The Greatest Belichick-Brady Pats Game of All Time Is…

Pats Pulpit put together the perfect offseason activity, a Pats Madness bracket of the best games of the Patriots’ dynasty. It’s no surprise that the final four games are all Super Bowls.

The earlier rounds were tough, choosing between games like the 2006 playoff win in San Diego and the impossible 2013 comeback against the Broncos wasn’t easy.

The whole exercise made me wonder, what makes the truly perfect win? It was the question I had to conquer before making my decision between the final four and narrowing it all down to my pick for the best game of the Belichick-Brady era.

Super Bowl 36 vs Super Bowl 53

Is the ultimate underdog story, with a stirring final drive, the best win? Because from that perspective nothing will ever top Super Bowl 36, the last time the Patriots were truly underdogs.

A closer look at 36 starts with the three-quarter stellar defensive effort, manhandling Marshall Faulk but giving up the tying points on too-easy drives. The flip was the offense that didn’t do much of anything until it was all on the line at the very end.

Super Bowl 53 was a remarkable testament to the kind of football the Patriots have often turned in over the course of the dynasty — stifling defense shutting down a prolific offense and key plays when it was all on the line.

53 certainly echoes 36 in many ways. So much of 53 brought things with 36 fill circle, but 36 is the OG epic upset and that’s tough to top.

Winner: Super Bowl 36

Super Bowl 49 vs Super Bowl 51

This is a tough one because for me, few things beat a comeback. What separates these two games though is the historical perspective.

The 28-3 comeback in Super Bowl 51 was a near-impossible feat on the biggest stage. Everything had to go exactly right. Hightower strip sack, Flowers sack, Falcons Holding Penalty, Miracle Edelman catch, Winning OT coin toss. Third down conversion after third down conversion. It all broke exactly right. There’s sure Patriots magic in that.

But even the epic nature of the comeback cannot erase that it was lining up to be the most embarrassing loss of the Patriots Super Bowl appearances since 1985. Thrilling? Yes. But not needing a historic comeback would’ve been nice too.

At the time it felt like that comeback would be the final coronation, but since Super Bowl 53 it’s now just a case of the Patriots getting their head out of their asses and playing perfectly for the final quarter-plus.

Which brings me to where we were late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 49 in February of 2015, ten years since the last time the Patriots won the Super Bowl. Yes, the six Super Bowl wins will all be remembered but what I’ll also remember is the roller coaster of big stage disappointments from 2005 until the moment Malcolm Butler intercepted the ball at the goal-line.

Super Bowl 49 also featured a near-impossible comeback with epic third down catches and impossible plays. But it was the closer-fought game than 51 and the better overall executed.

When Jermaine Kearse somehow came up with the ball on an impossible catch it felt like the decade-long weight of frustration was placed right in our guts. Denver, Indy, Tyree, Brady ACL, Ray Rice, the Jets, Eli Again, Flacco again, Peyton again… the Pats looked assured to go down in flames once again.

It’s happened quite a few times over the last two decades. A loss looks assured only to see Brady storm back. When you accept you’re probably going to lose it truly makes an unexpected victory evene sweeter.

Super Bowl 51 had the bigger comeback but it was their own damn fault they had to do that.

With a Malcolm Go, the fortunes of the Patriots dramatically flipped in one moment. That game broke the ice for three more Super Bowl trips and two more rings on top.

Pick: Super Bowl 49 over Super Bowl 51

For the finals of Super Bowl 36 vs. Super Bowl 49 they were each the start of two dynastic periods. I was first a Patriots fan in the 80s. Clearly remember 1985 and the region-wide giddy excitement that the PATRIOTS WERE IN THE SUPER BOWL!!

I remember Parcells and the introduction of the Flying Elvis, Bledsoe, Coates, Curtis Martin, feeling genuinely excited to watch the Patriots once again. 1996 seemed like things were just getting started before it all fell apart.

Super Bowl 36 still had the just-happy-to-be-there vibe and I was fully ready to see the Pats lose a third Super Bowl in my lifetime. There were no expectations and a feeling like we had already kind of won. It was the last time there would ever be even a remote feeling like that.

The buildup to Super Bowl 49 was much more involved and traumatic for me, though half as long as my childhood of the Patriots mostly sucking. Really, the first playoff loss for Brady and Belichick was what started me blogging, so what you’re reading now has really been one long buildup since that moment in January 2006.

Super Bowl 36 was the underdog story. Super Bowl 36 was the comeback story. Both had clutch plays at the end, especially by Tom Brady. They are close to equal footing as games.

It’s in my own personal historical perspective that I find my choice.

Winning Super Bowl 36 was amazing, but for me Super Bowl 49 meant a lot more on so many levels. There’s no fault in choosing the underdog Patriots of Super Bowl 36, there’s nothing like your first.

But give me the last-moment impossible win that exorcised a decade of demons in one play as the best play of the Patriots dynasty. I blogged my way through all that darkness and seeing them finally get another one made all of it worth it.

Winner: Super Bowl 49