Yes, the New England Patriots lost their Wildcard game, and this was the shot fired and heard around the sports world.
Now, there are haters posting everything possible to rub in their joy at the sudden collapse of the New England Patriots dynasty.
Fortunately for me, I did not hate the Pats. I say fortunately, because I know well what it is like to hate the most successful team of an era. After all, I started to get into the NFL in 1981, and my team was the New York Giants. They enjoyed success that season, going 9-7 and qualifying for the postseason for the first time in 18 seasons. But during that season, they lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the regular season, and again in the playoffs. The 49ers wound up winning the Super Bowl.
When the Giants would make it back to the playoffs few seasons later in 1984, they again met the 49ers, and again lost, as San Francisco once again went all the way, winning their second of four Super Bowl titles in that decade. To that point, the Giants had exactly zero wins against San Francisco to that point since I had been following them, and so I resented all of the success that the Niners had.
The thing was, the 49ers kept enjoying success, and kept winning. Year in and year out, they enjoyed astonishing success, as they reeled off what was then a record streak of 16 straight seasons with at least 10 wins.
When it finally ended, it came suddenly and almost unexpectedly. That happened in 1999, and the 49ers got crushed in the season opener, 41-3, against Jacksonville. But then they won three straight, despite being considered not that great, and I began to wonder what it would take for them to start losing. But they had a big showdown against the 4-0 Rams, who were just beginning to be the “Greatest Show on Turf.” The Rams pounded the 49ers in that game, and emerged as the top team in the NFC West, a spot normally occupied by San Francisco. The Niners lost the next weekend, and the next weekend after that, as well. They lost eight straight, and just like that, I finally saw them suffer a losing season that was not a strike season. Finally, they were a losing team.
Something similar happened with the Dallas Cowboys, the only other NFL team that I know of that enjoyed a comparable level of success. I got into the NFL right at the end of their reign of success, which was 20 straight winning seasons. They made it to the NCF Championship Game the first two seasons that I followed the NFL, and then dropped off just a bit. Then, in 1986, they started off 6-2, and faced the also 6-2 Giants in a battle for first place in the NFC East. The Giants won – barely – and went on to win their first Super Bowl that season. Dallas, meanwhile, would win only one more game all season, and would suffer their first losing season in two decades. Two seasons later, they bottomed out with the worst record in the league at 3-13, followed by the disastrous 1-15 season, before Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones turned the thing around and built the Cowboys dynasty of the nineties.
The fall of the Patriots this season felt reminiscent of those two collapses. It just kind of happened, all of a sudden. Everyone seemed waiting for it, and many detractors kept insisting that they knew it was about to happen (although many of those same haters suggested the same thing in past seasons, as well).
Yet, there they were, racing off to an 8-0 start, and it looked like a historically dominant start, at that. Going back to last season’s Super Bowl championship run, the Pats had won 13 straight games. Everything seemed to be going very well for this team.
Until suddenly, it wasn’t. They suffered their first loss in Baltimore, and really got hammered. It was bad enough that the dominant 8-0 start no longer looked or felt as real. But the Pats kept winning, even if they slowed down, reaching a 10-1 mark, and still owning the best mark in football. But then they lost another game at Houston to lose the top seed in the AFC, and lost again, this time at home, to KC, to end their seeming invincibility at home. They were in danger of losing the second seed, and the valuable playoff bye that I felt this team needed more than most, if not all, other teams out there in order to succeed.
But they recovered, winning two straight and seemingly on the verge of finally clinching the second seed, before a stunning loss to the Dolphins on the final weekend dropped them to 12-4, and the third seed. They would have to play on Wildcard weekend, and would have to win that, then go on the road, if they hoped to get back to the AFC title game, which they have reached in the eight prior seasons.
Not this year, though. The loss to the Ravens seemed to be the first chink in their armor. The loss to the Texans knocked them out of the driver’s seat in the AFC, giving the Ravens control of the top spot. The loss to the Chiefs showed that they were vulnerable, and might lose that valuable playoff bye. The loss to the Dolphins to end the season showed that this was simply not the same Patriots team that we were used to seeing as they finally outright lost that much needed playoff bye.
Now, this loss at home to the Titans in their very first – and only – playoff game this season probably signifies much more: the end of the New England dynasty itself. This is not likely an exaggeration, either. After all, there was a feeling that Tom Brady’s last game in a Patriots uniform, at least, came last night. And it sounds too mild to say that this was a disappointing way to go out.
The offense once again looked like it could not get anything going. They were able to get short pick-ups on offense, but there was no deep threat, no outside game, and no ability on their end to kick it all into a higher gear. We have seen them look bad for stretches of games at a time, but they always seemed to find a way to suddenly get into a higher gear all of a sudden, when it counted the most. That might be especially true in the biggest games, particularly the last three Super Bowl wins. They were down by 10 against Seattle, but Brady suddenly pierced the “Legion of Boom” defense for two touchdown drives in the final quarter to stage an impressive comeback win. They suddenly wore the Falcons defense down after Atlanta had taken a seemingly insurmountable 28-3 lead, and suddenly, the Falcons defense could not stop the Pats, as New England scored at will, managing to tie the game to force overtime, and marching down the field to score the game-winning touchdown on the first and only drive to secure the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. And then last year, when a tough defensive struggle ended with New England doing just enough to lift this franchise to yet another Super Bowl championship. Perhaps one final one with Brady and Belichick together, barring a scenario that at least appears very unlikely right now.
Last night, they seemed outright incapable of going into another gear. They just lagged, and seemed to have one three and out drive after another. Their defense was tough, keeping the Titans off the scoreboard for the entire half, avoiding Tennessee from building on that very narrow 14-13 lead that they enjoyed at halftime. But New England’s offense also failed to score anything for the entire second half, as they were shut out when it mattered the most.
They just did not look like the New England Patriots that we have grown so used to seeing in the past…oh, 19 years.
And for once, now, the Patriots will enter an offseason with a lot more questions than answers.
Maybe they will continue winning through next season. Maybe not. It is really difficult to tell right at the moment.
However, I think this would be an important time to describe just how good this Patriots dynasty really was, to put it into perspective, because we are unlikely to see this level of success from any team again in the NFL, and quite possibly in North American sports.
Here are some of the incredible accomplishments that New England has reached during the Belichick/Brady era:
- 19 consecutive winning seasons, one behind the Dallas Cowboys record of 20 straight winning seasons.
- 17 consecutive seasons of double-digit wins, exceeding the record of 16 straight previously held by the San Francisco 49ers from 1983-1998.
- 11 straight AFC East division titles, far surpassing the previous record of seven straight, achieved by the Los Angeles Rams from 1973-79. In addition, the Patriots have won the AFC East 17 of the last 19 seasons, which also stands alone now as an unparalleled era of success in NFL history.
- 11 straight seasons qualifying for the playoffs, surpassed the previous mark of 9 straight, held by both the Dallas Cowboys from 1975-1983, and the Indianapolis Colts from 2002-2010.
- 8 straight seasons with at least 12 wins during the regular season, surpassing the previous record of 7 straight seasons with that mark, held by the Indianapolis Colts from 2003-2009.
- 10 straight seasons with at least 11 wins, also surpassing the previous record of 7 straight seasons with that mark, held by the Indianapolis Colts from 2003-2009.
- During the Belichick/Brady era, the New England Patriots had some of the longest winning streaks in league history. They hold the longest winning streak in NFL history of 21 straight wins, which is one more than the second longest winning streak of 19 straight, held by the 2010-2011 Green Bay Packers. The Pats also had other notable winning streaks during this era, when they won 18 straight during the 2007 season, 13 straight games twice, first from 2014-2015, and again more recently, from 2018-2019.
- The New England Patriots won more games in this time span than any other team in NFL history, surpassing the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980's and 1990's in that regard.
- The Patriots became the first team in modern North American sports history to win "Team of the Decade" honors in consecutive decades, winning with three Super Bowl titles in four appearances in the 2000's, and then earning "Team of the Decade" honors again in the 2010's, with three Super Bowl championships in five appearances.
- New England qualified for 9 Super Bowls in an 18 year span. That averages out to one out of every two Super Bowls during that stretch, which is phenomenal. They won six out of those nine appearances, which is also a record. No other team has even been to nine Super Bowls, and only one other NFL franchise , the Pittsburgh Steelers, have won six Super Bowls, as of the time of my writing this (January 2020).
- The Patriots became the first team to qualify for the AFC Championship Game eight consecutive times, which is more consecutive championship game appearances than any team in league history. That also means that they are the only team with at least one win in each postseason for eight consecutive seasons.
So clearly, this team has enjoyed virtually unparalleled levels of success in recent seasons.
It feels like something that deserves to be recognized, as another largely successful season for the Patriots ended, even if it seems like it was not actually a success, given their incredibly lofty standards, particularly in recent seasons.
Maybe they will continue winning through next season. Maybe not. It is really difficult to tell right at the moment.
However, I think this would be an important time to describe just how good this Patriots dynasty really was, to put it into perspective, because we are unlikely to see this level of success from any team again in the NFL, and quite possibly in North American sports.
Here are some of the incredible accomplishments that New England has reached during the Belichick/Brady era:
- 19 consecutive winning seasons, one behind the Dallas Cowboys record of 20 straight winning seasons.
- 17 consecutive seasons of double-digit wins, exceeding the record of 16 straight previously held by the San Francisco 49ers from 1983-1998.
- 11 straight AFC East division titles, far surpassing the previous record of seven straight, achieved by the Los Angeles Rams from 1973-79. In addition, the Patriots have won the AFC East 17 of the last 19 seasons, which also stands alone now as an unparalleled era of success in NFL history.
- 11 straight seasons qualifying for the playoffs, surpassed the previous mark of 9 straight, held by both the Dallas Cowboys from 1975-1983, and the Indianapolis Colts from 2002-2010.
- 8 straight seasons with at least 12 wins during the regular season, surpassing the previous record of 7 straight seasons with that mark, held by the Indianapolis Colts from 2003-2009.
- 10 straight seasons with at least 11 wins, also surpassing the previous record of 7 straight seasons with that mark, held by the Indianapolis Colts from 2003-2009.
- During the Belichick/Brady era, the New England Patriots had some of the longest winning streaks in league history. They hold the longest winning streak in NFL history of 21 straight wins, which is one more than the second longest winning streak of 19 straight, held by the 2010-2011 Green Bay Packers. The Pats also had other notable winning streaks during this era, when they won 18 straight during the 2007 season, 13 straight games twice, first from 2014-2015, and again more recently, from 2018-2019.
- The New England Patriots won more games in this time span than any other team in NFL history, surpassing the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980's and 1990's in that regard.
- The Patriots became the first team in modern North American sports history to win "Team of the Decade" honors in consecutive decades, winning with three Super Bowl titles in four appearances in the 2000's, and then earning "Team of the Decade" honors again in the 2010's, with three Super Bowl championships in five appearances.
- New England qualified for 9 Super Bowls in an 18 year span. That averages out to one out of every two Super Bowls during that stretch, which is phenomenal. They won six out of those nine appearances, which is also a record. No other team has even been to nine Super Bowls, and only one other NFL franchise , the Pittsburgh Steelers, have won six Super Bowls, as of the time of my writing this (January 2020).
- The Patriots became the first team to qualify for the AFC Championship Game eight consecutive times, which is more consecutive championship game appearances than any team in league history. That also means that they are the only team with at least one win in each postseason for eight consecutive seasons.
So clearly, this team has enjoyed virtually unparalleled levels of success in recent seasons.
It feels like something that deserves to be recognized, as another largely successful season for the Patriots ended, even if it seems like it was not actually a success, given their incredibly lofty standards, particularly in recent seasons.
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