with that.
Well, Brady completed 6/6 on the opening drive as the Pats ended with a field goal. A couple check-downs to Dion Lewis for little or nothing in there but also big completions to Brandin Cooks and Danny Amendola. The next couple possessions though, they weren’t the same. New England tried and failed to get the running game going and weren’t able to sustain anything. Meanwhile Jacksonville cashed in on some big yards after the catch, scoring on consecutive drives for a 14-3 lead.
So Brady started leaning on heavy on Rob Gronkowski. He missed him a couple times outside a 21 yard reception and the Jaguars looked to be on their way to another score after Keelan Cole’s 26 yard catch on 3rd & 8 but then an illegal shift flag set them back around halfway and although Blake Bortles was again able to hit his man, this time Marcedes Lewis for 12 yards on third and long, he was a second too late and the delay of game flag emerged. Out of a timeout and everything. He was sacked on 3rd & 12 and the Jags had to punt. That was the swing that the Patriots needed.
Mechanical short completions got them on the drive before Brady went deep to Gronk, who almost made an impressive catch but was absolutely crunched by Barry Church. Gronk would have to leave the game with concussion but they got 15 yards on the penalty. They got 32 more next play on defensive pass interference. In a game in which the Patriots were only called for one penalty, you can understand the Jaguars fan/player’s frustrations but you also couldn’t argue with the calls that were too much. James White took it in for the TD and NEP were back within four.
These are the things that the Patriots always do. You can take out their best receiver and they’ll figure out a way to get some other joker involved. 12 stiches on Tom Brady’s hand and he’ll still pop 290 yards without a pick. Those late-game heroics are something the Patriots are known and despised for (by all the team’s they’ve demolished in their winning wake), coming from ten points down in the fourth against the Jaguars here or thriving despite injuries and off-field adversity. Making it happen at the crucial moments – remember the Malcolm Butler interception in the Super Bowl a few years back?
But the Patriots aren’t lucky. They’re the best coached and most prepared team in American professional sports. They have a play ready for every single situation you can imagine, they leave no possibility unrehearsed for. They never panic. They never lose their cool. That’s why they keep winning, pretty much. That and, sure, immense skill in multiple positions. But look back through their past triumphs and there’s usually an unheralded depth player who comes up with that decisive moment. Malcolm Butler was the one in SB49. Against the Jaguars in the AFC Championship Game it was Danny Amendola.
Big Time Danny, who fades in and out during the season but always seems to show up when it matters. He caught 61 passes for 659 yards this season. Absolutely nothing special there, 38 players took more catches in the 2017 season and 55 had more rec yards. Didn’t even play 50% of their total offensive snaps. Yet Amendola caught 11 passes for 112 yards in the win over Tennessee last week and another had another 7 for 84 yards against Jacksonville, both scores coming within the last nine minutes of the game and including this incredible end zone grab…
It might have all been different had Jacksonville had more in the tank. They’re not a team that usually wins with their offence, they rode a devastating defence to where they got to and whatever they get with the ball in hand is a bonus. The Patriots were able to avoid turnovers all game to keep things within range for their comeback but they were helpless when a trick play that saw Amendola complete a 20 yard catch to Dion Lewis (of course!) ended with Lewis slightly losing control of the ball and somehow transferring it to Myles Jack in the tackle. It never touched the ground and Jack was never touched… but the play was whistled dead. The turnover was upheld and had Jack been able to advance it then he might have gone all the way to make it 27-10. Instead the Jags went three and out and the Patriots scored on the next possession.
Massive moment that the refs let slip by. However it’s not like Bort didn’t bugger it up himself. He threw 5/13 for 64 yards in the final frame. Tom Brady threw 9/15 for 138 yards with two TDs. The Jaguars had 6 first downs in the 4Q, the Patriots had 14 first downs in the 4Q. The Jags ran out of plays while the Patriots were prepared for everything. Just as it always happens. On the way to that touchdown, Brady hit Amendola for 21 yards on 3rd & 18 to get it going. You can argue that was the difference right there.
There’s an alternate reality in which things went very different for the Pats. The Kansas City Chiefs’ cockup against the Titans meant the Patriots avoided playing a team that thrashed them in week one (although this was not the same Chiefs team, they’d have struggled to back that performance up). Then there was the Baltimore Ravens losing to Cincy and missing out on the playoffs. Joe Flacco’s not gonna scare anyone in the playoffs (even with a ring) but that defence sure would have. They’re one of a handful of units capable of doing what Jacksonville did in that first half and they might just’ve been able to hold on too. Or the Los Angeles Chargers, if they’d not blown those first two games and been able to make it into the postseason, they were in some hot form and capable of scoring on anyone.
Then, of course, there’s the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team that seemed destined to take on the Pats in the AFC Champo game only to get done in by the Jags. When the Steelers and Patriots played in the regular season it was a modern classic, decided by a controversial call in the Pats’ favour (ha!). It’s almost a shame we never got #2.
Hey, sometimes you get those breaks, sometimes you don’t. The Patriots just control what they can control and it’s got them back to yet another Super Bowl.
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