FOXBORO, Mass. — Even after beating the Denver Broncos in November, the New England Patriots are preparing for the AFC Championship Game as underdogs.
The Patriots are fully embracing that role and it starts with quarterback Tom Brady, who acknowledged that the team will be going into Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver as underdogs. He said that head coach Bill Belichick will make the team aware when no one has picked them to win. That will likely be the case again this week.
“If Tom’s gonna embrace it, I’m gonna embrace it,” running back LeGarrette Blount said on Monday afternoon. “That’s the leader of this team. If that’s how he feels, I’m sure how most of the guys out here feel.”
It does seem a bit odd that a 12-4 team will be playing the “nobody believes in us” card. But after losing starting tight end Rob Gronkowski, linebackers Brandon Spikes and Jerod Mayo, defensive tackles Vince Wilfork and Tommy Kelly and offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer for the season, it makes sense that the Patriots are not favored, despite beating the Broncos 34-31 less than two months ago.
“I like to think that way,” wide receiver Danny Amendola said. “We play with a chip on our shoulder. We like to play that way. It’s just our mentality. We don’t think any different.”
It helps that the team is full of underdogs. Among starters, Blount, Amendola, fullback James Develin, wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins, guard Dan Connolly, center Ryan Wendell, defensive tackle Sealver Siliga and linebacker Dane Fletcher were all undrafted. Wide receiver Julian Edelman and cornerback Alfonzo Dennard were seventh-round picks and defensive end Rob Ninkovich and defensive tackle Chris Jones were castoffs before coming to New England.
That Brady guy wasn’t very highly thought of coming out of Michigan, either, as a sixth-round pick. And believe it or not, he still feeds off that even after being acknowledged as one of the best signal-callers of all time.
The “nobody believes in us” card can be a powerful one. The Patriots have fed off it before, but they haven’t been underdogs in the playoffs since 2006. It didn’t work out so well that year when they lost to Peyton Manning‘s Indianapolis Colts.
But this team is built a little differently. That 2006 team was one year removed from three Super Bowl titles in four years. Now the Patriots are 10 years removed from their last championship.
“The adversity comes up and you just have to build off of it,” safety Steve Gregory said. You have to build character, things like that. Guys stepping up, understanding the situations that you’re in. Really just us going out on game day with who we have and finding a way to win football games. That’s what we’re going to have to do this week.”
Players have marveled all season about how mentally tough their team is. Through all the comeback wins and injuries, they still emerged 12-4 and with a playoff win. That would be good enough for most teams to end on after losing six starters, so now the Patriots will need to find an extra gear to get to the Super Bowl. If they need one, they have the highest odds to win the Super Bowl of the four remaining teams.
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