I won't say I told you so, oh, too late I already did!
Pats self destruct, thats a new way to lose they haven't tried recently. Hey its been showing all year long, this Pats team is not as good as they were just a year ago with or without their starting secondary. They are a good team capable of winning a playoff game or two but they are not the dominating force we have seen for three of the past four years. Next year they are one year older and will likely lose more veteran talent to free agency and retirement. Hopefully injuries won't hurt them again but if they do they will have to put in whatever backups they have and hope that lady luck smiles on them as it has so often over the past several years.
I agree that pass interference call on Samuel should have been a no-call and it did lead to Bronco points. But to say it cost the Pats the game? I'm surprised Brady isn't crying "disrespect"
at the notion. First of all, this game was won by 14 points not 7. In addition not one Patriot Fan I watched the game with left with their heads down at that point, they fully assumed Brady would work his magic and bring the Pats' back as he has done so many times before, not start throwing the ball to the other team.
The Pats had every oppurtunity to get back into this game all the way down to the wire and they just didn't do it. Instead Brady threw 2 INT's, one in the end zone
which was returned 100 yards and set up another Bronco TD. Game changing play? Look no further (and it was reviewed and found to be the right call). However you look at who deserves more credit for it, Brady blew it and Champ Bailey made an excellent play to pick him off.
The Pats hardly "dominated"
this game, they gained 77 yards rushing with Corey Dillon rushing the ball only 13 times. Only 21 total rushing attempts compared to 36 passes for the Pats. Poor play calling by Belichik, glaringly displayed by the 3/11 third down conversion ratio and 0/1 on fourth. Of course Brady did make a number of bad throws behind his receivers or several feet in front of them at their feet so maybe its his fault. He threw for 346 yards compared to Plummers 197 but he also threw 2 picks compared to Plummers 1. With both throwing about even as far as accuracy went, 20/36 for Brady or roughly 55.5% and 15/26 for Plummer or roughly 58%, Plummer came away with slightly higher QB rating because he didn't cost his team the game.
Special teams is the part of the game many people tend to discount when determining how well a team played. The Pats fumbled twice on special teams, three times in all, ball handling grade= F. Denvers punting unit pinned the Pats' inside their twenty 3 times, something the Pats' were not able to reciprocate on even once. Field position game goes to Denver. Time of Posession in favor of Denver by 3+ minutes. But the moment that I thought to myself the Pats are done was when Vinatieri missed a FG
!!
All the small things that make a huge difference were seen to by Denver and neglected by the Pats. Pats DL Richard Seymour said "You've got to give Denver credit for causing some of those turnovers, I don't care what anyone says." Christian Fauria added "They did what they had to do to win, usually we are in that position." Brady called Baileys game turning pick a "Great play." Yes indeed Tom, the kind of play that wins a game. Sound words of wisdom coming from the Pats themselves who to their credit I haven't heard crying about their sound defeat. So Denver feasted off of mistakes? The Pats had to make them for there to be a feast and the Broncos had to show up for dinner. My how delicious those mistakes were!
