uper Bowl Patriots.
There. I said it. None of this fraidy-cat, maybe-playoff talk for me. The 2001 Patriots are a team of destiny. They are Super Bowl-bound and I say this even though the Patriots are not being purchased by The New York Times Co.
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I am not the first to put ''Patriots'' and ''Super Bowl'' in the same sentence. Longtime sports radio talkmaster Eddie Andelman was all over it yesterday, and no doubt many citizens of Patriot Nation dare to dream of New Orleans in February after what they witnessed Sunday in the Meadowlands.
Admittedly, this is front-runner yahooism in its highest form. Folks in Oakland, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh will have a good laugh on us as we contemplate the Patriots' march to the ultimate game.
Could the Patriots be headed to the Super Bowl?
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After all, the Patriots were doormats last year and figured to be chumps again in 2001. Preseason picks had them winning five, six, or seven games. Few dared project a .500 season.
But now they are the hot team. They are the team other teams don't want to play. And they are peaking at the perfect time in the football season.
You got a sense of this two weeks ago when the high-flying Rams came to Foxborough and barely escaped with a win. The Rams were touted as the best team in the NFL and the Patriots played them even for most of the game. Then came New England's convincing win at home against New Orleans and Sunday's electric victory in the Meadowlands.
Suddenly, the Patriots have a running game. They have an offensive line. They have a poised young quarterback with stardust on his shoulders. They have an offensive coordinator who makes adjustments at halftime (ever heard so much talk about three-step drops?). They have a rugged defense capable of shutting you down even without Ted Johnson and Willie McGinest.
And they have a head coach who is taking on the persona of Dick Williams circa 1967. Boring Bill Belichick looks pretty smart now. He brought in free agents who can help. He took a chance on Brady. It worked. He ordered Terry Glenn's locker fumigated. Nobody missed Terry. Bill II is in charge and his game plans are good.
There's a golden rule in this league of abject parity: Beware of slow starters who roll into December with momentum. This makes the Patriots dangerous.
The 1980 Oakland Raiders were 2-3 in early October. But they ripped off six straight wins, finished with nine wins in 11 games, and ran the table in the postseason to become the first wild card entry to win the Super Bowl (the '97 Broncos are the other).
Say hello to your New England Patriots.
It's still early. The Patriots have won seven of 10 and need to beat Cleveland at home this weekend or all the dreams go into the dumper. But four times in Patriot history we've had the hot team at the end of the year, and this feels like one of those historic runs.
The 1976 Patriots were coming off a 3-11 season. Little was expected. They were a surprising 5-3 on Halloween, then won their last six games. They outplayed the Raiders in their only playoff game but were robbed by Ben Dreith's roughing-the-passer call on Ray Hamilton. Oakland won the playoff game, 24-21, then rolled to the Super Bowl title. That Oakland team finished 16-1. Its only loss was a 48-17 drubbing at the hands of the Patriots.
Nine years later, the Patriots started 2-3, finished 11-5, then beat the Jets, Raiders, and Dolphins in playoff games on the road to make it to their first Super Bowl. Super Bowl XX was played in New Orleans. The Patriots were edged by the Bears, 46-10.
The 1994 Patriots, Bill Parcells's second New England team, played to low expectations after a 5-11 season in 1993. But second-year whiz kid quarterback Drew Bledsoe (remember him?) carried the Patriots to seven straight wins at the end of the season. A 3-6 season was turned around at home against the Vikings when 22-year-old Drew completed 45 of 70 passes for 426 yards in the greatest comeback in franchise history. Those Patriots lost their playoff game to Belichick's Browns.
Two years later, the Patriots got hot after a 3-3 start, finished 11-5 and beat the Steelers and Jaguars to advance to Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans.
Now the Sons of Belichick are primed for another run. They have recovered from 0-2, winning seven of 10 under the direction of Baby Brady, a second-year quarterback. They have beaten the first-place Jets on the road. Up ahead, they have Cleveland and Miami at home, and games at Buffalo and Carolina. They should win at least 10 games. They could run the table and finish 11-5.
Oh, and the Super Bowl is in New Orleans this year.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is dshaughnessy@globe.com.
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