JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A few years ago, linebacker Tedy Bruschi came up with a saying for games like the one the Patriots played yesterday. He called them hat-and-T-shirt contests.
The idea was simple. With a win, players would find championship hats and T-shirts waiting for them in their lockers.
"You know you've accomplished something when you have a hat and T-shirt," Bruschi said as he donned a black AFC East Championship hat following the Patriots' 24-21 victory over the Jaguars yesterday at
Yesterday's hard-fought win -- which featured a dramatically altered offensive approach with a heavy emphasis on passing -- clinched the Patriots' franchise-record fourth straight AFC East title and fifth in the past six years.
Like Bruschi, coach Bill Belichick wore a championship hat after the game as he talked about what the title means to the team, now 11-4.
"I'm happy to win the AFC East and am proud of what our players did. They've overcome a lot this year to have the record we have," said Belichick, perhaps thinking about the nearly 200-man games lost to injury, one of the highest figures in the NFL. "You have to give all the credit in the world to the players, they played their hearts out. They certainly deserve it."
Belichick noted the irony of how the last time the Patriots played at Alltel Stadium, it was in Super Bowl XXXIX, and the team won by the same score. Like that Super Bowl victory over the Eagles, the Patriots also had safety Rodney Harrison with the ball in his hands at the end of yesterday's game, sealing the result. In the Super Bowl, Harrison had an interception to wrap up the victory. Yesterday, it was a fumble recovery as the Jaguars attempted a final march near midfield.
And like that Super Bowl, the Patriots threw a significant changeup to their opposition. In the Super Bowl, the team played a 4-3 defense that surprised the Eagles. Yesterday, it was the offense that shifted gears, going with a plan that hadn't been executed at any point this season -- flooding the field with receivers, sometimes lining those receivers up at running back, using bunch formations, consistently mixing personnel groups, and letting it rip through the air.
"Obviously, we change [gameplans] from week to week, but this week it seemed like we changed a little bit more," said offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. "One of the things we wanted to do was keep them off balance, and just never let them feel comfortable about what we were doing. We wanted to mix up the personnel groupings and send people in and out of the game and try to get a lot of people touching the ball."
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