3 to be 4

We all know about the SB's and playoff games. What are your favorite non-playoff Patriot games in their history? Here are a few of mine.

1978 - Patriots first game at Oakland after the Stingley injury. ABC Sunday Night Football. Patriots comeback to beat Raiders

1978 - Patriots score TD's on their first SEVEN possessions, beat the Jets 55-24.

1985 National TV, at Seattle, Fred Marion returns interception for TD, Patriots go to 8-3.

1986 last game of season, at Miami, Grogan to Morgan as Patriots win the division on MNF.

1994 Beating Buffalo 41-17 at Buffalo

1996 the Sunday Night win against Buffalo at home

1998 the 2 great Bledsoe last second wins at home against Miami and Buffalo

1999 Beating the Tuna on opening day at the Meadowlands

2001 the win at the Jets, when they went 7-5, and you knew they were running the table, at least to the playoffs, after that.

2003 Brady's OT bomb to Brown in Miami, just 4 days after at Yankee Stadium. The Patriots once again brought us back to life.

2004 coming off the loss in Pittsburgh, they march into St Louis and pound the Rams with Troy Brown in the secondary

stinkypete

The 2004 win in St. Louis is one of the great forgotten games of the Patriots dynasty. Pure dominance when all doubted.

I will always go back to the 2002 game in Chicago. At 4-5 and down by at least 23, we come back to beat the Bears with 3 4th quarter drives. Classic Brady, and almost completely forgotten.

primetime

2001 against the Colts. In fact the play that started the whole thing, the Bryan Cox levelling of either Reggie Wayne or Jerome Pathon, took place in that game.

patsfan55

that buffalo game was the first reg season game i ever went to
i still get chills when i think about that game

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“My favorite ring? I've always said, you know, I always said the next one. The next one is the best,” Brady says.

Murphys95

Great topic! Sorry, just had to correct that one - Marion actually ran out of gas after 83 yards, but the Pats scored just a few plays later. Loved that game, a rockin' loud King Dome, Don Blackmon tipping a Dave Kreig pass, and Marion shooting down the sideline.

Awesome choice! Great memories of those days.

Bill B.

First game of the season in 1974 against the 2-time Super Bowl Champion Dolphins. Patriot shocked the world and beat them, I think 34-24. Two weeks later they beat a heavily favored Rams team 16-7. I particularly remember the Rams game because it was the first game I attended.

Also in 1987 when Tony Eason hit Irving Fryar with a Hail Mary pass and beat the Rams in Anaheim, Ca., 28-24. Another one I was at and very exciting. Eason got the ball with 50 seconds left on the clock and no time outs. The last two plays were a 25 yard run by Eason and then a 25 yard pass to Fryar with time expiring. The local Ram fans were stunned. That was one game where Eason "manned up".

italian pat patriot

i loved those two games that i remember very well

DGameguy

The AFC Championship Game before Parcells left. Nighttime game, cold as anything out. The night the lights went out in Foxboro! Power went out at the game and the game had to be stopped. Jacksonville played close for a little while but the Pats won.

Mike the Brit

Great list, 32B4.

Just add a personal favourite: the "Tuna Bowl", 2003. Low-scoring game, but a pure pleasure to watch (at no time did one think 'Oh my goodness, if they make a play here we're in big trouble'). Terrific defensive play (remember the Gino hit for which he had to pay a bogus fine?). From then on, it was clear (1) that the Patriots had every chance of the Superbowl, injuries notwithstanding (2) that Belichick wasn't susceptible to any Parcells mind-games.

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My prized possessions: Our family pictures; my dad and me getting doused by Bruschi in Super Bowl XXXIX [Shalize Manza Young Up Close with ... Bill Belichick]


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They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, Pats fans should be invincible by now. [Fitzy, 16 November 2009]

Still here to learn

JoeSixPat

For me the greatest unsung game for the Patriots was in the last five minutes of the "lost season" of 2002.

Many fans want to forget about that season because we didn't make the playoffs and look at it as a speedbump in the "dynasty"

For me its exactly the opposite, as that's when they really found their "refuse to lose" mentality that they carried through to the 2005 Super Bowl and beyond.

As you will recall the Patriots backs were against the wall, needing a win against the Fins (and a loss by the Jets against Green Bay) to get into the playoffs. It was the last game of the regular season.

The Patriots fell behind 24-13 with 4:59 left in the fourth quarter when Miami's Olindo Mare kicked a 28-yard field goal.

11 points down in a must win game with less than 5 minutes to go and the playoffs on the line?

No problem.

The Patriots held Miami, and eventually made it 24-21 on Brady's 3-yard pass to Troy Brown and a 2-point conversion pass to Christian Fauria with 2:46 left.

The Patriots kicked off deep rather than try an onside kick (a shrewed coaching decision), then forced a Dolphins punt, which traveled only 23 yards.

Taking over at Miami's 34-yard line, they moved close enough for Vinatieri's 43-yarder to tie it up and send it into overtime. (Which interestingly may have been the last time Adam V. attempted a 40 yard plus FG!)

At this point, everyone - including the Dolphins - sensed the Pats were a team of destiny, and Mare choked as his kickoff went out of bounds, giving the Pats the ball at their 40.

After an incompletion, Kevin Faulk ran 15 yards then caught Brady's pass for a 20-yard gain to the Miami 25. With a third-and-9 at the 24, Brady threw a 7-yard pass to Brown, and Vinatieri trotted on for the win.

The Patriots finished 9-7, in a three way tie for first place in the AFC East that the Jets won in a tie-breaker that season - not bad but it was the last time the Patriots would let another team control their destiny in getting into the playoffs.

I think the Patriots really found themselves as a team that year, shedding the perception of many that they won the 2001 SB based on good luck and good calls - and was really the main turning point in what everyone now recognizes as a football dynasty.

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