We may be witnessing the best team ever assembled. I'm not saying this Patriots team will be the best statistically, but has another team ever been so balanced offensively and defensively? Lets start with the offense, the 1999 "Best Show on Turf" is considered the best championship offense, while the 1998 Vikings and 2004 Colts are considered the best offenses not to win a championship. The Rams skill players consisted of QB Kurt Warner, RB Marshall Faulk, WR Issac Bruce, WR Torry Holt, and WR Ricky Proehl. The Vikings had QB Randall Cunningham, RB Robert Smith, WR Randy Moss, WR Cris Carter and WR Jake Reed. The 2004 Colts had Peyton Manning (NFL record 49 TDs), Edgerin James, WR Marvin Harrison, WR Reggie Wayne and WR Brandon Stokley. None of these teams utilized a TE as a main offensive threat. The 2007 Patriots use QB Tom Brady (who is ahead of Manning's TD pace), RB Laurence Maroney, WR Randy Moss, WR Donte Stallworth, WR Wes Welker, as well as utilizing TE Ben Watson. With the loss of RB Sammy Morris for the season the Patriots running game is no match for the other offenses, however the passing game has had so much success that the running game has not been asked to carry the load. Over the years we have seen how offenses at all levels of football are evolving, many teams no longer use a traditional Fullback, some teams don't use a TE, many teams are using shotgun spread formations. The Patriots have taken pieces of everything that made those other offenses before them great and utilized them to form their juggernaut. While many teams run an offense, such as the West Coast offense, and they run it every week, Bill Belichick changes his offensive game plan every week to take advantage of whatever type of defense the Patriots are playing. This is extremely time consuming to both players and coaches to basically implement a "new" offense each week. Belichick has even gone as far as to have his O-Line use man blocking when they used power runner Sammy Morris (before he went on IR) and zone blocking for the quick cutting Laurence Maroney's plays. With so many offensive looks how can a team properly prepare for this Patriots offense in a week? Further more, while the Patriots offense might not be the best (yet?) they have something these teams didn't, a top defense. Another reason those other offenses needed to put up such big numbers because their defenses were not that good.
The Patriots Defense is not as well known as the "Steel Curtain" Steelers of the 7o's, nor the 1985 Bears, 2000 Ravens or the 2002 Bucs. But the Patriots are only allowing 16 points per game, while their offense averages 41, none of those other great defenses with the exception of maybe the Steelers had very powerful offenses, which forced the defenses to make sure they didn't allow too many points. Much like the offense, the defensive game plan also changes every week, sometimes the Patriots will play a 3-4, 4-3, or cover 2. as their base D. They have some of the most versatile players, some of which are heavily involved in the game plan one week and not the next. The Patriots have been able to maximise the potential of some players who may not be as good on other NFL teams. This also makes it hard for an opposing offense to say, we need to stop x player, when it might be y players week to be the star.
I believe we have never seen an NFL team as well balanced offensively and defensively as this Patriots team, the coaching (spygate aside), game plans and execution have been almost flawless this season. It is really going to be hard for any team to beat them.
