Super Bowl victories don’t come easy for the Patriots
If you live inside Route 128, you probably heard me scream “cover schemes, cover schemes!” throughout the fourth quarter. By that I meant for the Patriots to drop eight defenders and give Philly’s QB Donovan McNabb a chance to throw the into tripple coverage. It’s not as if New England’s pass rush didn’t get to him at times, but with the score 24-14 it seemed a little overly adventurous to leave the corners isolated again Philadelphia’s admittedly less than stellar receivers. I understand the Patriots didn’t want to give McNabb a chance to move and throw outside the pocket, but why risk the quick big play with time on your side?
It all worked out in the end, with the Patriots simply having more good players than the Eagles were able to overcome. The punt that pinned the Eagles to their 4-yard line for their last minute desperation drive underscored once again that New England is a complete team. Even though the Patriots turned in their worst Super Bowl performance since 1986, they still won, demonstrating that they are not just a Belichick-ruled plan-and-execute operation, but a team stocked with very good players who can make enough plays to win, even when things aren’t clicking the way they normally do.
There are so many interesting things about the Patriots. Just to mention one: Rosevelt Colvin has yet to come close to being the impact player he was expected to be, and yet the Patriots have the best linebacker corps in the NFL. Without those guys stuffing runs and taking away the underneath passing game, that banged up, mostly straight-from-the-crib secondary would probably get chewed up.
There is a lot of talk about “situational football” with regards to the Patriots and they showed why. Vrabel got his now obligatory touchdown reception (he’s got better hands than you do, Mitchell) and later offensive lineman Hochstein lined up as fullback and cleared the way for Corey Dillon’s touchdown run. And in the first half there was Troy Brown coming in as a wide receiver to do his old but never tired super-clutch third-down catch routine to set up the Patriots first touchdown.
Rodney Harrison made a strong bid for the Super Bowl MVP award, but it’s hard to argue with Deion Branch getting it. He didn’t just make a lot of catches, he made a lot of big plays. I hope NFL Films shows every one of them in their game recap. They really should. Branch double-handedly elevated Tom Brady’s performance from average to championship level.
Kudos to the Eagles for not falling apart when the Patriots took a 24-14 lead. It seemed as if the game was sliding firmly into the Patriots hands, but the Eagles kept fighting right up until the end. That is impressive. A lot of the Eagles could just have rolled over and blamed the loss on McNabb’s poor accuracy (The Curse of El Rushbo?), Mitchell’s mouth, and Owens’ injury. They had done more than most had expected for them, their prospect were bleak and yet they refused to cave in. That said, I wonder why Phildadelphi didn’t go no huddle on their second-to-last-drive? Perhaps coach Andy Reid din’t much confidence in the Eagles execution of it, perhaps he felt there was enough time to go with the huddle. Strange either way. Their last drive was a sloppy mess of poor execution - or piss-poor planning. Unless you’re throwing an outside screen, you have to throw downfield in that situation. You certainly can’t waste 25 seconds on a pass for no gain. Ugly.
Bottom line, I am so happy that the Patriots won. Just so happy. I am not the least bit blase about it. I am just as wide-eyed excited about this win as I was about the first one, in 2002. This is an incredible ride of highs.
Things were pretty quiet around Kenmore Square after the game, mostly thanks to the scores of riot-clad officers on the streets. Just as well, there’s really no need to tear up the city over a Super Bowl victory. Let us instead say the following, in unison:
Thank you, Robert Kraft! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Three out of four and I still want more. This never gets old.
