It is quite the conundrum the New England Patriots have fallen into. For more than four months, the team has firmly adhered to the gospel of sports cliches — togetherness, focus and, hoariest of all, playing them one game at a time.
Through 15 contests — most of them blowouts, a couple of them nail-biters and many featuring one personal, franchise or NFL record or another — New England stuck to the script, winning them all.
“When you have things going good like that, it’s hard to keep everybody on the same page,” wide receiver Randy Moss said. “It’s hard to keep everybody focused.”
Indeed, only one NFL team has managed to go through an entire season without any slippage whatsoever — the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who won all 14 of their regular-season games and another three playoff contests to finish 17-0. With a victory Saturday night over the host New York Giants, the Patriots would complete the first 16-0 regular-season mark in league history.
However, not long after winning No. 15 last Sunday, a 28-7 triumph over the ’07 Dolphins, New England found itself on unfamiliar ground. The team that strived so mightily to sustain the here and now had to admit that, from this point on, it really needs to win the remainder of its games.
Apart from history, nothing is at stake for the Pats in the Meadowlands; the team has already clinched the top playoff seed in the AFC and with it a first-round bye. But obviously, a loss in the postseason would completely lay to waste a heretofore spectacular campaign, and the players say the first step in avoiding that is to beat the Giants.
“We want to go into the playoffs with some momentum, and nothing good can come out of losing in the last game of the season,” veteran Troy Brown said. “We want to go into the playoffs playing well, and what better way to do that than by beating the Giants?”
Which, the Patriots acknowledge, would cause the single-game mantra and history to intersect.
“We are here now,” linebacker Tedy Bruschi said. “We’ve won 15 and we always talk about the next game. Well, the next game is the New York Giants, and if we win that we go to 16-0. Of course, there’s a piece of you that knows what that means, and we want the fans to have fun with it and we want all you guys to write about it. But for now, we have to be more concerned with how to win it. After that, we can figure out what it all means.”
Equal footing
But Brown already knows the answer to the puzzle — beat the Giants and the Patriots have the same chance as 11 other teams of achieving their ultimate goal: winning the Super Bowl.
“People could make a big deal out of 16-0, but then we’d be right back to trying to win the next game,” Brown said. “We haven’t done anything special yet. We’ve won 15 games and that doesn’t do you any good if you go into the playoffs and lose in the first round. You can talk about setting records and all that, but if you lose in the playoffs, everyone’s still going to feel like crap.”
In that sense, at this point, the Patriots really aren’t any different than the 1984 49ers, the ’85 Bears, the ’98 Vikings or the 2004 Steelers. Each of those teams won 15 games in the regular season. While the first two squads on that short list finished their seasons with just one loss, they aren’t placed in the same category as the ’72 Dolphins. In order for New England to stand beside that team atop the NFL’s Mount Olympus, the Patriots have to run the table through Super Bowl XLII, which may be a more formidable task than what’s already been accomplished.
“If you go to the Super Bowl and lose, nobody remembers that you were there, you’re just an asterisk,” said Manny Fernandez, a defensive tackle on that perfect Miami team. “It’s not winning out through the regular season, it’s winning all the way through. It’s the regular season. It’s the playoff games. It’s the Super Bowl. They’ve still got a long road to go. If they get to 19-0, they certainly will have earned it.”
And that “long road” cliche is what the Patriots will fall back on between now and Saturday. And in all likelihood, it will be the same from now until the final gun sounds Feb. 3 in Glendale, Ariz. Why focus on perfect seasons and comparisons to legendary teams when you’ve yet to earn your place at the table?
“The only relevance 1972 has to me is that it’s the year I was born,” Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said. “Other than that, I don’t care.”
Kindred spirits
Of course, for much of the season, the members of that Miami team have been forced to watch the Patriots. Each successive week, the idea that the Dolphins’ singular achievement could be equaled grows stronger.
While many of the former Miami players say they haven’t been openly rooting against New England, there has been the hope that they wouldn’t have to share a perfect season with another team. While thus far giving credit to the Patriots for what they’ve accomplished, the old Dolphins also have trouble with the idea of comparing the teams with each other.
“In those days, with no free agency, you kept teams together longer,” said Dick Anderson, a safety on the ’72 team. “You really had a chance to get to know each other. New England is like us in that they’ve really embraced the team concept, but everybody plays in their own time and space. The thing that probably does make it more difficult is free agency, but the concept is the same. You have to have good coaches and good players. Football really shows the importance of teamwork. You can’t win with dissension.”
After last Sunday’s win, the Patriots’ big free-agent signee, defender Adalius Thomas, found himself coughing uncontrollably, the victim of a fast-moving cloud of cologne wafting from the locker of teammate Larry Izzo. When the hacking stopped, the smile on Thomas’ face clearly indicated that he was thrilled at being immersed in the Patriots’ sweet smell of success. However, after five months with his new team, he knew better than to say so out loud.
“I came here for the chance to win, but there’s still work to do,” he said. “If you do what you’re supposed to do, all that other stuff will fall into place.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
