Current perception won’t pen the final script for the Patriots
Tom Brady and the Patriots still have time to right the wrongs of the last two weeks.
COMMENTARY
The aspiration of the undefeated season fizzled with a muffed punt return and dubious play-calling in Denver. The contingent script of becoming the first NFL team to go 18-1 twice with opposite spectrums, charred and disintegrated with more uncharacteristic approaches a week later, sprinkled with a dash of arrogance.
If you care about such outcomes, there’s only one more plot structure that the New England Patriots can follow in a fateful manner and allow this team to stand out for history. If indeed the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl, and encounter an undefeated Carolina Panthers team, they’ll have the opportunity to deliver the same knockout punch the New York Giants landed on them eight years ago.
There’s a sense of karmic retribution in all that, isn’t there?
Except that the Patriots are currently served as an enigma, a banged-up unit running on auxiliary power and in the midst of their first losing streak in three years. The 10-2 Patriots have lost two straight games in the absence of Dion Lewis, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and Dont’a Hightower, surrendering the No. 1 seed in the AFC to the Cincinnati Bengals, and tumbling to a position where saying farewell to the first-round bye has become a very real possibility.
“At this point in the season, we’ve all got do a little bit more to play better,’’ Patriots safety Devin McCourty said Wednesday, three days after his team’s strange, 35-28 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. “I think we’re like any other team. When you come off two losses, you understand you have to execute better and play better football, so our focus is on that. Our coaching staff is going to point us in the right direction, but it’s up to us as players to really go out there and get it.’’
The Patriots have failed to clinch the AFC East each of the last two weekends, a position they are in once again this weekend in Houston against the 6-6 Texans. A game envisioned as a slam dunk only two weeks ago, has all of a sudden become the most pivotal Sunday in 2015 to date for New England.
A win rights the ship and puts the Patriots back on track for either of the top two seeds in the conference, particularly with the Denver Broncos and Bengals still to face off against each other later this month, as well as each still needing to deal with the 7-5 Pittsburgh Steelers. A loss likely won’t affect their playoff positioning at 10-3, but a win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday would give the New York Jets an 8-5 mark, and a little bit of life in their far-fetched quest to take over the AFC East lead with a Patriots showdown looming in the Meadowlands on Dec. 27.
Losing against the Texans isn’t time to dive into panic mode, but it definitely will smolder a lot of the aspirations Patriots fans have for this team.
“I think all of our quality of life sucks when you lose games but that’s just the way it is,’’ Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said. “It should be important. It should hurt when you lose because we put a lot into it. I think not obviously abandoning what the process is because I think we’ve done a good job preparing. We’ve just got to execute better. I think we’ve got to do a better job playing and then hopefully that results in wins. It hasn’t been good enough the last two weeks. I think there’s a lot of reasons obviously for that, and things that we can do better and hopefully this is the week for it.’’
You could blindly argue that the loss in Denver wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened for this team, despite losing Gronkowski for whatever timetable Papa Gronk deems necessary. But if there was to be a renewed hunger sprung from adversity, the appetite didn’t manifest itself last Sunday against the Eagles in a game that head coach Bill Belichick coached as if he had been snubbed for the “Who’s Who in 2015 NFL coaches’’ hardcover.
Shorthanded or not, what happened against the hapless Eagles, at home nonetheless, was just plain weird. If the playoffs began today — which they don’t — the Patriots would indeed host the Jets in a wild card game at Gillette Stadium.
That’s a far cry from The Deflategate Middle Finger Tour. More like The Foot in the Elevator Door Concession.
Still, despite the two-game slip, ESPN’s Football Power Index still has the Patriots as the favorite to earn home-field advantage and represent the AFC in Super Bowl 50. “New England has a 42 percent chance to leapfrog the Bengals and Broncos for the No. 1 seed and a 35 percent chance to win the conference, according to ESPN.
The FPI reasons that the Patriots have a 21 percent chance of finishing 14-2 with the Texans, Titans, Jets, and Miami Dolphins remaining. By then, Gronkowski should be back and Edelman within a couple more weeks. Hightower could return against there Texans, but even Philly’s run performance last weekend can’t damper the confidence the Patriots’ defense has bred during the second half of this season.
According to the FPI, the most likely AFC Championship Games are Bengals versus Patriots (27 percent likely), Broncos versus Patriots (19 percent likely), Broncos versus Bengals (15 percent likely) and Chiefs versus Patriots (6 percent likely).
The Arizona Cardinals actually lead the index with a 24.5 percent chance of winning the Super Bowl, but the Panthers (18.6) aren’t far behind.
That’s the way the Patriots (17.5) want it. Super Bowl 50 in Brady’s hometown, where he’ll have the chance to one-up boyhood idol Joe Montana with his fifth Lombardi Trophy. To do it while inflicting an 18-1 season on somebody else?
All too perfect for the Patriots, but a pinnacle that can remain a reality if only Brady’s C-plus receivers hang onto the football, Belichick doesn’t coach as if he’s trying to impress someone for a Homecoming date, and LeGarrette Blount doesn’t run as if he’s auditioning for a role in Swan Lake.
Hats and T-shirts may be available Monday. Again. Feel free to wait for the real thing.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur and Facebook www.facebook.com/GlobeEricWilbur
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