After the acts of Sept. 11, millions of Americans are proud to call themselves Patriots. Right now, 52 men may be a little prouder than most.
In August, so-called football experts and prognosticators debated and predicted whether the Bills and Patriots would finish in last or second last in the AFC East, respectively. They were half right. The Bills struggled through a miserable rebuilding season, finishing at 3-13.
The Patriots won the Super Bowl.
Adam Vinatieri pulled an anti-Scott Norwood, drilling a 48-yard field goal as time expired to lead New England to one of the biggest upsets of Super Bowl history, a 20-17 victory over the heavily-favored St. Louis Rams.
Patriots Coach Bill Belichick turned in his finest masterpiece to date, implementing the perfect game plan. The Patriots' path to victory lay with winning the turnover battle and getting the better of special teams. Two Kurt Warner interceptions and one Ricky Proehl fumble led directly to 17 points. Vinatieri kicked the biggest kick - ever.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady did not do anything as spectacular. Instead, he did what he has been doing all season. He took care of the football and even came up with a play here or there en route to the Super Bowl XXXVI MVP trophy.
Brady, who went 16-27 for 145 yards and a touchdown, would be the first to admit that this was a team award. Until the final two minutes, Brady had not yet eclipsed 100 yards passing. But, with the game hanging in the balance, Brady led his team 53 yards in a minute and a half to put Vinatieri in position for the game winner.
"There are a lot of MVPs on this team," said Brady in televised post-game interviews. "Whenever our backs were against the wall, we came up with a play that we needed."
The Patriots also have been coming up with the calls they needed, and that theme held true today.
After Proehl took advantage of a blown coverage to tie the game on a 26-yard touchdown catch with 1:37 remaining, the Patriots got the ball back at their own 17 with a minute and a half left in regulation, and no timeouts remaining. Much of the viewing audience sat back, expecting the first overtime Super Bowl in the history of the NFL. The Patriots had other ideas.
Brady completed two passes to third-down back J.R. Redmond in the middle of the field for a modest 13 yards.
After an incomplete pass, Brady again hit Redmond, who made a nice move to get out-of-bounds after a gain of 11.
No Patriots game is complete without controversy, and the next play brought just that.
With 33 seconds left, Brady, under heavy pressure, took two steps to his left and lobbed a pass into no man's land, 15 yards from the nearest receiver. Despite the fact that Brady was clearly inside the tackles and there was no one in the vicinity, Brady was not flagged for intentional grounding, which would have set the Pats back 10 yards and cost them some precious time.
Instead, Brady completed the next pass to Troy Brown for 23 yards. Brown got out of bounds at the Rams 36, stopping the clock with 21 seconds left. Brady then hit tight end Jermaine Wiggins for six yards over the middle at the Rams 31. Brady spiked the ball to kill the clock, setting the stage for Vinatieri's heroics.
Vinatieri explained how he handles the pressure kicks.
"You try to just take them just like it's in the offseason, in the middle of June on a practice field by yourself," Vinatieri was quoted on Sportsline.com.
This was bigger than any kick made in June - any kick made in the history of the league. It was a kick propelling New England to Super Bowl glory, a concept that was unheard of only a few months ago.
The Rams, who came in as heavy favorites and who boast the No. 1 ranked offense in the NFL, played timidly, afraid to make a mistake. Holding on to a tenuous 3-0 lead with just over 10:00 minutes left in the second quarter, they made a big one.
On a first and 10 from their own 39, Warner attempted a sideline pass to Isaac Bruce. Ty Law read the play, cut in front of Bruce, intercepted the pass, and dashed 47 yards into the end zone.
"We were challenging those guys all game," Law said in NFL.com wire reports. "We were getting up in their face. You have to do that.
"They say it's the best track team in the National Football League, but I never saw anybody win a 100-yard dash with someone standing in front of them," he added.
Law was one of three defensive backs to cause turnovers setting up scores.
After the teams exchanged punts, Warner hit Proehl over the middle. Backup safety Antwan Harris, who scored a key touchdown in the Pats' AFC Championship win against Pittsburgh, laid a big hit on the receiver, jarring the ball loose at the Patriots 45. Terrell Buckley recovered the ball and returned it 15 yards to the Rams 40.
Brady moved his team into scoring position and faced a critical third and two at the Rams 8. Brady then made his best throw of the ball game. Rather than settle for three, Brady threw a dart in the back of the end zone to wide receiver David Patten. Patten went up and held on to the fastball, getting two feet in the back of the end zone and sending the Patriots to the dressing room with a stunning 14-3 halftime lead.
The Patriots scored the only three points of the third quarter. After the much-maligned Otis Smith intercepted a Warner pass, leading to a 37-yard Vinatieri field goal, the Rams offense finally came to life.
On a fourth and goal from the three, a Willie McGinest defensive holding penalty negated a 97-yard Tebucky Jones fumble return that would have put the game out of reach. Instead, the Rams had new life and capitalized on the call two plays later. Warner called his own number and sneaked into the end zone from two yards out, scoring the Rams first touchdown and pulling them within seven.
The Rams got their final chance to tie with just 1:51 left on the clock. Time ended up working against them, but not in the way they fought.
With no timeouts left, Warner used a grand total of three plays and 21 seconds to lead the Rams to the tying score. With momentum squarely in the Rams favor, the Pats did not want to go into an overtime session. Their time was now, and their improbable journey ended with a long kick from, as Brady put it, "the clutchest kicker in the league."
Brady might have left two words out in his excitement. "The clutchest kicker in the history of the league."
