Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots July 5, 2018 - Super Bowl 38 Revisited

Episode Date: July 5, 2018

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Yeah, you have a little bit more confidence when they've done it before. And the offense was better, the defense was better. This was a much better team than what the Patriots had in 2001. I'm Mark Schofield with Locked On Patriots. Super Bowl XXXVIII pitted the Carolina Panthers against the New England Patriots. For the Panthers, it was an impressive turnaround from one year prior. After going 1-15 the previous season, the Panthers finished 11-5 and advanced to the Super Bowl. For the New England Patriots, this was a chance to win two out

of three Super Bowls, having emerged victorious two years prior over the St. Louis Rams. The game started rather slowly. Neither team got on the board in the first quarter, but they combined for 24 points in an exciting second quarter, with the Patriots headed to halftime with a 14-10 lead. The halftime show would be memorable as well with a rather infamous incident between Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. The teams came out for the third quarter and again it was a scoreless quarter. They headed to the fourth quarter again with the Patriots holding a 14-10 lead. But that simply set the stage for an exciting and thrilling final frame in Super Bowl 38. And it was the Patriots who got on the board first

in that fourth quarter on a short touchdown run. In his seventh season out of the University of Houston, that's a popular touchdown in the stadium. Smith's touchdown plunge gave the Patriots a 21-12 lead, but we were just getting started here in the fourth quarter. On their ensuing possession, the Carolina Panthers will cut into that lead thanks to an impressive touchdown run from Deshaun Foster. Deshaun Foster, Foster breaks through, 30, still on his feet 20 10 5 touchdown that touchdown is so reminiscent of a touchdown he scored in the afc championship game against

the eagles where he looked like he had nowhere to go. Well, we talked about these two runners, Steven Davis and Deshaun Foster. They always don't need really good blocking up front to make big plays. Foster's touchdown run to the left edge, complete with a couple of broken tackles and an iconic dive into the end zone, cut the New England lead to 21-16. Carolina attempted a two-point conversion, but that attempt failed. But the game was on. Yeah, no doubt. They definitely feel like they're right there in it. That touchdown was definitely a big momentum.

They didn't get the two, but they're still within five. So to be within one possession in the final quarter with a team that just won the Super Bowl a couple of years prior, they obviously had to be feeling pretty good about themselves. That's Bill Resetti, the host of Locked On Panthers. As Bill tells it, momentum was on Carolina's side at this point. They cut the lead to five, they were feeling good on the sideline, and they were about to feel intercepted in the end zone. Reggie Howard. Back out to the 10-yard line.

Brady attempts a pass under pressure off his back foot, and it's intercepted and returned to the New England 10-yard line. If you thought the Panthers had momentum now, just wait a few seconds in 85 yards. Deshaun Foster in the backfield. Third and 10 for the Panthers had momentum now just to wait a few seconds in 85 yards. Sean Foster in the backfield, third and 10 for the Panthers. Play fake, Gallon pulls it down, looking, looking, going to go deep, has his man right over this, Muhammad, Muhammad to the 15, 10-yard touchdown strike from Jake DeLome to Mushin Muhammad gave the Panthers a 22-21 lead. Their two-point conversion try failed, but here the Panthers had all the momentum and they had the lead. It would set the stage for an incredible

final few minutes. And for Bill Rossetti, this was the moment when the Panthers could truly believe that the game could be theirs. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. To get a long touchdown pass like that to Muhammad after the interception in the end zone, know you get you tell the panthers are just ecstatic they're feeling they're going to win this thing the panthers are or the patriots are looking a little flat right now so yeah it's all it was all panthers at this point with not a whole lot of time left but like so many times before and so many times since, Tom Brady and the New England offense responded. And they got into the end zone with perhaps one of the most unlikely receivers in Super Bowl history. Brady's short touchdown strike to linebacker Mike Vrabel gave New England a 25-22 lead with just under three minutes remaining in Super Bowl 38. New England wanted to tack on the two

point conversion to make it a seven point game and they did just that turning to running back Kevin Falk. So now Brady and the Patriots go for two. Falk with the direct snap. Got the two-point conversion. Kevin Falk's two-point conversion gave New England a 29-22 lead late in Super Bowl 38. There's more to come on this thrilling Carolina Panthers-New England Patriots Super Bowl. For Bill Rossetti and the Panthers fans and players themselves, this was a big turning point in the game. And you could tell just by looking at the Panthers' sideline that they knew it too.

Yeah, really. I mean, there was still some time left. The Panthers had enough time to get the ball back and make a move on their own. But, yeah, I mean, the way the Patriots drove on that drive definitely sucked a little bit of momentum out of the Panthers. Because you could tell, you saw DeLone was a little dejected on the sideline after that touchdown, but there was still time Panthers still had their shot, so by no means were they out of this and by no means were the Carolina Panthers out of Super Bowl 38 at all

just a few minutes later, a familiar face to Patriots fans struck again late in a Super Bowl. Ricky Prohl strikes again. Prohl, who caught a touchdown pass for the St. Louis Rams against the New England Patriots late in Super Bowl XXXVI, here catches a 12-yard pass from Jake DeLome, and with the extra point, Super Bowl XXXVIII was tied at 29-29 with just 1 minute and 8 seconds remaining. For the Panthers and their fans, now was the time to think about overtime and potentially

putting this game away in an extra session. Yeah, just overjoyed to tie the game with a minute to go. You're pretty much thinking this game is going to go to overtime, because it wasn't quite, I mean, we'd see Brady do some of his heroics, but it wasn't quite at the point where we're just saying, oh, they left Brady too much time on the clock. So everyone's thinking this game's likely going to overtime with just a minute to go, and it almost did. But on the other side, Patriots fans like Rich Hill,

the managing editor from Pat's Pulpit, were feeling pretty confident about what they had seen from this team and this offense. Yeah, you have a little bit more confidence when they've done it before. And the offense was better, the defense was better. This was a much better team than what the Patriots had in 2001, top to bottom, and you could rely on them to get it done. Up next, the thrilling conclusion to Super Bowl 38. The next play of Super Bowl 38 was the ensuing kickoff, and as it would turn out, it was perhaps the most pivotal play of the entire game. Well, Casey picked the wrong time to come up with a kick that goes out of bounds because the Patriots are now set up at their own 40-yard line, all three timeouts, and 68 seconds on the clock to get Adam Vinatieri into field goal range. Yeah, and it all comes back.

Those are the hidden plays that really go and affect the team's odds of winning a Super Bowl because these are the best plays that really go and affect the team's odds of winning a Super Bowl because these are the best teams in the league in the Super Bowl. And so if you give them such a favorable field position at that 40-yard line, they need, what, 25 yards in order to get into field goal range? And so that's just free points for the other team. And we kind of saw how that took place in the 2007-2008 Super Bowl with the Patriots and the Giants when Gostkowski did that.

So the little yards are what Bill Belichick always hypes on. And making sure that the Patriots have the best coverage unit in football on special teams, making sure that they always make the right decision returning the ball to to maximize their potential yardage to start the drive it's all about field position and so getting the ball in the 40 yard line that's probably one of the key uh key plays of the game in belichick's opinion oh that was that's a killer that's an absolute killer because now all of a sudden you know patriots only need a field goal so really you only have to drive about 30-some-odd yards to get in field goal range because

we know Vinatieri has a boot. So yeah, to give the ball to Brady and the Patriots at their own 40 was just devastating. All the excitement that they had on that last touchdown seemed to just evaporate on that ensuing kickoff. New England still needed to get into field goal range, but the yards did not come easy. Facing a first and 10 on their own 40-yard line, Tom Brady's pass on first down fell incomplete, intended for Deion Branch.

On second down, Brady hit wide receiver Troy Brown for a 13-yard gain, which gave the Patriots a first and10 at the Carolina 47-yard line. They took their first timeout, and on the next play, Troy Brown was flagged for pass interference. That penalty pushed the ball back to the New England 43-yard line. Facing a 1st-and-20, Brady hit Troy Brown for a 13-yard gain. On second and seven, Brady hit tight end Daniel Graham for a four-yard gain. That set up a climactic third and three situation.

The Patriots with the football on the Carolina 40-yard line. Only 14 seconds remained. It's Super Bowl 38. Inside the 25-yard line, Deion Branch made the catch. And timeout is called with eight seconds on the clock. The Patriots run a smash concept with one receiver in the flat and another receiver, Deion Branch, deep along the sideline. Both receivers are open, but Brady takes the deeper throw. The completion gives the Patriots a first and ten on the Panthers' 25-yard line. They are now well within field goal range for Adam Vinatieri,

something that both Bill Ricetti and Rich Hill recognize. Yeah, because they definitely weren't in field goal range, so it was a huge third-down stop or a huge third-down opportunity. Like you said, the Panthers, if they get it, you're probably looking at it all the time because there wasn't a whole lot of time left, and the Patriots probably weren't going to go for it on fourth down they would have probably just punted it tried to pin the Panthers deep and just play for overtime at that point oh it was the same reaction as seeing the the Troy Brown grab against the Rams you know it was it was

a beautiful pass it was the big field flipper that you needed to see. And, I mean, he was streaking down the field. Deion Branch was on fire that game. He was truly playing out of his mind. And it was an all-time great performance. He was going toe-to-toe out there. But I was just shocked that he was able to – he was open. open he was so open there was no one with outside leverage on him and he was like so far away from the sideline that something must have either like the panthers were playing sloppy at that point in the game they were just tired but it was just such

a clean throw and catch at that stage in the game that it felt like the patriot it was a sign that the patriots are going to win right it was just was just, it was, you know, late against the Falcons when Tom Brady was finding Danny Amendola towards that sideline and overtime, I think it was the very first play. Right. When he found him and it was just, you could tell the Falcons were a step behind the Patriots. You could see that Tom Brady and Amendola were just so on point. It was just a signal that there's no way that the defense would be able to stop the offense in this situation, and that's what I got from it.

On to the field came Adam Vinatieri. Adam Vinatieri's Super Bowl 38 performance was not exactly a clean one. He missed a 31-yard try in the first quarter, and a 36-yard try in the second quarter was blocked. But as Vinatieri lined up, Patriots fans thought back to the game in the snow two years prior. They thought back to the end of Super Bowl 36 against the Rams, and they had faith that Vinatieri would be true on this kick. Looking for a second Super Bowl title in three years from 41 yards. Looks good. Vinatieri's kick was good. And the Patriots took a 32-29 lead with just seconds remaining on the ensuing kickoffs

The Panthers could not advance the football and Super Bowl 38 was finally over The Patriots had won their second in three years and as Bill Resetti notes You could start to see the beginning of a Brady led dynasty Yeah, it's just a back-and-forth battle. Really, it's one of the better Super Bowls that we've had in history. You know, we just had the one, you know, Super Bowl 51 was the first to go to overtime,

but this one nearly was the first. You know, people tend to forget how exciting and how back-and-forth that this game actually was. I mean, like we said, this game was tied at 29, and this was an up-and-coming Panthers team. It was only John Fox's second year as coach, and he takes them all the way in two years, takes them from 1-15 to the Super Bowl,

and here they are, tied with the Patriots, who had just won the Super Bowl two years prior, tied with the Patriots with just over a minute left, and if it wasn't for that kickoff out of bounds, who knows what would have happened if Brady would have pulled off one of his heroics again or if the Panthers would have stopped it. Because that was a good defense. Even Julius Peppers was still on that team, and there was a lot of good players. So this was kind of like sort of a David versus Goliath feeling,

but just wasn't enough. They just didn't have enough magic in them, I guess. Yeah, definitely. I mean, you're talking two out of three years now that Brady leads the Patriots in the field goal range and then Terry comes out and kicks the game-winning field goal for them and wins them another Super Bowl. I mean, not many quarterbacks can say they've been able to do it even once in the Super Bowl,

let alone twice, and in such a short time frame like Brady did. I want to thank my two great guests, Rich Hill, the managing editor of Pat's Pulpit. Again, you can follow Rich on Twitter at PP underscore Rich underscore Hill. And Bill Rossetti, who is the host of Locked On Panthers here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Please follow Bill. You can find him on Twitter at Bill underscore Rossetti, R-I-C-C-E-T-T-E.

That will do it for this week of the Locked On Patriots podcast. I will be back with the final episode That will do it for this week of the Locked On Patriots podcast. I will be back with the final episode of this look back at the five Super Bowl victories. Taking a look at the first one, Super Bowl 36. Rich Hill will be with me again, as will the one and only Matt Waldwin. As Matt and I take you through Brady's first late game touchdown drive in a Super Bowl. Until we meet again, everybody, keep it locked right here to me,

Mark Schofield, in Locked on Patreon.