Villains, Records, and Perfection: The Story of the ’07 Patriots

It's December twenty ninth, two thousand and seven, the last night of the NFL regular season, and seventy eight thousand fans pack into Giants Stadium. The New England Patriots. Who are fifteen in oh one, went away from the perfect season, but the New York Giants went to in their perfect season, and through three quarters it looked like the Giants really had a chance. But late in the fourth, Tom Brady drops back and lets the ball fly to Randy Moss for a touchdown, sealing the perfect season and giving the Giants hope for revenge maybe in the playoffs. Join us today as we dive into how the Patriots went sixteen and oh becoming the first scene since the nineteen seventy two Dolphins to have a perfect season. The day on Daily the Sports History, Welcome to Davely Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide because every season is my perfect season getting to watch football. So the New England Patriots in the early two thousands were honestly one of the best teams ever. They ended up winning five Super Bowls under Bill Belichick, who was a crazy hire at the time. Bill Belichick got hired in two thousand after originally being hired by the Jets, but the Patriots made him a better offer and basically gave him complete control over the team. He was the general manager and the head coach, and in two thousand and one he won his very first Super Bowl with this gangly quarterback in Tom Brady, who replaced pill Pro Bowl or Drew Bledsoe. And they continued to have success for years and years, winning three Super Bowls and four years. And they were good every year, and Tom Brady became a very good quarterback. In two thousand and six, they were a good team, winning twelve games, going all the way to the AFC Championship, where they lost to their rivals at the time, the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. So they miss out on another chance of the Super Bowl. So they were retooling. They made a really big trade that really changed everything. They traded for Randy Moss, who was part of the Oakland Raiders, and they only took a fourth round pick. Now, we have to remember Randy Moss at the time was not who he was with the Minnesota Vikings. For the Minnesota Vikings, he was arguably the greatest receiver of all time. Then he went to the Oakland Raiders and struggles with quarterback and coaches. He just wasn't the same player and was a distraction for the team, and so really Oakland just wanted him out, and the Patriots were like, Okay, we'll take this generational talent and have him set records his first year. They also signed an unrestricted free agent out of Miami who they had faced year after year and struggled with, and Wes Welker, who went on to become a staple with the team as well. And then they ad to Dante Stallweather and Benjamin Watson at tight end, giving them a very strong receiving group that stronger than Tom Brady has ever had. And on their line they had a corps of Logan Mankins and Matt Light who were able to give Tom Brady enough time throughout the whole entire season. And the defense was. Led by their stalwarts and Teddy Bruski and Mike Rabral at linebacker, and the defensive line was headed by Vince Willford and Richard Seymour. In two thousand and six, they promoted from within after they lost their offensive coordinator and they gave the job to Josh McDaniels, who has proven to be one of the better offensive coordinators in modern NFL history, at least with the Patriots. He designed this anyone can catch the ball system that really maximized mismatches and gave Tom Brady, who was his college roommate, a chance to thrive this season. And they also had Romeo Cournell to transition the team to a four to three and really re vamped the team. So the team is ready to go. They're revamped, and they play Week one in Giant Stadium against the New York Jets, and the Patriots win handily. The Jets were a so so team at the time and they want thirty eight to fourteen. But the next day is what really stood out in this game and really kind of defined the Patriots for a long time, gave them kind of a moniker of cheating. This is when Spygate happened. It happened the same year that they went undefeated. They were investigating the team for videotaping opposing coaches defensive signals and this was clearly against the rules. You can watch them, but you cannot videotape them and break it down and that way you can have an upper hand. If you can figure it out by watching them, that's one thing. But if you are videotaping and then you can rewind it and see what they're doing in what play, that's the problem. So they find Bill Belichick half a million dollars, the largest in history for a coach, and they find the Patriots quarter of a million dollars and took. Away a first round pick. That is huge. I know. Sometimes we see these picks get taken away for different little scandals here and there, and they could be devastating to a team. But all this chaos that was going around it kind of just fueled the Patriots to keep going. They'd go on to beat the Chargers, and the Bills and the Bengals, easily, scoring over thirty four points in every game, winning by over three touchdowns. At the time, Tom Brady was completing seventy four percent of his passes and Randy Moss and Wes Welker were a revolution. For the team. Previously, the team was a run heavy team. This was a pass heavy team that was having success over and over and over. By the time the team had gotten through October, they were averaging over forty points a game, which if they would have finished that way would have been an NFL record. They were just an unstoppable force, running at tempo's faster and faster and faster. Week five, they demolished the Cleveland Browns, no surprise. Then they go for forty eight versus Dallas, forty nine versus Miami, fifty two versus Washington, winning by forty five points, the most lopsided victory in Bill Bellipitt's career. They are eight to zero. Their offense looks amazing. Their defense doesn't even have to do very much. They're doing enough, but their defense is doing good as well, regularly holding teams twenty points a game and scoring over forty. This team was a juggernaut through the first eight weeks. Through eight games, Tom Brady had already thrown for thirty touchdowns. At this time, they only played sixteen games. Halfway through the season, he had thrown for thirty touchdowns. That's more than most quarterbacks throw the entire season. And this new Revolution was really happy because Randy. Moss had found himself. He became the deep threat he was in Minnesota, and Wes Welker was the secure underneath, the guy that would get either third. Down when needed. Then Week nine comes where they forgets their rival at the time, the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning. The Patriots are undefeated and the Colts are undefeated. They build it as the Super Bowl in November or the AFC Title Game in November, and. This was their closest game by far. The Colts actually led twenty to ten late in the fourth quarter, and Brady made a comeback, throwing a fifty five yard pass to Randy Moss that draws a passing interference that leads to a Wes Welker touchdown. And then they get the ball back and march down where Kevin Folk, the running back, punches it in, giving them another touchdown and the victory. So now, even in a resilient game, facing the best other team in the AFC, they are able to come back and stay undefeated. Tom Brady through eleven games throws for thirty eight touchdown passes, and Randy Moss is getting very close to Jerry Rice's single season touchdown record. Now by time December comes, it seems like the Patriots are starting to slow down, partly because they play outside a weather city Boston. Yeah, it's gonna slow some things down. When you're a pass heavy team. Then on December third, in Week thirteen, they face off against the Ravens. They are twelve and zero, it is cold, they're on the road, and Baltimore's defense. Is one of the best in the league. Brady is repeatedly pressured and the Pats actually trail late into the game seventeen to twenty four, and the Ravens actually stopped them on a fourth down play with the Patriots called time out just before, and they gave them new life and Brady scrambles on a fourth and five is able to get the first down to save the drive, and we throw a touchdown pass to Zabari Gaffney with forty four seconds left, giving them the victory, preserving their undefeated season at thirteen and zero. And then Week fifteen comes up. It's kind of the grudge match against the New York Jets. Spygate happened the first week of the season. They're back, snows everywhere, but it's not enough for the Jets. As the Patriots come out with another win twenty and ten. Now everyone is talking about will they go undefeated, will they have a perfect season. As they face off against the Miami Dolphins, the last team to have a perfect season, and Tom Brady's at the tone, winning twenty eight to seven against the Miami Dolphins. They have one more game. They already clinched the playoffs. There's no reason for them to play other than this perfect season. Facing off against the New York Giants, who had already clinched the playoffs and could rest all their starters and head into the NFL playoffs. But they could also play spoilers to the Patriots ending their undefeated season. The game is at Giants Stadium. It's a cold game, over seventy thousand attendance. Everyone around the country is watching to see if the Patriots will go undefeated. When the Giants come out not resting their starters, but play aggressive, and Eli Manning seems to be on his playoff high because we all know his best games come against the Patriots, and leads them to an. Early touchdown in the first quarter. The Giants lead seven to three, and the Giants maintain their lead in the second after Manning throws a touchdown pass to Plexico Buris. The Patriots, who had dominated most of the season had only a couple scares, were struggling the Giants defensive line was pressuring Brady like he had not been pressured all season, hitting him over and over and over. But Brady hits Moss for a short touchdown where they take the lead into half seventeen to fourteen. In the third quarter, the Giants come back and take the lead, and in the fourth quarter, on a second and ten sixty two yards from the end zone, Brady sees Moss in single coverage and passes the ball home, throwing his fiftieth touchdown on the season and Muscors his twenty third on the season. Each NFL records Moss, he still holds. Brady lost it to some guy named peyton Man, but a huge moment for both their careers and gives them the lead in the victory thirty eight to thirty five. Everyone's all excited. The Patriots had just gone for an undefeated regular season and needed three more games to have an undefeated season, and unfortunately for them, playing the Giants the last week of the season may have been the worst luck they could have had because they have a first round by so in the second round they take on the Jacksonville Jaguars, beating them easily, and then they surprisingly face off against the San Diego Chargers in Philip Rivers and defeat them twenty one to twelve. And in the NFC, a surprise emerges as the fifth seed, the New York Giants beat Tampa Bay. They go on to beat number one the Dallas Cowboys, and then in the NFC Championship, they're able to squeak pie the Green Bay Packers, making it all the way to the Super Bowl to face off the team that beat them just a few weeks earlier, in the Patriots. They knew they could hang with them as they only lost by three points previously, and the Patriots were eighteen to zero trying to cap an undefeated season, and we all know what happened. David Tyree catches a crazy pass on his helmet and Manning defeats the Patriots in the Super Bowl, ending the perfect season, as the Miami Dolphins pop the cork, the latest they've ever done so, celebrating being the last NFL undefeated team in NFL history. I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please follow us on our social media we're Daily Sports History. All the links are below in the description. If you want to click on those. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, X threads, whoever you like to socialize. We'll be there to socialize with you. Easy way to connect with me and I will respond to you. If you have any questions or any show ideas, just let me know and come back and we'll see you on the next one.