Monday January 27th, 2005 - Page Updated At 11:10AM
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Facts
The New England Patriots Road To The Superbowl
New England's
path to an AFC title and second straight Super Bowl
appearance was not expected to feature many obstacles,
and a cursory glance at the team's 14-2 regular season
ledger suggests that the campaign went according to
plan. But the consensus preseason favorites faced
their share of question marks as 2004 unfolded, as
well as stiff challenges from the Pittsburgh Steelers
and New York Jets in the conference and division,
respectively.
The season began with a Thursday night thriller against
the Colts, who were hell-bent on revenge after falling
to New England in the 2003 AFC Championship. Though
the Patriots allowed Indy to rack up 446 total yards,
it was New England that emerged with a 27-24 victory,
as Tom Brady threw for 335 yards and three touchdowns
to out-duel Peyton Manning. Two Edgerrin James fumbles
and a missed Mike Vanderjagt field goal in the waning
moments allowed Bill Belichick's club to emerge victorious.
Belichick and company were still cruising when they
made a Week 4 trip to Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium,
which had been a house of horrors for the Pats in
a 31-0 loss to open the 2003 season. The Bills once
again offered strong resistance, and the game entered
the fourth quarter tied at 17, but New England would
have the last word. A sack of former Patriot Drew
Bledsoe and subsequent 68-yard fumble return by end
Richard Seymour late in the fourth quarter put the
finishing touches on a 31-17 New England triumph.
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Two weeks later, the still-unbeaten Pats would knock
out a Seattle team that was a trendy preseason pick
to win the NFC, 30-20. Significantly, that game marked
the final dual appearance by starting cornerbacks
Tyrone Poole and Ty Law. Poole would struggle with
a lingering knee injury that forced him to be placed
on injured reserve Dec. 18th, and Law left in a loss
to Pittsburgh on Oct. 24, never to return to the field
in 2004. The assortment of inexperienced cornerbacks
that the team trotted out thereafter - Randall Gay,
Asante Samuel, Earthwind Moreland, and even wideout
Troy Brown - were unheralded enough to lead to major
questions about New England's staying power in the
playoff race.
But with doubts beginning to creep in, New England
outlasted the similarly 5-0 Jets in Week 6, 13-7,
taking sole possession of the AFC East and never relinquishing
that status thereafter. The following Sunday's loss
to the Steelers would quickly bring the Patriots down
to earth, however.
Pittsburgh ended New England's NFL-record 21-game
win streak with a 34-20 Heinz Field trouncing, outgaining
the Pats, 221-5, on the ground, forcing four Patriot
turnovers and sacking Brady four times. The absence
of running back Corey Dillon, who was sidelined with
a thigh injury, eliminated a major component of offensive
coordinator Charlie Weis' attack. But Dillon would
return to the lineup in the following week's 40-22
road takedown of the Rams, and would also be back
in Pittsburgh before long.
The St. Louis win would kickstart a six-game winning
streak for the Pats, one that featured several impressive
triumphs on the major stage. New England followed
a 29-6 road blowout of Buffalo in a Sunday night matchup
with a 27-19 victory over Kansas City in a Monday
night tilt at always-raucous Arrowhead Stadium. On
a short week, the Patriots then outclassed Baltimore,
24-3, in the rain-soaked Gillette Stadium muck.
The domination of the AFC North continued the next
week in Cleveland, when Bethel Johnson returned the
opening kickoff for a touchdown that set off a 42-15
demolition. Playing against his former team, Cincinnati,
the following Sunday, Dillon rushed for 88 yards and
a touchdown to key a 35-28 win over the Bengals.
The final blip on New England's 2004 resume would
come in Miami the following Monday night, as the heavily-favored
Patriots endured a 29-28 humiliation at the hands
of lowly Miami. New England let a 28-17 fourth-quarter
lead slip away in that one, and also forfeited any
realistic hopes of catching the Steelers to earn homefield
advantage in the AFC. Belichick's men would knock
out the Jets (23-7) and 49ers (21-7) to finish out
the regular season, however, and did lay claim to
an all-important first-round bye.
When they took the field again on Jan. 16 for an
AFC Divisional Playoff matchup with visiting Indianapolis,
the Patriots found themselves in a virtual underdog
role. The pass-happy Colts, who had won nine of 10
games entering New England and demolished Denver,
49-24, the week prior, were regarded by most as a
major threat to a Pats unit still featuring that makeshift
secondary. The naysayers were silenced by a methodical
20-3 Patriot victory, one that featured a 210-yard
ground effort by Dillon and company that kept the
clock moving and the ball out of Manning's hands for
most of the day.
Finally, it was on to Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship,
where the Pats avenged their humbling Week 7 defeat
with a 41-27 throttling of the Steelers at Heinz Field.
Sure enough, Dillon showed off his skills to the tune
of 73 yards and a touchdown against the NFL's top-rated
run defense, and the "ragtag" Patriot secondary
intercepted boy wonder and Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger
three times to preserve the win.
New England became just the seventh team in NFL history
to reach the Super Bowl three times in four years,
joining the 1992-95 Cowboys, 1990-93 Bills, 86-89
Broncos, 75-78 Cowboys, 73-76 Vikings, and 71-73 Dolphins.
 The
Eagles Road To the SuperBowl
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