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Patriots regain their edge just in time for Super Bowl

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jan 22, 2019

AP photo The Patriots join a leaping Tom Brady in celebration of their 37-31 AFC Title win Sunday night in Kansas City.

Tom Brady was finishing up his weekly Boston radio interview on Monday when he immediately did his best Bill Belichick rendition.

Asked if the Patriots can top the Rams in two weeks in the Super Bowl, would it rank as one of his greatest accomplishments?

“I’m not thinking about anything beyond these two weeks,” Brady said. “We’ve got a big, big challenge. As hard as (Sunday) night was to win, the Super Bowls, if you think about all our games, win or lose, these have been the hardes games.

“Hopefully we can play our best and give ourselves a great chance to win. It’s going to be tough to do, we’ll see how it all plays out in about 13 days.”

There it is, in the rear view mirror. Perhaps that’s why the Patriots have made it to the Super Bowl for the a third straight year,with arguably their least talented team. They kept their eye on the prize, and their focus, despite an incredible amount of distractions and uncharacteristic hiccups on the field on the road.

The same, of course, can’t be said for the Kansas City Chiefs. It almost was. They would’ve been praised for recovering from losing arguably their second best player Kareem Hunt, and then for recovering from a horrible first half. But they, specifically linebacker Dee Ford, lost the kind of focus the Patriots were somehow able to keep. Remember, had Ford not lined up in offsides in the neutral zone – not jumped, simply lined up in the wrong spot – the Chiefs would be celebrating overcoming their own adversity. Ford’s gaff negated what would have been a game-ending, AFC title winning interception deflected off the hands of tight end Rob Gronkowski. Ford’s words: “I’ve got to see the ball.” Perhaps his mental lapse was an offshoot of simple fatigue, of the fact the Patriots had the ball incredibly more than twice as long as the Chiefs, 43:59 to 20:53.

That in itself was an amazing feat, but it was not an accident, especially in the first half. The Patriots felt they could run the ball and the best defense against dynamic Chiefs QB Pat Mahomes was to keep the ball out of his hands. That’s what rushing for 176 yards will do for you. What has to be in the forefront is the job the Patriots offensive line did, not only in protecting Brady but also in another great rushing effort. In beating arguably the two top teams in the AFC, the Chargers and the Chiefs, the Patriots rushed for an astounding combined 331 yards. There was not a single hold or false start call against that line Sunday night.

“Those guys have answered every challenge the team has had,” Brady said of his line. “I can’t say enough good things about everything they have done.”

Again, as it was to start the game against the Chargers in the Divisional Round, it was all about preparation. The Patriots ran 94 plays on Sunday night. It’s what they wanted.

“We haven’t had that many all season,” Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said in the televised post-game press conferences. “It shows what we’ve been through all season, it shows what we do during the practice week, that when a situation comes along, all the guys on this team are prepared.”

Following the two straight losss to Miami and Pittsburgh, something happened to these Patriots. Perhaps it was a sense of urgency, one that usually brings out the best in them over the years. Wins against Buffalo and the Jets were expected, basically taken for granted, but they seemed to mentally be what the Patriots needed – instead of giving them a false sense of security.

“We kept showing flashes of playing really good,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. “Minnesota or Green Bay,and then the go and not play our best football in Minnesota or Miami. Then I thought Buffalo, was, ‘All right guys, this is what it takes, like we’re running out of time.’ Home against Buffalo, winning a division championship, it was ‘Guys, this is championship level football. This is what we need to do.’

“Essentially going the next week and playing another playoff game against the Jets. I thought we just continued to roll with that type of mentality.”

The Patriots, though, when times got tough, put the ball in the hands of those who have traditionally been their best players, regardless of the type of year or game they may have been having. It’s no coincidence that Julian Edelman and Gronkowski had a combined 13 catches for 175 yards between them.

“It’s the trust that we have in each other,” Gronkowski said afterward. “We love playing with each other. Just the bond we have, just to go out there and always be on the same page when we need to be, it’s huge.”

This coming from a player who many feel has one foot out the door toward retirement.

“It felt good,” Gronkowski said afterward. “The way we’ve been fighting all year long, the way the guys have been fighting all year long, the way we fought this game … A victory on the road, AFC Championship Game, it was one of the sweeter victories, definitely, in my career.”

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