Pats legacy after Super Bowl 52

[wco81]

Greatest 20-year run by coach and QB in history, with probably the most play odds wins in the Super Bowl era.

Bellichek and Brady should be unanimous first ballot Hall of Famers.

But in the 8 Superbowls they reached in 16 years, they are now 5-3. Consider that two of those wins were due as much to blunders by opposing coaches than the Pats defeating their opponents.

PAts could be 4-4 or 3-5.

All the games have been 1-score games. In fact, this 8-point loss is the greatest margin. Maybe cumulatively, the Pats are slightly ahead or maybe have a slight negative point differential now.

They've yet to vanquish opponents, like other great SB winners.

Beyond Brady and Bellichek, which other Pats are certain Hall of Famers? Definitely Gronk, maybe Law if he isn't already, McGinest, Seymour, Soldier?

The one thing which makes them stand out is being able to be contenders for so long, through many roster and coaching changes. But a lot of that may be due to the league favoring parity, which prevents franchises from retaining veteran star players. Teams will not keep star players beyond a handful or two, before replacing vets with rookies or other low-paid players. Pats have done the best job of coaching up draftees, UDFAs and players discarded by other teams.

While longetivity is impressive, it doesn't result in dominance, which is why Pats SB winning teams are not considered among the best in the SB era.

The 18-0 team might have been held up against historic SB winners but they were unable to finish the job.

[laika]

After this game there should be more converts to my point of view- A slightly above average team that has been carried by the greatest player to ever play.

[Bulltalk]

I hate the Pats. But the Pats are great. When I was thinking about the Pats tonight, I thought about Jack Nicklaus for awhile. You always hear about the 18 majors he won, a record still untouched, and only barely approached by Tiger Woods. But what you don't hear as much about are all the times he finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th in these majors. Numerous times. Almost as impressive.

I hate the Pats. But I surely give them their due. Best coach this era. Best QB this era. Best team this era. Without doubt. And by a good margin.

[nymets1]

Patriots are not that good, They should have lost in the Super Bowl to the Seahawks and Falcons. Teams beat themselves more than the Patriots actually beat opponents. If you play good defense in the 1st half against patriots, You have to bring it again the rest of the 2nd half. Patriots division is bad every year with the Bills, Dolphins and Jets that they coast easily to the AFC east champions every year and are set up with home field advantage.

[inquisitive]

those 80's 49ers blew out 3 of the 5 teams that they played right? that was pretty dominating. still, what the pats have done is amazing! 8 appearances.

[Bulltalk]

Patriots are not that good, They should have lost in the Super Bowl to the Seahawks and Falcons. Teams beat themselves more than the Patriots actually beat opponents. If you play good defense in the 1st half against patriots, You have to bring it again the rest of the 2nd half. Patriots division is bad every year with the Bills, Dolphins and Jets that they coast easily to the AFC east champions every year and are set up with home field advantage.

Like I said before, I hate the Pats, but the Pats are great. What NFL team these past years has sustained such a heightened level of excellence for such a prolonged period of time? None. It's not even close for 2nd place.

[Sedale Threatt]

I hate the Pats. But the Pats are great. When I was thinking about the Pats tonight, I thought about Jack Nicklaus for awhile. You always hear about the 18 majors he won, a record still untouched, and only barely approached by Tiger Woods. But what you don't hear as much about are all the times he finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th in these majors. Numerous times. Almost as impressive.

I hate the Pats. But I surely give them their due. Best coach this era. Best QB this era. Best team this era. Without doubt. And by a good margin.

Greatest dynasty in history, hands down. People forget: For all the breaks they've gotten in big games, they were done in by them in both their previous Super Bowl losses. And this one was decided by a handful of plays. So there's an alternate universe out there where they're 8-0 in Super Bowls.

[wco81]

Well the history on Brady and Bellichek isn't yet complete.

They could win a couple more before they're done. Or they could lose them.

Among prognosticators who picked the Eagles there was a belief that Eagles could dominate in the trenches. But the defenses didn't do much.

[egelband]

I don’t really understand it. But the results speak for themselves. They’re like the 90s-2000s Braves but clutch.

[Geddy]

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.

[wco81]

I forgot to mention that. I don't think you can completely ignore the cheating accusations and the sanctions from the league for those infractions.

Because other NFL dynasties do not have a cloud hanging over them.

[LAKESHOW]

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.

[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

[laika]

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.

[Worm Guts]

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.

lol

[Pharmcat]

imagine if they traded Jimmy G last draft for a couple of picks and drafted more defense guys.

[inquisitive]

imagine if they traded Jimmy G last draft for a couple of picks and drafted more defense guys.

imagine if they had played Butler unless he was injured.

[KidPistol]

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.

[Otis Driftwood]

Patriots are not that good, They should have lost in the Super Bowl to the Seahawks and Falcons. Teams beat themselves more than the Patriots actually beat opponents. If you play good defense in the 1st half against patriots, You have to bring it again the rest of the 2nd half. Patriots division is bad every year with the Bills, Dolphins and Jets that they coast easily to the AFC east champions every year and are set up with home field advantage.

Yeah. But they didn't. And 30 years from now when people look at the record, that's all that matters. They won. And will be considered one of the great dynasties ever.

[bwgood77]

Great team but many of their wins could have gone either way on the very last play. The Seahawks being the most obvious one. The Falcons comeback was great, but that more lies on stupidity of opposing coach. And then Vinatieri very long kicks won two of them, so he gets credit....plus in the first year they get the tuck rule break against the Raiders to get there.

But they take advantage of other team's blunders and had clutch kicking.

All of their losses they allowed the other team to drive down and take the win, and couldn't complete a comeback. So in an alternate universe they could be 1-7.

But realistically, they probably should be about 4-4 (maybe 3-5), and got a few more breaks and took advantage a little more often than the other way around.

Either way, 8 SB trips in years is impressive. I don't think any other run by any team in any sport comes close..and they were right there in the playoffs every year except maybe the year Brady was out.

No doubt Brady is the best qb of all time. Maybe not the most clutch qb of all time, but the greatest all things considered.