Four Times Patriots Made Teams Look Foolish Off Bulletin-Board Material

The Patriots dynasty will go down as one of the best in sports history, and it included plenty of naysayers.

That's only natural given the 20-year dominance New England experienced, and there certainly are too many to count. We're going to dive into four, but before that, let's get into the criteria.

We're specifically looking at a person from another team who said something that would motivate the Patriots in the next game. So the league doubting Tom Brady and letting him fall into the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft doesn't count. We're also not including Bill Belichick's "We're onto Cincinnati" quote. In fairness to the Bengals, they didn't exactly say anything heading into the 2014 Week 5 matchup. It was more other fans and media overreacting to New England's blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs the previous week that could be argued motivated the Patriots.

With those caveats out of the way, let's get into the list.

Week 14, 2007 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
The Patriots were 12-0 when they took on the 9-3 Steelers at Gillette Stadium in 2007. Amid the Spygate debacle, New England's offense took the NFL by storm, and it seemed like no one could beat the Patriots. Pittsburgh safety Anthony Smith had other ideas when he guaranteed his team would win the Week 14 matchup.

"I didn't know who he was until we started preparing for them," Tom Brady said ahead of the game, per The State Journal-Register. "He's a young player. It's obvious there's guys on that team that we've played in the past that we really respect on that team -- Deshea (Townsend), Troy (Polamalu), Aaron Smith, Casey (Hampton). Those guys aren't the ones that say it."

New England's undefeated season nearly came to an end a week prior against the Baltimore Ravens, but Smith's comments proved to be enough to dominate the Steelers 34-13 And it only felt right that a Brady-Randy Moss double pass ended with Jabar Gaffney catching Brady's pass with Smith in coverage.

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Super Bowl LI vs. Atlanta Falcons
We have two cases of bulletin-board material here. This was the season the NFL implemented its ruling on Deflategate, and Brady was suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season. The Patriots went 3-1 with Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett, and New England dominated with an 11-1 record the rest of the regular season.

Falcons running back Devonta Freeman decided to add fuel to the fire the Patriots played with and made a bold claim about his team.

"We can do whatever we want," Freeman said, per Pro Football Talk.

He added the Patriots defense would have to "pick your poison" on who to stop. And Atlanta certainly proved that in the first two quarters and a half of Super Bowl LI when it went up 28-3. Of course, as Patriots fans continue to meme since then, New England erased the deficit and won in overtime to complete the largest Super Bowl comeback in history -- Lily Tomlin and Sally Field may or may not have played a role.

AFC Championship 2018 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Here we go again. The Jaguars were feeling themselves in the 2017 season. Blake Bortles played well enough to guide a dominant Jacksonville defense to the conference championship, and the Jaguars' young core looked primed to be the foundation of a revival for the franchise. That led Jalen Ramsey to proclaim before the game, "We're going to the Super Bowl, and we're going to win."

New England brushed it off, and Jacksonville did put up a fight. However, a controversial Myles Jack play and playoff Danny Amendola led the Patriots to another Super Bowl appearance. They lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, but the Patriots effectively ended what could have been a new boom period for Jacksonville since it never got close to the conference title game after its loss.

Super Bowl LII vs. Los Angeles Rams
Two weeks in between the conference title games and the Super Bowl is a long wait, but opponents still haven't learned to not poke the bear.

"It’s an honor, honestly,” Rams safety John Johnson told TheRams.com, per 98.5 The Sports Hub. "He's an all-time great. He's been to the Super Bowl what, nine times? He's beatable, though. We just can’t go in there with a mindset of 'Oh, it's Tom Brady.' Like, he's definitely beatable. So we're going to go in there and give him a go."

Yes, Johnson praised Brady, but NFL fans learned Brady could use anything as motivation and even a small word could get him going. The Patriots beat the Rams, 13-3, and earned their sixth Super Bowl title.