These Patriots feel a lot like Brady's 1st title-winning team
The New England Patriots made it to the Super Bowl on the back of some impressive defensive performances.
Their young quarterback, who had outperformed expectations by far in the regular season, wasn't quite himself in the playoffs. There were some nice plays in there, but overall, he hadn't looked like the confident, accurate passer he'd been all year.
I'm referring, of course, to the 2001 Patriots and Tom Brady.
Oh, you thought I meant this season and Drake Maye? We'll get to them in a moment, but first let's continue this nostalgic trip to the first of New England's Super Bowl victories.
The Patriots began their epic dominance of the AFC East in the 2001 season with Brady, then in his second year, replacing an injured Drew Bledsoe at quarterback.
Brady, 24, wasn't asked to do much, but he did enough for head coach Bill Belichick to stick with him once Bledsoe recovered. It was one of the most consequential coaching decisions in NFL history.
In his playoff debut, Brady threw for 352 yards against the Oakland Raiders, but on 52 attempts with an interception and no touchdowns. The Pats escaped the "tuck rule" game and what would have been a costly Brady fumble and won on an overtime field goal.
In the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Brady went out with an ankle injury in the second quarter with the Patriots trailing. Bledsoe came in and threw the only touchdown pass of the New England postseason to that point. The Pats also got a special teams touchdown and held on to win 24-17.
There wasn't really a quarterback controversy, but there was at least mild curiosity as to whether Belichick would go back to Bledsoe after his successful relief work.
And, well, you know the rest. Belichick's defense flummoxed the Greatest Show on Turf in the Super Bowl, and Brady won the first of his five Super Bowl MVP awards despite throwing for just 145 yards in the 20-17 victory over the Rams. (They had to give it to someone.)
Two things are true: Brady was well down the list of reasons why New England won that first championship, but it was also the platform from which he became the most accomplished passer in league history. He grew from a game manager into a master of all he surveyed, so good at reading defenses and making the correct throw that he did it long beyond the age at which anyone else had remained an elite quarterback.
Which brings us back to this year's Patriots and Drake Maye.
In his second NFL season, Maye is much different than a young Brady. He's a strong runner and an aggressive deep-ball thrower. He's already been a do-it-all quarterback - Josh Allen lite - in a way Brady never was. It took until Brady's eighth season before he threw for the yardage and touchdown numbers that Maye posted in 2025.
But in the playoffs, Maye's production has nosedived. His league-leading completion rate has dropped by almost 20 percentage points, his sack rate has doubled, and he's had more fumbles (six) than touchdown passes (four).
He's also 3-0 as a playoff starter, matching Brady's record from his second NFL campaign.
New England's postseason run fit nicely with a regular season in which it played few quality opponents. The Patriots outlasted the beaten-up, broken-down Los Angeles Chargers on Wild Card Weekend, then Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud went full Jake Delhomme with four first-half interceptions in the divisional round. The Pats had to go on the road for the AFC Championship Game, only to find career backup Jarrett Stidham awaiting them after Broncos starter Bo Nix suffered an untimely injury.
Maye couldn't do much in the air against Denver, but he was excellent on the ground, and that was enough for a grim 10-7 win in a blizzard. Stidham helped him out with with a horrific fumble and an ill-advised decision that led to an interception late.
The Pats could only beat the teams in front of them, but their playoff run has continued a year-long trend. They piled up a 14-3 regular-season record, which included 11 games against opponents that fired their head coach by season's end. And they got to play the New York Jets twice.
Does any of that make the Patriots unworthy opponents for the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl? It does not. Maye is due for a better game, and he will spend two weeks listening to a coaching staff that will urge him to get out of the pocket or get rid of the ball quickly instead of letting it collapse under pressure. He's still just 23, a baby in NFL terms. There's no shame in his early playoff wobbles.
And to the extent that history is any guide, 25 years ago a Pats team coming off a couple of scruffy playoff wins went into the season's final game against a favored opponent and walked away with the Lombardi Trophy.
The potential parallels are kind of freaky, if we're being honest.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.