And they did, they did.
But when you play the New England Patriots, you are not just playing against the Patriots, you are also playing against a mystique that carries with it an air of inevitability - the kind of resignation that comes when one knows what is about to happen to them, but they can't do anything about it.
It's like a sixth sense. The Patriots have been so successful for so long, and have consistently pulled victory from the jaws of defeat so many times that it causes a curious psychological phenomenon known as "soft determinism" in that, in the case of sports dynasties, while all empirical phenomena must occur from determining causes, human nature introduces the ability to conceive of the world of how things are supposed to be...
...and in the case of the New England Patriots, that means that their reputation precedes them and, at least subconsciously, their foes have predetermined that the Patriots will come back and win the game, regardless of how far behind they become during the course of a game.
That attitude was always prevalent in the Belichick era, but has been cemented in the wake of their victory in Super Bowl 51, when they spotted the Atlanta Falcons a twenty-five point lead, then scored 31 unanswered points to take the championship.
For certain, that would be the easy way to explain what happened to the Jacksonville Jaguars during the course of their contest with New England in the AFC Championship game on Sunday afternoon, that it was determined before the players took the field of battle, and that the only way that the Jaguars could possibly win the game is if they forced the Patriots into committing enough errors to change the predetermined outcome.
The Jaguars actually had the phenomena half-beaten, as Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady entered the contest sporting multiple stitches on the knuckle at the base of the thumb on his throwing hand, which had the potential to affect his accuracy - reinforced by a head injury suffered by his main target in the pattern, tight end Rob Gronkowski, which forced the All Pro from the game.
So there they were at halftime, the Jaguars thinking that they just may have done enough to destroy the aura surrounding the Patriots, and emerging with supreme confidence and actually building upon their lead - in essence having the Patriots right where they wanted them - but all they really did was instill themselves with false sense of confidence...
...the Patriots' defense clamping down on the Jaguars' fifth-ranked offense and the Patriots' offense finding a rhythm that hadn't existed prior to the half, scoring 14 unanswered points in the final nine minutes of the game to take the conference championship for the third time in four seasons and earning a trip to Super Bowl 52, where they will take on the Philadelphia Eagles.
The young Jaguars learned on Sunday what many clubs around the league already knew, that the veteran Patriots always seem to have two things in common when the game is on the line. First, that you can never count them out with Brady under center and secondly, someone always steps up to make the crucial play to save the day.
On Sunday afternoon, that person was Danny Amendola.
Already with the reputation as being clutch when the lights are the brightest and the stage is the largest, Amendola helped the Patriots punch their ticket to the Super Bowl simply by being open and catching the balls that Brady threw - the same player he has been throughout his career.
"Danny's such a good football player." Belichick commented after the game "If you look up 'good football player' in the dictionary, his picture is right there beside it. He's just a tremendous player, very instinctive, tough, great concentration. He had some big plays for us today."
The usually evasive Belichick stopped just short of effusive when speaking of Amendola, who hauled in seven of Brady's rockets for 84 yards and two scores, the last score a graceful toe-tapper that left Gipson's jaw on the turf in amazement, so clean that he didn't even bother trying to contest the referee's contention...
...but what really hurt Gipson and the Jaguars was a play that occurred halfway through the final frame, when the Patriots trailed by ten points and were faced with a 3rd and 18 from their own twenty-five yard line, Brady evading the Jacksonville pass rush and launching a wobbler towards a well-covered Amendola, who came down with the ball and momentum.
But anyone who watched the game knows that, and also knows that Brady soared to 290 yards on a 26 of 38 performance and that Brandin Cooks had yet another 100 yard receiving game and drew another 69 yards in pass interference penalties - but the players who deserved just as much credit as those that either blocked for them or played on the opposite side of the ball.
The Patriots' offensive line held the fearsome, top-rated Jaguars' pass rush to a meager nine pressures on Brady - and while that included three sacks, only one of those occurred in the second half. In fact, as the game wore on into the fourth quarter, the Jacksonville pass rush looked timid the more the dink-and-dunk approach by the Patriots started paying off...
...which was aided a great deal by the Jaguars inexplicably retreating into zone coverage in the fourth quarter. In fact, the entire nature of the Jacksonville game plan seemed to wane after that point as the aggressive approach by the Jaguars was replaced by complacency, and especially after they took a two-score lead midway through the third quarter.
How much of that had to do with the Patriots' mystique, only Jaguars' coach Doug Marrone knows for sure, but going into a zone defense against a veteran Patriots' receiving corps was akin to throwing meat to a starving wolf, as time after time Amendola and Cooks found holes in the coverages, and Brady exploited it.
How thorough the exploitation was can be found in the statistics. Up until the start of the fourth quarter, the Patriots had a grand total of 137 yards in total offense, and the only reason why New England wasn't behind by three scores or more was due to Cooks drawing a pass interference on A.J. Bouye...
...right after safety Barry Church drew a personal foul for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Gronkowski, the two penalties combining to give New England a first and goal with a little over a minute left in the first half and opening the door for a short James White touchdown run that turned an eleven point Jaguars lead to just four going into the room.
But once Jacksonville had gained back their two score advantage just seconds into the final frame on two field goals, they retreated into the zone look - presumably to protect against the big play, like in a prevent defense - which played right into Brady's hands.
Make no mistake, the Jaguars were dominating the Patriots on both sides of the ball until that point, and would have continued to do so had the Jacksonville coaching staff remained aggressive - but instead they concentrated on keeping the ball in front of them and New England countered by flooding the middle of the field with crossing patterns designed to open holes when the receiver moved from one zone to another.
The result is yet another Super Bowl appearance for the boys from Foxborough, who merely play their game, stay disciplined in their assignments, and wait for the other team to shrink back and commit the fatal mistakes that fundamentally sound teams always take advantage of.
One would think that after the Jaguars allowed the Pittsburgh Steelers back into their divisional round game by going zone and failing to stay aggressive, they wouldn't have made the same mistake against New England.
But that darned Patriots' mystique makes coaches and players do things that cause them to blow it when the chips are down, and to this point in football history, very few have learned that you have to keep the gas pedal mashed to the floorboard when playing the Patriots - no matter how big a lead they have or how much time is left on the clock.
Until the other 31 teams figure that out, the Patriots will just go on about winning championships.
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