Thing is, it should have been two consecutive years losing. New England didn't win last year. On the contrary, Atlanta lost the game. Philly didn't duplicate Atlanta's mistake cuz they mostly played smart and not too aggressive at the end
There is no other team in professional sports as lucky as the Patriots have been over the years. They never should have won that game in Seattle when the Seahawks had first-and-goal from the 1-yard line (with one of the league's best running backs) to win the game and instead went for the pass that wound up getting intercepted. They never should have won that game last year when Atlanta made some bone-headed moves which led to them blowing away that huge lead. And they got dominated by Philly this year but nearly came back to tie it. Finally their string of great luck ended!!