This wasn’t supposed to happen.
The New England Patriots — the same team that went 4-13 the last two seasons in a row — are in the Super Bowl.
Usually, teams that are coming back from those kinds of campaigns are looking to rebuild, maybe get a playoff win or two and call it a day. You know, building blocks.
But the Patriots under Mike Vrabel were apparently in no mood for a prolonged renovation. They didn’t even wait for the cement to set before putting in a new foundation that this franchise can build on for years.
Drake Maye has leapt from pretty good as a rookie to legit MVP candidate. The defense went from being about as solid as a Jenga tower to a stone wall that has been the backbone of the team.
They have been proving everyone wrong this season. But I’m still not convinced. I can’t hop on the bandwagon just yet.
The folks in Foxborough clearly feel different.
“Props to this team, man. What an effort out there tonight,” Maye said following the AFC championship when he was told that he would be the second-youngest quarterback to start in a Super Bowl. “We’re going to the Super Bowl. That sounds pretty good, that sounds pretty cool.”
To be clear, this is in no way a dig at the Patriots. It will come up endlessly this week, so let’s get this out of the way: The team’s relatively easy schedule can’t account for their success. Sure, they didn’t have to face Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen in the playoffs. And yeah, Bo Nix not playing in the AFC Championship certainly favored the Pats on what was a messy winter day in Denver.
But every team that has ever been a contender has had just the right mix of skill, health and luck. The Patriots have had plenty of the last two. And they’ve proven time and again that they’re one of the best teams in the league.
In the playoffs, the defense is averaging just under nine points a game allowed, and they led the NFL with eight postseason takeaways. Even accounting for some tricky weather, sheesh. The team dispatched the Chargers, then dropkicked a squad that was supposed to have one of the best defenses in the league in the Houston Texans and then outlasted the Broncos in a city the franchise had never won a playoff game in to get to the Super Bowl.
It also helps that, after Bill Belichick’s awkward ride into the sunset and Jerod Mayo’s chaotic year at the helm, the vibes under Vrabel are immaculate. The coach who has literally bled for his team offered this regarding the faith the team has after the AFC championship:
“You have to believe things sometimes before you can see ‘em,” he said. “And you have to believe that what you’re doing is the right thing. And if it’s not, you have to recognize it and make adjustments and changes to the program and everything else. And we’ve got a great group of guys and they continue to, again, believe in the things that we did. And they formed and created an identity. And they tried to protect it.”
This Patriots team has proven they aren’t some fluke. The problem is what lies on the other sideline in Santa Clara.
Last season, the Seattle Seahawks went 10-7 and somehow missed the playoffs. This year, they put on a clinic on most of the rest of the league, going 14-3 in head coach Mike Macdonald’s second season. The team produced six Pro Bowlers, tied for best in the league.
New England? They had two, in Maye and Christian Gonzalez.
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold put up some of the best numbers of his slow-burn career, which is peaking at just the right time. Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba had the most receiving yards in the league this season.
On defense, the Seahawks have picked up the nickname “The Dark Side.” They’ve earned that moniker, cutting opposing offenses down like Darth Vader in a dark hallway. That’s no moon: That’s the Seahawks defense allowing just 292 total points in the regular season, the best mark in the league.
And while the Patriots have proven formidable, they’ve also turned the ball over five times in the playoffs. That’s sure to be appetizing to a hungry Seattle team that has four takeaways and zero turnovers in the postseason.
All of that has ESPN giving the Seahawks about a 60% chance of winning. And yet the Patriots are resolute.
Last time the team was in the Super Bowl, the motto was “We’re Still Here.”
This time, Robert Kraft shouted out a new call to arms during Sunday’s team send off at Gillette Stadium.
“We all we got,” Kraft said into the mic.
“We all we need!” the crowd shouted back.
That’s a war cry for a franchise that is somehow both an underdog and looking to win a record seventh Lombardi Trophy.
And they’re right. For all my shock and disbelief, they’re here. They’ve proven me wrong every step of the way this season. Maybe they can do it one more time.
