Brady, Belichick headed to ninth Super Bowl
FOXBORO — Something feels different.
The Patriots didn’t win the Super Bowl at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night. They merely added to their collection of Lamar Hunt trophies, the prize that’s handed out to the winner of the AFC Championship. If you’re keeping count, New England in the Bob Kraft ownership era has now won 10 conference titles with nine coming under the coach/quarterback watch of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
The standard answer should be that every AFC crown conquest resides on the same plane. All of them have led to the Pats gaining admittance to the NFL’s marquee event. To rank one victory ahead of another is like asking a parent who their favorite kid is. Of course they’re going to take the diplomatic route and declare they love each of them equally.
So why does it feel like no one around these parts is ready to step down from Cloud Nine following the latest AFC Championship conquest, a nail-biting 37-31 overtime victory that came on road at the expense of favored Kansas City? Maybe it’s because this latest addition to the trophy case has an unexpected vibe surrounding it.
If the Pats defeated the Chiefs at Gillette Stadium, the day-after buzz might have been one resembling the fulfillment of a prophecy. No one is going to come into the house that Kraft built and spoil the coronation.
Instead, you can’t help but appreciate what New England achieved on Sunday night. It was a performance that left fans and players exhilarated and exhausted, one that came in a hostile building and facing Patrick Mahomes, the very talented Chiefs QB who’s the odds-on favorite to be named this season’s MVP.
Opponent aside, the Patriots had their own issues to sort through, the kind that didn’t exactly inspire a ton of confidence with a Super Bowl berth hanging in the balance. Playing games away from Foxboro was a major flaw for the 2018 New England edition, losing five games compared to three wins. Those road woes seemed to serve as a major roadblock in the court of gaining national respect.
Speaking of talking heads, they’ve certainly gone out there way to declare that Rob Gronkowski is washed up and that Julian Edelman has lost a step or two. Against Kansas City, both players hushed up the naysayers and succeeded in turning back the clock. If Brady wasn’t throwing to Edelman in overtime, he was hooking up with Gronkowski.
“I think that was vintage Jules and Gronk. Those guys have stepped up big in so many big moments for this franchise over the course of their careers and they don’t flinch in those moments. I think (Sunday) night, you saw them when we needed them the most. When our season was on the line, you saw those guys step up. They weren’t afraid of the moment. They were looking to make plays,” said special teams captain Matthew Slater on Monday. “They’ve always been guys that have been willing to do whatever this team needs to win football games, and last night, we needed them to make plays and that’s what they did.”
Remember back last spring when Brady and Gronkowski were no shows for OTAs? For the longest time, that was the major storyline and seemed as the biggest roadblock in New England’s quest to heading back to a third straight Super Bowl. If the two top players aren’t fully invested in the offseason program, what kind of message does that send to the rest of the players who are in Foxboro and busting their humps?
A season that started out a tad on the disjointed side seemed to be veering in a similar direction in December following back-to-back road losses at Miami and Pittsburgh. Ties were severed with troubled wide receiver Josh Gordon just when it appeared he had emerged as Brady’s go-to target. The pass rush seemed suspect, as did the play of the defensive line.
In short, it was a Patriots team that was hard to take seriously, as in Super Bowl serious.
“This year, yeah we faced a little adversity. The story was a little bit different … we weren’t expected to do some of the things that we’ve done thus far,” said Slater.
The Patriots spent the week leading into the AFC title game wearing the underdog card like a badge of honor. It was an unusual tactic to take but one that was spot-on. The Patriots still have Brady slinging passes and Belichick calling plays, but it seemed as though they were David while Mahomes and the Chiefs were Goliath.
In true David fashion, the Patriots put a stone in the sling and used it to take down a team that most of America wanted to see in the Super Bowl. New England took Kansas City’s best shot but did not flinch. In the process, they delivered yet another conference championship to the region.
“We never doubted one another and here we are,” said Slater.
The journey is not over. The Patriots will have Tuesday off before returning to work on Wednesday. By that point, the talk will center on the Los Angeles Rams, a team that’s similar in the Chiefs in that the offense is led by a promising quarterback in Jared Goff. The topics de jour will be about making sure to contain running back Todd Gurley and how to neutralize the 1-2 punch the Rams boost along the defensive line in Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh.
Bill Belichick probably won’t be in a reflective mood, but that doesn’t mean Patriots fans should follow the coach’s lead. When factoring in all the ups and downs, the ebbs and flows that this season’s team went through, the latest advancement to the Super Bowl stage shouldn’t be allowed to fade from our collective consciousness until two Sundays from now.
Then, it will be time to make some more memories.