New England Patriots’ Pursuit of Perfection Under National Spotlight Tonight in New York

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL

The time is here. The New England Patriots have rolled up 15 wins with no losses. And they will lay it on the line tonight as they go for a perfect 16-0 regular season against the N.Y. Giants in what is anticipated to be one of the most-watched National Football League games in recent memory. It almost has a Super Bowl feel to it with the week-long hype and pregame festivities.

I was just staring at that number next to the Patriots’ listing in the AFC East. 15-0. It’s just an unbelievable accomplishment when you stop to think about it. It’s an unbelievable accomplishment no matter how long you think about it, but when you piece together the weeks — when you go back to the beginning, back to training camp — and see how hard this road must have been, it puts into perspective the difficulty of this achievement. I knew this team would be good. Anyone who knows anything about football knew this team would be good. But 16-0? That was unfathomable.

Still, the ultimate goal is not defined by a win tonight. The Pats have home field throughout the AFC playoffs regardless of whether they beat the Giants. Under any other circumstance, if even with one loss, New England head coach Bill Belichick is resting his first-teamers. Probably for the entire game. But with history about to be made, it’s “business as usual” for New England, as though it were the first game of the season instead of the 16th. And no matter what they say, you know they want this game. Bad. Still, linebacker Tedy Bruschi downplayed the importance:

“We’re not looking at the playoffs right now and we’re not really thinking about being undefeated. There’s a simple way how we got here, and that’s focusing on the opponent that we happen to have in front of us. This week we’ve got a formidable one in the New York Giants.”

Many people have called the Patriots boring because of comments like these, but the players are just echoing the sentiments of their head coach. As “boring” as it may be, it works. And if boring means 16-0 plus a Super Bowl victory, so be it. I’ll take boring.

(Note: You can watch the game pretty much everywhere. It’s like a “State-of-the-Union” address.)