A year after missing the playoffs, Bill Belichick won 10 games with rookie quarterback Mac Jones. Adrian Kraus/Associated Press
Every fan base craves championships. It’s why we root for our teams. In Boston, we don’t just crave those titles, we expect them. With 12 championships in the past 20 years we’ve grown accustomed to winning it all. Anything less than a duck boat parade is a disappointment.
Yet we still understand that those championships are elusive. Even around here. So we must evaluate a season based on how the team performed in relation to the expectations surrounding that season.
In the wee hours of Sunday morning, just moments after the New England Patriots suffered the worst loss of the Bill Belichick era, it was easy to be disgusted by what we saw on the field in Buffalo. Fans were angry. A check on my Twitter feed will show you that I was no different.
That shouldn’t take away from what the Patriots did this season. The Pats won 10 games with a rookie quarterback. They reeled off seven straight wins midseason, sat atop the AFC for a short spell, and had us dreaming of a Super Bowl appearance — against Tom Brady, no less.
Those dreams now seem like folly. But dreams are what fan bases are built upon. And the Patriots gave us a ride and provided a lot of entertainment. And distraction when COVID loomed its ugly head again during the holidays.
When this football season started, the Red Sox were stumbling to the finish line of a wild-card season. Alex Cora’s team clinched a playoff spot on the same day Brady and the Buccaneers beat New England at Gillette Stadium, dropping the Pats to 1-3.
The prospects for both teams looked bleak in the early days of October, but our enthusiasm started to rise in the days and weeks to come.
The Red Sox eliminated the New York Yankees in the American League wild-card game before one of the most raucous crowds we’ve ever seen at Fenway Park. Then knocked off the 100-win Tampa Bay Rays. They came within two wins of a World Series appearance, eliminated by the Astros in six memorable games.
The 2021 Red Sox played their last game two days before Mac Jones and the Patriots started their seven-game winning streak. From Oct. 5 through Dec. 6 we were back on top of the sports world.
In the end, both teams fell short of the lofty expectations we have built around here. The duck boats are staying in the garage for now. Does that make those teams failures?
We’ll know more in the next year or two. If teams build on partial success we can look at those early seasons as part of the upward progress of a franchise. If the Red Sox get back to the AL Championship Series next year, if they take another step toward a World Series title, we will consider the 2021 team an important step in the process of rebuilding a contender.
If Mac Jones continues to mature next year, if he leads the Pats back to the top of the division and performs better in the playoffs, we will look at his rookie season as the start of something great.
What if both teams struggle next year? How will we grade 2021 if it is not the beginning of sustained success for these two franchises?
In that case we should still call this year a success. For both teams. This might be the City of Champions, but it’s unrealistic to expect a title every year. Teams should be judged by the expectations they faced heading into the season.
The Red Sox were not expected to make it to the postseason. They came within two wins of a World Series.
The Patriots were expected to have Cam Newton calling plays at the beginning of the season after missing out on the playoffs in 2020. Instead they had a rookie at the helm leading his team within a game of first place in the division and back into the playoffs.
By those standards, we saw two teams succeed in 2021. It doesn’t always take a championship to be successful. Even in this Golden Era of Boston sports.
Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN and a Lewiston High School graduate.
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