Another Super Bowl?
The Patriots really turned it up after that crushing loss to Miami. In the last three weeks of the season they put two teams out of the playoffs (the Jaguars and Titans) and pretty much eliminated their own turnovers. The offense suddenly went from uncertain to methodical. Their wins were convincing instead of nail-biters. It’s playoff time, and the Patriots come alive this time of years.
But the last two games weren’t without incident. In the Jaguars game, Brady was speared by their rookie cornerback while diving for a first down after a short run. He didn’t get up right away. It was an obvious helmet-first hit which the ref’s didn’t flag. Had it been Peyton Manning, they’d have thrown a flag. The officiating in this league is fast becoming a joke.
Worse still was that the Jag’s coach – Jack Del Rio – defended the hit and more or less said Brady deserved it. Spearing is illegal on any player. Period. The league needs to keep a close eye on a team coached by someone who’d advocate not just an illegal hit, but a such a hit on a franchise quarterback.
Then the next game a similar deal went down. Rodney Harrison was clipped by a Titans wide receiver and had to leave the game with a knee injury. Not a big deal except the Titan players were laughing about it on the sidelines which enraged the Patriots defensive corps. There were reports that their coach – Jeff Fisher – was also giving winks to his player for taking out Harrison.
All this is bad enough, but Fisher is also an officer on the NFL’s Competition Committee. This is another team and coach which deserves league scrutiny. Deliberately taking a future hall-of-famer out with an illegal hit (which the league, as usual, said wasn’t illegal despite what the camera showed) is bad. But creating a team atmosphere where ending an opposing player’s season and/or career is applauded and laugher about clearly crosses the line.
A lot of the media aren’t giving them much of a shot at another SuperBowl. Well, more are now after they beat the Jets today. But even if they don’t make it, consider that the went 12-4 and won their division despite:
- Losing their Superbowl MVP and other wide-outs and bringing in 4 new wide receivers, one a rookie
- Bringing in a rookie running back
- Having two key players (Bruschi and Hobbs) both break their hands the same way in the first part of the season
- Having a new offensive coordinator
- Having a new defensive coordinator
- Losing a hall-of-fame linebacker (Junior Seau) to injury half way through the season
- Losing a hall-of-fame safety (Rodney Harrison) to injury for half the season
- Losing their clutch kicker (Vinatieri) and bringing in a new rookie place-kicker
How many teams could have that much change and still be competitive, let alone be dominating other teams down the stretch? Not many. For most teams this would be a rebuilding year. Not the Patriots.
OK. So can they beat the Chargers? To do so they need to stop Ladanian Tomlinson. But the Pat’s have one of the best run defenses in the league and one of the stingiest in the league in red zone. So there’s a good chance they can contain the Chargers to field goals.
But, can they win a shoot-out if they have to? Well, over the last 3 regular season games (all wins for both teams) San Diego scored 67 points and he Pats scored 104 points. So the way the two teams are playing now, the Patriots actually have the more prolific offense.
It should be a great game. If they can beat San Diego, then it comes down to going to either Baltimore or Indianapolis and winning the conference. The experts will pick against the Patriots – but they bet against them three times in the past and were wrong.
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