22 Weeks Later, the Patriots Have (Again) Proven That Early-Season Angst Is Misguided

PHOENIX – It may be simplistic to look back and bluster that we should have known better, understood that the way the season began wasn’t indicative of what the New England Patriots would accomplish during this successful run to the Super Bowl, if only because history hinted otherwise.

But we should have.

The Patriots’ season-opening, 33-20 loss in Miami wasn’t cause for panic, even if the game did display some worrisome characteristics on the offensive line, the run defense, and a play-calling approach in which quarterback Tom Brady didn’t appear to be on the same page as his wide receivers.

This was a team with aspirations of making it to Super Bowl XLIX?

How soon we forget.

The Sept. 7 game against the Dolphins was the first Game 1 loss for the Patriots in over a decade. The last time that happened, of course, was the 31-0 drubbing at the hands of the Buffalo Bills (“The Lawyer Milloy Game”) in 2003, a year in which New England only proved itself to be the best team in football – hell, one of the best teams of their generation – culminating with a Super Bowl title in Houston.

In 2014, the script seems to be writing itself in much the same fashion. All the way to Arizona.

“At the beginning of the season, you’re still getting your feet wet,” wide receiver Julian Edelman said, as the Patriots prepared to face the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s Super Bowl in Glendale. “You’re still developing your team. You’re still seeing what works and what doesn’t work. This team had the mental toughness to just kind of ignore what everyone said and then just to worry about improving each week. We’re still trying to do that.”

If there was a moment of outright concern about the way the offense was clicking, particularly after the line surrendered a quartet of sacks against the Dolphins, it was in Kansas City, where the team found itself under all sorts of fire in the wake of a 41-14 disaster against the Chiefs. Brady had one of his worst games as professional that Monday night (159 yards and two interceptions, including one you could argue was the worst of his career) and the line continued to prove itself a leaky fortress, allowing Brady to get sacked three more times, and prompting a silly stampede of suggestions from fans and media.

“For us, it’s always important to try and improve,” lineman Dan Connolly said. “Every week we just try to focus on the things we were doing wrong or things we were doing well, and just try to improve them.”

The improvement seemingly came in an instant, even if that disregards the work done constantly behind the scenes. Still, three words helped to define the turnaround, landing the Patriots in the situation they aspire to be in at the start of training camp every year.

“On to Cincinnati.”

“It’s a process. Every week’s a process,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. “We have bad plays every week, we have good plays every week. You just try to get better and improve as much as you can. I thought we got better last week and we’re in January.”

Of the many targets of angst during the 2014 season that call Foxborough their business of choice, McDaniels was perhaps at the top of the list with his offensive approach. For sure, there were times during the season when the offense seemed unstoppable. Against the Chicago Bears. Against the Indianapolis Colts (twice). Against the Detroit Lions, who came into their visit to Gillette Stadium with the best defense in the league.

Then again, it was a head-scratching conundrum at other points. At Miami. At the San Diego Chargers. At the Green Bay Packers, when the Patriots refused to run the ball against what was one of the worst rush defenses in the NFL.

“We went to work and really concentrated on the things that were going to make us better,” running back Shane Vereen said. “We didn’t feel like, before Week 5 (against the Bengals), that we had been playing our best football. We knew we could play a lot better. From Week 5 on, that’s what we focused on and that’s why were able to accomplish so much. “

Week-to-week, it seemed nobody had a good idea of what to expect from the New England Patriots gameplan.

“We scratch where it itches, if it’s going and it’s working, then you keep going with it,” guard Nate Solder said. “You have to make some things go sometimes and it was just kind of working for us and whatever this week dictates is the way we’re going to go. Whatever it takes.”

Whatever it takes. Do your job. Simplistic mantras that have carried the Patriots back to another chance at hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

“You try to find every opportunity to help your players that you can,” McDaniels said. “There’s some weeks when we have things in that are a little bit different. Maybe we call them, maybe we don’t. We’ve called some this year that didn’t work out. We called some that did. If it works, I think the players deserve the credit, no question. and a lot of times you get lucky. There’s a lot of time where there’s some good fortune in there.”

Whether or not the Patriots are able to defeat the Seahawks, the 2014 season has already served as another example of making judgments after small samples. What everybody witnessed against the Dolphins, for instance, was in no way indicative of what to expect four months later. What everybody watched against the Colts in the AFC Championship game may in no way be an assumption for how McDaniels and head coach Bill Belichick approach Seattle.

“We never really put something out there and say, ‘This is what it has to look like,’” McDaniels said. “I think what we envisioned in Miami was a team that was going to try and get better. That’s really been our thing all the time, every year we have an opportunity to do this and coach with these guys. We always just try to make them better from September until we’re done playing.”

By the end of the regular season, the Patriots were fourth in the NFL in points per game with an average of 29.2. They were only 18th in rushing yards, a balance that seemed to go down in a pile of worry in Buffalo, where starting running back Stevan Ridley went down for the season, along with linebacker Jerod Mayo on the other side of the ball. Then, Jonas Gray came out of nowhere to burst on the scene in Indianapolis with a 200-yard, four-touchdown effort, and fell back on the depth chart as quickly as he had arisen it when LeGarrette Blount came back into the fold late in the season, following his release by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The fact that the Patriots are only sixth among playoff teams with 191 yards rushing in January isn’t indicative of the importance that the emergence of the running game has brought the team by bringing Blount back. Just like he did a year ago in the divisional round at Gillette, he ran rampant over the Colts defense in the AFC title game, a week after the team couldn’t get anything going against the Baltimore Ravens.

“I feel like I have the ability to have a big game whenever they allow me to,” Blount said. “It’s an up-and down situation considering the fact that you have 12 on your team. You got Tom on your team. He has the ability to take over an entire game.”

It was indeed an MVP-worthy season for the future Hall of Fame quarterback, despite rumblings that his best days were behind him at age 37. His team’s offensive struggles had many questioning the roster as well. Why would the team bring in wide receiver Brandon LaFell in lieu of Emmanuel Sanders? What was the purpose of having Danny Amendola here? Was Tim Wright really worth the leadership and stability of surrendering Logan Mankins? And the most pressing question on everybody’s mind; Can Rob Gronkowski stay healthy?

The importance of Gronkowski’s health can’t be understated because of his ability to change the flow of any game. But the fabric of Brady’s go-to men goes deeper, stressing the role of each. When Edelman had to leave what turned out to be a loss at Green Bay during the regular season, Brady seemed as lost as when Gronkowski tore his ACL and MCL against the Cleveland Browns last season. It’s not one guy, but what one can do for the other, which is why the team’s goal of having its players know multiple facets of the offense is imperative.

Brady’s faith in his wide receiving corps is a long-standing characteristic of his approach to the game, sometimes to a fault some might say, when he focuses on a choice for an ill-advised period of time. But this group is reminiscent of the pre-Randy Moss days, a receiving roster that doesn’t shine off the page, but takes on that trait where it matters.

“It’s a great group,” Brady said. “It’s a really selfless group; guys that are always putting the team first. Everybody has a little different skill set. I think that once we hit our stride and everybody found a role for themselves, they really embraced their role. Julian’s done such a great job for our team. Brandon LaFell in his role has been spectacular. Danny has come alive. Once he got more of an opportunity as the season went on, he’s been phenomenal. Brian Tyms has made a lot of plays for us. It’s been a great group. Those guys have worked really hard and they’re all excited and ready to go. None of them have really played in a Super Bowl before. Hopefully we bring our excitement and as much enthusiasm as possible and we go out and play as best as we possibly can.”

The addition of LaFell was perhaps the most debated last offseason, when Sanders, who busted out as one of the best receivers in the game in Denver this year, was available for the taking. Instead, Belichick decided on LaFell, a signing that brought 953 yards in the air and seven touchdowns, including his dramatic, game-winning catch against the Ravens in the divisional round.

It was a team that LaFell said he envisioned going undefeated when he realized the talent level surrounding him. Even if he couldn’t understand the playbook, a factor that has doomed more than one newcomer, including Chad Ochocinco the last season the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl.

“I probably didn’t get it down until Week 2 of the regular season,” LaFell said. “It’s tough. One week in OTAs, I was the X. Next week I was the F. Third week I was a Z. They kept moving me around to make sure I’m on top of my toes and make sure I’m learning this whole playbook.

“In my situation, I was rotating, and when you rotate you’ve got to know every spot because you never know if somebody goes down, you’ve got to go to that spot. Luckily, me knowing the whole playbook at the end of the year came to help when Jules [Edelman] went down, I had to go play the Z, I had to go play the F, when I’m usually playing the X.”

That ability to know everybody’s role has been of tantamount importance to the Patriots in the playoffs, when McDaniels’ book of trick plays and ineligible receivers has had opposing head coaches scratching their heads and crying about “deceit,” as Baltimore head coach Jim Harbaugh bemoaned after his team’s playoff loss.

Who would have expected such a dynamic approach after Game 1 in Miami? Heck, who would have expected such wrinkles in December?

Now the Patriots have the rest of the league – which only comprises of the Seattle Seahawks at this stage – on their defensive toes.

“Everybody plays a role,” Brady said. “You wouldn’t be on this team if you couldn’t contribute to the winning, the kind of winning culture of our team. It’s hard to make our team. Coach Belichick puts a lot of pressure on guys in training camp. If you make the team, you know that you have the confidence of the coaches and that you can help us win. Everybody’s got a skill. Everybody’s got a skill set. Whoever is on the field has to be able to go out there and perform their job.”

McDaniels said there was no magic point during the season when everything “clicked.” Instead the offense has been a work in progress that he thinks could get better the longer it plays.

He’ll have to suffice with one more game.

“Our guys have done a tremendous job all season, knowing that we weren’t where we were going to be at the end at the end of the season in September,” he said. “It’s a process, we stuck to the process. We didn’t waiver and change courses, we continued to try and develop those guys with what they do well.”

The fact that they didn’t do it so well 22 weeks ago is irrelevant. Let’s remember that come next September, shall we?