My Favorite Year

[sean10mm]

There's no beating the first championship win out of nowhere for the eternal sad sacks, and they did it against what was supposed to be an overwhelming opponent too. The playoff wins leading up to it were fantastic as well.

The 2016 team might have been my favorite team to watch day-in and day-out though. It wasn't their most talented team on either side of the ball, but it just ran like such a well oiled machine on the field day-in and day-out. Then you have that Super Bowl that slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowlyturns from a horror show at 28-3 to a miracle win as the cherry on top.

2004 team was fantastic, and had the best playoff run leading to the Super Bowl. Held the all-time greatest offense up to that point to 3, and then styled all over the #1 defense in the league.

The best actual game start to finish was Super Bowl 49. The Seahawks were so easy to hate, but they were also a great team that absolutely [beep]housed the Peyton Manning Broncos with the greatest offense ever the year before. And the Patriots destroyed their souls in the last seconds.

 

[Jangles]

I’m still chasing the high from SB49

Be tough to top that

 

[Nonentity]

For me it was 2016 because of everything it meant.

It meant that the argument was finally over as to who was the greatest QB of all time - Brady had 5 rings, and he'd just brought the Pats back from 28-3 down on the greatest stage of them all.

It meant that Bill was firmly carved onto the coaching Mount Rushmore too. Because in the end, it's all about mental toughness and the ability to play 60 minutes, and he's spent a career drumming those principles home.

It meant that the Patriots had a second dynasty, and that the 2010s were going to be as revered as the Patriots of the 2000s. Hightower, McCourty and Edelman get to stand on an equal level with Bruschi, Vrabel and McGinest.

Plus... the Brady revenge tour... I've never seen anything like. The sheer sense of satisfaction. No word of a lie, it was practically orgasmic.

 

[Kontradiction]

2004 - watching Dillon smash people into submission, and 2014 with getting the monkey off of their backs post-Spygate.

 

[Tony2046]

2001 and 2008. No expectations, no pressure and it was just fun to watch them win and defy the odds. I know they fell just short in 08 but it was a fun season.

2008??

 

[Ring 6]

6 way tie.

 

[sb1]

2008??

View attachment 27260

Why not? Everything was gravy. No pressure, no expectations, no living and dying with each game like the year before and the team started playing great football in December. Same with 01 obviously with a much better result but they were entertaining and it was still fun to watch them turn into a pretty good football team at the end when nobody expected it.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

2004.

Held one of the greatest offenses in NFL history to 3 points. How many hall of famers on that offense? Manning at his peak...pouting, looking helpless out there in the snow.

Dominated a 15-1 team LOADED with talent in their house. Never seen a crowd so depressed. That was the night steeler nation realized forever that Brady owned them.

Beat a 13-3 team in the superbowl who was stacked on both sides of the football

Just utter dominance over 3 super teams

 

[luuked]

From the ones ending with a title: 2018

The ones ending with a SB loss: 2007

The ones ending early: 2013

2013 really was one relentless ride with so many tight wins, unbelievable comebacks (Broncos and Browns) and fight through a ****ton of adversity (big injuries, spectre of Hernandez).

 

[Hyped]

From the ones ending with a title: 2018

2018 is one of the most underrated SB wins, IMO. Not my favorite...but we played 3 teams with 12+ wins....including making 3 third down throws in OT in the AFC title game on the road! As for the season, it was a weird one....but turning it on at the end was awesome.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

my favorite year as a Patriot’s fan.

1976.

Like your first kiss, 1974 was a warning shot to the sports world that the Patriots were not just good, but for real. The media did their usual best to dismiss them, ignore their success and promise, and trumpet any uncomplimentary episode or incident that made them look bad, in their ongoing, endless, unsuccessful (to anyone with a brain) attempt to make the team as silly as their owner.

Two years later, the Patriots did not experience a rash of injuries, and thus won. Local media grudgingly hopped aboard the bandwagon as the wins piled up. National media ignored them with one exception: Howard Cosell, who, while projecting ahead in the season on MNF, shared the Patriots' belief that they could in fact go into Baltimore and win the rematch with the Colts, to position themselves for the playoffs, which they did in dominant fashion.

After the turnover filled loss in the opener, besides the annual dud at Miami the only other loss was in Pontiac to the lowly Lions, and Assistant special teams coach Bill Belichick.

The similarities between the Patriots' 1976 and 2001 seasons are striking. Naturally, had Ben Dreith officiated any of the '01 team's playoff games, there would have been no title. Further, the chain reaction could have been similar to what happened 25 years earlier: Without the experience of playing in, and winning, the Super Bowl, there is that unaccomplished barrier mentally, not to mention would Harrison and Dillon have come here, etc.

Anyway, media treated the Patriots in 1976 as an afterthought, and the absurdity of the debacle in Oakland made no difference. The Patriots were dispatched, as expected, and everyone got on with their lives.

The very next year, an inferior Denver Broncos team was given the royal treatment by national media throughout the season, the first year that franchise ever did anything.

That 1976 season was a blast. Too many big plays on special teams and defense to count. Not to mention the offense.

The regular season finale at winless Tampa was fun. A long pick six from lumbering Sam Hunt, and a successful extra point kick by Steve Zabel.

Six days later, the team did its job on the first step to glory.

And the officials did theirs too, making sure the better team did not win.

 

[STUB STUB]

2004 was the peak. Two main reasons:

The most likable team: Harrison, Bruschi, Vrabel, Wilfork, Ted Johnson, Seymour, Ty Law, Warren, McGinest, Colvin, Watson, Branch, Faulk, Dillon, Troy Brown, Vinatieri, etc.

Beating our two biggest rivals of the decade in the playoffs - who were the #1 offense (Colts) and #1 defense (Steelers) in the league that year - by shutting down the Colts to 3 points and then putting up 41 on the Steelers. Add to that a very entertaining Super Bowl.

 

[Bruins29]

1976.

So '76 was better than all the SB winning years.

Ooooookkkkkkkk

 

[Tony2046]

2001- because I was at my brother's house with a bunch of friends to watch the "Greatest show on turf" get beat by a hungry team. "What Brady just did gives me goosebumps".

2014 - the end of the drought. Butler's pick. Beating basically the same Legion of Doom that smoked Five head the year before. And again at a family member's house with many of my relatives and wife and kids.

2016 - The greatest comeback ever. Tremendous Goodell booing. Deflategate shoved up his ass. The Goat established unanimously. Brady's fifth. Unbelievable.

I'll put 2016 at #1 or tied with 2001 because of everything that was encompassed during the revenge your. Brady's fight through the courts while his mom battled cancer, etc etc..

 

[Tony2046]

So '76 was better than all the SB winning years.

Ooooookkkkkkkk

Better than 2008.

 

[Jangles]

Why not? Everything was gravy. No pressure, no expectations, no living and dying with each game like the year before and the team started playing great football in December. Same with 01 obviously with a much better result but they were entertaining and it was still fun to watch them turn into a pretty good football team at the end when nobody expected it.

definitely

I too enjoyed the year following going 18-1 with losing the GOAT, losing the division , and not doing anything of note.

Easily rates higher than any of the super bowls

 

[sportnik]

2014 because it came after what felt like a long drought with so many near misses. 2014 because I was 100% sure they were going to lose the same way they lost in 2007, a game I never really got over.

Then the greatest single play in the history of the sport changed everything. The losses to the Giants, spy gate, deflate gate, that horrible loss to the Colts in 06. None of it mattered anymore. One play changed so much. A finish that will never be matched.

 

[sb1]

definitely

I too enjoyed the year following going 18-1 with losing the GOAT, losing the division , and not doing anything of note.

Easily rates higher than any of the super bowls

 

[sb1]

2004 was the peak. Two main reasons:

The most likable team: Harrison, Bruschi, Vrabel, Wilfork, Ted Johnson, Seymour, Ty Law, Warren, McGinest, Colvin, Watson, Branch, Faulk, Dillon, Troy Brown, Vinatieri, etc.

Beating our two biggest rivals of the decade in the playoffs - who were the #1 offense (Colts) and #1 defense (Steelers) in the league that year - by shutting down the Colts to 3 points and then putting up 41 on the Steelers. Add to that a very entertaining Super Bowl.

Not just beating the Colts but almost shutting their #1 offense out. Not just beating the Steelers but hanging 34 on their #1 defense.

The most impressive playoff run out of any year by a mile.

 

[Jangles]

View attachment 27261

Not really

The premise of the thread is to pick your favorite year and you picked 2008 over 5 SB winning seasons

lol ok