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The source for back issues of Clint's Corner. Forget a trade? Were Clint's predictions correct? Here's every edition, verbatim.

For 12/27/2002

He who laughs last...

Back in August the Patriots, and all of Patriot Nation for that matter, scoffed at the fact that Las Vegas had set the over/under for Patriot wins in 2002 at 8.5. How could this be? The defending World Champions were returning their entire coaching staff and 20 of 22 starters, the missing two being journeyman at best in DT Brandon Mitchell and TE Rod Rutledge. Easy money.

The Pats shot out of the gates at 3-0, and were the unanimous #1 team atop every major sporting poll and/or "Power Ranking." Who could stop them? Should the '72 Dolphins be on alert? Getting to 9 or more wins at that point in the season was a figurative slam-dunk. What fools to have set the over/under at a paltry, and insulting for that matter, 8.5. The Patriots had sought everyone's respect out of the gates in 2002, and they had it. Only a rash of injuries or the bubonic plague could keep the Patriots to 8 wins or less.

The well-documented 4-game skid followed. The first loss of the season was a close one in San Diego, with the game perhaps coming down to a failed Patriot 4th and 1 conversion late in the 4th quarter. How could the Pats not have gained one yard when they needed to after having rolled up over 400 yards on the day? Not to worry, perhaps 14-2 would have to do. The next three losses were all blowouts, the latter two at home to the Packers and Broncos.

A big trip to Buffalo was next on deck. Bledsoe Bowl I, and Drew cautioned the Buffalo media throughout the week that he expected the 3-4 Pats to "play like champions." If there's one thing that defines the Patriots, he said, it's character. Drew's words proved to be prophetic as the Pats crushed the Bills in Orchard Park, then went onto Chicago where they escaped by the skin of their teeth after a very un-championship like first 3 quarters.

At 5-4, the Pats were back on track. Wrong. Facing a big game on national TV in Oakland, the Patriots played horribly in a 27-20 loss in which the offense mustered only 2 field goals. Not many teams win in Oakland, but aren't defending champions at least suppose to show up? ESPN had hyped the game up all week as both a snow-bowl grudge match and a potential playoff preview. One Oakland possession into the 2nd half, and the Disney execs had egg on their face.

False hopes, from this column included, pervaded after 3 consecutive wins over the Vikings, Lions, and once again, the Bills. The Patriots didn't look great against any of those teams, but a 3-game win streak to reach 8-5 did a lot to silence the critics. After finally getting on track in the first half against Minnesota (with the NFL's 26th ranked defense), the offense went back to sleep in the 2nd half and really hasn't awakened since. The offense mustered a single touchdown in Detroit, and looked very average against the Bills at home despite the strong play of the Pats D, which forced 5 turnovers on the day.

The sweep of the Bills had the Pats at 8-5, right where they were after 13 games in 2002. The opposition may not have been the NFL's best, but the Pats were on a roll with a big prime time match-up on deck in Tennessee, followed by back-to-back home games against division rivals to close out the season. The talk all week was that the playoffs had unofficially begun, and that the Patriots were a team that had "been there, done that" in respect to "big games," especially in December with playoff implications in abundance. Truth be told I honestly expected the Pats to go from warm to hot, run the table, and earn a bye week at 11-5 just as in 2002.

Fall from grace...

What happened? Quite obviously the 4-game losing streak back in October was not simply a slump, but an indication that the Patriots truly cannot play with the better teams in the league this season. It's one thing to lose to the tough teams in this league, but to get blown out every damn time? The Patriots are today 3-7 against teams who heading into week 17 have more wins than losses, and those 7 losses have come all in a row after beginning the season with wins over the Steelers (9-5-1), Jets (8-7), and Chiefs (8-7); three teams who are all playing much better ball now than they were in September. It's highly unlikely the Patriots could go 3-0 against those same teams today.

The Patriots may have tied the Jets at 17 early in the 3rd quarter, but was there really any question as to which team was playing better football to that point? Sure the fumbled punt by Troy Brown was a big momentum swinger, but trailing 20-17 in the 3rd quarter is certainly not an insurmountable deficit. The Jets rolled from that point forward, going up and down the field at will on the Patriots defense while Brady and the offense once again appeared as though they had never seen the playbook.

I chose the glass-half-full approach last week in saying that the Pats deserved some measure of credit for defeating the Bills twice, as well as the Jets and Chiefs back in September. I then cautioned that the Jets would be a very tough game. I wasn't necessarily confident that the Pats would win given that that hadn't happened at home over the Jets in 4 seasons, but I was highly confident that the Pats would play well. Looking back, the facts showed that I should have known better, even with the Pats heading back home to finish out the season.

It would be one thing if the 7 losses to winning teams were close, but the record shows a winnable game gone wrong in San Diego followed by 6 no-shows. How can a defending champion not even be in the game late in the 4th quarter on 6 different occasions in the same season? That's as unbelievable as it is inexcusable. I suppose you could levy the same criticism on the 6-9 Rams as well, but their situation does little to explain how the same team that redefined hard work and teamwork just a year ago is seemingly out there more often than not just "going through the motions."

That may very well be an unfair criticism coming from someone who has never spoken to any of the players, doesn't attend the practices, and has never played the game himself. I can only go by what I see on Sunday, however, and allow me to offer this comparison:

On the final game of the 1990 season, the then 1-14 Patriots were riding a 13 game losing streak and were hosting the eventual Super Bowl champion Giants before 40,000 Giants fans in attendance in Foxboro Stadium. The Patriots defensive coordinator had resigned the previous week, and head coach Rod Rust had to have known, as did practically everyone, that that game was to be his last with the Pats.

The Patriots were grossly overmatched on both sides of the ball that day, yet played their hearts out to the delight of the 20,000 or so Patriots fans who showed up that day to show their support in spite of the disappointing season. The Patriots defense played perhaps their best game in holding the Giants to just 13 points. The Patriots offense had the ball late in the 4th quarter, and drove into Jason Starauvsky's range with seconds left in the game. On at least a few 3rd down conversions on that drive, it was sheer determination that resulted in the 1st down and the continuance of the drive. Two players in particular that come to mind as having given 110% were Irving Fryar and Mosi Tatupu.

Starauvsky's 40-something yard field goal was no good, but unlike these 2002 Patriots when the going gets tough, the tough got going on that day. The Jets and Dolphins indeed recently lost big games on the road to have-not's in the NFL in Chicago and Minnesota, but in each case they played must better in their losing effort than the Patriots have the past two weeks, or as they did against Miami, Oakland, Denver, or Green Bay earlier this season. Similar in circumstances to the 1990 Patriots, the 1-13 Bengals played their final home game of the season before a half empty stadium last week, yet gutted out a big win to derail the playoff hopes of the New Orleans Saints.

The Patriots played on ESPN against a big division and regional rival with their playoff hopes and the AFC East crown in the balance, and they played like crap. Let's credit the Jets, as we should credit each of the victors over the Patriots this season, but it's becoming increasingly clear that despite the similarities in the roster, these are not the Defending Super Bowl Champions.

All or nothing...

So for those of us who took Vegas up on their generous offer of "over" 8.5 back in August, it's all come down to week 17.

In this crazy business, having just thrown down the gauntlet for perhaps the first time all season in this space, it would not at all surprise me to find the Patriots hosting a playoff game the first weekend in January. What I usually do in these situations is take the optimistic approach. I could go into Miami's troubles on the road and in December in general. I could write confidently as to how the Packers drive for a crucial 1st round bye will motivate them to a victory over the Jets.

This week, however, I just don't have it in me. Sure the Pats can beat the Dolphins this week, but that's more due to the "any given Sunday" rule than logic. Unless the Dolphins do something to beat themselves, or perhaps the weather is sloppy enough to illicit one of those anything-can-happen-and-probably-will games, the Patriots will not beat Miami, and they will prove that Las Vegas knew exactly what they were doing last August.

I wrote in consecutive columns not to far back that there was no chance at all of Miami winning in Foxboro in week 17. That was before, however, I saw a Patriot team take the field in Tennessee and at home against the Jets that looks awfully content to head home this season and break their Super Bowl XXXVI rings out of their safe deposit boxes.

I've been a Patriots fan for as long as I can remember, and I've had my share of disappointments. Disappointments are always measured in terms of expectations, however, and fair or unfair, if the Patriots don't make the playoffs this season, it may very well big the biggest disappointment in franchise history save for the 1st round playoff loss to Houston in '78. The '78 team was a great team, perhaps the greatest in franchise history, yet fell apart amid the chaos at the end of the season surrounding the Chuck Fairbanks fiasco.

When my flight touched down in Boston from Baton Rouge last February 4th, I headed directly to a professional truck lettering shop where I had called in my order for 5" white letters to place over the dark tinted rear window of my pickup. "Super Bowl XXXVI Champions" has been proudly displayed every day since. I promised myself back in September heading into the big Monday Night opener against the Steelers that no matter what happened in 2002, those letters would not come off my truck until either the Patriots were eliminated from the playoffs, or eliminated from playoff contention. Then and only then would the Patriots no longer be defending Champions.

I can't say I'm too optimistic heading into the Patriots 8th and perhaps final game of the season against a winning team, but then again I find it hard to believe I'll drive my truck on Monday morning without those letters on the back.

See you next week, and please, Go Pats!