FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots have 22 reasons to be confident heading into Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
That was the margin of victory just two short months ago in the Patriots’ 42-20 Week 11 shellacking of the Indianapolis Colts. And it was in the Colts’ friendly confines of Lucas Oil Stadium.
The Patriots have beat Andrew Luck and the Colts in their last three meetings, including two in the 2014 calendar year, so the Patriots certainly won’t lack confidence. But could overconfidence be a problem?
“That’s an older guy question,” linebacker Dont’a Hightower said Friday. “That confidence is definitely something that you want to have no matter what you do. But being over-confident can sometimes bite you in the butt. Being confident, you still got to respect your opponent at the same time. I guess it can go either way.”
Fortunately, an older guy was next at the podium.
“I think overconfidence is not preparing,” safety captain Devin McCourty said. “I think if you prepare, I think you give yourself the right and the chance to be confident going in there. I think if you don’t prepare, you try to fool yourself with being overconfident. That’s not something I really worry about with this team. We have a blue collar team and it starts with our quarterback (Tom Brady).
“There’s been plenty of games that we’ve played away on the road and on the plane after a win, and as everyone is up walking around, he’s in his seat watching film. It starts there and it trickles down throughout this whole team. I think this game, being the biggest game of the year, we’ve gone over everything as a group, talked about everything. I think that gives us the opportunity to be confident going into the game.”
Having Bill Belichick as a head coach helps, too. Belichick prepares his players through various methods, including giving pop quizzes as he passes them in the halls of Gillette Stadium.
“I mean, we’ve all gotten caught,” McCourty said. “Some of the questions he asks you, you don’t even think about it. I mean it usually results in us being very prepared at the end of the week when you start your week that way with a bunch of questions. Yeah, I’ve gotten caught multiple times.
“It could be anything. I mean Bill knows everything about a team, from personnel to the coaching staff, the players, everything. By the end of the week we usually know it, too.”
McCourty certainly doesn’t lack confidence when it comes to knowledge of opponents. When asked how he would fare in a “Jeopardy!” style game among his teammates, the safety said he “would probably be the best.”
Thumbnail photo via Darron Cummings/The Associated Press
