The New England Patriots are going through a Golden Age. In the last sixteen seasons with Bill Belichick at the helm and Tom Brady at quarterback, the Patriots have won 14 AFC East titles (8 straight), 6 AFC Championships and 4 Super Bowls. The only two times the Patriots have failed to make the playoffs were in 2002 and 2008, both were missed on tiebreakers. That’s impressive to say the very least.
The 2016 New England Patriots have faced adversity, criticism, and disrespect from not only football fans, but the sports world as a whole. Whether its the lifetime Patriots haters or those who jumped on the bandwagon following DeflateGate, it is obvious that New England is home to the most disliked franchise in the National Football League. Through all of the hate, all of the noise and all of the soft attempts at ruining a future Hall of Famer’s reputation in Tom Brady; this 2016 squad blocked it all out and simply did their job.
Having done so, the Patriots finished this season with a league-best record at 14-2. The high powered offense led by Brady ended the regular season ranked 3rd in the NFL in points per game at 27.6. Even having missed the first four games of the season, Brady finished his twelve games (going 11-1) having totaled 3554 passing yards while completing 67.4% of his passes. Along with his NFL record TD-INT ratio at 28-2, Brady finished with a QB rating of 112.2. It may be interesting to note the only year Brady had a better QBR was in 2007 with a 117.2 rating; the same year the Patriots went 16-0 during the regular season. While these are impressive numbers, Brady got significant help from his key receivers. Julian Edleman hauled in 98 receptions for 1106 yards and three touchdowns. Martellus Bennett, the Patriots offseason acquisition from the Chicago Bears, caught 55 passes for 701 yards and seven touchdowns. Danny Amendola, Chris Hogan and Malcolm Mitchell each added an additional four receiving touchdowns.
While Brady was able to get the job done through the air, the ground game was in good hands behind leading rusher LeGarrette Blount. Having scored an NFL leading 18 touchdowns and rushing for 1161 yards, Blount finished the season the top performing rusher in the NFL.
Their defense has emerged as one of the most efficient and stingy units in the league allowing only 15.6 points per game, ranking 1st overall in the league. The defense accounted for 13 interceptions, 16 forced fumbles and 34 total sacks over the regular season, all helping to boast that #1 ranked defense in PPG/allowed. Going into the postseason, this is certainly a defense that is not to be taken lightly.
While these numbers all sound and look impressive in print, they mean nothing heading into the divisional round. As former Chicago Bulls guard Ron Harper might say, these numbers “don’t mean a thing without the ring.” This is where it helps to have recent championship winning teams as it’s easy to compare the statistics between past and present. For starters, the previous four Patriots Super Bowl winners had dominant defenses. In 2001, the Patriots gave up 17.0 PPG, ranking 6th in the league at the time. The 2003 and 2004 teams gave up 14.9 PPG and 16.3 PPG, ranking 1st and 2nd respectively. In 2014, the Patriots defense gave up a less impressive 19.6 PPG, which found them a ranking of 8th in the NFL. During those years the defensive units were able to rally together and work on confidence and dedication. This year looks no different with players such as Malcolm Butler, Rob Ninkovich and Devin McCourty have made the point numerous times to never let any one player become bigger than the team. This has only followed the traditional Patriot way, and it offers signs of encouragement for this postseason.
On the offensive side of the ball, the 2016 Patriots (ranked 3rd) are ahead of the curve in terms of comparing between this year and the previous Patriots champions. The 2001 team scored on average 23.2 PPG, ranking them 6th in the league that year. Tom Brady passed for just under 3000 yards that year while completing 60.6% of his passes with 18 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. In 2003, the offense was the was the least effective unit during Brady’s career thus far, ranked 12th in the league scoring only 21.8 PPG. Brady amassed 3620 yards passing and had a completion rating of 60.2%. Brady threw another 12 interceptions that year but also found the endzone 23 times. The 2004 offense was able to turn things around and improve to an average of 27.3 PPG, ranked 4th in the NFL. Brady’s season numbers were quite similar to the previous season, throwing for 3692 yards, 28 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. Completing 288 of his 474 pass attempts left Brady with a 60.8% completion rating. Most recently, there was the 2014 Super Bowl winning Patriots. That season the New England offense scored just under 30 points per game, ranking them fourth in the league. Brady had an impressive season throwing for over 4100 yards and completing 64.1% of his pass attempts. 33 touchdowns alongside 9 interceptions left Brady with a 97.4 QBR for the year. These numbers show empirically that the Patriots offense this season is outperforming prior New England teams that hoisted the Lombardi Trophy at season’s end.
The Patriots are currently heading into their first-round bye and haven’t had to participate in the Wild Card round since 2009. Fans in New England will be watching the two AFC matchups this weekend as it will decide who comes into Gillette Stadium on January 14th. The Patriots can only face either the Dolphins, Raiders or Texans during the divisional round and it could lead to the Patriots advancing to their sixth straight AFC Championship game.
The 2001 team shocked the world and upset the “Greatest Show on Turf” Rams. While the 2003 and 2004 teams put the finishing touches on what would be known as a modern dynasty. A decade would go by before the 2014 New England Patriots would stop the Seahawks on the 1-yard line and reclaim the title as champions.
The 2016 New England Patriots have history on their side and a chip on their shoulder, both of which are why they will be Super Bowl Champions again.
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