What New England Needs To Fix To Win Again

 

They fooled me once; having a spectacular offense , going 16-0 in the regular season, and losing to the New York Giants in the Superbowl of 2008.  They fooled me twice; having a spectacular offense, going 13-3 in the regular season, and losing to the New York Giants in the Superbowl of 2012.  The New England Patriots did not fool me this time around.  As expected, the New England Patriots lost to the spirited Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game, 28-13. 

 

What is different about the Patriots of the past 6 years, compared with the Patriots of the early 2000s?  Defense.  New England's defense has been horrible for a number of years now.  Having a defense in the bottom 3rd of the league will not win them any Superbowls going forward.   The old adage "defense wins championships" turns out to be true.  In all sports, baseball(pitching), basketball, football, etc. the team with the most balance usually wins the most championships.  Placing too much emphasis on one area, and particularly placing too much emphasis on offense, eventually comes back to haunt teams.  In all the major professional sports, the playoffs or elimination rounds are where teams' major flaws are taken advantage of most.  The level of competition becomes more level, and obtaining a victory cannot be done simply by having more talent than your opponent.

 

Going forward, if Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the rest of the Patriots hope to win anymore Superbowls, they need to pivot their focus on revamping their defense.