ATLANTA — How on earth did they do it?
How did a Patriots team that had been to the Super Bowl in three of the past four seasons, winning two of them, find a way to win a third Lombardi Trophy in the past five years by virtue of Sunday night’s 13-3 win over the Rams?
How did a team that has won the past 10 AFC East titles and 16 of the past 17 overcome so many perceived (by themselves) deficiencies?
How did a team with Bill Belichick at head coach and Tom Brady at quarterback ever find a way?
Apparently by believing in the fake news they created about themselves: that they were some sort of old, talent-deficient downtrodden, disrespected underdogs.
Can we now finally dispense of that ridiculous “underdog” label the poor, pitied Patriots tagged themselves with in the lead-up to their — ahem — sixth Super Bowl title in the past 18 years?
What began as a preposterous, self-imposed narrative as this postseason unfolded progressed into the land of the obnoxious, with Brady’s “We’re still here!” chants at the team’s send-off rally in Foxborough, Mass., last week. Belichick even got into the act after the game Sunday, mumbling about the Patriots still being here.
The Patriots are going to have to find a more creative and believable (by themselves) way to motivate themselves for the 2019 season.
“Everybody tried to write us off as a team,” defensive lineman Trey Flowers said after the game.
Who the hell is “everybody?”
“We’re old, we don’t have any players, things like that,” Flowers said. “The media might not have faith in a lot of guys on our defense, but everybody in that locker room understands that we have playmakers and we do it together.”
No, we (the media) didn’t and yes (the Patriots playmakers) did do it together and they did it exquisitely, carrying out Belichick’s beautiful defensive plan to near perfection as they suffocated the Rams running game and psyched out Rams quarterback Jared Goff.
“Everybody counted us out, but we got the last laugh,” receiver/running back Cordarrelle Patterson said.
Yawn.
“We kept fighting as a defense this season through the ups and downs,” cornerback Jason McCourty said. “Throughout the course of this week leading up to the Super Bowl, we had the headlines in our building of, ‘The Patriots dynasty is done,’ and, ‘This defense isn’t any good,’ and, ‘Tom’s too old.’
“All you said that.”
All of us? Not exactly.
“A lot of people doubted us,” Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore said. “They doubted our defense. We stuck together. We found our identity and we believed in each other.”
Yes, they did. And, last we checked, having world-class players playing for a world-class head coach helps, too.
“Some of you [media] counted us out,” linebacker Kyle Van Noy ranted. “And we’re here again as champions.”
Yes. Here they are. Again. As champions. Not underdogs. And, ready or not, like it or not, they will probably be back here a year from now.
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