Already the rumblings are starting. This could be the best Patriots team ever. Or, as we like to say it around here, evah.
It’s easy to see why people would come to that conclusion. The Patriots may have lost Rob Gronkowski to retirement, but they’ve made up for it in the capable receivers they have. And provided Antonio Brown survives the scrutiny that is now upon him, the team will be even stronger.
The defense has given up three points in two games, which is impressive until you realize that they’ve only played one real team (Pittsburgh) and one that would have trouble beating your local high school team (Miami). Put the New York Jets, this week’s victim, in the latter category as well. So it’s tough to tell.
You can’t make these predictions based on two weeks of games, one of them against an outrageously bad team. As of this writing, the Patriots are down three top offensive linemen (Isaiah Wynn, Marcus Cannon and David Andrews). Of the three, Cannon (shoulder) will be quickest to come back, but he wasn’t on the field last week so who knows? Wynn won’t be back for eight weeks and Andrews is gone for the season.
As any astute football fan knows, the Patriots are one Tom Brady sack away from having the entire complexion of the team change. Brady goes down hard enough to suffer serious injury, and all this talk about “best ever” flies out the window.
But even if they go undefeated this fall (and I highly doubt that’ll happen) would this be their “best evah” team?
I say nay. I also say nay to the 2007 team. They may have gone undefeated until the Super Bowl, but they’re not the best.
Neither of the three teams that have won the Super Bowl this decade qualify either, especially last year’s. They were obviously good enough, but if you put that team up against the one I pick, it would lose by three touchdowns.
The 2001 team caught lightning in a bottle, but its nosedive to mediocrity the following season tells a more accurate tale. The 2003 edition was close, but not quite there.
Count out both the 1985 and 1996 teams because of decisive Super Bowl losses (though props to Ray Berry’s team for beating Oakland and Miami on the road in successive weeks).
This leaves two, one obvious and one not. Let’s go with the not-so-obvious first. The 1976 team under Chuck Fairbanks was among the most complete in the team’s history. You couldn’t stop those Patriots on the ground, they had a world-class receiver in Darryl Stingley (whose career was tragically cut short), perhaps the best offensive lineman in NFL history (John Hannah) and a stout and stingy defense.
One thing the 1976 Patriots didn’t have going for them was Ben Dreith, a referee whose “roughing the passer” call against Ray Hamilton was very instrumental in them losing a playoff game against Oakland. It was just one of a series of questionable calls or non-calls, none of which went the Patriots’ way.
They were winning at the time, but the penalty, along with an unsportsmanlike conduct flag when they protested too vehemently, set the Raiders up with a first-and-goal, and — of course — Kenny Stabler converted for the winning score.
This leaves the 2004-2005 team as the “best Patriots team evah.” It featured Brady and receivers Deion Branch, David Givens and David Patten, all in their primes. Also, Corey Dillon rushed for more than 1,000 yards. On defense there was Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, Ty Law, Willie McGinest and Mike Vrabel. That’s an all-star team.
The team was 14-2 during the regular season, with one loss coming in Pittsburgh when they were decimated by injuries; and the other coming in Week 16 in Miami (figures) when they looked like they were trying not to get injured.
In the playoffs, they held Peyton Manning and his Colts to zero touchdowns (just one field goal altogether) and then went down to Pittsburgh and just throttled the Steelers. They capped it off two weeks later with a Super Bowl win over Philadelphia.
I measure all Patriots teams to this standard. If this year’s team ends up being good enough to be included in the conversation, then we will almost certainly see championship banner No. 7 being raised next September.