Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 3, 2017 - Super Bowl XXXVIII Revisited

Episode Date: November 3, 2017

Mark Schofield revisits Super Bowl XXXVIII with Bill Riccette and Rich Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody, Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. And I just wanted to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our great friends at mybookie.ag. 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. From the two, right side, touchdown Antoine Smith! 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 would 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. You know, that touchdown was definitely a big momentum.

You know, they didn't get the two, but they're still within five. So to be within one possession in the final quarter with, you know, 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 even better at the end of New England's next offensive possession. Third and goal. Brady under pressure, throwing and it's 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. Play fake. Ballon pulls it down. Looking. Looking. Going to go deep. Has his man right over this. Muhammad. Muhammad to the 15, 10, 5 touchdown. The 85-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, you know, you tell the Panthers are just ecstatic. They're feeling they're going to win this thing. The Patriots are looking a little flat right now. So, yeah, 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. Turned to running back 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. Before we dive into that, I want to remind all the listeners about the great opportunity in front of you through mybookie.ag. Ever since I started hosting Locked On Patriots, and truly before that when I first started writing about football, people kept coming up to me asking for advice. Mark, who should I play this week?

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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. Made them a little, because you could tell, you saw Dillon 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 XXXVIII at all. Just a few minutes later, a familiar face to Patriots fans struck again late 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 one minute and eight 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's 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 were 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 thrill and 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 Super Bowl 38 was the ensuing kickoff, and 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 binatieri into field goal range yeah and you know it all comes back you know it's not like the those are the the hidden 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 – it's 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 goszkowski did that and so the 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 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 plays of the game in Belichick's opinion. That's a killer. That's an absolute killer because now all of a sudden 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 insulin 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 and 10 at the Carolina 47-yard line. They took their first time out 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 first 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. Brady looking at a third and three time throw has his man 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 overtime 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 Troy Brown grab against the Rams. You know, 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 deon branch was on fire that game he was he was truly playing out of his mind and uh it was an all-time great performance he was going toe-to-toe uh out there but he i was just shocked that he was able to it was just he was 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 Patriots, it was a sign that the Patriots were going to win. It was late against the Falcons when Tom Brady was finding Danny Amendola towards that sideline in overtime. I think it was the very first play. When he found him, you could tell the falcons were a step behind the patriots you can see that tom brady and amadola 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 onto the field came adam vinatieri adam vinatatieri'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 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 Rossetti notes, you could start to see the beginning of a brady-led dynasty yeah it's just a 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 with the coach or as coach and he takes them all the way in two years takes them from 1 and 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 vs. 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 into 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 rich 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 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 of this look back at the five Super Bowl victories, taking a look at the first one, Super Bowl XXXVI. 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, and Locked on Patriots. Thank you.