Bill Belichick's Patriots Have The Heart To Win Super Bowl 46

Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, and a Big Blue Defense that is as fearsome as the editions New York sent to the big game in’87,’90, & ’07; this is what stands in the way of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and immortality. New England is “favored” in Super Bowl 46, but take a stroll around Indianapolis this week and you’ll be hard pressed to find a large number of folks who think the Patriots are going to win on Sunday. The rhetoric been hammered home since the Giants barn stormed Candlestick Park, beat the 49ers and won their 2^nd NFC crown in 4 seasons. By now we all know that the Giants defensive line has the ability to pound Tom Brady and that Eli Manning will have a field day picking apart a secondary that includes former Kent State quarterback Julian Edelman.

Maybe it’s all true and the rhetoric has been derived from the truths of Super Bowl 42 and a week 9 matchup between the two teams in Foxborough (won by New York 24-20). The point is winning on Sunday is going to be a difficult task, perhaps the most difficult challenge ever faced by the 21^st century Patriots. If the Patriots had somehow found the magic formula to reach the Super Bowl in either of the past two seasons and were facing a team with the pedigree of the New York Giants the game could’ve turned into the kind of drubbing that conjures up memories of Super Bowl 24.

From 2001-2008 the Patriots possessed intangibles like toughness and a willingness to be coached without ego getting in the way. In those 7 seasons New England reached the AFC title game 5 times, won 4 conference titles, and collected 3 Super Bowl rings when it was all said & done. Mixed in was the 2008 season which saw Matt Cassel pilot the Patriots to an 11-5 record despite not starting a game since 1999, when he was a senior at Chatsworth High School.

But since the 2009 season the Patriots have, by in large, lacked the toughness (mentally & physically) that it takes to win the biggest NFL games of the season. Anyone who watched the beautifully crafted NFL Films documentary, “Bill Belichick: A Football Life” will remember Belichick leaning over to Tom Brady during a Monday Night rout in New Orleans saying,

“I just can’t get these guys to play the way they need to”

Roughly a month and half later the Baltimore Ravens came to Foxborough, and Ray Rice & Company blasted the soft Patriots 33-14, handing Tom Brady the toughest loss of his storied career. Despite a 14-2 record in 2010 and a return to more fundamental “Patriots Football” the team lacked mental toughness when it mattered the most, culminating in 28-21 home playoff loss to the hated Jets.

The Jets loss sent Bill Belichick back to the drawing board, and when the lockout came to pass last summer Belichick overhauled the team adding characters like Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ochocinco, while discarding the likes of Brandon Meriweather & James Sanders amongst others. Even though the splashy free agent moves didn’t pan out (Big Al was cut mid-season and Ochocinco has been a non-factor) the culture on this team was different.

The new culture of the Patriots was put to the test while staring down the team’s first 3-game losing streak of the Belichick administration. On the heels of consecutive losses at Pittsburgh and vs. the Giants, New England faced a daunting week 10 matchup in the swamps of Jersey vs. Rex Ryan and the favored Jets. The teams appeared to be headed in different directions. The Patriots looked like a sinking ship, and the Jets were beginning to look like the aircraft carrier that played in consecutive conference title games. On paper the game appeared to be a one-sided affair, but after 4 quarters of football people were once again reminded that games are played in live venues, not on pads of notebook paper.

New England hammered the Jets 37-16, and took off on a 10-game winning streak that’s brought them all the way back to the Big Game here in Indianapolis. Many have noted that the normally stoic Belichick has been uncharacteristically upbeat in the days leading up to Super Bowl 46. Maybe it’s just a case of a veteran coach knowing this could be his last ticket to the big dance, or possibly Belichick knows deep down that this group is cut from the same mold as the club’s from the early years of the 21^st century.

Throughout the season it was common place for NFL talking heads to lament the Patriots status as one of the worst team defenses in recent memory, and this of course was backed by several shiny statistics. However one stat that wasn’t mentioned was heart and that may be what separates these Patriots from the Giants on Super Bowl Sunday.