Belichick's Greatest Hits No. 6: A Last Second Field Goal Wins the Super Bowl. No, Not That One. The Other One.

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

Were in any other coach being discussed, a drive in the final minutes to break a tie and win a championship on a 40+ yard field goal would be more than the highlight of his career. It would be his legacy. The thing he'll forever be remembered for. 

But comparing Bill Belichick Super Bowl win to those of other coaches is like trying to equate Leonardo DiCaprio's body count to yours. That time he settled for outside the shirt 2nd base is better than the best score of your life. (And who am I kidding? Yours is no doubt better than mine.) Never before had championship be one in this dramatic fashion. Belichick's Patriots did it twice in the span of three years. 

I'm talking of course about the second of the two. The one against Carolina that had the longest, clumsiest name in the history of NFL championships, Super Bowl XXXVIII. Which I think is a record for Roman numerals that will never be broken, unless they keep making Saw sequels. And looking back this one was a wild, uneven, messy affair. Two quarters in which zero points were scored by either side. But broken up by a 2nd quarter with 24 points and a bonkers 4th with 37. Watching it was like working an all day shift in a restaurant where it's quiet all morning, you get a lunch rush, catch your breath in the afternoon, and then it's a full dining room all night until closing. 

Of New England's first five possessions, the middle three ended with punts and the first and fifth ended with Adam Vinatieri missing field goals. (Now there's a phrase that never got used much.) Though in fairness, the second one was blocked. Carolina's first five drives ended with punts, and the sixth with a fumble. After that? The two combined for 16 possessions, 10 of which points on the board. Insane.

Midway through, legendary Voice of the Patriots Gil Santos suggested it could go down as the best Super Bowl of them all. Even if it wasn't, it certainly belongs on the short list. 

Despite coming in as 7.0-point favorites, gaining 481 yards of total offense and only turning the ball over once (a Tom Brady interception), the Pats simply could not put the Panthers away. Their biggest lead of the game was 21-10. And it took all of 1:55 seconds for Carolina to close it to 21-6, thanks to chunk play after chunk play. Including a 33-yard touchdown run by DeShaun Foster (0:40 mark of that clip), thanks to some shoddy tackling by Eugene Wilson. Wilson would soon thereafter give up another big play that gave the Panthers their first lead, an 85-yard Go route by Mushin Muhammad (0:52 mark) that made it 22-21 Carolina. 

The reason Carolina hung in was the aforementioned chunk plays, as six different Panthers had plays of 15 yards or more. And Jake Delhomme, who in one game convinced 2004 me I was looking at the next great quarterback in the league, thanks to this stat line. Against the NFL's top defense he produced:

16-of-33, 323 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 113.6 passer rating

Though Belichick's defense did sack him four times and forced a fumble. And while we're on the subject, here's where the genius of Belichick came through. Because not only did the OLB he signed off of Pittsburgh's bench two years earlier have two sacks, one of them a strip sack, he caught a touchdown pass. Here are all three:

Note that the guy who recovered the fumble Vrabel forced was future Hall of Fame DT Richard Seymour. Whom you'll recognize as the fullback on that touchdown. Who was also open on the goal line. And he was the lead block on Antowain Smith's touchdown that made it 14-10 (0:33 mark of that first video). 

In all, four Patriots scored touchdowns. Brady threw for three of them, with a 32-for-48, 354 yard, 100.5 passer rating night to win his second Super Bowl MVP. But the case has been made that it probably should've gone to Deion Branch for his 10 catches on 13 targets, 143-yard, 1 TD performance. But like I said earlier on this list, he'd get his eventually. 370 days later, to be exact. 

Toward the end, Carolina tied it up on a touchdown by Ricky Proehl. Just to prove the football gods have a sick sense of humor, at touchdown by Proehl two years earlier tied up the game against the Rams. Only this time, Panthers kicker John Kasay shanked the kickoff out of bounds, giving Brady a much shorter field to work with. He also still had Troy Brown, who caught passes of 13, 20, and 13 before Brady found Branch again to set up Vinatieri's game winner. 

And yet for all this, there's not a man, woman or child in New England who'll call this their favorite of the Super Bowls. Such is the embarrassment of riches Bill Belichick has provided us. Everyone's favorites are still to come on his countdown. See you tomorrow.