Jason McCourty: Patriots have ‘found ways to win’ all season long, give them their flowers
The Patriots’ path to Super Bowl 60 has been criticized for a number of reasons whether it was their strength of schedule that got them into the playoffs or injuries other teams have faced leading up to the games.
“We keep coming up with excuse after excuse about this New England Patriots team,” former Patriots cornerback and Super Bowl champion Jason McCourty said on “First Take.” “But the fact of the matter is this is a football team that has a first-year head coach with the New England Patriots and has a quarterback in their second year, spent the most money in free agency this past offseason. So that’s a ton of new guys to build chemistry with.”
The Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC Wild Card round before claiming victory over the Houston Texans — a team that boasted the NFL’s top defense — in the AFC Division game. While the Denver Broncos were without starting quarterback Bo Nix and had to go with Jarrett Stidham in the AFC Championship Game, Denver had plenty of opportunities to win the game.
Both teams had missed field goals, and Broncos coach Sean Payton elected to go for it on 4th-and-1 rather than kick a field goal to try to go up 10-0 in the 10-7 loss to New England.
“All they’ve done all season long was find ways to win,” McCourty said.
The Seattle Seahawks will pose a tall task for New England. Sam Darnold has played well all year, has three strong offensive weapons in Jaxson Smith-Njigba and Kenneth Walker, while the defense amassed 47 sacks in the regular season.
But the Patriots defense has come up big for New England throughout the playoffs, including intercepting Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud four times in the first half of the division round before Christian Gonzalez played his interception of Stidham perfectly to help seal the title game win.
Drake Maye also used his legs to make smart plays against the Broncos.
“The Patriots found a way. Whether it was Drake Maye running the ball, whether it was a flea flicker in this type of weather to come up with a big play. They found a way to win,” McCourty said. “They didn’t turn the ball over. They didn’t make the mistakes that the Denver Broncos did.”
Looking ahead to the Patriots’ Super Bowl matchup, McCourty said while Darnold had a strong game against the Los Angeles Rams, he won’t be pressured the way he will be against New England.
“I do think we’re sleeping on this team for so many different reasons and trying to find ways to not give them their flowers,” McCourty said. “Because this is a team that won eight games over the prior two seasons and in one year they’ve completely turned the franchise around, won the division, a division in which we all believed Buffalo was going to be on top.
“So this is a team that I think shouldn’t be slept on.”
