New England Patriots will look to pull off the unlikely feat the Cincinnati Bengals fell short of 4 years ago
It’s been one helluva turnaround for the New England Patriots, and the Bengals can relate.
The Cincinnati Bengals were so very close to completing the ultimate turnaround in 2021. Now it’s the New England Patriots’ turn.
Thanks to a 10-7 victory over the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, New England became the sixth team in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl just a year after winning five or fewer games.
Cincinnati, following a 4-11-1 season in 2020, was the previous team to make it that far despite a horrid record the year prior, but ultimately fell short in Super Bowl LVI. Super Bowl LX will be an opportunity for the Patriots to meet themselves in the history books.
Patriots can achieve what the Bengals came so very close to achieving
New England’s 2025 season has been nothing short of a dream for the franchise. Just two years after moving on from Bill Belichick, the club is back to competing for the trophy Belichick raised a total of six times with the team.
The very first time he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in 2001 was the last time a team won five or fewer games and emerged as Super Bowl champions a year later.
The Patriots obviously didn’t stop there. Belichick and Tom Brady ended up winning two more titles in the 2000s, and three more in the 2010s before their partnership concluded in 2020. Now it’s Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye manning the head coach and quarterback jobs.
Like the 2021 Bengals, the Pats have a QB in Maye who experienced a breakout second season as the starter. Joe Burrow took the league by storm in 2021, throwing for 4,611 yards and 34 touchdowns before winning his first three playoff games, including two on the road. Maye threw for 4,394 yards and 31 TDs and is also 3-0 in his first three postseason outings.
Burrow and Cincinnati’s revival was great story back then, but the Bengals were also underdogs in their eventual Super Bowl loss to the NFC West-representing Los Angeles Rams. L.A. was a four-point favorite and won by three points. New England opens as a 4.5-point underdog to the Seattle Seahawks, the No. 1 seed out of the NFC bracket, and the current face of the West division from that conference.
It’s all lining up for either Seattle getting revenge for Super Bowl XLIX, or the Patriots rekindling the same magic Cincinnati couldn’t quite find almost half a decade ago.
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