Patriot Act: New England History Makes 16-0 That Much Sweeter

The 2007 New England Patriots haven’t won anything yet—and I’m certainly not ready to declare them the greatest team in the history of the NFL. 

I’m a firm believer that to be considered among the great teams in NFL history, you need to win the Super Bowl. 

Otherwise, you’re the Buffalo Bills.  

Nobody in the Patriots’ locker room is satisfied with a 16-win season.  The ultimate goal isn’t a 16-game regular-season winning streak—it’s a three-game postseason winning streak.   

I get it—if the Patriots don’t win their next three games, the season will ultimately be a disappointment. 

But that's not the whole story.

We all write for Bleacher Report because we’re fans.  We grew up watching teams.  We suffer through the bad times and savor the good times.  We live and die with our favorite players and then share our experiences here. 

To appreciate what I’ve experienced this season as a Patriots fan, you need to go back to when I started watching them.

The first Pats season I remember was 1987. 

The Tony Eason/Steve Grogan Patriots were a season removed from their surprising Super Bowl appearance against the Bears.  I thought I was “suffering” through the Tony Eason years.

Trust me when I tell you I had no idea what suffering was.

Eason went down with an injury in the 1988 season, and was replaced by vertically-challenged local legend Doug Flutie.  The Pats finished a respectable 9-7 that year.   

It was after the 1988 season that I learned what it meant to suffer. 

In 1989, the Patriots won five games.  It was a tough squad to watch—one of those “always finds a way to lose” teams.

Then came 1990. 

I cannot rationally talk about the 1990 Patriots—at least not using language suitable for this website. 

Then Steelers’ defensive coordinator Rod Rust was hired as the new Patriots’ head coach.  He ended up leading the worst professional football team I’ve ever seen. 

The 1990 Patriots were like the 2007 Dolphins, only with far less talent and an even more inept coaching staff. 

They finished 1-15, and were probably lucky to get that one win.  Fans were spared from watching the bulk of the carnage because most of the games that season weren’t even on TV.   I listened to the Patriots on my father’s radio in my parents' basement almost exclusively that year.  Never missed a game. 

In my naiveté, I always expected them to find a way to win.  I certainly didn’t want to miss it if they did.

The overmatched Rust was mercifully fired after the 1990 season, and was replaced with Dick MacPherson.  MacPherson had a decent first season, but followed it up with a horrible encore.  The 1992 Patriots were almost as bad as the Rod Rust Pats, managing to win only two games. 

I remember how excited I was when backup QB extraordinaire Scott Zolak lead the team to its first win in ‘92.  

“Zo Magic,” we called it. 

After the ‘92 season, Bill Parcells was hired by then owner James Orthwein.  The move was made mostly to give the franchise a pillar it could lean on after relocating to St. Louis.  

The relocation, thankfully, never happened.

Bob Kraft, who owned Foxboro Stadium, ended up using the stadium lease to force Orthwein to sell the team to him, thus keeping the Pats in New England.

So the Patriots stayed in town, Parcells drafted a franchise QB in Drew Bledsoe, and things were looking up.  But the Parcells years ended up being no more than a tease. 

Parcells gave us two bad teams, one decent playoff team, and a Super Bowl team.   Then he skipped town and took over the hated New York Jets.  The Super Bowl team of 1996 was almost completely overshadowed by the departure of its head coach.  

And after the Parcells years raised our expectations,  the Pete Carroll years were that much harder to deal with. 

We finally had a taste of success, then had it ripped from us by an inept personnel department and a happy-go-lucky moron coach.

I only bring this up because it affects how I view the Patriots’ recent success. 

I appreciate every minute of it.  I love this team.  I live and die with the Pats every Sunday. 

I consider the 2001 Super Bowl one of the greatest non-family related moments of my life.  The back-to-back 14-2 seasons and Super Bowl championships in 2003 and 2004 were like icing on an already unbelievable cake.

That said, 2007 was the most enjoyable NFL regular season I’ve ever watched. 

Before we get into the playoffs and get caught up in whether the Pats can or can’t run the table, I need to take some time to appreciate what just happened:  the greatest-regular season performance in the history of the NFL.

It really is hard to fathom the extent of the domination the New England Patriots unleashed on the NFL this year. 

They defeated the consensus second- and third-best teams in the NFL in the Colts and the Cowboys, both on the road.

They played four division winners and beat them all by an average of 17.5 points.

They set an NFL record for touchdowns in a season with 75.

They set an NFL record for points scored in a season with 589.

They broke their own record for consecutive regular-season wins with 19.

Tom Brady set an NFL record with 50 touchdown passes.

Randy Moss set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches.

They won every game by an average of just under 20 points.

It was the most unbelievable stretch of winning that I’ve ever witnessed.

Will they win the Super Bowl? 

Who knows?

They’re not unbeatable.  The Colts are certainly capable.  It’s fashionable to think that the Jaguars are a more playoff-football-ready team.  The Cowboys can compete, should both teams make it to the Super Bow—and Brett Favre is always scary in a big game.

But those discussions are for next week.  Right now, I just want to appreciate how far we've come.

After all, we’re a long ways away from listening to Rod Rust’s Patriots on my father’s radio in the basement of my parents' house...

Sean Crowe is a Senior Writer and an NFL Community Leader at Bleacher Report. You can email him at [e-mail]. His archive can be found here. You can find everything he writes, including articles for other publications, here.