History Could Make 38 Special

If New England beats Carolina in Super Bowl XXXVIII today, Patriot quarterback Tom Brady will have two championships to his name, putting him halfway to joining the NFL’s Sling Dynasty -- four-time Super Bowl winners Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw.

If the Patriots win, Coach Bill Belichick will have matched the ring total of his mentor, Bill Parcells.

If the Patriots win, they will have strung together their 15th consecutive victory, the league’s second-longest winning streak behind the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who finished 17-0.

“If, if, if.... My job isn’t to daydream about the possibilities of who is going to say we’re the greatest and this and that,” said New England linebacker Larry Izzo, putting into words the message the Patriots have been trying to send for two weeks. “When it’s all said and done, you start thinking about that, and that’s when you get smacked in the face.”

And Carolina is poised to do the smacking. The Panthers, one-touchdown underdogs, have been playing the disrespect card throughout the playoffs. They feel that most of the country doesn’t want them on this stage and can’t quite figure out how they got there. After all, two years ago, when New England was on its way to its first Super Bowl victory, Carolina finished 1-15.

“[Some people] still feel we don’t deserve to be here,” Panther safety Deon Grant said. “They want Philly to be here instead.”

Far be it for the Patriots to utter those slurs. They know what it feels like to be the Super Bowl underdog, as they were two years ago against St. Louis, and they also know what it feels like to hoist the Lombardi Trophy after showing up their doubters.

In the week leading up to today’s game, there were no mouth-from-the-South predictions, no Boston-blowhard proclamations, just two very determined teams filled with players getting ready for the game of their lives.

“It’s all business,” Carolina defensive tackle Brentson Buckner said. “You work too hard to get down here, and you have fun and end up regretting it. So it’s all business. We’re all down here to play a game. We’re down here to play a game against a great team for the greatest prize in our profession.”

The Panthers have won over skeptics and defied the odds this season, first by getting to the playoffs, and then by knocking off Dallas, St. Louis and Philadelphia to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

Coach John Fox, in his second season, led the Panther renaissance first by building a rock-solid defense and outstanding special teams. The heart of the defense is Carolina’s four-man front, which includes ends Julius Peppers and Mike Rucker, and tackles Kris Jenkins and Buckner. A matchup to watch is Carolina’s spectacular defensive front against a New England offensive line that’s filled with Regular Joes but has gotten the job done.

Six times this season the Patriots played teams that had defenses ranked in the top six heading into the game, including matchups against the top two defenses in consecutive games -- Denver and Dallas -- and New England won all six.

The main reason for that success is that Belichick’s teams seldom make dumb mistakes. And they hang onto leads. The Patriots lead the league with 27 consecutive regular-season victories when they’ve led heading into the fourth quarter.

Not that New England has been behind much this season. The Patriots have not trailed at any point since Nov. 23, when they were last in Houston and had to mount a comeback for a 23-20 overtime victory over the Texans. That means they have not fallen behind in seven consecutive games. New England hasn’t lost since Sept. 28 at Washington, where it dropped to 2-2 with a 20-17 defeat.

The Patriots are proud of their streak, but they’re careful not to crow about it.

“It’s not something we recognize or are worried about,” defensive end Willie McGinest said. “What does this thing mean if you lose the big game? Who cares about a streak if you come out here and lose? We’re not downplaying our accomplishments, but our goal is bigger than just a streak.”

To beat Carolina, the Patriots are going to have to put the clamps on the Panther running back tandem of Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster, a devastating one-two punch. Davis, named to his third Pro Bowl, was the key component in a rushing offense that averaged 130.9 yards per game. He set franchise records with 1,444 yards rushing, 318 attempts and eight rushing touchdowns. Foster, the former UCLA standout, is more of an outside-running threat than Davis but showed on a powerful touchdown run against the Eagles that he can do a pretty good Earl Campbell impersonation when necessary.

Much the way Brady did two years ago, quarterback Jake Delhomme has quietly rounded into a reliable leader, and he has outstanding receivers in Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad to make his life easier.

“I guess people make that [Delhomme-Brady] comparison because he and his team came out of nowhere two years ago, and I kind of came out of nowhere this year,” said Delhomme, 26. “I don’t know if you’d call it a Cinderella story. He’s a lot younger than I was.”

Brady, who was 24 at the time, was the youngest quarterback in NFL history to win a Super Bowl. Now, at 26, he has the chance to be the youngest to win two. Once he gets two, could his third and fourth rings be that far away?

Not so fast.

“Being that this is the second Super Bowl in three years, and I think the most important game in everyone’s career, this really sets the tone,” he said. “Can you sustain that? Who knows? We have to win the game.”

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An Overrated Statistic

In 37 Super Bowls, the quarterback with the higher regular-season passer rating has won only 17 times, a .459 winning percentage. Tom Brady (85.9) and Jake Delhomme (80.6) finished 10th and 14th, respectively, in the NFL this season.

*--* Winning QB Rating SUPER BOWL Losing QB Rating Bart Starr, Green Bay 105.0 I Len Dawson, Kansas 101.7 City Bart Starr, Green Bay 64.4 II Daryle Lamonica, 80.8 Oakland Joe Namath, New York 72.1 III Earl Morrall, 93.2 (A) Baltimore Len Dawson, Kansas 69.9 IV Joe Kapp, Minnesota 78.5 City Johnny Unitas, 65.1 V Craig Morton, Dallas 89.9 Baltimore Roger Staubach, 104.8 VI Bob Griese, Miami 90.9 Dallas Bob Griese, Miami 71.6 VII Billy Kilmer, 84.8 Washington Bob Griese, Miami 84.3 VIII Fran Tarkenton, 93.2 Minnesota Terry Bradshaw, 55.2 IX Fran Tarkenton, 82.1 Pittsburgh Minnesota Terry Bradshaw, 88.0 X Roger Staubach, 78.5 Pittsburgh Dallas Ken Stabler, Oakland 103.4 XI Fran Tarkenton, 89.3 Minnesota Roger Staubach, 87.0 XII Craig Morton, Denver 82.0 Dallas Terry Bradshaw, 84.7 XIII Roger Staubach, 84.9 Pittsburgh Dallas Terry Bradshaw, 77.0 XIV Vince Ferragamo, 49.0 Pittsburgh L.A. Rams Jim Plunkett, Oakland 72.9 XV Ron Jaworski, 91.0 Philadelphia Joe Montana, San 88.4 XVI Ken Anderson, 98.4 Francisco Cincinnati Joe Theismann, 91.3 XVII David Woodley, Miami 63.5 Washington Jim Plunkett, Oakland 82.7 XVIII Joe Theismann, 97.0 Washington Joe Montana, San 102.9 XIX Dan Marino, Miami 108.9 Francisco Jim McMahon, Chicago 82.6 XX Tony Eason, New 67.5 England Phil Simms, New York 74.6 XXI John Elway, Denver 79.0 (N) Doug Williams, 94.0 XXII John Elway, Denver 83.4 Washington Joe Montana, San 87.9 XXIII Boomer Esiason, 97.4 Francisco Cincinnati Joe Montana, San 112.4 XXIV John Elway, Denver 73.7 Francisco Jeff Hostetler, New 83.2 XXV Jim Kelly, Buffalo 101.2 York (N) Mark Rypien, 97.9 XXVI Jim Kelly, Buffalo 97.6 Washington Troy Aikman, Dallas 89.5 XXVII Jim Kelly, Buffalo 81.2 Troy Aikman, Dallas 99.0 XXVIII Jim Kelly, Buffalo 79.9 Steve Young, San 112.8 XXIX Stan Humphries, San 81.6 Francisco Diego Troy Aikman, Dallas 93.6 XXX Neil O’Donnell, 87.7 Pittsburgh Brett Favre, Green 95.8 XXXI Drew Bledsoe, New 83.7 Bay England John Elway, Denver 87.5 XXXII Brett Favre, Green 92.6 Bay John Elway, Denver 93.0 XXXIII Chris Chandler, 100.9 Atlanta Kurt Warner, St. 109.2 XXXIV Steve McNair, 78.6 Louis Tennessee Trent Dilfer, 76.6 XXXV Kerry Collins, New 83.1 Baltimore York (N) Tom Brady, New 86.5 XXXVI Kurt Warner, St. 101.4 England Louis Brad Johnson, Tampa 92.9 XXXVII Rich Gannon, Oakland 97.3 Bay Total Wins 17 Total Losses 20

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-- Roy Jurgens