Sometimes we know too much, have seen this team too much. We have seen them struggle against too many teams early in the season, too many games where they seemed so very different than the team that won the last two Super Bowls. We have have heard about too many injuries, seen a defense that was depleted. That's our mental picture, and we can't get it out of our heads. We close our eyes and see defensive backs getting beat. We close our eyes and see this team unable to stop good teams.
But things change.
Tedy Bruschi comes back. Richard Seymour comes back. Corey Dillon gets healthy. Some young defensive backs grow up. A team starts to believe in itself again.
Things change.
That's what a season does: it changes things. Some teams get better. Some get worse. Some teams are able to fight through adversity, become better off for it. Others crumble in its face. Players either get hurt or get beaten down. That's the great subtext to any NFL season, this sense it's always fluid, evolving, changing, that what you see late in the season often can be very different than what you see early in the season.
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But somehow, someway, the Pats found a way to fight through their adversity and find a new season, a new life. And while they have yet to play against a top quarterback in the last month, have no doubt benefitted by playing within their weak division, they now enter the playoffs a different team than they were five weeks ago, even if it's just confidence.
