Welcome to the nightmare of a nation (minus a few states).
The Patriots are heading to another Super Bowl. Too bad world. There is no waking up from this bad dream.
You could feel it on social media for three hours. So many were so happy. Those fans in Gillette Stadium, not so much. But nobody outside of the 5 1/2 states cared about that. In some ways, those watching the Patriots get pinballed by the Jaguars for three quarters probably couldn't understand why so many Patriots fans would care enough to care that much. They already had enough joy. They didn't deserve any more.
Maybe it was going to necessitate a bit of scrambling on the behalf of the NFL to market a Blake Bortles Super Bowl, but so be it. No Julian Edelman. No Dont'a Hightower. No Jimmy Garoppolo. No Malcolm Mitchell. And, suddenly, no Rob Gronkowski. And, just for good measure, Tom Brady was still 40 years old with half a right hand, throwing to a high-profile receiver in Brandin Cooks who seemed to forget how to catch a football.
The most hated team in professional sports was finally going to get their comeuppance.
Nope.
The Patriots won this AFC Championship Game, coming back from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit, beating the gritty, gutty Jaguars, 24-20, in front of those people who once again got to stick their tongues out at the rest of the league on another late January afternoon. (For a complete recap, click here.)
But how the hell did this team do it this time? You can say that the Jaguars don't match up to other gateway opponents to the Super Bowl, but they weren't that bad. This was arguably the best defense in the NFL, and when you have that, you will always have a Trent Dilfer-punching chance at winning these games. The first three quarters showed that. And then, thanks to a second-quarter, Gronkowski concussion, the already undermanned Patriots were forced to solve Jacksonville's puzzle with a group many would say was good enough to beat a middle-of-the-road defense.
Yet, there they were. And you know why they were there? Because when Tom Coughlin can't serve as the Kryptonite, there is none forthcoming.
The Patriots could get beat in the Super Bowl. They have before. The lesson here is that this was a perfect example of why as long as Brady is doing what he does, even with his severed hand, the league won't be able to truly figure out this team. They have good players, but so do these other teams. What the rest of the world just has to suck on is there are no short-cuts to getting this kind of street cred. For example, the Jaguars had stupid penalties and the Patriots didn't. If you want to find a tangible difference time around, that could be it.
But is about more than just one game. This was just the latest example, the most recent punctuation, one which let Patriots' naysayers get another chance to fire off all those tweets they are once left staring at, wondering if it is worth hitting the delete button.
Practice makes perfect. Nobody makes hating hurt quite as much as these Patriots.
