Tom Curran’s “Top 100 Plays of the Belichick Era” is already fantastic

Musicians frequently describe an amazing song as an "I wish I wrote that" song.  Whether you’re into Adele or Metallica, Kendrick Lamar or whoever played Bonnaroo this year, a great song that hits you like a Jamie Collins A-gap blitz just makes you think "Dang, I wish I had thought of that, cause this is pure awesomeness".

Enter Comcast Sports Network New England and their veteran Patriots reporter/guru Tom Curran, who decided to pass the summer by counting down the "Top 100 plays of the Belichick era", and numbers 100-86 went live today to help you get through your Monday without actually doing any work.  The qualifier he sneaks in there is that it’s a countdown of "100 plays that shaped a dynasty", meaning the great times are right in there with the faceplants.

It’s basically a big old plate of Patriots nachos, with some awesome memories from back in the day and a few plays we’d probably all prefer to forget (much like the feeling in your stomach after eating said plate of nachos).

You owe it to yourself to go read the whole thing, because Tom Curran has the kind of insight that only a guy that’s covered the team for almost 2 decades can give you, but here’s what’s on the list so far.

#100 – 2001, the David Patten-to-Troy-Brown touchdown pass against the Colts

#99 – 2007, the Tom-Brady-to-Randy-Moss-to-Brady-to-Jabar-Gaffney touchdown against the trash-talking Steelers

#98 – 2009, when Josh McDaniels came back to town as the Broncos head coach and beat the Patriots in overtime

#97 – 2012, Tom Brady hits Donte Stallworth for a TD after the Texans wore letterman jackets to Gillette Stadium

#96 – 2013, when Brady and Aaron Dobson couldn’t connect on the goal line and Brady went ballistic

#95 – 2012, Russell Wilson throws a 46-yard touchdown to Sidney Rice to beat New England by 1 point

#94 – 2012, Dont’a Hightower scores a touchdown off a Chandler Jones strip-sack

#93 – 2011, Aaron Hernandez scores his Super Bowl touchdown

#92 – 2010, Gronk fumbles on the 3-yard line versus the Browns

#91 – 2005, Matt Cassell throws a pick and the Chargers beat the snot out of New England

#90 – 2011, Eli Manning and the Giants beat the Pats with a last-second touchdown pass

#89 – 2016, Stephen Gostkowski misses a PAT kick after making 523 straight extra point kicks

#88 – 2013, the Pats lose to the Jets because of a little-known kicking game rule change

#87 – 2014, Chris Jones blocks the Jets’ game-winning field goal attempt

#86 – 2015, Dion Lewis snags a one-handed catch and takes it to the house against Dallas

Oh, and in the intro, Curran points out that Vince Lombardi coached for 9 years in Green Bay, Bill Walsh coached the 49ers for 10 years, and Bill Belichick has coached the Patriots for seventeen seasons.

That is, quite simply, bananas – Belichick has coached this team almost as long as Bill Walsh and Vince Lombardi coached their respective great teams, put together.

Numbers 85-1 on the countdown can’t come soon enough.

Check it out here.