Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots will travel to Miami on Saturday for their first division game of the year. On Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, they will take on the Dolphins at Hard Rocks Stadium in what will be the 120th meeting between the two longtime AFC East foes.
The Dolphins have been a rival of the Patriots since back in the old AFL, a distinction they share with the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. However, does any of them stand out as the team’s main rival in your eyes?
That is the subject of this week’s Pats Pulpit Debates question:
First some picks from our staff, then it’s up to the comment section for your picks.
Bernd Buchmasser: Maybe it’s a boring answer, but for me it has to be the Jets. The two franchises go back decades, are part of the larger Boston-New York rivalry (although neither calls the respective city their home), and have had some intense and legendary meetings.
Just since 2000, there has been the Bill Belichick trade, the Mo Lewis game, Spygate, “Can’t Wait!,” the Buttfumble and several other big and small moments. The rivalry has mostly been lopsided through its recent history — New England won 15 straight between 2016 and 2023, for example — but the two yearly meetings still hit different.
Pat Lane: To me, the best rivalry was with the Colts and, specifically, Peyton Manning. It’s only fitting that the player who gave Brady the most trouble was on the other side for his first career start. A true rivalry is one where, even if one team has the upper hand, both teams get their share of wins, and it was like that against Manning. He, his brother, and Joe Flacco, are the only quarterbacks to beat Brady multiple times in the playoffs. In fact, Brady and Manning both won every home playoff matchup between the two of them.
The games against Manning simply meant more, and every time they played, you knew it was going to be a wild game, like the crazy comeback in the 2014 regular season. Maybe one day the Patriots will have a rivalry like that again, but they’re going to have to play some more meaningful games to make that a reality.
Marima: Patriots vs. Colts, Brady vs. Manning, even Good vs. Evil (per ESPN in 2007). This matchup had everything. The nail biting alone was championship-level. In hindsight, the results were decidedly in New England’s favor but that doesn’t tell the story.
This rivalry had hate and heart. There was the David Patten game in Brady’s first start, the Willie McGinest 4th-down stop game, and in 2005 Bill Polian yelling from the press box to break Doug Flutie’s leg.
The heartbreaking 2006 AFC Championship game. Then 2007 and the Colts piling on for spygate. The teams both undefeated but the Pats won. 2009 was the 4th-and-2 game with referee home cooking that robbed Kevin Faulk of...
