How the Patriots reached Super Bowl LII

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — For the Patriots, it has been a remarkable journey to get to Super Bowl LII. Here’s a timeline of how everything came together for them this year, dating all the way back to the start of the team-building process:



OFFSEASON

March 10: New England kicks off free agency with a five-year, $65 million deal for cornerback Stephon Gilmore, one of the biggest free-agent deals the Patriots have ever given to a defensive player. It sets the table for an intriguing offseason that will include no new contract for already-established cornerback Malcolm Butler.

March 11: The Patriots and Saints consummate a deal that sends wide receiver Brandin Cooks to New England for a first- and a third-round pick. Surprisingly, the trade doesn’t include Butler, who had reportedly drawn the interest of New Orleans.

July 27: The Patriots open training camp on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium.

July 30: After keeping his intentions quiet all offseason, veteran edge defender Rob Ninkovich announces his retirement. It culminates an offseason that sees the Patriots lose plenty of pass-rushing production with the retirement of Ninkovich and free-agent departures of Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard.

AUGUST

Aug. 1: Gilmore and Julian Edelman square off in the first training camp fight of the summer.



August 7-8: The Patriots hold two days of joint practices with the Jaguars. No one knows it at the time, but it’s a preview of the AFC title contest.

Aug. 9: Vince Wilfork comes back to Foxborough to announce his retirement.

Aug. 19: The Patriots put the wraps on a series of joint practices with the Texans at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, with a preseason game at NRG Stadium in Houston. Rex Burkhead (70 total yards, one touchdown) starred for New England in the 27-23 loss.

Aug. 25: Edelman goes down with a torn ACL in a preseason game with the Lions, and is lost for the season.



Aug. 31: In the preseason finale — a 40-38 loss to the Giants where Jacoby Brissett threw for four touchdowns and ran for one more — cornerback Cyrus Jones went down with what turned out to be a season-ending knee injury.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 2: The breakup of The Wolfpack started with the surprising decision to trade quarterback Jacoby Brissett to the Colts for wide receiver Phillip Dorsett. The move was one of the biggest of cutdown weekend, as the Patriots made the roster alterations needed to get down to 53 for the start of the regular season.

Sept. 7: The Patriots and Chiefs kicked off the season in prime time, and things looked OK for the first three quarters in the opener, as New England held a 27-21 lead. Then, it all went south, as Kansas City posted 21 four-quarter points to pull the upset on the way to a 42-27 win.



Sept. 10: The Patriots passed their first road trip test of the season, taking a 36-20 win over the Saints in New Orleans. The New England offense accounts for a season-high 555 yards in the win. Statistically, it was Brady’s best game of the season: 30-for-39, 447 yards and three touchdowns.

 



Sept. 24: The first real big moment of the season. Brady put together an eight-play drive that went 75 yards and culminated with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Cooks to give the Patriots a narrow lead over the Texans with 23 seconds left. New England came away with a 33-28 win and improved to 2-1 on the season.

OCTOBER

Oct. 1: The Patriots weren’t quite back on track, however, as a 33-30 loss to the Panthers was marred by a late penalty from Gilmore that gave Carolina good field position for a game-winning field goal. The cornerback was defended vociferously by his teammates, but quietly acknowledged after the game that his communication had “to get better.” It capped a four-game stretch to open the season where New England had allowed a whopping 32 points per contest.

Oct. 5: For Gilmore and the defense, the turnaround began on a short week in a swampy night in Tampa. The Patriots held the Bucs to 14 points, and a late pass from Jameis Winston was off the mark, allowing New England to sneak out of Florida with a 19-14 victory, the first in what would become an eight-game win streak.

Oct. 15: The pain-in-the-butt Jets were up next, and after spotting New York 14 points out of the gate, New England roared back for a 24-17 win in North Jersey, a contest that was highlighted by Rob “Twinkletoes” Gronkowski’s two touchdowns and a goal-line strip of New York tight end Austin Sefarian-Jenkins that denied the Jets a late touchdown.



Oct. 22: A much-ballyhooed Super Bowl LI rematch was nowhere near as dramatic this time around, as the Patriots were in command much of the night against the Falcons on the way to a 23-7 win. A 17-point second quarter outburst that included touchdown passes to Cooks and James White made the difference.

Oct. 26: Linebacker Dont’a Hightower goes on season-ending injured reserve because of a torn pec.

Oct. 29: A relatively quiet 21-13 win over the upstart Chargers is marred by a shoulder injury to wide receiver Chris Hogan. The former lacrosse star would have injury issues the rest of the season. The Patriots would go into the bye with a 6-2 record, but there would be no rest for the front office.

Oct. 31: For the second consecutive season, the Patriots made a seismic move at the deadline, as they dealt backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the Niners for a second-round pick. “We probably had the best quarterback situation in the league for the last 2 1/2 years. It’s just not sustainable given the way that things are set up,” explained Belichick on a memorable conference call after the deal went down.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 1: Brian Hoyer, the Grover Cleveland of Brady backups, is re-signed after he was cut loose by the Niners to make room for Garoppolo. Hoyer said he got the word he had been picked up by the Patriots when he was out costume shopping with his kids.

Nov. 9: The Return of the Imagination Agency. After extricating himself from Green Bay, Martellus Bennett returns to the Patriots. He would only play in two games after rejoining New England because of injury, but he still managed to give one of the best postgame press conferences of the season after the win over the Broncos later that month.



Nov. 12: Coming out of the bye, the Patriots would gleefully throttle the Broncos in Denver, dominating in all three phases of the game on the way to the 41-16 win while fundamentally ending the Broncos’ playoff hopes before Thanksgiving.

Nov. 19: After spending the week in Colorado — ostensibly to get used to playing at the extraordinary altitude — New England would continue to decimate the AFC West with a 33-8 win over the Raiders in Mexico City.

Nov. 26: The Patriots’ ground game really started to assert itself down the stretch, but the backs were never better than in this 35-17 win over the Dolphins where New England ended with a season-high 196 rushing yards. Lewis led the way with 15 carries for 112 yards.

DECEMBER

Dec. 3: Gronkowski crashes down onto the head of Bills defensive back Tre’Davious White. The hit brings an unnecessary roughness call, and a one-game suspension for Gronkowski. The Patriots win, 23-3, but the ill will over what happened sparks some concern that the Bills will go out of their way for some revenge later in the season.

Dec. 11: Arguably the ugliest loss of the season takes place in Miami against the Dolphins, as the New England offense fails to generate any sort of rhythm on the way to a 27-20 loss. Gronkowski’s absence wasn’t the only reason for the loss, but it certainly didn’t help. The Patriots had a season-low 25 yards on the ground, as they dropped to 10-3 on the season.

Dec. 17: On a short week against their primary AFC counterpoint, the Patriots went on the road and came away with a dramatic 27-24 win, one that was sealed after a late touchdown by Gronkowski and a game-saving pick from Duron Harmon. The victory clinched the AFC East for New England.



Dec. 20: It begins to emerge that there's a rift between Belichick and Brady body guru Alex Guerrero, who is no longer allowed on the sidelines or on team planes.

Dec. 24: The talk of revenge on Gronkowski never came to fruition, as the Patriots turned a 16-13 third-quarter deficit into a 37-16 win, thanks to 24 unanswered points in the second half. The ground game powered the win with 193 rushing yards; it marked the third time in five games New England rushed for 190 yards or more.

Dec. 26: The Patriots sign veteran edge defender James Harrison. The former Steeler, who had been cut loose by Pittsburgh, immediately became a solid defensive presence for New England.

Dec. 31: The Patriots rang out the year in style with a 26-6 win over the hapless Jets. Harrison immediately makes his presence felt with a pair of sacks, much to the chagrin of the Steelers. New England ends the regular season with 13-3 record, and the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

JANUARY

Jan. 4: ESPN releases a story titled, "For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, is this the beginning of the end?" during the Patriots' bye week and it's met with much skepticism in Patriots Nation. All three take the unusual step of releasing a joint statement, but most of their denials are low on specifics. The big dispute is whether or not the "trade Garoppolo" meeting ever happened. Kraft says no. Wickersham says yes. BSJ says that's semantics: the message is what counts.

Jan. 13: Following the Titans’ upset of the Chiefs in Kansas City, the Patriots host Tennessee in the divisional round, and after an early Titans’ touchdown, the game was no contest. Brady passed for 337 yards and three touchdowns on the way to a 35-14 win over Tennessee.

Jan. 17: Brady cuts his hand at practice, setting off alarm bells all over the football world and injecting an extra dose of drama in the run-up to the AFC title game against the Jaguars. The quarterback is eventually spotted at practice later that week with a glove on his throwing hand, and his press conference two days before the contest turns into a bit of a clown show.

Jan. 21: Playing with tape on his right hand to cover the cut, Brady goes 26-for-38 for 290 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the 24-20 win over Jacksonville. The highlight of the afternoon comes when Gilmore knocks away a fourth-down pass play for Dede Westbrook, allowing the Patriots to escape with the victory and advance to the eighth Super Bowl of the Brady/Belichick era.