It’s Over for New England. No, Really.

By: Alex Harris

So far, the 2009-2010 rendition of the NFL Playoffs have been less than stellar.  On Saturday, an emotional Cincinnati Bengals team played seemingly emotionless football against the surprising New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys, once again, pummeled the pass-happy Philadelphia Eagles to the point where Dallas fans may have forgotten their previous misfortunes.  Like the one where Tony Romo botched the snap on what would have been the game-winning field goal, consequently losing to the Seattle Seahawks by one point.  But, I digress.  Back to the present.  Sunday, we saw the most prolific offensive display in NFL Playoff history, in which the Green Bay Packers and the Arizona Cardinals combined for a whopping 96 total points.  Of course, it ended on a defensive touchdown, a defensive touchdown that made Neil Rackers happier than Carl Alphonse when he was placed in charge of Madison Hotels.  I had to.

At last, I find myself with one game left to discuss.  A game that the New England Patriots went into having won eleven straight playoff games in Foxboro, Massachusetts, and a game that the New England Patriots went into expecting to win.  However, the Baltimore Ravens and running back Ray Rice had other plans.  On the first play from scrimmage, the second year player out of Rutgers made his presence felt with a 83 yard touchdown run, and went on to finish with over 150 rushing yards and two scores.  Right from the get-go, New England looked out of sync.  Their linebackers weren’t reacting fast enough, their receivers weren’t finishing routes, and their running backs couldn’t stimulate any momentum.  However, what stood out the most to me was the awful play of quarterback Tom Brady.  For the first time in my life of truly caring about and understanding the game of football, the near-perfect GQ cover boy looked rattled. First of all, he failed to go through the extent of his progressions.  At times, he seemed to be forcing throws into extremely tight windows, ultimately leading to two interceptions.  Second of all, the loss of Wes Welker hurt Brady’s confidence.  Sure, Edelman played with a sense of urgency, finding the endzone twice, but without Wes Welker’s quickness and ability to manipulate routes, Randy Moss was taken out of the passing game completely.  And most importantly, didn’t it seem as if Brady just didn’t care?  Each time he threw an interception, he just walked off the field with little to no emotion and sat down by himself on the heated benches as if that’s where he belonged.

This game makes me wonder: now that New England’s mystique has dissolved, has it’s ability to win a championship dissolved as well?

We all recall the beginning of this decade.  It was dominated by the success of the New England Patriots.  Head coach Bill Belichick couldn’t be questioned, Tom Brady and his offense couldn’t be stopped, and their veteran-filled defense couldn’t be beat.  It started during the 2000-2001 season, when the up-and-coming Pats humbled the Greatest Show on Turf and beat Kurt Warner and the St. Louis Rams on a late field goal by Adam Vinatieri.  Then came the 2003-2004 season, when a dominant New England team defeated the fan-favorite Carolina Panthers (a team that was 1-15 two years earlier) on a last second field goal by who else, Adam Vinatieri.  The 2004-2005 season witnessed the formation of a true football dynasty, something that the parity-ridden NFL hadn’t seen since the Dallas Cowboys of the early 90s. Once again, a late field goal by Adam Vinatieri proved to be the difference in a Super Bowl that cemented Robert Kraft’s Patriots in NFL history.  What was most amazing about New England’s run was that they did it with players like Troy Brown, David Givens, Patrick Pass and Antowain Smith, which ultimately led to a league-wide recognition of Bill Belichick as having a unbridled knack for finding latent talent.

So, what went wrong?  Well, there are certainly numerous answers to this question.  But, I’m going to start with the defense.  Here is the defense from the 2004-2005 Super Bowl winning roster, with their current status in parentheses:

Roosevelt Colvin (Free Agent)

Vince Wilfork (New England Patriots)

Jarvis Green (Patriots; knee surgery)

Willie McGinest (Free Agent)

Teddy Bruschi (ESPN)

Mike Vrabel (Kansas City Chiefs)

Randall Gay (New Orleans Saints)

Asante Samuel (Philadelphia Eagles)

Rodney Harrison (NBC Sports)

Eugene Wilson (Texans)

Reading through that defense is like reading through the syllabus of an upper-level Calculus class at MIT; frightening. Now that fear of going into New England and getting smacked around is no longer there. Brandon Meriweather is no Rodney Harrison, and Jerod Mayo is no Teddy Bruschi, as much as everyone in New England wants him to be.  There’s no stifling cornerback like Ty Law to shut down a primary receiver, and there’s certainly no dominating pass rusher like Richard Seymour to slow down, let’s say, Ray Rice?

The Patriots’ decline can also be attributed to poor drafting.  Just like I am, you’re most likely saying to yourself, “I never thought I’d hear Patriots, poor, and drafting in the same sentence.”  Let’s start by looking back on the 2006 NFL Draft. With the 21st overall pick, New England selected running back Laurence Mauroney out of Minnesota, missing out on two future pro-bowlers in DeAngelo Williams and Joseph Addai.  In the second round, they traded up for Chad Jackson, the highly-touted receiver out of Florida, passing up on Greg Jennings (who the Packers would select with their pick from New England) who I believe had an outstanding season, capped off with a few impressive catches in Sunday’s game against Arizona.  Moving on, the only names worth mentioning for the 2007 and 2008 drafts are Meriweather and Mayo, for whom I have already stated my opinion, and 2009 was highlighted by… Patrick Chung? Sure, it was only his first season, but it doesn’t seem as if he’ll have the effect of late-to-be-drafted players like Logan Mankins, Vince Wilfork, or Benjamin Watson any time soon.

What started during the 2006-2007 season with an unexpected loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the post-season (who were down 21-3 early on, by the way), was soon interrupted with a roaring Patriot comeback the following year.  The revamped New England team with the second-coming of Randy Moss and the acquisition of Wes Welker completed a 16-0 season with a trip to the Super Bowl against the 5th-seeded New York Giants.  Now, it took a circus catch from wide receiver David Tyree and some heroics from Eli Manning to pull off what was dubbed as New England’s “One Giant Loss,” but it was still, for the lack of a better term, weird.  I never would’ve thought in a million years that an undefeated New England team, led by Tom Brady, the same Tom Brady that won the MVP award on the back of  a 50 touchdown season, and coached by Bill Belichick would lose in a Super Bowl game that would’ve officially labeled the Patriots as the greatest team in NFL history; no questions asked.  But they did, only to see their poster-child go down during the first series of the 2008-2009 season.  In a situation that seemingly never occurs, they went 11-5 and missed the playoffs.  This year, Brady wins Comeback Player of the Year, but they get absolutely smoked in wild card game to the 6th seed.  Bill Belichick is 57 years old.  Tom Brady is 32 years old with a less-than-perfect knee and few bruised ribs, not to mention a beautiful Brazilian supermodel for a wife who makes more money than he does on an annual basis.

I’ve got two and a half words for the New England Patriots:  It’s Over.