By Ron Borges, Globe Staff, 2/4/2002

EW ORLEANS - On a day dedicated to patriotism, the right team won Super Bowl XXXVI. The Patriots did.

Cinderella may have moved to Foxborough this year, but the New England Patriots didn't win the Super Bowl last night for any reason other than they deserved to win.

They were the better team. They were the more physical team. They were the more resilient team. They were the more remarkable team. Most of all, they were a team that was not only Ram tough, but tougher than the St. Louis Rams.

Even before Adam Vinatieri ended a storybook season with a 48-yard field goal that won the Super Bowl with no time on the clock, the Patriots had proven they were more than destiny's children. They had proven they were the better team on the field at the Superdome.

They were tougher than the Rams mentally and physically. They were better prepared than the Rams. Most of all, with 1:21 remaining they were fearless even in the face of a late comeback that erased what was once a 14-point Patriot lead.

At that moment it seemed perhaps the dream season was over. A long day of tight defense seemed to be coming to a sad end when St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner drove his team 55 yards in 21 seconds to tie the game on a pick play that sprung wide receiver Ricky Proehl. Proehl caught a soft pass from Warner after Isaac Bruce drew two defensive backs away from him and then Proehl cut through two defenders to finish off a 26-yard pass play for the tying score.

New England now had 81 seconds to win the game and quarterback Tom Brady led his team just far enough to allow Vinatieri to become the first kicker since Jim O'Brien in 1971 to win a Super Bowl with a last-second kick. Yet as important as that kick was, it was defense that brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy to New England for the first time.

It was the battle plan of coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel and, more importantly, the execution of that plan by the New England secondary, which blanketed the Rams' speedy wide receivers most of the night at the line of scrimmage, and by a defense that pressured Warner just often enough to lead him to make two critical errors.

''We got after them and gave them everything we've got,'' linebacker Roman Phifer said. ''We knew that was the only way we could defend them. We just stayed aggressive.''

They stayed aggressive at the line of scrimmage, where few defensive backs had challenged the Rams receivers all season, and they stayed aggressive even once the Rams finally began to get their feet under themselves in the fourth quarter. They pressed Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Zahir Hakim, and Proehl all night and they pressed Warner with just enough of a rush to keep him off-balance and uncomfortable.

''I don't think they were up for the fight they were in for,'' cornerback Ty Law said. ''We challenged them on every play. We were the better team today. That's the best bunch of receivers I ever played against, but we knew if we were going to have a chance to win it depended on us seven [the secondary].

''We were challenging their guys all game. No one really gets up in their face, and rightfully so, but if we were going to win we had to. They're the best track team in the National Football League, but I never seen anyone win a 100-meter dash with somebody standing in front of them.''

The Rams could't win the Super Bowl against that kind of pressure either. All they could do was be forced into just enough mistakes to cost them the biggest game of the year.

That process began when Law intercepted a Warner throw and returned it for a 47-yard touchdown to open the Patriots' scoring, but all day he was the leader of an assault on St. Louis's receivers that left them bruised and broken. The Rams ended up with 365 receiving yards but it meant nothing, just like all the other teams who had put up impressive numbers against the Patriots found they meant nothing to a team that concerned itself with only one thing - winning and hitting you in the face.

''We shocked the world!'' Lawyer Milloy hollered. ''We shocked the world! Week in and week out we have somebody who steps up.''

Last night, their entire defense stepped up. They held Marshall Faulk to 76 yards rushing and although the Rams piled up a pile of passing yards, they also piled up turnovers, fumbling once and throwing two interceptions to contribute to 17 of New England's points.

''We wanted to get up there and disrupt them at the line of scrimmage,'' said Law, who played like the game's MVP even if the award went to Brady. ''This was a man-to-man game. No one thought we could do that, but we did.''

New England understood it had to be aggressive defensively but also under control, a difficult balancing act against any team, but particularly so against an offense as explosive as the Rams'.

In the first game between the two in November, the Patriots blitzed repeatedly and although they made plays they also got their fingers burned just enough to cost them the outcome. So this time, New England often used five and six defensive backs to confuse Warner, jamming his receivers at the line of scrimmage and forcing him to hold the ball longer than he wanted.

As Warner tried to wait on deep routes to come open, New England began to pressure him into mistakes that would prove fatal. Interceptions by Law and Otis Smith directly led to half of New England's points and nickel cornerback Antwan Harris's forced fumble, when he blasted Proehl from the side, led to another score, a scenario that was exactly what the Patriots needed to defeat an opponent that man for man may have been more talented.

That meant nothing because the definition of TEAM is not a man-for-man breakdown. It is bigger than any individual and while the Rams may have more gifted individuals, New England had a more physical team of street fighters who won the battle with a defense that pounded the Rams into submission.

That is not to say St. Louis surrendered, because it did not. It was beaten into submission primarily by a Patriots' defense that chased the Rams down and beat them up at every opportunity.

Proehl's fumble was a case in point. It came late in the second quarter with St. Louis trying to get out of its own territory with 90 seconds left in the first half. By then Law, Milloy, and the rest of the defense had delivered a half-dozen bone-rattling hits on St. Louis's receivers, and when Proehl caught Warner's pass at the 40-yard line for a 15-yard gain he saw safety Tebucky Jones preparing to deliver another shot.

Proehl lowered his head and was dropping to the ground to avoid the hit and because of it never saw Harris coming in from the side like a heat-seeking missile. Harris blasted his head and shoulder into the ball as Proehl fell and it popped free, and Terrell Buckley covered it at the Rams' 40. Five plays later, Brady lofted a perfect 8-yard pass to David Patten for a touchdown that made it 14-3 at halftime.

''We pressed them man, man, man, man,'' Smith said. ''That's what we said we were going to do and that's what we did.''

What they did was hold off St. Louis's offense long enough to give their team a chance to win. What they did was put just enough pressure on Warner to force him into several mistakes that turned into points and, as he admitted, ''in the end cost us the win.

''It was those few turnovers, those few mistakes we made, that they turned into points,'' Warner said. ''Those turned out to be 17 points for New England and a world championship for them. It was our mistakes that did us in today.''

When Warner said that he made his final mistake of the night. It wasn't the Rams' mistakes, it was mistakes forced upon them by a New England defense that was hellbent on beating up the best team in football.

They succeeded, which makes them the best team in football. Nobody can argue that point anymore because the New England Patriots have the trophy to prove it.

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 2/4/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.