On Super Bowl Sunday 2003, Patriots coach Bill Belichick wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he pre-congratulated the coach of that day’s big game – spoiler alert: it was then first-year Bucs boss Jon Gruden – while also pre-warned his yet uncrowned coaching contemporary and his team against the pitfalls that come with championship success.
“O.K., Champ, Now Comes The Hard Part” detailed the day of Super Bowl XXXVII 37 thoughts on why it’s essentially harder to stay atop the football mountain than it was to get there, things the Super Bowl XXXVI-winning Belichick learned along the way during his post-Lombardi, 9-7 2002 season in New England.
What does that have to do with the current Patriots two decades later, further from Super Bowl glory than the franchise has been since back when Belichick was still the scuffling Browns coach in the early 1990s?
On a championship level, nothing. The 2-5 Patriots remain in the basement of the AFC East and among a potentially putrid pack of teams near the bottom of NFL power rankings everywhere!
But, New England is coming off its best win of the season, Sunday’s 29-25 comeback effort against Josh Allen and the Bills at Gillette Stadium in which Mac Jones and Co. looked like anything but the listless losers of the previous six games of the year.
Jones, in particular, put forth the best game of career.
He finally notched that late-game, game-winning drive that many wondered if he was capable of three years into his pro career. He did so against a good opponent with a great pass rush. Got the job done not against a backup or bad QB, as so many of his NFL wins have come, but rather against a legitimate annual MVP candidate in Allen.
Jones put his big boy pants on and got a big time win for his team that it so desperately needed at a time when even fantastical fans of the Patriots were being tantalized by the idea of tanking as an option to acquire the next great franchise QB.
For one afternoon in Foxborough all was right for Jones and his Patriots. Belichick notched his 300th regular season victory and was joking about his golf game postgame. And those fans wearing the throwback, early-90s paper bags on their heads in the stands were sent packing like properly packed groceries.
But that was last Sunday. This is Wednesday. Life in the NFL comes at you fast.
Now, the Patriots are preparing for a trip to Miami to take on the AFC East-leading, 5-2 Dolphins. An opposition with as dangerous and productive an offense as the NFL has seen, maybe ever. Another would-be Super Bowl contender coming off a disappointing loss looking to rebound despite a banged up roster.
Now, Jones and New England must prove that last Sunday’s effort and results were not some aberrational, “Any given Sunday” stuff upon which false hope and misleading mindsets are built.
Any team can look good once. There is a reason there are not too many 0-fer teams in NFL history.
Any quarterback that makes it to the NFL – certainly one from a National Championship team arriving as first-round pick – is capable of showcasing his talents in a positive light on a one-off Sunday here and there.
The hard part in the NFL for both teams and quarterbacks is to perform with consistency from drive to drive, quarter to quarter, half to half and game to game. You know the way that GOAT guy did for a couple decades.
In some ways it’s easy to upset the heavily favored Bills at home when no one thinks it’s a real option coming off weeks of losing, some in embarrassing fashion.
When nothing is expected, there is nothing to lose.
Now, though, Jones has shown he can play like a capable, winning NFL QB.
And his Patriots have shown they can do the kinds of things in all three phases of complementary football to not only win, but to beat a pretty darn good opponent.
Now comes the hard part for Jones and his New England teammates.
Because as Belichick wrote 20 years ago, NFL success can be fleeting. Of course after he wrote that, he went on to establish the most unexpected and successful dynasty in NFL history.
Now, all Jones and the Patriots have to do is try to play a good, solid, competitive football game on Sunday in Miami. Give reason to for fans, media and even themselves to believe that what they did against the Bills was who they hope to be moving forward. Prove that performance was more who they are than the Debacle in Dallas or Saints Suck-fest.
New England fans now have reason to expect better from their team and their QB on a weekly basis.
As such, now comes the hard part for Jones and his squad.
Do it again.
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