Pats Pulpit
Pat Lane and Matt St. Jean relive New England’s final two regular season games of 2003, finishing with the 31-0 win over the Bills
Twenty-one years ago, the New England Patriots completed the most dominant streak in the history of the NFL, finishing with 21 wins in a row across two seasons. Since it was such a dominant run, we have decided to take a look back at each one of the games.
This is the sixth in the series, so expect a ton more to come, and make sure to follow along on YouTube for the accompanying videos for each game as well.
Today, let’s take a look at Wins No. 11 and 12.
2003 Week 16 | Dec. 20, 2003, 8:30 p.m. ET | Giants Stadium
Setting the scene: With the division wrapped up and the Patriots in the driver’s seat for the top seed in the AFC, the final weeks of the 2003 regular season were all about staying there. New England entered favored to win on the road to complete a season sweep of the New York Jets after beating them in the home opener back in September. Jets quarterback Chad Pennington had to sit that one out after an injury in the final week of the preseason sidelined him for the first six weeks of the season, and the Patriots took full advantage. Rookie Asante Samuel victimized veteran Vinny Testaverde for a pick-six early in the fourth quarter after a Tom Brady touchdown run put New England on top a few minutes earlier, and that was enough to get the win. The 6-8 New York Jets had been eliminated from the playoffs, but they were looking to play spoiler with Pennington in the lineup for this one.
Set for a Saturday night, the two teams would face off for ESPN’s 200th NFL broadcast, one that featured highlights of old games broadcast on the network. The first game on ESPN happened in that very stadium when Raymond Berry’s New England Patriots fell to Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, and the New York Giants in 1987. Pepper Johnson played linebacker in that game, and he would coach New England’s linebackers in 2003. One of those linebackers would set the tone for this one early.
Game breakdown: It took only two plays for New England’s defense to show up, and one more play to put the Pats on top. Like he did against Miami’s Jay Fiedler two weeks earlier, Tedy Bruschi jumped an underneath pass from Chad Pennington and intercepted it on the second play from scrimmage. Tom Brady made the Jets pay immediately, converting a play action shot down the sideline to David Givens with the Jets biting heavily on the play fake. Forty-eight seconds in, the Patriots were up 7-0 and the crowd was silenced.
To their credit, the Jets hung tough. They mounted a 16-play, 83-yard scoring drive that culminated in a Chad Pennington rushing touchdown from a...
