For those that are too young to remember or who were not not even born yet, that Patriots' team was the first in franchise history to actually contend for a title after ten years of futility in the old American Football League segued into seven more lean years upon the merger of the AFL with the National Football League, going 11-3 and earning a wild card berth and losing to the Oakland Raiders in the infamous Ben Dreith Game...
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| The left side is set with Solder and Mankins, the right is a question mark |
...featuring three separate very questionable personal fouls called on New England's defense in the final minute of the game that extended the Raiders' final drive when the Patriots appeared to have them stopped - and given that Oakland stomped the Steelers the following week in the AFC Championship and then did the same in the Super Bowl to the Minnesota Vikings, it would appear that the Patriots were robbed of their first World Title.
Which may or may not be true, but all of that detracts from the fact that when Belichick heaped such high praise on this unit, he did so from personal experience as he was under the employ of the Detroit Lions that season as an assistant coach, a Lions' team that handed New England one of it's three losses by building a big early lead and forcing New England to the air, neutralizing their potent running game.
