The heat is on Bill on freezing night in Buffalo
The weather forecast says it will be 6 degrees when the Patriots and Bills begin their Wild Card playoff game at 8:15 p.m. inside Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.
The “feels-like” temperature for those frozen souls in the stands will be 2.
It was upgraded from 1 earlier Friday.
Shirts, sobriety and sanity are optional.
There’s been much reminiscing about the 1980s of late. Sky-high inflation. Talk of war with Russia. Astronomical gas prices. Shoulder pads. They’re all back. And all harbingers of the “Yuppie Decade.”
But think less “Big Chill” and more “Beverly Hills Cop” when it comes to the Patriots tonight. Glenn Frey helped score the soundtrack of the 1980s. “The Heat Is On” was his theme song for the BHC trilogy. It triggers a Pavlovian response for anyone who was old enough to remember when Bill Belichick was the Giants defensive coordinator.
And like so many other fragments of the 1980s that have resurfaced of late, there will be a “Beverly Hills Cop 4” sometime in the next year or two.
Tonight, the heat is on Bill Belichick. We don’t expect much fire from the frigid State Run Media throng on hand to chronicle tonight’s hostilities. That’s no real surprise. The bravest reporter since Edward R. Murrow was being bombed in London asked Belichick about his New Year’s resolution after the Patriots lost Round 2 to the Bills on Dec. 26. She was widely ridiculed for failing to follow the script.
Belichick doesn’t have Axel Foley in tonight’s script to save his backside. If the crusty Patriots coach isn’t careful, he may fall for the banana in the tailpipe. Or Josh Allen throwing for 300 yards and running for another 75.
Belichick has been cryogenically inoculated from talk of “failure” this season by too many. His reputation is perfectly preserved right next to Ted’s Head. When it comes to being vaccinated against critical analysis, Belichick has 20 million boosters throughout Patriots Nation. He’s got the Greek and Latin alphabets covered.
The Patriots spent just one year in non-playoff purgatory after the departure of Tom Brady. Most teams disappear into NFL Middle Earth or worse when their “franchise” QB exits. The Denver Broncos, for example, will be hiring their third head coach since winning Super Bowl 50 this offseason. They’ve used 11 different starting quarterbacks since Peyton Manning retired ahead of the 2016 season.
Shouldn’t showing up in the postseason be good enough for these Patriots? No.
Especially after a year in which the entire organization was given a pass for letting Brady (and Gronk) find the Fountain of Youth in Florida. No.
Not after a season of nothing but excuses instead of results.
No.
Not when Tom Brady is winning Super Bowls in Tampa Bay.
Not for the Patriots. Not for Belichick.
I’m old enough to remember when “good enough” was never “good enough” for the Patriots. Hell, I’m also old enough to remember having to listen to the 2-14 Patriots on the radio because their home games were blacked out.
It’s not surprising the Patriots finished 10-7. That was in line with many predictions. The team’s projected win total was 9.5 games at most sportsbooks before the season. An excess of sloppy play, crucial penalties, defensive meltdowns and inexplicable mistakes prevented this team from winning the AFC East as much as any mythical wall surrounding its rookie quarterback.
Belichick leads a roster into the postseason that he has created from the first to 53rd spot fully in his image. This is Belichick’s team far more than any other Patriots team he has ever coached. There is literal Belichick DNA sprinkled across the team’s coaching staff. The presence of Brady has been fully exorcized. “Gronk” remains a four-letter word inside the walls of One Patriot Place. Alex Guerrero has gone the way of Alex Jones.
Belichick even plucked his future franchise QB from the Patriots Class AAA team in Tuscaloosa. (Don’t worry, they have another Class AAA affiliate in Athens.) The Patriots loaded up this offseason, guaranteeing $163 million for free agents like Matt Judon, Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, Jalen Mills, Kendrick Bourne and Nelson Agholor. Thankfully, all that money wasn’t just for this season.
Belichick, unlike his mentor and former boss Bill Parcells, was allowed to shop for the groceries, hire the cook and build the kitchen.
But Chef Bill can’t burn the dessert. Not this time. He needs instead to whip up a winning recipe that could beat Bobby Flay and Sean McVay.
A first-round playoff game should not matter this much. But this one does. The Patriots have not won a postseason contest since Super Bowl 53. In the intervening 1,077 days, no team from Boston has captured a championship. The longest big-league title drought in New England since the chasm between Celtics Banner 16 and Super Bowl 36 becomes official in the next couple of weeks. Whether the Patriots manage to win Super Bowl 56 or not.
It is neither rational nor reasonable to believe this Patriots team can gain a championship this season. It would require perfection through four games, with likely all of them on the road. It remains more not than probable.
But winning in the Wild Card round should never be the stuff of fable and fantasy.
Not for New England. Not for Belichick.
Even if Brady’s only been gone for one year.