CAN'T OUTRUN THE TRUTH

By Michael Parente

The Patriots won for just the fourth time on the road last weekend when they crushed Baltimore, 41-7, and, believe it or not, it might've been one of the most important road wins of the Bill Belichick era. 

---

We still don’t know just how big this one was yet, because the final chapter of this season has yet to be written, but, rest assured, it was big. John Candy big. And the best part is it has the chance to be even bigger depending on how the postseason plays out.

---

---

Until this past Sunday, the New England Patriots had yet to win a vital road game all year. Their only road wins were in Tampa, Atlanta and Houston, none of whom will be in the playoffs this season or post a winning record, for that matter, and even that last one against the Texans was a bit dicey with the Patriots needing two 53-yard field goals in the fourth quarter from Stephen Gostkowski to narrowly dodge the upset.

Following yet another disaster away from home, this time in Miami, the Patriots boarded the team charter last weekend and took their 3-4 road record to Baltimore, where the Ravens were not only 6-1 at home, but had won their last four games, putting together the kind of late-season win streak reminiscent of last year’s playoff run that resulted in a Super Bowl title.

Not only did the Patriots win, they won big, thumping the Ravens, 41-7, maintaining their spot as the No. 2 seed in the AFC, silencing the critics and momentarily putting Baltimore’s playoff hopes on ice. It was the kind of win reminiscent of the halcyon days of the pre-dynasty era when people didn’t just assume the Patriots would win by simply showing up, the kind of win that left you shaking your head thinking, “Not these guys again.”

It was, dare we say, one of the biggest road wins of the Bill Belichick era, including the playoffs. Go ahead and refute it. The fact is the Patriots have lived a charmed life in the postseason, often playing at home as a No. 1 or 2 seed due to their superfluous regular-season success.

Under Belichick’s guidance, the Patriots haven’t had their backs against the wall too many times on the road, but, when they have, there have been times they’ve come through swimmingly, and last week’s beatdown in Baltimore was one of the best – perhaps even good enough for a spot among Belichick’s all-time Top 10. 

You automatically have to reserve two spots for Belichick’s only two road playoff wins as New England’s head coach – the 2001 AFC Championship in Pittsburgh and the thrilling, come-from-behind win at San Diego in the 2006 AFC Divisional Playoffs. Depending on how you rank them, which Belichick hates to do, by the way, these might be Nos. 1 and 2 on most lists.

As good as the “Snow Bowl” was – the game that introduced us all to the “Tuck Rule” – New England’s 24-17 win over the Steelers in the 2001 conference championship was the real start of the dynasty. Pittsburgh was the No. 1 seed that year and head coach Bill Cowher was already telling his players to get their Super Bowl ticket requests, reservations, etc., out of the way before the game had even been played. The Patriots won it on two special teams’ touchdowns courtesy of a blocked field goal and punt return and rallied behind Drew Bledsoe, who relieved an injured Tom Brady at the end of the first half, to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in five years.

They faced a similar tall task in San Diego in 2006, traveling west to face a 14-2 team also ranked No. 1 in the AFC with 11 Pro Bowlers on its roster. The Patriots trailed by eight in the closing minutes and appeared all but finished when Brady threw his third interception of the game to Marlon McCree, but as McCree tried to make a play on the return instead of just falling to the ground and letting his offense run out the clock, wide receiver Troy Brown – the intended target on Brady’s pass – reached in from behind and poked the ball loose. The Patriots recovered, scored to tie the game and then won it on Gostkowski’s game-winning field goal with 1:01 to go. It might’ve been the most improbably playoff win by any team in NFL history and quite possibly the most impressive road win in franchise history depending on how you stack it up against the ’01 AFC title game.

It all comes down to preference. When making a list like this, it’s imperative to rank games based on importance, not style points. For example, where does a game like the Patriots’ 12-9 overtime win at Buffalo in December of 2001 rank on this list? The Patriots won that one courtesy of an obscure rule in which unconscious receiver David Patten was deemed out of bounds with possession of the ball he had fumbled because the ball was resting under his leg while his head straddled the white line. This was the kind of improbable win that made people believe this Patriots’ team had that special something that might wind up with a fairytale ending. They were right.

Or what about the overtime win in Miami in 2003 when the Patriots took advantage of two missed field goals by the usually-reliable Olindo Mare and scored the game-winner on an 82-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Brown? That was their first win in Miami in either September or October in 13 tries, a skid that lasted nearly two decades. Or how about the epic goal-line stand in Indianapolis in 2003 when the Patriots stuffed the high-powered Colts four times from the 2-yard line in the closing seconds to preserve a 38-34 win? Asked if he was surprised with how his team won the game, then-Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson summed it up best: “Are you guys surprised? With this team?

The real trick here is emphasizing the importance and relevance of some of the Patriots’ road wins during their perfect season in 2007. Granted, they were never in danger of losing out on a playoff berth or the No. 1 seed in the AFC, but they faced their share of tests and passed them all, including a close-knit, 27-24 win in Baltimore on Monday Night Football in which they won it on a touchdown pass from Brady to Jabar Gaffney with 44 seconds remaining. The win that made history and clinched the 16-0 season was equally impressive as the Patriots battled tooth-and-nail with the Giants, who had also already clinched a playoff berth and were simply playing for pride, and rallied for a 38-35 win at the Meadowlands.

There are others worth discussing, too, that might not stand out quite as much, such as the 30-26 come-from-behind win at Denver in 2003 in which Belichick gambled by taking an intentional safety to avoid poor field position late in the fourth quarter and set up Brady’s game-winning touchdown pass to David Givens. The year before that, a season in which the Patriots failed to make the playoffs, they rekindled some of their late-game magic by rallying from a three-touchdown deficit to stun the Bears, 33-30, at their temporary home in Champaign, Ill. Not to be outdone, the Patriots crushed the Steelers, 39-26, in November of 2010 in a marquee match-up between two 6-2 teams vying for bragging rights in the AFC – another Brady showcase with the two-time MVP throwing three touchdown passes and rushing for one as well.

That’s 10 big road wins, not including last weekend’s game in Baltimore, and there’s not much else to choose from on the Belichick highlight reel unless you’re partial to the lopsided blowouts in 2007. Believe it or not – and it’s a hard one to believe given how schizophrenic this year’s team has been – last weekend’s win at Baltimore might be talked about for quite some time as one of Belichick and Brady’s finest hours, another notch in the belt for a coach-quarterback duo that has consistently defied the odds through the years. If the Patriots pull off the not-so-unthinkable and win a fourth Super Bowl this year, we may look back on last Sunday as the turning point. It all depends on how this final scene unfolds.