I remember we sucked for the first long while but put it together some late, am I off?
I haven't rewatched that game in a while, but watching some playoff games from late 90s to early 2ks a few years ago reminded me of two things:
1 players on good teams executed better back then (with the exception of dbs who for some reason are all just better now toy eye, but it could be impacted by item 2 below). I think it was because they'd stay on the same teams w the same coaches for longer, and did more and harder practicing. Not saying they were all better athletes, just better individual execution.
2 teams played so simple and coaches seemed to push matchups vs higher level sophisticated team ball stuff today. Play action, blitzes, etc. All of that seemed to result in much bigger results when done vs today. It was more about Willie's and Joe's than xs and os back then imo. I think coverage concepts and disguising happened less, and prolly dbs are better athletes now too. Before Dion the word always was if a cb could catch he'd be a wr, but now I don't think that's the case.
I think the Tampa 2 d, robbing the big play, really accelerated the change. Total team stuff seemed to be dominating and then everyone had to adjust. Before that the west. Coast O would make a d look silly, getting a team in base d and just making easy plays for the o.
This also reminded me of how much I dislike the pats for just being smarter than other teams.