2004 New England Patriots season
The 2004 season was the New England Patriots' 35th in the National Football League (NFL), their 45th overall and their fifth under head coach Bill Belichick. They finished with their second consecutive 14–2 record before advancing to and winning Super Bowl XXXIX, their third Super Bowl victory in four years, and their last until 2014. They were, until the 2023 Kansas City Chiefs did so in Super Bowl LVIII, the most recent team to repeat as NFL Champions, and only the second to win 3 Super Bowls in a 4-year span (the other being the Dallas Cowboys from the 1992 to 1995 seasons).[1]
2004 New England Patriots season
14–2
1st AFC East
Won Divisional Playoffs
(vs. Colts) 20–3
Won AFC Championship
(at Steelers) 41–27
Won Super Bowl XXXIX
(vs. Eagles) 24–21
DE Richard Seymour (1st team)
K Adam Vinatieri (1st team)
LB Tedy Bruschi (2nd team)
SS Rodney Harrison (2nd team)
Following a Super Bowl win in 2003, the Patriots looked to improve their running game in the offseason. They replaced Antowain Smith with longtime but disgruntled Cincinnati Bengals running back Corey Dillon, who was acquired in a trade days before the 2004 NFL Draft; Dillon would rush for a career-high 1,635 yards in 2004. Winning their first six games of the season, the Patriots set the NFL record for consecutive regular season victories (18), which was later broken by the 2006–2008 Patriots (21), and consecutive regular season and playoff victories (21) before losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 31. In that game, Pro Bowl cornerback Ty Law was lost for the season with a foot injury. Combined with the loss of other starting cornerback Tyrone Poole two weeks earlier, the Patriots were forced to complete the regular season and playoffs by using second-year cornerback Asante Samuel, undrafted free agent Randall Gay, and longtime Patriots wide receiver Troy Brown at cornerback, among others.
With a 14–2 record and the second seed in the AFC playoffs, the Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts 20–3 at home in the playoffs for the second-straight year, holding the Colts' top offense to three points. The Patriots then defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road, 41–27, in the AFC Championship Game. Prior to the Patriots' matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX, Eagles wide receiver Freddie Mitchell said he did not know the names of the Patriots' defensive backs, which was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Patriots' "replacement" secondary.[2] The Patriots would go on to defeat the Eagles 24–21 in their second straight Super Bowl victory and third championship in four seasons, cementing their status as the NFL sports dynasty of the 2000s.[3][4][5] Despite being eventually overshadowed by their 2007 counterparts, the 2004 Patriots are still considered one of the greatest NFL teams of all time.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] In 2019, the NFL on its 100th anniversary ranked the 2004 Patriots as the No. 16 greatest NFL team of all time, the highest ranked New England team that won the Super Bowl.[14][15][16] Until their 2016 team won the Super Bowl, no team with more than 13 wins would win the Super Bowl. Analyst Aaron Schatz, creator of the DVOA metric, listed the 2004 Patriots as the greatest Super Bowl winning team of the Brady–Belichick era using DVOA, in addition to being ranked seventh all-time among all Super Bowl winning teams.[17]