Best non-Super Bowl wins, regular season & playoffs

Hyped said:

- Patriots' crucial division wins over Dolphins/Bills in the '98 season when Bledsoe split his finger....

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The Dolphins MNF game was a crazy one. But that last second win over the Bills was one of my favorite wins as a Pats fan. That pass by Bledsoe and catch by Coates was epic!

- That Thanksgiving weekend goal line stand @ Indy in '04......side note: Couldn't catch the game live...so blacked out all sports news that weekend and watched the game on VHS....one of the most stressful fast forwarding I ever did....

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It was '03 but that was one of my favorite endings to a Pats game.

- Beating the Dolphins 17-3 in the '97 playoffs at Foxboro....the game where Todd Collins walked in a TD because he knew the play call. Cold day...was at the game with my sister...cold metal benches....god I miss that dump! And the next week Collins would not push Kordell Stewart OOO in a 7-6 loss.....

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That was a great game. I really liked Carrol's style of defense as they blitzed a lot from all angles. Marino didn't have a chance that game.

Oooh, that 2014 postseason win over the Ravens was something else. Belichick outcoached Harbaugh so hard he had a schizoid embolism right out of Total Recall on live TV lmao. Multiple comebacks, trick plays galore, total insanity.

TinhWoodhead said:

The next one!

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Banner game 6 good choice

mosi said:

985-86 AFCGC. Squish the fish. You think no one thought they had a shot in KC, think about this game. The Pats had not won in Miami for 16 years! Still one of the greatest Pats games ever.

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This. This was the Pats' version of the Impossible Dream. They didn't go all the way but they exorcised the demons of the lean years.

two i haven't seen mentioned yet

2007 ravens game (TO that wasnt)

the 2008 TEN game in the snow (50-nothing or something) that's when i knew the pats had IT that year, and might even vie for a SB even w/o brady

2011 Pats V Denver - Demolished within a half.

2013 last second comeback against the Browns. I know the opponent wasn't worthy and the game didn't mean much, but such a fun last couple minutes.

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sean10mm said:

Best regular season win:

Woof, this is a toughie. Weirdly, the lame 2013 season somehow had 2 great candidates - the last-second win over the Saints and the comeback win over the Broncos. 2003 had the OT bomb win in Miami and the intentional safety game vs. the Broncos, AND the goal line stand game vs. the Colts.

There are also the games that were just comedy in football form that you could argue for just based on being FUN. The Buttfumble Game is the king of these, but honorable mention goes to the 2009 execution of the Titans in a snowstorm, and the 2011 game where they just took Tebowmania out back and put a bullet behind his ear.

My serious pick is the 2013 comeback win over the Broncos, but I want to put the Buttfumble Game here just because it was so genuinely hilarious.

Best non-Super Bowl playoff win:

There are lots of candidates here, of course, but for me it's easy:

Divisional Round - Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots - January 16th, 2005. Final Score: Patriots 20 Colts 3.

The best offense in league history up to that point came into Gillette Stadium on a cold, raw day and just got dunked on.

The next best game for me is when they played the best defense, on the road the very next week and scored 41.

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Best playoff win was the "Lights Out" win in San Diego in 2007.

Regular season was 2007 comeback in Indy and opening night in Arizona in 2016.

I was at the AZ game and our fans were into that game. The meltdown on "thegangreen" was epic after the rest of the division lost that week.

Palm Beach Pats Fan said:

Up there for the enjoyment factor was the snow game in Chicago in 2010. The Bears came in at 9-3, so it was supposed to be a challenge. NE blew them out, slinging the ball everywhere, and clinching a playoff berth.

The strong-armed Jay Cutler could not deal with the wind and snow at all (12 of 26 passes for 152 yards, with two interceptions), yet Brady slung it (27 of 40 passes for 369 yards). The first half was capped off by a long TD to Branch. NE has a many points at halftime (33) as the Bears had YARDS.

recap: Bears Crumble in Snowy Game Against Patriots

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I was there.......it was 10 below!!!!!

The on to Cincinnati 2014 game is underrated.

2007 Patriots at Colts is arguably the greatest regular season football game ever played when looking at the strength of the teams. For all the great squads Brady and Manning had in their careers, both 2007 teams at that point in the season were the absolute pinnacle. Oddsmakers would confirm this.

Best non-Superbowl regular season win: I'm just gonna throw an oddball pick at you and suggest that shutting out the Houston Texans in week 3 of Brady's suspension was pretty epic in '16. There was no Brady, and there was no JAG due to his injury against the Dolphins, so we were going into battle with a completely unproven rookie named Jacoby Brissett under center, still wet behind the ears and picked up mostly as a developmental option to begin with... and the kid put together some drives, scored a touchdown and did enough to allow the defense and the running attack to win that game.

Moreover that victory meant that the absolute worst outcome of the Brady suspension was 3-1, which was great for fan morale after the abuse we'd been handed at the hands of people who 1, should have known better, and 2, should have been the guys protecting us from abuse. The backups handed TB12 a .750 winning percentage, which was impressive work by backup QBs and made it clear to the league that they can't stop us just by taking Brady away. The Texas game was key to the message that was sent.

And let's also mention, that this was a year in which the Texans were a playoff contender. So that too.

Best non-Superbowl playoff win. Recency bias aside, the AFCCG this year is right up there, but I'm actually going to go back 1 year further and vote for the AFCCG against Jacksonville. If only because it felt soooooooooo good to shut up the trash talking young upstarts from so-called "Sacksonville." And because our victory DESTROYED that franchise in ways that they still haven't recovered from. Call that bonus points for magnitude of victory.

I'd have to think a lot, but to make it easier, I won't count any playoffs. One that comes to mind right away is the early 80s (81?) 3-0 snow plow game against the Dolphins. Not to be a prisoner of the moment, but this years regular season win over KC would be up there, as would last years win in Pitt. I would also concur with the 19-13 2002 OT win against the Dolphins, when Brown caught the bomb. I also recall a game in 1986, I think, where we completed a 50 yard hail Mary on the last play of the game against the Rams, to make it 7 straight wins at 10-3.

I also was super psyched in 2002, although we ended up missing the play offs, when we played sloppy in Chicago and came roaring back at the end to win.

The 31-0 revenge on the Bills, as others said, was great. So was the buttfumble game, because that game was an absolute beat down.

I'm sure I could think of some more, but those come to mind right off.

I should add the game 1 win in Arizona during Brady's suspension, ending on a missed AZ FG.

Ice_Ice_Brady said:

1. 2004 AFC Championship Game at Steelers, 41-27
2. 2001 AFC Divisional Game vs. Raiders, 16-13 (OT)
3. 2014 AFC Divisional Game vs. Ravens, 35-31
4. 2010 Jets at Patriots, 45-3
5. 2004 AFC Divisional Game vs. Colts, 20-3
6. 2018 AFC Championship Game at Chiefs, 37-31 (OT)
7. 2007 Patriots at Colts, 24-20
8. 2013 Broncos at Patriots, 34-31 (OT)
9. 2006 AFC Divisional Game at Chargers, 24-21
10. 2001 AFC Championship Game at Steelers, 24-17
11. 2017 Patriots at Steelers, 27-24
12. 2017 AFC Championship Game vs. Jaguars, 24-20
13. 2007 Chargers at Patriots, 38-14
14. 2005 Patriots at Steelers, 23-20
15. 2014 AFC Championship Game vs. Colts, 45-7

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This is an amazing list, and DOESN"T even include :

- The 2003 AFC Div championship game vs Colts, 24-14 where Ty Law picked Peyton 3x.
- The 2004 AFC Championship game at Pitt, 41-27.

Embarassment of riches!

mosi said:

1985-86 AFCGC. Squish the fish. You think no one thought they had a shot in KC, think about this game. The Pats had not won in Miami for 16 years! Still one of the greatest Pats games ever.

1986 final regular season game in Miami. Again, they had to win to get in and Grogan had a great game. Just fantastic game.

2013 Denver game. They were booed by the home team. And they won.

1990 game in Indy. They only won one game that year and Indy sucks. Happy to see them beat those losers.

1991 games against Indy. Beat those losers twice in 1991 and only won 6 games total. Happy to see them beat those losers.

1992 game in Indy. They only won two games that year and Indy sucks. Happy to see them beat those losers.

1996 final game at Giants. Had to win and Bledsoe was just slinging it. Brought them back from the dead.

1997 game in Jacksonville, probably Drew's best game ever.

2001 divisional playoff game against the Raiders.

2002 game in Chicago. Had no business winning that game.

2002 final game in Miami. Had no business winning that game.

As I am writing this, I am realizing that there are so many great pats game it is almost unbelievable!

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Going back to the Bledsoe era, the game against Minnesota where he threw the ball 70 times. That’s a forgotten Patriots classic

Too many to name, but a few that stand out in my mind were the Squish the Fish AFC Championship Game way back in 1985, the AFC Championship Game in Pitt in 2001 (actually early 2002), a win against the Vikings in November, 1994 where the Pats were down 20-0 and Drew Bledsoe brought them back to win 26-20 in OT, and the Miami game in October, 2003 when Troy Brown caught a bomb from Brady in OT and we won that game after the Phins missed not 1 but 2 chip shot FGs to win.

Reading through this thread I keep thinking, "Oh yeah! I forgot about that one!" We are SO lucky!

mosi said:

1986 final regular season game in Miami. Again, they had to win to get in and Grogan had a great game. Just fantastic game.

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Ditto on this choice - great back-and-forth scoring drama. The most fun I ever had watching a pre-dynasty game. Seeing then-Bengals Boomer Esiason and Chris Collinsworth on a cut-in video feed from a party was the perfect cherry to this sundae - it was a hoot watching them go from celebration to funeral mode.

mcmurtry86 said:

Going back to the Bledsoe era, the game against Minnesota where he threw the ball 70 times. That’s a forgotten Patriots classic

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Great minds think alike!

2013 comeback at Gillette vs New Orleans...last game my brother and I watched with our father, who was a fan since the teams inception (and a Giants fan before we had the Pats, as most here were), before he passed