These New England Patriots and the Championship Patriots

Before the recent Saints victory over the Patriots, their head coach told his players, "These aren't the Patriots who did all those things." To what extent is that true? How do these Patriots compare to the Patriots who got all those rings? The offense lives up to its predecessors, but the defense is another story.

Quarterback

The quarterback is the same man who won those championships. Tom Brady is better than ever; his numbers this year are the second-best of his career, behind only the record-setting 2007 team. The decline in the Pats' performance has nothing to do with him. He is doing everything he ever did.

Receivers Now

Wes Welker is having a phenomenal year. Despite missing two games, he leads the league in catches and is near the league lead in receiving yardage. The only man ahead of him in yardage is his teammate, Randy Moss.

Depth is something of a concern, with only Julian Edelman having played particularly well. Sam Aiken has produced a couple of big plays but has been guilty of some big drops as well.

Receivers Then

The receivers on the Super Bowl championship teams were not even close to the talents of Moss and Welker. The best of them was probably Troy Brown, who put up big numbers in 2000-2002 but was only ordinary as a receiver before and after that. He was very similar to Welker, perhaps slightly less talented.

Brown was a consummate team player, sacrificing his own numbers to patch up the pass defense when the team was riddled with injuries in the defensive secondary in 2004-05. He was a marvelously intelligent player who could not only tell where everyone was but which way every player was turned.

That ability enabled him to run right by players who seemed to be in perfect position to stop him because they would be leaning the wrong way, unable to make the hit.

In the 2001 AFC championship game, his TD punt return was based exactly on that--Steelers leaning the wrong way, watching helplessly as he ran by them.

Deion Branch was the best talent on the team, but his regular season numbers never reflected that. In big games, though, he could be absolutely dominant as he set records for catches and receiving yards in two Super Bowls and put up big numbers in several other post-season games.

He has never done the same job for Seattle.

The depth on those teams was better than it is now. Behind Brown and Branch were David Patten and David Givens. Patten was a game-breaker who, if he caught the ball in a seam with no one between him and the goal line, was gone.

Givens was a gutsy receiver who would go into the middle and take the hits as he made third-down catches to get the first down. Givens never did well after he left New England; Patten had one good season in New Orleans but has otherwise not done much.

Brown and Givens are out of the game now; Branch and Patten are still playing, though Patten's strictly a spare part now.

The great disappointment of the receivers then was Bethel Johnson. He was phenomenally fast, and the Patriots thought he would be a game-breaker for them. They drafted him with Anquan Boldin still on the board. Johnson never did much for the Patriots or for the Vikings after that.

Overall, the wide receivers then were not, despite better depth, quite as good as the present set, because Moss and Welker are one of the great tandems of all time.

Runners Now

The Patriots have a very respectable stable of runners. Laurence Maroney, when he runs with decisiveness, is very close to being an elite runner; unfortunately, he does not always do that.

He still occasionally dances in the hole trying to find the breakaway. The team has depth at the position, as Sammy Morris and, when he is healthy, Fred Taylor are runners capable of dominating a game.

Morris generally plays fullback now and Taylor has been hurt. Kevin Faulk will be mentioned separately.

Runners Then

In 2001 and 2003, the running game was not as good as what the Patriots have now. Antowain Smith was a decent runner, a plugger who lacked real breakaway speed.

Behind him was Kevin Faulk, again, on whom more presently. Smith was like Sammy Morris without the blocking ability (they were at one time teammates in Buffalo).

In 2004, the Pats acquired Corey Dillon, and in that year, he was one of the two or three best runners in the NFL. It was the best rushing attack the Pats had had since their record-setting running game in the late '70s. His performance dropped off the next two years, and by 2007 he was gone.

The present Patriots game is better than 2001 or 2003, but not as good as 2004.

Kevin Faulk

A constant has been Kevin Faulk. He is the last remaining player from the pre-Belichick days. He was on the championship teams and he is there now. There are few other backs in the league who catch the ball as well as he. He blocks better than most backs, better than almost any other back his size.

He runs draws and traps as well as anyone, slipping through the middle of the line, avoiding tackles and gaining yards at a well above-average rate. His elusiveness makes him a decent kick and punt returner as well.

One thing unusual about a back of his type is that he is not really very fast. He breaks a great many 10-15 yard gains, but seldom breaks one for more than 20 yards. Though he returns punts and kicks fairly well, a lack of speed means that he seldom breaks a really long return.

Faulk has to be just about the only back ever to be a better back at age 34 than he was at age 27. He is a more effective runner now than he was in the championship years.

Another area of great improvement since then is that he seldom fumbles now; fumbling was a major concern with him then. His bobble late in the Colts game this year obscures that his receiving game is better than ever.

His improvement accentuates that the Pats' running game is better than in 2001 or 2003; it is however still not enough to match the impact that Dillon made in 2004.

Still, the bottom line on the Pats' running game, like their passing game, is good enough that, with the improvement in the passing game, they should still be winning championships.

Fullback now

Sammy Morris is one of the few fullbacks left in football who can still carry the ball well enough that, in the absence of a competent halfback, he can be the team's lead runner.

His blocking is quite good, better than average among fullbacks, and he is a competent, but not spectacular, receiver, quite capable of catching outlet passes and even of being the occasional primary receiver on a pattern.

Behind him is "Law Firm" BenJarvus Green-Ellis, a small fullback who does everything passably but nothing exceptionally. Again, he is a fullback who can carry the ball when asked to do so and has enough speed that he can occasionally break a carry for a big gain.

Overall, though the Pats use a fullback less than half the time, when the fullback is in the game, he is treated as a real back, not as an extra lineman. This is a dimension the Pats' offense has that few other teams have any more, and it makes them stronger.

Fullback Then

The first fullback of the Patriots' championship era was Marc Edwards. Primarily a blocker, he was a solid runner with a great initial explosion that enabled him to get through the line quickly, and was a respectable receiver.

He lacked Sammy Morris's ability to break a play for big yards, but he was good enough as a runner that when he was on the field defenses could not simply key the halfback.

Through the championship years, a bit player who saw occasional action was Patrick Pass. He was much like Green-Ellis now, a small fullback who could do everything acceptably but nothing outstandingly.

In 2003, the Pats got Larry Centers at the end of his career. Centers was one of the last two great fullbacks of NFL history (the other being Mike Alstott of Tampa Bay); he held records for receiving by a back and was sometimes his team's leading runner, but by the time the Pats got him, his big years were behind him. He was still decent at everything but was no longer a top fullback.

Overall, the Pats are better at fullback now with Morris than they were in their championship years.

Offensive Line

The constants on the line from the championship to today are left tackle Matt Light, center Dan Koppen and right guard Stephen Neal. Light was then one of the two or three best left tackles in the game.

He is still better than average, but is now a half step slower than he was then, and speed rushers now sometimes beat him. Koppen, on the other hand, was brand new then; he is now at the top of his career, one of the best centers.

Neal was a project when the Pats brought him in; he had not been a football player in college, but a wrestler.

He was on the 2001 and 2003 teams, but did not start; he started seeing more action in 2004, and became a starter for good with the departure of Joe Andruzzi, beating out Russ Hochstein to become a starter. He is now a solid starter, though he misses too many games to injuries.

2005, the year Andruzzi left, was also the rookie year for the rest of the Pats' present offensive line starters, left guard Logan Mankins and right tackle Nick Kaczur. The right-tackle spot had been manned by Tom Ashworth and Brandon Gorin.

Ashworth left in free agency (for Seattle), and Kaczur beat out Gorin, who is now in Denver. Kaczur is not as good as Ashworth, but is better than Gorin.

Overall, the right-tackle position is a little weaker than in the championship years, assuming Ashworth, who missed some games with injuries, as the starter.

Kaczur was good enough that the Pats went 16-0 in 2007, but not good enough to keep Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck out of Brady's face in the Super Bowl. Then again, Strahan is a lock for the Hall of Fame; Kaczur's in lots of good company.

The chief reserve then was Russ Hochstein, whose 60 minutes of fame were in the 2003 Super Bowl when he embarrassed Kris Jenkins, beating him like a drum.

Hochstein, who was filling in for the injured Damien Woody, was supposed to be demolished by the enormous and quick Jenkins, but he did the demolishing.

He never played at that level again, but was a competent backup for many years thereafter, stepping in and doing a decent job whenever another player was hurt, including the second half of the 2007 season for Neal.

Hochstein was cut just before the beginning of the season. He is now playing, and starting, in Denver, where he is playing his best ball since that great Super Bowl performance. In his place is Dan Connolly, who has, like Hochstein, stepped in whenever another lineman has been hurt and has played well enough that the change was not very noticeable.

At all positions except left guard, it is about a wash. The starting left guard in 2003 (he started at center in 2001, with the solid Mike Compton at left guard) was Damien Woody, who was a strength on the line and is still in the league, though his performance since he left New England has been less than what he gave the Pats.

In 2004, Joe Andruzzi moved from right guard to left guard. He was a plugger, a decent player who gave it all he had on every play but who was not exceptional. He left in free agency the following year.

His replacement, Logan Mankins, is the difference between the championship teams' offensive lines and the present one. Mankins is probably the best left guard in football, a mauler on the running plays and a strong pass blocker who holds his own against anyone.

Overall, the offensive line is better than it was in the championship years. Any decline in the Patriots cannot be left at its doorstep.

Tight End

The present tight end, Benjamin Watson, was drafted in 2004 after his predecessor, Daniel Graham, proved to be an undependable receiver. Graham was and is one of the best blockers in the league, and if he does make the catch, is very dangerous with the ball.

The number of drops, however, was not acceptable.

Watson is a better receiver than Graham; his efficiency as a receiver beginning in 2007 has been comparable to the best wide receivers.

He is as fast as all but the fastest wide receiver, making him uncoverable by a linebacker; one of the ways Brady has been able to unravel opposing defenses that were doubling Moss has been to send Watson on a post route; it was when he hit Watson twice with passes deep down the middle that Brady suddenly seized the game from Buffalo in this season's opener.

He is, however, only an adequate blocker, whereas Graham is one of the two or three best blocking tight ends in the game. The improvement in receiving but the drop-off in blocking is about a wash. The tight end position is about as good as it was then.

Overall, the offense is at least as good as it was on the Super Bowl teams. If the defense were as good as it was in those years, the Patriots would still be the best team in football.

Defensive Line

The defensive front now is substantially the same as it was for most of the 2004 season. Now-departed defensive end Richard Seymour, though a great player, missed most of that season with injury.

Jarvis Green took over at right end, as he also filled in for Seymour frequently all through Seymour's time in New England, and played well. The job is now his. He has solidified his game against the run, but has lost a bit of his pass-rushing ability.

Vince Wilfork took over the nose tackle job late that season from Keith Traylor, and Ty Warren, a rookie in 2003, won the left end job from Bobby Hamilton. Both are now at the top of their careers and are among the best in the game.

Overall, the loss of Seymour is more than offset by the improvement of Warren and Wilfork, especially given that Green played almost half the time even in those years. The defensive line is as good as it ever was, and you cannot look to it as the reason the Pats have declined.

So if the offense is as good as it was when the Pats were winning Super Bowls and the defensive line is as good as it was then, what's the problem?

Linebacking Then

The heart of the Patriots championship teams was the linebacking. In 2003 and 2004, the Patriots not only had one of the greatest starting linebacking crews, they could field an entire team of backup linebackers better than most teams' starters.

The front line was Willie McGinest on the strong side, Tedy Bruschi and Roman Phifer in the middle, and Mike Vrabel on the weak side. Vrabel and McGinest were both deadly pass rushers, and Bruschi and Phifer were dangerous when they blitzed. All could cover the pass. All could stop the run.

McGinest was probably the best run-stopping strong-side linebacker I have ever seen. There was no such thing as running to the strong side on the Patriots. McGinest would go to the corner, take it away, then close on the runner.

Opposing runners going at that side averaged less than two yards a carry. He also holds the career record for post-season sacks.

What is incredible is to realize that had the Pats put their second string of linebackers on the field they would still have had a linebacker corps better than the average starting linebacker corps in the league. They could put in a backup crew of Rosevelt Colvin, Ted Johnson, Don Davis and Matt Chatham. Behind them they still had Larry Izzo and Tully Banta-Cain.

Bruschi and Phifer, playing inside, were top-drawer in coverage. When Johnson came in, he couldn't cover as well as Phifer, but he could blitz about as well and he was better against the run.

These linebackers, sacking, intercepting, stuffing runs and plugging passing lanes, were comparable to the other great linebacking crews of football history--Ham, Lambert and Russell; Singletary, Wilson and Marshall; Bell, Lanier and Lynch; Robinson, Nitschke and Caffey; Van Pelt, Carson, Banks and Taylor.

Linebacking Now

The only thing about that great linebacking crew is that they were veterans. Phifer got old; Johnson, though not yet old, came to a premature end to his career through too many concussions; the Pats unloaded Willie McGinest just as he was about to go into decline, and did the same with Vrabel three years later; Bruschi, the last of the starters to go, retired before the beginning of this year, never having been the same after his 2005 heart attack.

The backups on those teams are all gone but one now. Colvin was not re-signed this year. Izzo and Chatham left in free agency. Davis retired. Only Banta-Cain is still with the Pats, having returned after leaving in free agency.

All this was foreseeable. These were all men in their 30s, except for Chatham and Banta-Cain. The Pats should have been loading up on linebackers by 2005. They did nothing. The only major linebacker pickups were Junior Seau in his late 30's and Adalius Thomas. Seau can play as well as ever for about ten snaps a game, but he's about 40 now and can't be out there every down.

Thomas is generally described as a disappointment. I suspect that he's just not used properly. This is a guy who, in Baltimore, was blitzing more often than not and was a double-digit sacker. The Patriots, however, have had him dropping back into coverage more than blitzing.

He does all right at that, but he's replacing Willie McGinest. He's supposed to be a lot better than all right, and they're paying him to be a lot better than all right. The first thing to do with him is get him back to doing what he did so well in Baltimore.

If he can still do that, they'll be strong at that position. If he can't, time to cut their losses.

They drafted Jerod Mayo last year. Though he played alongside Bruschi last year, he was supposed to be the new Bruschi in the middle. He isn't close to what Tedy was in the championship years.

As good as Phifer? Yes. He's a fair replacement for Phifer. But Phifer was, comparatively, the worst linebacker on those teams; Mayo is the best on this team unless Thomas can be gotten back to his game.

The rest of the starters are spare parts. Banta-Cain came back, and by being a roughly average pass-rusher he became the best pass-rusher on a corps of linebackers who can't blitz effectively.

Derrick Burgess had been a tremendous pass-rusher for a couple of years in Oakland, but he was hurt last year and had few sacks. He's playing as he did last year, not as he did three years ago. Color him flop.

Gary Guyton has put in a huge effort. You have to admire his hustle; he tries as hard as any of the championship linebackers. He's not a big talent, but is a solid journeyman—basically a fair replacement for Matt Chatham or maybe even Ted Johnson.

He's not a Bruschi replacement. Pierre Woods has made some good players but is not the stuff of a championship linebacker.

The Pats have drafted two linebackers the last two years who have never played a down in the NFL, Shawn Crable and Tyrone McKenzie. In McKenzie's case, they drafted him knowing there were injury issues. And that is the sum total of their effort.

They have not really even tried to rebuild their linebacking to what it was in the championship years, and it shows. The front three are playing their hearts out, really outstanding linemen.

But in the 3-4, their role is to tie up the blockers, not to make the sacks themselves. They're doing their job, but the linebackers have failed miserably.

Until the linebacking comes together, this team isn't going anywhere. What was the strongest unit on the team has become the weakest.

Secondary Then

The one unit the Pats had more or less intact from the Parcells years going into the 2001 season was the secondary. Three of the four starters from the 1996 team that went to the Super Bowl were there—Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy were still there and Otis Smith had returned from the Jets.

Tebucky Jones, the free safety, was only a journeyman, but the other three were all very strong. Law was a legitimate shut-down corner, Milloy was one of the two best strong safeties in the NFL, and Smith, though he would sometimes be burned, made big plays all over the field.

The nickelback, Terrell, Buckley, was a strong corner in his own right and played well in the nickel role. That secondary won a Super Bowl.

The Pats rebuilt the secondary. Jones was not up to the standard of the others, and by 2003 he was gone. Smith was aging, and in 2002, he had clearly become too slow; by 2003 he was gone.

Milloy was looking for a lot of money; the other one of the two best strong safeties in the league wasn't, so before the 2003 season, the Pats acquired him--Rodney Harrison--and let Milloy go. Law remained.

With their second draft pick that year, they acquired Eugene Wilson and converted him from a cornerback to a safety. They signed free agent corner Tyrone Poole, and fourth pick Asante Samuel quickly showed that he was of NFL quality.

He became the nickelback and, in a few games when Law was hurt, played well.

That secondary—Law, Harrison, Poole and Wilson—became the best secondary in the league, and they won the championship that year. During the off-season, Law started making noises that he wasn't making enough money. In the meantime, the Pats picked up free agent corner Randall Gay, who proved to be a serviceable if not great back.

2004 began the carnage in the backfield. Law and Poole both went down in midseason and never returned. Samuel missed a few games during which a nightmare named Earthwind Moreland was torched by Ben Roethlisberger, Marc Bulger and Trent Green.

Fortunately the rest of the defense played well enough that the Pats still beat the Rams and Chiefs. Samuel returned, and played so well that by season's end it was plain that he was now at least as good as Law—there was no reason to give Law the money he was demanding or even to renew the offer that Law had rejected.

Law has never gotten the kind of money the Pats had offered. He left after the 2004 season, and played well for the Jets in 2005, leading the AFC in interceptions, though he was no longer a shutdown corner.

Law is still playing and can still play; he, like numerous other former Patriots, is now with the Broncos. He is also still a better cornerback than anyone the Patriots have now.

That should not be the case. Even after his departure, the Pats still had Samuel, Gay, Wilson and Harrison, the backfield that won the 2004 Super Bowl, as starters.

All four were still with the Pats in 2007 as they went back to the Super Bowl; the Pats had also added safety James Sanders as another serviceable back. But the Pats did not re-sign Samuel, Gay or Wilson. All three are starting elsewhere, in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Houston respectively.

The secondary that won the championships is gone. Only one back who started in a Super Bowl is still with the team, Sanders, who started in 2007.

Secondary Now

The Patriots now have only one defensive back who can be called better than average, safety Brandon Meriweather. Leigh Bodden, acquired in free agency from the Lions, is serviceable at one corner; newcomer Brandon McGowan played fairly well until the last couple of weeks, well enough to send Sanders to the bench.

The other corner is pure disaster. Unlike their neglect of the linebacking, the Patriots have tried to repair the secondary. Meriweather is a first draft choice. Terrence Wheatley, Darius Butler and Patrick Chung are second choices.

But Wheatley, who came with injury problems, has played little, largely because of injuries, and Chung has not shown that he is ready to start in the NFL.

Jonathan Wilhite, like Samuel, was a fourth-round pick. The resemblance stops there. The picture above shows Marques Colston of the Saints burning him. That happened all night in that game, and there have been other games that were just as bad. They replaced him with Butler, who did little better.

The secondary, like the linebacking, is a disaster area. Opposing teams are learning that they can pick on the secondary. It is not all that strange that Peyton Manning and Drew Brees can light up the scoreboard against them; indeed, they didn't do all that badly against Manning until the final minutes of the game, intercepting him twice.

But when Kyle Orton throws for nearly 400 yards, there is something wrong, and when Chad Henne puts up a bunch of yards on you, there is really a problem.

Team Spirit...Or Lack Thereof

One thing that was never a problem on the championship Patriots was hustle. They played hard—very hard. A good part of that was the leadership of Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi.

The coaches didn't have to say anything; Rodney Harrison in your face was enough to get you moving, and he, and Bruschi, generally didn't have to say anything more than once. They were the fire in the Pats' belly; their departure leaves the defense leaderless.

That is not an issue on the offensive side of the ball. Brady is still there leading them, and it shows. There is seldom any question of lack of effort in the offense.

Even Moss, notorious since his Vikings days for taking the occasional play off, has given great effort; while Welker was out with an injury, he, too, was injured, but played with the injury. No, he wasn't his usual self, but he was out there and played every down.

But the Pats need to find someone who will fire that defense up. Right now there is no one who appears ready to do that. Chung had a reputation as that kind of player in college, but in order to lead, you have to perform, and so far he has produced little.

Bruschi and Harrison got respect because in their heyday they were among the best in the game.

Thomas, though he has played at a high level in the past, is not playing that way now, and even when he was a top player, he was never the team leader. That role was filled by Ray Lewis in Baltimore and when Thomas came to New England, it was already occupied by Harrison and Bruschi.

What Now?

The Patriots cannot wait for a defense to develop. They have one of the prime offenses in the league, still capable of putting points on the board at a dizzying rate, but that offense will not maintain that level for much longer.

Brady and Moss are 32. They are still at their peak, but they are at the end of their peak. They will not get any better, and will probably begin to slip within the next two years. If they are to win another Super Bowl in the Brady era, they have about two years to put that team on the field.

A defense is needed now. That is no fault of the defensive line, which continues to play well, though an upgrade from Green, who is starting to show his age, would be desirable.

Whether what it needs is new players or just a kick in the pants, the linebacking needs help big-time, and the young defensive backs have got to start playing up to their billing.

This team has yet to win a game in an opponent's stadium this year. That is not for lack of opportunities. They led the Broncos, Colts and Dolphins until very late in the game and led the Jets at halftime.

Even the one blowout loss, the Saints game, was respectably close, 24-17, in the third quarter. Again and again, however, they have folded in the second half on the road.

At home, they have not folded; they came from behind to beat the Ravens and Bills. The defense's pathetic performance in the second half of road games, however, is exactly what the 2003-2004 Patriots never did.

They were famous precisely because once they had a second-half lead, it was time to turn out the lights; they almost never blew leads.

The 2004 Dolphins game and the 2006 AFC Championship game against the Colts are exceptions that prove the rule; we remember them because that was so atypical of them. Now they are notorious as hometown heroes but road folders, and they do not even look close to being able to win a championship.

If they can play on the road for the rest of the season the way they have done at home, they still could do it this year; if they can't, this season's over.