TRUE PATRIOT LOVE?
The Patriots have become the NFL team that many love to hate, but think of the void if this is the end. Arthur,
The New England Patriots are done, baby. It is over. Tom Brady is sick of Bill Belichick and Rob Gronkowski is sick of being doubled by safeties and Bill Belichick is sick of humanity, probably, which may explain his whole Trump thing. He may be four losses from burning down the practice facility for the insurance money.
Now you might say, the Patriots do this every year! They treat September like pre-season! They sleepwalk around, waiting for Belichick’s football genius to crystallize and, bam, next thing you know they’re losing to Nick Foles in the Super Bowl.
But for the first time since 2002, New England is two games out of first place in the AFC East, which has been a running joke for so long that it could be the Buffalo Bills. Or the New York Jets? Maybe Miami, whatever. You get the picture.
This time the Patriots are 1-2 and they beat the 0-3 Texans, so it’s like New England hasn’t won a game at all. Then Jacksonville kicked New England all over the field. OK, Jacksonville is legit, when they’re not scoring six points the next week and losing to Tennessee. And then Detroit kicked New England all over the field, two weeks after the Lions were humiliated by the Jets.
They were the first back-toback double-digit Patriots losses since … 2002. The Patriots went 9-7 that year, and it was the only time Brady ever missed the playoffs.
Against Detroit, Brady missed receivers. Remember Seth Wickersham’s well-reported ESPN story from last season, in which Brady, “in the team's private evaluations, is showing the slippage of a 40-year-old quarterback”? That he was getting more fragile, and therefore less patient with routes?
Eh, he’s Tom Brady until he’s not. But the Patriots defence looks slow and just lost its most athletic linebacker, rookie Ja’Whaun Bentley, to injury. Yes, last year they allowed the fourth-most total yards in football, and it didn’t matter until the very end. And yes, Belichick is the greatest coach there is.
But last year they were a top-five defence in the red zone, and the offence was the league’s best.
This year Julian Edelman will be back after his four-game PED suspension expires. But the only potential field-stretcher to make space for Gronk is human lottery ticket Josh Gordon, who was so erratic Cleveland finally let him walk after waiting for four years. Which means Gordon, who has played 11 games since 2013, might be the most important piece for the 2018 Patriots. Hoo boy.
Look, eventually, the Patriots as we know them are going to fall apart.
They have no heir apparent for Brady, who is 41. Belichick is 66. One day Gronk will fall down and he won’t get up. It’s gonna end. And you know what? You might miss them. For all the dour sense of duty, all the secrecy, all the cultish cultivation and discarding of players, all the dull, scared-of-Bill player quotes, all the cheating allegations, all the Trump affection, and all the new-age Brady weirdness — remember when he said drinking water could prevent sunburns? — the Patriots are worth the price of admission. They have been directly involved in four of the best and most memorable Super Bowls: Patriots-Giants I, Patriots-Seahawks, PatriotsFalcons, Patriots-Eagles. The Tyree Catch, the Malcolm Butler interception, 28-3, and The Game.
They won some and they lost some and their Super Bowls resonate with every bit of the often too-grandiose NFL Films mythology that Belichick worships like a priest. Every one was more important, part of a bigger edifice, because it was the Patriots. Brady and Belichick have been doing this for 18 years,; who else prompts celebrations when they start 1-2? Who could replace them?
Nobody. It’s almost a shame that they are certainly, definitely doomed. Definitely. Oh hey, they haven’t played AFC East teams yet.
Last week this space went 7-9. Maybe Josh Gordon can save me, too. As always, all lines could change.