Does the loss to the Eagles still linger for the Patriots? They say they’ve moved on | Jeff McLane
As they prepare for the Rams, most of the returning Patriots said they haven’t thought much about that devastating defeat.
ATLANTA – As the ball hung in the air, for a millisecond, Phillip Dorsett thought that he could catch it.
It had already been batted down by Rodney McLeod, into Jalen Mills’ face mask, and off the back of Rob Gronkowski’s helmet before it floated in front of the late-arriving Dorsett. But Patrick Robinson was closer and before the Patriots receiver had a chance to snag it, Robinson caught just enough of the ball with his arm to knock it away and to the ground.
Tom Brady’s last-second Hail Mary attempt in Super Bowl LII had fallen incomplete and the Eagles had beaten the Patriots, 41-33. Nearly a year later, New England is back and trying to accomplish what no other team has in 46 years and that’s win a title one year after finishing as the runner-up.
But like Dorsett, most of the returning Patriots said they haven’t thought much about that devastating defeat.
“I try not to think about that. It had been forgotten about for a while,” Dorsett said of his last-gasp attempt to keep his team’s hopes alive. “But it was close. Hopefully, it doesn’t have to come to that play again.”
In New England, Super Bowls have come around more than twice as often as the leap year over the last 17 years. In the last eight years alone, the Patriots’ season has either ended in the AFC championship game (three times) or in the Super Bowl, with the fifth time coming this Sunday against the Rams.
After winning in their first three appearances under Bill Belichick, in 2001, 2003 and 2004, the Patriots lost in the Super Bowl to the New York Giants in 2007 and 2011. But they reeled off victories in 2014 and 2016 before running into the 4-1/2-point underdog Eagles.
Brady walked off the field without congratulating MVP quarterback Nick Foles or a single opponent, and earlier this week admitted that he would never get over the loss. He said something similar after his previous two Super Bowl losses.
But the Patriots, while still giving credit to the Eagles – “They’re world champions,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “We lost” – said that, aside from losing, there is little to be learned from last year’s game in Minneapolis.
“There are some things that are relevant schedule-wise, but this is a completely different team,” Belichick said Tuesday. “So I would say it’d be minimal.”
There aren’t many recent examples of losing Super Bowl teams returning the following season. The last team to do it was the Bills in 1993. Buffalo, of course, lost that game, just as the Bills did in the three previous title games. While eight teams have won back-to-back crowns, and five champions have returned only to lose, the 1971 Cowboys and the 1972 Dolphins are the only teams to win a Super Bowl a year after they lost in the final.
Aside from the Bills, who lost four straight, only the 1974-75 Vikings and the 1987-88 Broncos lost in consecutive seasons.
Free agency has made it more difficult to sustain success in the NFL over the last 25 years, but the Patriots have been the exception. Only 36 players remain from last year. But Belichick has built a culture to sustain success in the face of turnover. Most get in line.
“You’re going to give up your life,” former Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest said. “You got to sacrifice all the things outside of football – your family sometimes, everything – and it’s a steep price to pay. But the reward is being here and being able to compete and have the opportunity to play in the Super Bowl.”
Belichick, per usual, had very little to say after last year’s game. He said then that he didn’t regret benching Malcolm Butler, his best cornerback. He didn’t question his decision to attempt a 26-yard field goal – one that kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed – rather than go for it on fourth-and-one. He didn’t go into detail about much at all.
“Obviously,” Belichick said, “we didn’t do a good job coaching.”
Brian Billick, who won a Super Bowl coaching the Ravens in 2000, said that Belichick could remind Brady and some key leftovers of the crucial plays from last year’s game that may have turned the tide.
“You might go back and go, ‘Guys, here are the five plays that cost us. We can’t do this,’” Billick said. “Different team, different circumstance. But these are the four or five places this game turned, so we can’t let this happen.”
But receiver Chris Hogan said Thursday that the Patriots haven’t looked at film of the game since the day after Feb. 4, 2018, and other players said it hasn’t been mentioned since. But, internally, most say the loss lingers.
“The worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life in ’96 was when we got ushered off the field after losing,” McGinest said. “The confetti comes down and they literally push you off the field. Literally. It’s over. It’s time for you to go. They’re hoisting the coach on their shoulder and the confetti’s coming down. It’s the worst feeling ever. And that’s something you never want to experience ever.”
A receiver who played in that game last year said that Belichick and Brady would use the loss as motivation, but that receiver, Brandin Cooks, now plays for the Rams.
“Knowing the two of them, there’s something in there still from that. No doubt about it,” Cooks said Tuesday. “There’s something in me, as well, from that game.”
Cooks left the game with a concussion after a second-quarter Malcolm Jenkins hit. Dorsett, his replacement, caught just one pass for 19 yards, but he nearly had a second.
“It [stunk] losing like that,” Dorsett said. “But as we trained in the offseason and camp, we all knew what our goal was, and that’s to be here, and we’re here, and we just got to do everything we can to win the game.”