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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 1/29/2004

Threesome...

I've been partnering with Mike to write this column on GoPats.com for 8 seasons now. Never did I imagine back in March of '96 that come January of '04 I'd be writing my 3rd pre-Super Bowl edition. Unbelievable. A franchise that went through it's first 36 years with just one losing appearance in the Super Bowl is now poised to make it's 3rd appearance in the last 8 seasons and capture it's 2nd world championship. No other NFL franchise in the salary cap era can make such a claim, including the back-to-back world champion Broncos of 1997 and 1998.

To put this in better perspective, in making their inaugural trip to the Super Bowl, the Carolina Panthers become the NFL's 25th franchise to play in the big game, leaving 7 franchises that have never made it. Only 17 of the NFL's 32 franchises, including the Patriots, have won a world championship. We all know the Red Sox have not won a title since 1918, appearing in only 4 fall classics in the past 86 years. Come Sunday, the Patriots can halt their own dreaded "curse" after just one season ending with "wait until next year."

I know there are thousands upon thousands of die-hards out there just like myself who attended all of the home games in seasons like 1990 (0-8) just as faithfully as 2003 (10-0). If you're one of them, you can vividly remember the Patriots for season upon season as being the laughing stock of the NFL - more so than any of the teams who will be picking in the top 5 come the April 2004 draft.

When my three kids, ages 5, 3, and 2, see a Patriots logo, they don't say "Patriots," they say "Super Bowl." When I ask my 5-year old each week if the Patriots are going to win, the response is, "yes Daddy, the Patriots always win." You can't blame her honest optimism considering that nearly 10% of her life on this planet has gone by since the Patriots last dropped an NFL contest. After decades of disappointment, a new generation of Patriot Nation is emerging whose only association with the Patriots is that of excellence. A win on Sunday, and comparisons to the Dolphins and Steelers of the 70's and the 49'ers and Cowboys of the 80's and 90's will be fully justifiable.

Coach Bill Belichick and his staff deserve a large amount of credit, as does Tom Brady, Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Troy Brown, Tedi Bruschi and the rest of the players on the field. This team, however, has turned over quite a bit from the one that won it all two years ago and only a handful of players remain from the '96 AFC Championship. The one constant is ownership. The stability, constant desire to win and willingness to spend what it takes to win cannot be overlooked here. Win or lose on Sunday, what a remarkable turnaround for a franchise that was a pen stroke away from moving to St. Louis 10 years ago.

The potential for 2 world titles in 3 years? A third Super Bowl appearance in 8 seasons? For many of us cynical Boston sports fans, this is something that will take some getting use to.

Deja Vu?

So who are these Carolina Panthers? Where did they come from, and how good are they? Comparisons to the Cinderella Pats of 2001 abound, but are they justified?

Before I go on let me say this - there is no such thing as a Super Bowl team, or any team in any sporting final for that matter, who doesn't deserve to be there - period. The 2001 Rams and Steelers thought as much of the 2001 Patriots and paid the price. One obvious difference between the '03 Cats and the '01 Pats is a big one - the Panthers are garnering a boatload of respect from their favored opponent in the Super Bowl. Who can forget the Rams' Ricky Proehl, now the #3 receiver for the Panthers, looking into the NFL Films' camera and declaring, "a dynasty is born" as the Rams were being introduced prior to Super Bowl XXXVI? Mike Martz's game plan going into that contest was not designed to just win the game, but to blow out the Patriots. Think Bill Belichick senses a blowout? Think any of the Patriots have their 2nd ring on order already? Think again.

The Panthers may have snuck in under the radar this post season as the #3 seed, but a Patriot team that never lost focus during their current 14-game winning streak is not about to take an NFC Champion lightly. If you were to go back and compare news clips and quotes from the Patriots prior to the Colts game to the week prior to the 4-9 Jaguars coming to town last December 7, you'd never know which contest was for the AFC Championship. The Panthers won 11 games in the regular season, and have since won 3 playoff games, the latter 2 on the road. The Panthers don't simply "have" the Patriots respect; they've earned it.

Free pass...

How big were the Panthers' wins over the Eagles, Rams and Cowboys? The Panthers dismantled the Cowboys at home 29-10, but this was a Cowboys team who clearly had reached the playoffs ahead of schedule. Following a remarkable 4-1 start, the Cowboys finished 6-5 down the stretch winning just 1 of their final 5 road contests prior to heading to Carolina.

The Rams? They went 8-0 at home and 12-4 overall against a cupcake schedule. While the Patriots went 7-0 against teams who finished the season with 10 or more wins, the Rams didn't even play any teams with more than 10 wins. Their 8-game road schedule included only 1 team who finished the season with more than 7 wins, and they lost that game. Heading into Detroit in week 17 needing a victory to clinch the #1 seed in the conference, the Rams offense mustered less than 200 total yards in losing by 10 points to the then 4-11 Lions.

The Eagles? While a better overall team than the Rams, they were never able to stop the run all season (13th in NFC) and could not have faced a worse match-up in the conference title game than the NFC's 4th ranked rushing offense. The Panthers finished the game with 40 rushing attempts while Jake Delhomme put the ball in the air only 14 times, completing 9 for 101 yards. Think the Panthers can win Sunday with 14 pass attempts? No way. The win in Philly was impressive, but really no surprise. Recall that when the Eagles had the #1 seed in the conference on the line in week 16 at home, they allowed a 5-8 49'ers team to rush the ball 43 times for 203 yards in a 31-28 loss.

The Panthers themselves? In comparing records against common opponents, the Patriots have a decided 9-1 to 6-4 advantage, with the Patriots loss coming in Washington in week 4. The Panthers 4 losses were to Houston, Philly, Dallas, and Tennessee by a combined score of 63-100. The Panthers did sweep the defending champion Bucs en route to the NFC South title, yet while the Pats did not defeat the Bucs this season, they went a collective 4-0 against teams who did. Following an 8-2 start to their season, the Panthers dropped three consecutive games to the Cowboys, Eagles and Falcons before winning 3-point contests over the Cardinals and Lions and closing out the season with a win over a Giants team whose players thought the season had ended in early November.

While 11-5 and an NFC title is impressive no matter how you slice it, how the Panthers got to this point is in stark contrast to a Patriot team that's now a collective 7-0 against 2003 playoff teams, defeating arguably the NFL's 2nd and 3rd best teams in Tennessee in Indy twice each.

I'm not going to get into match-ups. You've read enough over the past two weeks in every newspaper and magazine across the country about the Panthers front-4 against the Pats O-Line. About the Pats 8-man front vs. Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster. Muhsin Muhammad vs. Tyrone Poole. Yada Yada Yada. The one stat I'll throw out is this one - in a game where I expect neither team to find much running room, consider that behind the leading receiving duo of Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad, the Panthers 3rd and 4th leading receivers excluding backs have 27 and 17 catches respectively. The Patriots 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th leading receivers sans tailbacks have 40, 38, 28, and 16 receptions respectively. This is a huge depth advantage for the Charlie Weis offense should both of these teams find the running game tough goings.

I'll conclude by repeating myself. As I wrote before the Pats first playoff game and reiterated in my column prior to the Colts game, the Tennessee Titans were the biggest hurdle standing between the Patriots and their 2nd world championship. After rather comfortably defeating a then white-hot Colts team, these words still hold true. There is no question in my mind that the Tennessee Titans are still the least favorable match-up in the NFL for the Patriots, and they are comfortably in the rear view mirror.

Does this mean the Patriots will therefore beat the Panthers? Of course not. The Patriots are a team who knows full well that if they don't put 100% effort into their preparation and execution, they could lose in Arizona to the Cardinals. Even with two teams in their wake arguably more formidable than the NFC Champs, the Pats are not about to rest on their laurels.

Following an 11 a.m. Saturday showing of "Dora the Explorer Live" at the Wang Center, I'm off to Houston. Section 118 to the right of the goal posts to be exact. I expect a very close and hard fought game, and as far as predictions, I defer to my 5-year old Alyson and 3-year old Colleen. If Clint III could talk he'd say the same thing. The Patriots will win. The Patriots always win, Daddy.

See you next week, and Go Pats!