Belichick's formula for winning was strong defense and in the end be down less than one score and count on Brady (and good kicking) to win games in the end with a drive to win it, you can see it in their first two Super Bowl wins played to a T yet over the years Brady became a better QB and was scoring more earlier and didn't always need to make the drive or in the case of losing to the Giants, Eli did them one better by winning with late heroics because the Giants D help the Pats O in check.