Pats fall short despite inspiring effort
 
Bill Belichick, master motivator and soon to be erstwhile Super Bowl champion, held a team meeting on Saturday.
This particular team meeting was contrary to any they've had this season.
Even though his team had the Vince Lombardi trophy in tucked away in their house since early-February, it was the first time it made an appearance before the 2002 Patriots squad.
Belichick wanted to make a point to his players.
Obviously, it worked.
There's a lesson to be learned here, however: Belichick should have brought it right at the beginning of the season.
With the way the Patriots kicked, clawed and scratched their way to a 27-24 overtime win over the Miami Dolphins yesterday, it's safe to say they could have had a perfect season had he done it in Week 1.
Instead, it proved to be a case of too little too late. By early evening they learned they'd be like most fans of the sport. Many of the players spent their postgame time glued to one of the many television sets strategically placed throughout the stadium.
The Patriots did their part. Too bad the Packers, who had the added incentive of playing for home field advantage throughout the playoffs, didn't.
And is often is the case whenever you leave your destiny in someone else's hands, it's rarely, if ever, a good thing.
Even still, this was the Patriots most inspiring effort in the past 11 months.
Safety Lawyer Milloy admitted that Belichick's pre-game speech achieved the desired effect.
Motivated by Belichick's words and the sight of the trophy, Milloy wore his Super Bowl XXXVI championship ring to the game yesterday.
"Coach wanted us to have a new beginning, have a new season and have a new approach," Milloy said.
"What better way than to bring out that shiny trophy. For myself, sitting in that room, I started to get choked up. I went home and polished my ring. It was more something that helped us realize what got us into this position and why (we) had everybody who faced us giving us their best. That trophy symbolizes that. It's the best trophy in all of sports."
For now, all they have is that trophy because they won't have a chance to repeat.
The combination of the Jets 42-17 win over the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns 24-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons it guarantees that the Patriots won't threaten anyone in January.
The sad reality is that the Patriots and their fans are now left wondering what could have been. Most especially after the way they've played the previous two games. Had they won either of those two it would be an entirely different situation now.
All things being equal, it's a tribute to a team that was on the verge of morphing into the fetal position. Amazingly, this was the same team that had some of its players questioning whether they had heart just one week ago.
Heart, or lack of it, wasn't being questioned yesterday.
Bolstered by a gritty fourth-quarter comeback, the Patriots finished up their season, as well as the Dolphins', in dazzling fashion.
As much as Belichick has despised talk of the 2001 season, this game had all the makings of last season, most especially with their fourth quarter effort in all three fazes. The reality is that the Patriots not only overcame an 11-point deficit with just under five minutes left in the game, but also took it into overtime to win.
"In the fourth quarter when we were driving it just felt different," said running back Kevin Faulk, who finished with 232 all-purpose yards.
"I didn't feel like the old previous weeks. It felt different.
"The energy level was different. It felt like the whole team had energy at that point in time."
On the far end of the lockerroom, one of Faulk's teammates was still trying to reconcile the days events.
For defensive tackle Richard Seymour, it was important for the team to show up and play like a champion, something they hadn't been doing as of late.
"We're still the Super Bowl champs and I think we came out and played like that in the second half today," he said.
"We didn't want to let it go that easy. We came out and fought hard for it in the second half. We came in and made some adjustments at halftime and the offense did a good job for us. It took a total team effort and we got that from everyone."
The Patriots can derive a small measure of satisfaction. Not only did they derail the Dolphins' chances, they also diffused what was supposed to be their Kryptonite.
The start the game had the makings of the previous two losses with Ricky Williams running wild, the NFL's leading rusher and Dolphins' messiah (not to mention passport to the Super Bowl).
Williams ran for 120 yards on 14 carries in the first half.
Not to worry. As they say, cooler heads prevail, and, according to his players, Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is one cool guy.
As part of his halftime lecture, Crennel said: "We're going to the basics. We're going to throw out everything."
"We were like, 'Cool. That's how we want it,'" said cornerback Terrell Buckley.
"You get excited about a guy like that. He never raises his voice. No cursing. No throwing tables. I've seen him get mad one time and that was in practice when we messed something up. One time. You think about it. Playoffs. Super Bowl last year. This year. I've seen him get mad one time. That's unbelievable."
Williams ran the ball 17 more times, gaining only 65 yards after the Patriots plugged up the outside rushing lanes. With Williams not able to find space and create havoc, the Dolphins found themselves struggling to do anything.
Then again, that's what Super Bowl champions are supposed to do.
"We stopped the run in the second half and they had to do something else," said defensive end Anthony Pleasant.
"It just shows the character of the team not giving up, not quitting and keep fighting. You keep fighting and you're going to get some breaks.
"(Seeing the trophy) touched me and it brought back memories about what it took to get there and to play on that level we did last year.
"It's very frustrating because we controlled our own destiny and we let two games slip by us. We didn't play good enough to win those games. So, really it's our fault. We had the opportunity to win two of those games."
Unfortunately, they didn't, and, now they'll have to watch someone else ascend to the throne.
"We're very disappointed that our season has ended," Belichick said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it was a situation where other things had to fall into place for us to get into the playoffs and it just didn't work out. I'm proud of our team."
All the Patriots can do now is begin building for the future -- and, yesterday's win, even though bittersweet, provided a nice foundation.
Dan Pires is a Standard-Times columnist. He can be reached at: DPires@s-t.com
This story appeared on Page C4 of The Standard-Times on December 30, 2002.
|
|
