When historians look back on the 2018 NFL season and examine the New England Patriots, they won’t find the league’s most-talented team, its hottest at the end of the season, or even its winningest overall. New England might have emerged on top of the football scrapheap to claim another championship, but they did so more through sheer will, teamwork, and gameplan execution than anything else.
Make no mistake – the Patriots are an excellent football team from top to bottom. But even compared to the other five Super Bowl-winning squads, this current roster feels a little patchwork. There’s a reason why the team adopted an underdog, “us-against-the-world” mentality during the postseason, feeding off criticism, doubts, and widespread public perception that they didn’t have what it takes to win a title.