The Patriots have the best record, the most points and the MVP frontrunner under center. Sound familiar?
In 2007, New England was undefeated and set single-season records for points and point differential.
Although this year’s team has not been able to sustain its dominance on a weekly basis like in 2007 (losing 34-14 to the Browns in Week 9 was mind-boggling), these past two games may be more impressive than any back-to-back wins during the Patriots’ run to the NFL’s first 16-0 regular season.
New England has defeated two 9-4 teams by a score of 81-10 the previous two weeks.
Entering their Week 13 Monday night matchup, the Jets had won nine of the previous 10 games, were tied for the AFC East lead, and had an early-season win over the Patriots already under their belt.
But the highly anticipated battle for division supremacy turned out to be a 45-3 drubbing at the Jets’ expense in which New England amassed 405 total yards against the NFL’s third-best defense.
The league’s most impressive, decisive victory of the season was only matched by what the Patriots did for an encore on Sunday.
New England faced another stout defense. The Bears recorded three second-half interceptions against Brett Favre, shut out the Dolphins and forced a red-hot Michael Vick into his first interception of the season during a five-game winning streak entering Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
But Chicago’s top-10 ranked defense — and the snowy, windy conditions — weren’t able to slow Tom Brady & Co. The Patriots raced to a 33-0 halftime lead and Brady finished with a season-high 369 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also didn’t throw an interception for an eighth straight game.
The Patriots — averaging 39.2 points during a five-game winning streak over the Steelers, Colts, Lions, Jets and Bears — are starting to resemble the most dominant regular season team in NFL history.
But as the 2007 team knows, all that matters is how you finish.
