Pats legacy after Super Bowl 52

[B-Ball Freak]

Still the greatest dynasty in the NFL history and one of the greatest in all of team sports.

[Mich3006]

I don’t like the Patriots but it shows their greatness if it took a „once in a lifetime“ game by the Eagles against a team gutted with many injured All Pro caliber players.

Not many teams could be on that level without their top 2 WR‘s and #1 LB

No Wentz, Peters, Sproles, Hicks, Maragos... Please, stop it.

2/5 have no influence, come on. Darren Sproles

[Harry Garris]

This will definitely go down as the greatest run by a coach and QB combo in NFL history. Although I still believe trading Jimmy G was unbelievably stupid. If Belichick is truly as mad at Robert Kraft for forcing him to trade Jimmy as the ESPN Mag report said he was, he's completely justified. Brady might be the greatest of all time but from a business perspective and from a future of the franchise perspective I will never understand giving up on what looks like a surefire young franchise QB to go all-in on a 41 year old quarterback.

Pats fans believe he'll play another 5 years but I still remember Brett Favre and Peyton Manning both turning from superstars to guys who could barely stand up straight almost overnight. Most franchises have treaded water for decades not able to find a franchise guy. Why put yourself through that misery just to appease Brady for maybe another couple seasons?

[El Turco]

they've done very well for themselves and deserve credit for building some great teams around a capable qb and stout lines. but there is no doubt they have been more fortuitous than perhaps any other successful franchise in sports. putting aside opposing coaches inexplicably losing common sense against them in super bowls, for years they've had the fortune of beating up on the most incompetent division in sports history. i bet number of sb appearances would be significantly lower than 8 had they played in another division and gotten lower seeds in playoffs, instead of top 2 seed they mostly get. i.e many other teams also could have ended up in the super bowl if they'd only played titans and jags at home to get there.

great team/qb but probably not as great as their number of super bowls suggest.

[zonedefense]

Their coaching staff is really overrated. Bad decision making from Matt Patricia combined with a flawed gameplan from Belichick.
- Benching the best CB Malcolm Butler for whatever reason
- Having SS Patrick Chung defend a WR as fast and mobil as Agholor...they might as well play a lineman as 3rd corner.
- Only switching Gilmore on Jeffery in the second half

I wonder if this was Belichicks or Patricias doing but NE gameplan was alltime bad.

[wco81]

Mike Lombardi says the LBs lack speed, as we saw from the opening game vs. KC.

Says they have players from the practice squad playing.

Guess they will need to reload in the draft.

[bmurph128]

This super bowl showed me how important it is to get a first round bye. I was surprised by the number of times the 1/2 seeds have met in the super bowl - but it makes sense.

The Patriots playing in the unbelievably weak AFC East all these years nearly locked in a division title for them before the year even started - from there it's a short trip to getting a first round bye, and home field for them in the playoffs has always been huge.

[DROB27]

I don’t like the Patriots but it shows their greatness if it took a „once in a lifetime“ game by the Eagles against a team gutted with many injured All Pro caliber players.

Not many teams could be on that level without their top 2 WR‘s and #1 LB

No Wentz, Peters, Sproles, Hicks, Maragos... Please, stop it.

2/5 have no influence, come on. Darren Sproles

What??

[Dr Positivity]

I'm surprised people are questioning the Patriots legacy. They are the standard of excellence and put themselves in position to win every year and NFL playoffs are single game knockout so they took some losses

For me it's hard to ignore the fact that if the Seahawks ran the football a few more times, and if the Falcons ran the football a few more times the Pats would probably 3-5 right now. That and the shenanigans involving taping practices still hangs over them in my eyes.

I don't like doing this because there's some games they could have won as well. The two Giants losses and 2006 AFC championship (the real Superbowl) were pretty brutal and the only reason the Seahawks would have won that game is the helmet catch 2.0. The Patriots not winning any Superbowls in between 2005 and 2013 is just bad luck considering how many years they were a contender and they were due some of it back with the Seahawks and Falcons losing their minds

[hermes]

i think its the greatest dynasty in nfl history. there is a lot of talk in here about revisionist/alternate histories where they could just as easily have won or lost all 8 super bowls..... but that isn't what happened, they made it to 8 and won 5 (in less than 20 years - in an era where the salary cap makes it extremely difficult to sustain sucess) and that is impressive no matter how you slice it

they've been excellent for years, but you don't stay on top for that long by just being good sometimes you need to get lucky as well. and that's what happened with the pats. some years they got some good breaks and won it all (and some bad breaks to lose it all), being lucky doesn't diminish the winning.

[Sedale Threatt]

It's not even a matter of opinion, really. And regardless of how weak their division is, 15 straight years with 10-plus wins, and the past eight with 12-plus, is f'ing insane.

And the thing is, I don't think they routinely had the best talent. Not like, say, those 49ers teams in the late 80s and early 90s that were absolutely stacked. Most dynasties are built around a long-term of core group of Hall of Famers. You get past Brady, hands down the best QB of all time, and who are those guys? Gronkowski for sure. But Matt Light? Vince Wilfork? Richard Seymour? Moss is a legend but he was only there for three seasons or so.

Obviously they have had some quality players over the years. But who else could do stuff like sticking a WR at DB and make it work like they did?

[wco81]

Patriots are +4 in their 8 SB games.

Thin margins both ways.

[baller16]

Brady part killed me

Watch on YouTube

[Mich3006]

No Wentz, Peters, Sproles, Hicks, Maragos... Please, stop it.

2/5 have no influence, come on. Darren Sproles

What??

I mean two out of the five mentionend players are completely worthless, no comparison to guys like Hightower, Cooks, Edelman, Branch and Bennett.

[Celtsfan1980]

Watch on YouTube

It doesn't appear Myles Jack was touched after his fumble recovery. That one play may very well have given a New England a trip to the Super Bowl.
Who knows what would have happened if Cundiff makes the 32-yard field goal?
The Tuck Rule:it helps the Patriots, then they get rid of it later.
The Tyree catch was third down. No guarantee the Patriots win without it, and if Rivers had been healthy who knows what happens in the AFC Championship game?

The 49ers won over a very long stretch, won big in a few Super Bowls(including the 14-2 Dolphins the year they went 15-1, losing their one game which involved controversy), and played in a dominant conference. The Patriots can be considered second, but I'm putting San Fransisco number 1.

[Celtsfan1980]

It's not even a matter of opinion, really. And regardless of how weak their division is, 15 straight years with 10-plus wins, and the past eight with 12-plus, is f'ing insane.

And the thing is, I don't think they routinely had the best talent. Not like, say, those 49ers teams in the late 80s and early 90s that were absolutely stacked. Most dynasties are built around a long-term of core group of Hall of Famers. You get past Brady, hands down the best QB of all time, and who are those guys? Gronkowski for sure. But Matt Light? Vince Wilfork? Richard Seymour? Moss is a legend but he was only there for three seasons or so.

Obviously they have had some quality players over the years. But who else could do stuff like sticking a WR at DB and make it work like they did?

Their first three Super Bowls, Brady was basically Alex Smith at this point. The defense did very well vs. very good offenses(Rams and Colts) and deserves a lot of credit for their early success. They also did well vs. Atlanta too. Rodgers outplayed Brady vs. the Falcons by a large margin, but his defense was much worse.

[RavenMad31]

Pats deserve their props. Dynasty. But, I think they blew this game. They didn't play their top DB Butler. That opened up a lot for Philly's passing game. Who focused on his replacement.

And by "they", you mean Belichick. This was such an inexcusably bad decision that Kraft should consider firing him, especially when you consider that Belichick has failed at the most important aspect of his job for a decade now(producing a good defense).

It almost felt like Belichick was sabotaging the team after losing the power struggle to Brady/Kraft earlier this year. Bill has always been extremely overrated. There are a lot of coaches who could win a super bowl with Brady and Flores as the replacement defensive coordinator.

They have been in the top ten in fewest points allowed 13 of the last 15 years and in the top five for 7 of those years.
Where are all these coaches that could win all these Super Bowls? Why aren't they coaching my team? There isn't a coach in the NFL in the last two decades that wouldn't have been messing around with Drew Bledsoe for another five years when Bill had the guts to stick with Brady.

[El Turco]

Yeah it is getting silly how much brady stans going after belichick

[Bostondave]

This legacy feels like it's coming to an end. You'd have to be in the area to know and feel it. A lot of backstory and rumors of infighting. We're losing our two coordinators. But most importantly, for me at least, Bellichick's legacy is tarnished irretrievably because of the bone headed move of benching starting CB Butler. That was perhaps the craziest thing I've ever heard a coach doing to his team. Bellichick is a genius, but it's a thin line between genius and madness. Bellichick went to madness for that game. We still don't know why he did it. He wrecked the legacy with that move in my mind.

[Otis Driftwood]

This legacy feels like it's coming to an end. You'd have to be in the area to know and feel it. A lot of backstory and rumors of infighting. We're losing our two coordinators. But most importantly, for me at least, Bellichick's legacy is tarnished irretrievably because of the bone headed move of benching starting CB Butler. That was perhaps the craziest thing I've ever heard a coach doing to his team. Bellichick is a genius, but it's a thin line between genius and madness. Bellichick went to madness for that game. We still don't know why he did it. He wrecked the legacy with that move in my mind.

Take it from an expert on this subject. All good things come to an end. But it was one hell of a run... arguably the best ever. I sure as hell don't look back at the Cowboys of the 90's and remember how it ended anymore than I look back at the 70's Cowboys in the same way (except for Super Bowl XIII but I won't get into that because it just pisses me off...).

I remember those 5 total Super Bowl wins. And smile.