We’re witnessing the beginning of the end for the Patriots
By Josh Hill
The New England Patriots are impossible to figure out, but it’s starting to look like the beginning of the end.
All things come to an end, especially football dynasties. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have put together an era in football history that will forever be the stuff of legend. No matter how good a story is, though, they all have an end chapter.
Whatever is happening to the Patriots this season seems to be exactly that.
As good as New England has been, they look like a shell of the teams we’ve seen Bill Belichick put on the field in the past. Specifically, the defense can’t stop anybody and that’s going to be a fatal flaw in the postseason if the problem continues.
The Patriots gave up 128-points over the course a 2-2 start to the season. The last two weeks, New England has brought that average down (14-points to Tampa Bay and 17-points to New York), but the defense has given fans no reason to have any sort of confidence in it.
Tom Brady is still clutch, but he’s looked mortal for the first time in a very long time. It’s not quite the cliff dive that Peyton Manning experienced, but Brady is not the guy he used to be. This isn’t a case where he had a bad game (like against the Chiefs a couple of years ago) and was clearly going to bounce back. Brady has had six very average games, which isn’t like him at all.
The best years of this New England team are behind them, and everything we’re seeing this year seems to support that.
We knew the Patriots era wouldn’t last forever and we’ve prematurely said they were finished before. The best years of this New England team are behind them, and everything we’re seeing this year seems to support that.
New England got blown out in Week 1 and almost allowed a rookie quarterback to beat them — both events occurring at home. The defense is one of the league’s worst, Tom Brady’s magic appears to be running low, and the Jets almost beat them on Sunday. If not for an extremely questionable call late in the game, there’s a very real chance New England is 3-3 and in third place in the AFC East.
That is not the “Patriots Way” (well, the questionable call going their way was but that’s it).
Of course, whenever the Patriots are doubted they have a way of punching us in the chin. Whether it was Deflategate and the resulting Super Bowl, or everyone counting them out against the Falcons and the resulting Super Bowl.
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Basically, New England seems to be on the downside of their historic era of dominance and will win the Super Bowl because we’re all pointing that out. A story is only as good as its ending, and that would be the most Patriots way to close the book.