Family matters: by putting individual attention aside from the start of the season to the finish of Super Bowl 36, the Patriots came together as a team—and as champions

Sporting News, The, Feb 11, 2002 by Dennis Dillon

It started at the beginning, this we-are-family philosophy of the Patriots. There was a miscommunication during the pregame introductions before their season opener in Cincinnati on September 9, and the public address announcer did not introduce the Patriots individually. So, they ran onto the field collectively. As a team.

They repeated the concept in successive weeks. When the offense was introduced, the entire unit ran out instead of one player at a time. Same with the defense.

Before Super Bowl 36 last Sunday at the Louisiana Superdome, the Patriots took it to an extreme. After the Rams' offensive unit was introduced individually, the entire Patriots team took the field en masse, much to the dismay of the Fox TV folks.

"Somebody hollered it out in the locker room, and we did it," Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi said. (It was rumored to be defensive end Anthony Pleasant's idea). "We called out the whole team because we've been a team since Day One."

Proving the adage that the whole often is greater than the sum of its individual parts, New England then went out and stunned the heavily favored Rams--a collection of stars who are known as "The Greatest Show on Turf"--in the biggest Super Bowl upset since Joe Namath guaranteed his Jets would beat the Colts in Super Bowl 3.

"Most people want to come out as individuals and get all the recognition and attention," cornerback Ty Law said. "That's not how we act. We act as a family. It took a whole family to win this game."

It started with Law, who picked off an off-target pass by Kurt Warner and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown that gave the Patriots a 7-3 lead in the second quarter. It ended with Adam Vinatieri, whose 48-yard field goal as time expired provided the decisive margin in a 20-17 victory.

In between, myriad Patriots stepped up to be counted. A roll call, please.

* Linebacker Mike Vrabel. On Law's interception, he blitzed Warner and forced a hurried pass for wide receiver Isaac Bruce. Law swiped the short pass and dashed down the left sideline untouched.

"We knew we had them on the ropes after that play," Law said. "That started us off and going."

* Safety Antwan Harris. After a 15-yard reception by Ricky Proehl with fewer than two minutes left in the first half, Harris knifed in and made a helmet-to-leather hit that separated the ball from Proehl. Terrell Buckley recovered for the Patriots.

* Wide receiver David Patten. Five plays after Buckley's recovery, Patten beat cornerback Dexter McCleon with a nifty double-move route and caught an 8-yard touchdown pass while falling backward in the corner of the end zone. It gave New England a 14-3 halftime lead. Then in the third quarter, Patten gained 22 yards on a double reverse.

* Linebacker Roman Phifer. On the Rams' first possession of the second half, Phifer came on a delayed blitz on third-and-17. He lifted up both hands and smothered Warner's attempted pass.

* Cornerback Otis Smith. He flung wide receiver Terry Holt to the ground after a 5-yard reception midway through the third quarter. On the next play, he intercepted Warner's pass and returned it 30 yards to the St. Louis 33. That set up Vinatieri's 37-yard field goal that gave the Patriots a 17-3 lead.

* Linebacker Willie McGinest. He sacked Warner for a 16-yard loss.

* Wide receiver Troy Brown. He caught six passes for 89 yards, the most important being a 23-yard reception with 29 seconds left that helped move the Patriots into position for Vinatieri's game-winner.

"My hat's off to the whole New England Patriots," Rams receiver Az-Zahir Hakim said. "They played a great team game."

By no means did the Patriots dominate the statistics. Offensively, they had 160 fewer total yards (427-267), 11 fewer first downs (26-15) and ran 15 fewer plays (69-54). Before the final drive that ended in Vinatieri's game-winning kick, Brady, the game's MVP, had completed 11 of 19 passes for only 92 yards.

But the defense set the tone for the Patriots. It started with Law, who blanketed whichever receiver he covered--he helped hold Isaac Bruce to only five catches for 56 yards--and applied several vicious hits.

"This is the best bunch of receivers I've ever played against in my life," Law said. "We knew they had a lot of speed, so we tried to be physical with them. We wanted to disrupt them at the line of scrimmage and clog the passing lanes. We didn't want to get in a footrace with them."

The Patriots variously used a combination of four, five, six and seven defensive backs. Although Rams receivers caught 28 passes for 365 yards, only Proehl made it to the end zone, on a 26-yard catch and run that tied the score, 17-17, with 1:30 left in the fourth quarter.

New England's defensive line, helped by just a close of blitzes, applied pressure on Warner throughout the game. The Rams' passing attack thrives on quick rhythm between Warner and his receivers, but the Patriots clearly had it out of sync. Warner hesitated on many pass plays, and he threw more checkdowns (to his third or fourth options) than in any game this season.