The New England Patriots' Super Bowl victory in 2001 surprised many. Their head coach also seemed a bit surprised by their feat, too.

Bill Belichick said the Patriots' Super Bowl XXXVI victory was ahead of the plan he set when he became the team's coach in 2000, he revealed during an interview with The 33rd Team.

“When the opportunity came in 2000, even though this team was nowhere near the team that we left in ’96, it had declined quite a bit, there were still a few pillars here that we could build with,” Belichick told The 33rd Team. “And I’d say by ’03 — even though we won in ’01 — by ’03 this was a pretty good football team in all three phases of the game. It kind of took the same basic four-year window that it took in Cleveland. Again, we were fortunate to win in ’01, but I’d say by ’03, ’04, we had one of the better teams in the league.”

Belichick isn't necessarily wrong in his assessment of the 2001 Patriots. They went 5-11 the season prior and began the 2001 season 0-2 with Drew Bledsoe suffering a life-threatening injury in Week 2. That led to Tom Brady starting, and while he went on to become the most successful player in NFL history, he wasn't great right away. He didn't light up the stat sheet and the Patriots were even 5-5 at one point during the season.

New England eventually turned it on, though, and went on a run. It won its final six games of the regular season before coming back from a 10-point deficit against the Oakland Raiders to win the AFC Divisional game 16-13 in overtime. The Patriots also won the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-17, a game in which Brady got hurt and they needed a pair of special teams touchdowns to win.

New England pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history a week later, beating the St. Louis Rams 20-17 as 14-point underdogs. Before emerging as one of the NFL's most unlikely champions ever, the Patriots ranked 19th in overall offense and 24th in overall defense that season.

When New England won the Super Bowl again two years later, the team was noticeably better. The Patriots went 14-2 in 2003, with the seventh-best scoring offense top scoring defense in the league.