Supoer Bowl 51Patriots greatness has to be admired

Anytime from here on out the New England Patriots are talked about as the greatest dynasty in football (They Are) and in some cases the greatest dynasty in sports history, the past antics of cheating from spygate, ect, has to always be there.

But, at the end of the day, you have to admire greatness.

A special case of greatness is to be admired and how the Patriots continue to do this is something that just shouldn’t be happening in today’s salary cap world of the NFL. The Brady/Belichick era is going to go down as dominating two decades.

Bending the rules as far as they did in the past or still does, can only go so far. This is an amazing run organization starting with Bill Belichick.

Since 2008, this has rarely been the most talented team in football. It’s just the best coached team in football year on year out with the best coach/QB combination likely ever.

Tom Brady had no Le’Veon Bell or Antonio Brown during this playoff run and other than Rob Gronkowski who is constantly injured, has rarely had elite offensive talent around him.

Ben Roethlisberger this past week called the Steelers the “little brother” to the Patriots. Unfortunately for Big Ben, Brady at age 39 looks like he has at least 2-3 more elite years left in him and as long as Belichick isn’t retiring anytime soon, the rest of the AFC is going to continue to be the Patriots “little brother”.

Greatness is often related to also being lucky.

From the Tuck Rule game vs the Raiders, to the Seahawks play call of throwing from the one yard line that resulted in a Malcom Butler INT, to the Atlanta Falcons implosion for the ages last night, Tom Brady/Bill Belichick should probably have two or three less Super Bowl’s than they do.

But, they don’t.

What the Patriots do to every team is they have a key edge mentally and it’s often a trick down effect.

Coaches get intimidated on big stages all the time against New England into almost always overthinking things where they go away from the high percentage play. Hello Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons………

The biggest choke job every in Super Bowl history, the Falcons had a 99% chance of winning with 20 minutes left.

8:31 left in the fourth quarter, Falcons leading 28-12. 3rd and 1 from the Falcons 36 and instead of running the ball to move the chains, Atlanta calls a five-step drop back and Dont’a Hightower blitzes and gets a strip fumble and small field for the Patriots.

And then with 3:56 left, Falcons leading 28-20 and having a 2nd an 11 at the Patriots 23, Atlanta calls a another deep drop-back passing play where Matt Ryan holds the ball for more than four seconds and is sacked for a 12 yard loss.

Once the Patriots got the ball back and trailing 28-20, you just knew how this night was going to end with the Patriots on top.

This is what they do. From getting it to 28-9 and then 28-12, New England slowly put pressure on the Falcons to have to make just a play or two and Atlanta buckled from the coaching staff on down that so many often do vs the Belichick run Patriots.

This was an impossible comeback that only the Patriots would have the will/testament to pull this off. They won with a miracle rally despite a pick-6, LeGarrette Blount fumble that led to another Falcons touchdown, a missed PAT, six drops and poor play from their top wide receivers who torched the Steelers in AFC Title game.

Is Tom Brady the greatest quarterback/player of all-time? Even with a fifth title and still going for more, there’s going to be a crowd still out there that isn’t on-board because some much of that discussion is based on circumstances/situation. Case in point, some will say Ben Roethlisberger was a better quarterback than Dan Marino because he has two titles. He wasn’t.

But, what should be in universal agreement is that Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all-time. That was witnessed yet again last night and will continue to be for years to come.