Finishing one game shy of Super Bowl is motivation

When New England lost to Indianapolis in last year’s AFC title game, it hurt.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — The Patriots needed just 4 yards for a first down late in last year’s AFC championship game. Succeed and they’d almost certainly reach the Super Bowl.

They failed.

“All the hard work in the offseason, preseason, the regular season,” New England owner Robert Kraft said in an interview with The Associated Press in his Gillette Stadium office. “And then, boom! It’s cruel the way it ends. It’s really cruel.”

He watched Tom Brady’s short pass to Troy Brown fall incomplete on third down at the New England 46-yard line with 2:27 left in Indianapolis. The Patriots had to punt and the Colts took over at their 20 with 2:17 and just one timeout left.

Peyton Manning went to work, eating up chunks of yardage.

With the clock showing 1:00, Joseph Addai ran in for the winning touchdown before an RCA Dome full of ecstatic fans, completing a comeback from a 21-3 deficit to a 38-34 win.

The Colts went on to win the Super Bowl. The Patriots went home.

“We’ll come back next year and try to do it better,” a despondent Brady said afterward.

How’s this for better?

The Patriots haven’t lost since.

Last Sunday, they weren’t about to give up the ball late in their 21-12 win over the San Diego Chargers, which put them in the Super Bowl against the New York Giants Feb. 3.

Leading by nine, New England started at its own 13 with 9:13 left in the game. This time, Brady faced four third-down plays and converted every one. He simply had to kneel down on the last two plays of the game, the Chargers helpless to do anything after using all their timeouts.

The three-time champion Patriots, who return to practice today, are 4-1 in five of the last seven AFC championship games.

“You always want to end the game with the ball,” center Dan Koppen said. “To put together a drive like that in the biggest game of the year, I couldn’t have pictured it any differently.”

Maybe he blocked out the picture of last year’s AFC title game. The motivation to avoid a repeat of one of the most painful days in the Patriots’ decade of dominance was powerful.

“All we kept stressing to one another is: Not this year,” cornerback Ellis Hobbs said. “Not this year.”

Even a single loss? Not this year, the Patriots hope.

One win shy of the first 19-0 season in NFL history, and possible acclaim as the best team ever, New England is determined. The Miami Dolphins are the only team to finish a season unbeaten when they went 17-0 in 1972 and won the Super Bowl.

So close to that goal, the Patriots have built a roadblock at their goal line — no touchdowns and just six field goals allowed in their last six quarters.