Before yesterday’s game is said with absolute certainty that the results of the Patriots divisional playoff game against the Colts would go beyond the score. After Tom Brady and his rush oriented team demolished the Colts by a margin of 42 to 21, this dynasty of perennial berths in the AFC Championship game has been stretched to one 3 years long while the praise of Andrew Luck that was present as we rolled into the game yesterday has rapidly turned to criticism.
For the 3rd straight year, the New England Patriots are headed to the AFC Championship game and much like each of these last 2 years, they grabbed this decisive divisional playoff win via dominant rout of a team not inferior to them. In 2011 we ripped down the Broncos 45-10 then 1 year later against the Texans, Brady and company moved past their opponents 41-28. In both those years they rode a great passing day by Tom Brady to a berth in an AFC Championship vs the Baltimore Ravens. This time around, everything will be different. While the Patriots do not yet know who their AFC Championship opponent will be they know they won’t be from Baltimore. The Ravens finished the season at 8-8 were not included in the playoff picture meaning that as the second half of the AFC's divisional games draws nearer, it will come down to either a title game in Foxborough against San Diego or in Denver vs Denver.
But that is not the only thing that is different about this year. Instead of Tom Brady singlehandedly carrying this team on his back week 17 and now this divisional game have both been one by LeGarrette Blount's memorizing rushing talents. He slammed together 4 touchdowns and 166 all-purpose yards this week to compliment the team record 364 yards he banged up in Week 17. In the blink of an eye, this 6 foot tall 250 pound wrecking ball has become the hottest running back in football and basically from the get-go of Saturday's game the Patriots knew it was foolish to keep the ball out of his hands. That kind of will alone is what makes Bill Belichick as great as he is. Even with perhaps the greatest QB in history playing on his team, Bill knew that at that point in time, Blount would give the team the best chance to win and so he played him calling for Brady to shove the ball into Blount's gut 23 times from start to finish of this game. In the minds of many, this was the most rush oriented game the Patriots had played since Tom Brady has been their quarterback.
"That was amazing." Tom Brady said when asked about the excellence of the running game. "We keep handing it off and those guys just run so hard and do such a great job running and finding the holes where they can just slice through there and gain as many yards as they can. It was pretty cool."
The Patriots set a team record in rushing touchdowns in this game scoring 6. By extension that resulted in 6 extra-point kicks minus the 2 point conversion the Patriots attempted and scored on. However after Ryan Allen injured his shoulder on a punt early in the 2nd half, that left QB Tom Brady to deal with the duties of holder for a good portion of this one.
"It's been a while since I've done that. I was happy to help the team. Maybe I'll try renegotiating my contract or something for doing more work." Brady said when asked about the holding situation. Of course, that last part was said with a joking tone of voice.
As for the last time Brady said he held a kick, "I think it was when I played in the Orange Bowl 14 or 15 years ago. I don't even do it in practice. They said, ‘Get in there and do it,' and I said, ‘What do I say?' But we figured it out."
The stage is set, the Patriots are in the playoffs and at last check it seems that they will be heading to Denver to play that game. But there will be a different tone to this Patriots offence next week and while it will involve Tom Brady, he will not be throwing the ball. He will be looking back to his hulking running back Blount, shoving the ball into his gut and watching the rest. Even in a season so up and down as this, the injury to Gronkowski, the loss of Wilfork and others for the 3rd straight year the Patriots will find themselves involved in a game the winner of which will be Super Bowl bound.
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