The most fearsome franchise in US sports won it all again last year – and, based on early evidence, they’ve somehow managed to improve
Another year, another week, another big win for the Patriots. It doesn’t matter if the coaching staff is ripped apart, or if the greatest tight end to ever play the game walks away before he even turns 30, or if big-time contributors from last year’s championship team leave during free agency, or if the quarterback is 42 bleeping years old. If it weren’t so thrilling, it would be exhausting.
Sometimes the Patriots start slowly. They can be sluggish through the early months of the season. Bill Belichick likes to experiment, always with an eye towards December and January: he’s not playing for October. But sometimes everything slots perfectly into place. His teams coalesce into a juggernaut from the get go. After their 33-3 thumping of the Steelers on the opening Sunday of the 2019 season, it looks like it will be the latter.