New England Revolution

There is despair in New England, and understandably so. The franchise quarterback, the man who brought winning back to New England sports, has fallen, and he won’t be coming back. From the despairing fans calling in to local sports radio to the pessimistic analysis in both local and national media, the conclusion seems to be that the 2008 New England Patriots cannot win it all without Tom Brady. There is, however, perhaps a more important question to be asked: could the Patriots have won it all with him?

The Patriots opened the Battle of Wounded Knee with Brady at the helm and an empty backfield behind him, abandoning any pretense of running the ball on their first two possessions. Their second drive was cut short by a fumble, so it's tough to judge its effectiveness, but the first saw the Patriots forced to do the unspeakable: punt. (A Chiefs penalty actually extended that first drive, which also ended in a fumble.)

It would, of course, be ridiculous to dismiss the Brady offense for all of 2008 based on the results of one stunted possession, but this "throw the ball or die trying" approach to football is nothing new for the Patriots. Sometime around November of last year, Bill Belichick officially went insane. (Many will argue that this actually happened much, much earlier). Blessed with perhaps the best offense in the history of football, Belichick’s best move would have been to play things conservatively—after all, common sense dictates that a war of attrition would allow his superior on-field talent to shine through, while a game of risks and razzle-dazzle would leave open the possibility for anything, including an upset, to happen. Conventional wisdom also states that when you have the best passing attack ever assembled at your disposal, you open it up further by establishing the run, rather than undercutting it by allowing your opponent to know what’s coming.

Nevertheless, the Patriots began to rely exclusively on their passing game, as their victories transitioned from laughers to nail-biters (especially over the Ravens, Eagles, and Chargers), and eventually to that one unforgettable loss. I will always believe that it was the possibility of an undefeated season that broke Bill Belichick’s brain, that the need to dominate every down of every game affected his play-calling as the season wore on, culminating in the bizarre failed fourth-and-13 conversion in the Super Bowl. As a Patriots fan, I spent the off-season hoping that the Super Bowl loss had humbled Belichick and restored his sanity. I almost hoped that the Pats would lose their season opener against the Chiefs, so the 19-0 albatross could disappear and I could look forward to a nice, relaxing 13-3 season of good old-fashioned balanced play-calling.

The Patriots did not lose to the Chiefs, but when Bernard Pollard lunged into the left knee of Tom Brady, the outcome was essentially the same: it suddenly became certain that the 2008 New England Patriots would not go undefeated. Even as an admittedly biased fan, I am not naïve enough to think that the team will be better off without Brady than it would have been with him. I do believe, however, that the pressures and expectations that helped to derail the 2007 Patriots have vanished along with their treasured QB. Having seen their worst fears realized, the 2008 Pats now have nowhere to go but up, which, as any Patriots fan can tell you, is a whole lot better than having nowhere to go but down.