Patriots no longer playing underdog role

FOXBORO, Mass. -- Two years after their only Super Bowl victory, the New England Patriots are heavy favorites with an established quarterback and little controversy.

How things have changed.

The Patriots engineered one of the game's biggest upsets in 2002, beating the St. Louis Rams and an offense known as the "Greatest Show on Turf" 20-17 on Adam Vinatieri's 48-yard field goal as time expired.

Tom Brady led New England on a methodical drive to set up the game-winner and earn Super Bowl MVP honors, capping a season that he started as the backup to Drew Bledsoe.

"That first year, that first Super Bowl, I don't know what the heck was going on," Brady said this week after the Patriots won their second AFC title in three years and earned the right to play the Carolina Panthers in Houston on Feb. 1.

"I mean, from the first game I started right on through, so much had changed. And to really realize and put things in perspective is hard to do because I was figuring, 'Oh, yeah, this is kind of what I expected to happen."'

If Brady expected it, he was the only one.

After going 5-11 in 2000, the Patriots had a rough start to the next season.

Quarterbacks coach Dick Rehbein, 45, died of heart failure in training camp. Wide receiver Terry Glenn missed most of the season because of injuries and suspensions. The Patriots lost their first two games; Bledsoe was knocked out of the second one with a hit that filled his chest with blood.

Brady, a sixth-round draft pick who jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 on the depth chart in training camp, came in and helped New England improve to 5-5 by the time Bledsoe was ready to return. Coach Bill Belichick went against conventional wisdom and kept Brady as his starter.

And when the Patriots won the last six games of the regular season, Belichick was rewarded.

In their first playoff game, a sloppy, snowy affair that was the finale for the old Foxboro Stadium, Brady appeared to doom New England's chances when he coughed the ball up late against the Oakland Raiders. But referee Walt Coleman invoked the now-infamous "Tuck Rule" and declared the play an incomplete pass instead of a fumble.

Brady led the Patriots into position for Vinatieri's 45-yarder that sent the game into overtime. Once there, Vinatieri kicked a 23-yarder to win it.

The outcome did little to convince the Raiders they lost to a better team. Pittsburgh would leave the AFC championship game feeling the same way.

Brady hurt his ankle in the first half, and this time it was Bledsoe who came on in relief to lead the Patriots. Troy Brown scored two touchdowns on special teams in a 24-17 victory that sent New England to the Super Bowl.

When the Patriots arrived in New Orleans, no one knew how seriously Brady was hurt or whether Bledsoe would get his starting job back. It wasn't until the Wednesday before the game that Belichick announced he would go with Brady.

The Rams were 14-point favorites, and New England was supposed to be overmatched against the team that won the Super Bowl two years earlier. Brady was in his second year, with less than a full season of starting behind him; Rams quarterback Kurt Warner was the Super Bowl MVP in 2000.

But the Patriots' defense forced three turnovers and turned them into two touchdowns and a field goal. The only other score they needed was Vinatieri's game-winner.

This year, it is New England that goes into the game as the betting favorite. The Patriots -- behind their Super Bowl MVP from two years earlier -- are riding a 14-game winning streak and facing an upstart team with an untested quarterback who came into the season as a backup.

"I see the same things," said Panthers tight end Jermaine Wiggins, who was with the Patriots two years ago. "Everybody's already saying, 'Carolina Who?' It's all about New England, New England."

But Belichick refused to get caught up in the comparison. Asked about the similarity between Carolina this year and the Patriots from 2002, he pointed to the only one that mattered.

"They won a lot of games and they are in the Super Bowl," he said, "so I guess you could start there."