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FOXBOROUGH - The Super Bowl will be lots of things, but 45-7 won't be one of them.
Super Bowl hype and hysteria has officially returned to the northeast corner of the USA. The New England Patriots, once called the Patsies and formerly one of the league's long standing doormats, are headed for their eighth Super Bowl. The Patriots dispatched the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7, in an AFC Championship Game that wasn't even that close. In a driving rainstorm at Gillette Stadium on Sunday night, the Patriots ran the ball down the throats of Indianapolis once again, Tom Brady overcame a few hiccups to shine once again, and Patriot Nation gets to celebrate another trip to The Show.
The eight Super Bowls for the Patriots bring them even with Dallas and Pittsburgh with the most ever in the NFL. Tom Brady will establish a Super Bowl record with his sixth start as a quarterback, but his sixth Super Bowl ties Mike Lodish (4 with Buffalo, 2 with Denver) for the most ever by any player in NFL history. If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, it will tie Green Bay and the Giants for third most ever; if they lose, it will tie Denver for the most ever. Bill Belichick will tie Don ("Belicheat") Shula for the most Super Bowls as a head coach with six; a win will tie him with Chuck Noll with the most ever with four.
This game, albeit a 38-point spread, wasn't this close. The Patriots simply obliterated the Colts, as some experts predicted would happen. If not for some first half miscues which resulted in only a 10-point lead at the half for the Patriots, the blowout would have been far worse. Brady threw a foolish interception, the Patriots had eight snaps inside the Colt 15 near the end of the first half and came away with only a field goal, and two ill advised penalties on the Patriots helped the Colts to their only scoring drive of the game, one that covered a stunning 93 yards.
But other than that, the Patriots were as dominant as they could have been. LeGarrette Blount rushed for 148 yards and three touchdowns, one touchdown fewer than last year's Divisional game against the Colts. Brady was 23 of 35 for 226 yards, three touchdowns and despite a pick, a triple-digit rating of 100.6. Andrew Luck was held to a passer rating of 23.0 and threw two interceptions.
 Nate Solder caught a 16-yard touchdown pass to help the Patriots beat the Colts on Sunday night for the AFC Championship. (USA TODAY Images) |
Once again, the Patriots went with exotic offensive line combinations. One of them resulted in a most unusual touchdown. The first offensive drive of the second half saw the Patriots at the Colt 16-yard line, third and one. Brady play faked to Blount, then lobbed a pass to Nate Solder, who reported in as tackle eligible yet lined up at his normal left tackle position. Solder lumbered into the end zone to make it 24-7 Patriots and began the deflation of the Colts.
Starting with that drive, the Patriots scored touchdowns on their first four second half possessions to put the game away and punch their tickets to Glendale, Arizona. Rob Gronkowski caught a five-yard touchdown pass one drive later to make it 31-7. Four plays into Indianapolis' next drive, Luck tried to hit T.Y. Hilton in the right flat, but Darrelle Revis jumped the route and made the pick. He returned it 30 yards to the Colt 13, and on the next play Blount blountly rumbled up the middle to paydirt. Blount capped off the next drive with a three-yard run for a touchdown to complete the scoring.
The Patriots now get the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. All sorts of ancillary story lines will abound. Seattle is the first team since New England to make it to a second straight Super Bowl, and can be the first team since the 2004 Patriots to win two in a row. The Seahawks had to make an insane comeback at home against Green Bay before finally extinguishing the Packers in overtime, 28-22, and should have lost the game but for a mishandled onside kick and a misplayed two point conversion.
The biggest story line, of course, will be Pete Carroll going against his old team. Going back to 1997, the Patriots have been coached by only Carroll and Belichick. Carroll will be gunning for his second straight Super Bowl win, but more than that, he will be looking to stick it to his old team. Seattle has the best defense in the league, and Carroll, then and now, has a reputation as one of the best defensive coaches in the league.
Seattle opened as three point favorites, the line has since dropped to 2.5. This makes New England Super Bowl dogs for the first time since Super Bowl XXXVI, when they were 17-point dogs to the Rams. The Patriots always play better when they are the underdogs, and this element will help them as they attempt to dethrone the sitting NFL champions.
Every Patriot player and fan knows full well that the Super Bowl will not be some Super blowout like last year, or like Sunday night. Unlike Peyton Manning, Brady will not wilt against Seattle and its vaunted defense. This Super Bowl figures to be a terrific one on paper, most likely a defensive struggle, but one that fans will love to see and fans of both teams will go through a lot of anxiety over.
For now, the Patriots will enjoy this conference championship and all that goes with it. The history alone is well worth savoring. The Patriots continue this long run of Boston area sports prosperity, and the Patriots literally run that entire time frame. It has been ten years since the Patriots won a Super Bowl, and winning this one will require a supreme effort. But the Patriots can at least look forward to the big game, and the chance to cement their legacy as one of the NFL's greatest teams.
As Bill Parcells was given to say, the Patriots are "going to the show". Revis has never known what this feels like. Brandon Browner, his cornerback partner, does; he has a chance to pull off a "take his'n and beat your'n, then take your'n and beat his'n" deal if he can beat the team he won the whole thing with last year. Several other Patriots now get a chance to, as Joe Buck likes to say, "get in on the fun". It will be two tough weeks, weeks of endless hype, discussion and prognostications. But it is a wonderful thing that the Patriots are once again at the epicenter of the NFL.
So enjoy these two weeks. You never know when this will be it for the Brady-Belichick era. Maybe this is the one last stand for these two football behemoths. Drink it all in, get ready for Super Bowl XLIX, and be proud of your Patriots. They are in rarified air by just being there. If they win, it will be some party around here.
It's a wonderful tradition that you should never be tired of. And if, by chance, you weren't moved when the Patriots won their third Super Bowl in four seasons ten years ago, hopefully you'll be moved now.
The Patriots are going to the show. Say it again and again and again.
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