Originally Posted by Harry Yelreh

If Tom Brady plays ordinary Sunday, the Patriots lose by at least 3 TDs.

If that sounds laughable, I'd point out that the league MVP played a much more ordinary game for a much more complete team and lost on his home field to the Giants by 17.

Originally Posted by E Belichick Unum

I don't care about Green Bay, I only care about how the Patriots play, and they played well enough to lose the biggest game in America. Wes Welker is the teams best offensive player, he is usually a clutch player, but on Sunday he dropped the biggest pass he ever should have caught.

This is a personel issue as much as a pressure issue. Put a burner on the outside who can catch the ball and the outcome is probably different. Put a Champ Baily type player at defensive back or Ed Reed type at safety and the defense probably wins the game. Put a little pressure on Eli throughout the entire game, instead of just in the first quarter and he doesn't have time to hit Manningham on the sidelines.

In the end, it comes down to making plays. The Giants made them when the Patriots didn't. They weren't that much better than the Pats, but when it counted they had players come up big. The Patriots would probably have won the game had Welker made that catch. The pass could have been better, but it wasn't that bad, Welker just plain dropped it.

Originally Posted by PATRIOTSFANINPA

I kind of find it funny when people say that if we had a burner on the outside we might have won.

I distinctly remember having a burner in the 2007 Super Bowl called Randy Moss.....and we even had a better defense then but we didn't win that game either.....Why? Because even that 2007 defense failed to hold the lead.

In the end it comes down to running the ball effectively,playing great D,consuming time off the clock and creating or jumping on turnovers.

You can win 12-14-16 games every regular season but if you game goes the way it has in the past 2 Super Bowls it's likely to have similar results.

It's time for a change of philosophy in the playoffs,less on Brady's shoulders to will the team to victory for god sakes is a start.

Originally Posted by E Belichick Unum

Since 2007 the Patriots have consistently played small in big games. Their offense has been cautious, TB12 has been ordinary. I thought that maybe they had gotten past that tendency this year, but when it counted they failed to live up to the moment, but they showed that they are close against the Jets.

Against the Jets, in the second game, they were HUGE! They played flawless football, beat the hell out of the Jets on both sides of the ball and generally played like Champions, making us forget that they played small the game before against the Giants. Against the Ravens they played well, but still allowed them to drive the length of the field to miss a game tying field goal. Brady played well between the 20's, but in the money zone on the field he stank, and the bomb was a horrible decision on his part, as bad as any I have seen him make throughout his career. Against the Giants in the SB, the Pats played well at points, their defense played very well for 55 minutes, but when the money was on the line they choaked up a chicken bone.

I bring this pain up to point out how badly Belichick has managed the roster and how flawed this team has become. On offense they have two tight ends who are All Pro quality, Wes Welker, despite his drop, is the real deal and the rest of the skill players are Jags. On defense their front four are pretty good, their libebacking core is solid but slow and their secondary is the worst in the league. Their pass rush disappears for long periods of the game. If not for the coaching genius of Belichick this would be a 4 and 12 team, maybe 6 and 10.

Welker dropped a ball that would have won the Super Bowl, but Brach dropped one right after that would have given the Pats a first down. Bardy launches a bomb to Gonk, and he lets the LB intercept it instead of making sure he couldn't. Hernandez drops a pass across the middle on the last drive wasting 5 seconds. Belichick challenges a catch that all replays show was a catch. Mankins gives up a sack in the last minute of the game. All of those are examples people playing small in big situations.

I am really high on the Pats future, but this team was so flawed that even making the playoffs was a miracle. The defense needs to be rebuilt and the offense needs a deep threat, and maybe a running back who can, you know, actually run the ball. Josh McDanials came up small in the last Super Bowl, so here hoping that he learned from that failure. When the Pats won the first time, the play calling came up big, and the bit players on the team delivered under pressure. The next two had a defense that allowed the offense to play conservatively when it had to and rely on field goals at the end. This team has a bad defense and the play calling was pretty timid.

We are at a fork between really good and just ok. The choice is for GM Bill to make. Two firsts and two seconds are a lot of ammo, if Bill decides to use them. This is a year to use them all, and maybe trade next years for the missing link.

Originally Posted by Ron Sellers

I know Sunday's loss is disappointing, but let's try to have at least an ounce of perspective here. 97% of all teams end up not winning the Super Bowl each and every year.

Originally Posted by PATRIOTSFANINPA

I kind of find it funny when people say that if we had a burner on the outside we might have won.

I distinctly remember having a burner in the 2007 Super Bowl called Randy Moss.....and we even had a better defense then but we didn't win that game either.....Why? Because even that 2007 defense failed to hold the lead.

In the end it comes down to running the ball effectively,playing great D,consuming time off the clock and creating or jumping on turnovers.

You can win 12-14-16 games every regular season but if you game goes the way it has in the past 2 Super Bowls it's likely to have similar results.

It's time for a change of philosophy in the playoffs,less on Brady's shoulders to will the team to victory for god sakes is a start.

Originally Posted by E Belichick Unum

The Patriots do not have the required mix of players needed to beat good teams in big games. They become very predictable, as was shown when the deep pass was covered on the Patriots first offensive play. Wes Welker is a very good slot reciever, but he can't consistently get open on go routes. Look at the rest of the recieving corps; Dione Branch wasn't very fast when he was drafted, Ocho wasn't used, TiQuan Underwood was a street free agent. In 2007 Randy Moss was a high mantainence reciever, a guy who had to get the ball thrown his way or he would sulk, plus he was very talented. He was the best option on most plays. If the Patriots could ever develop a wide out, he wouldn't be as big a diva and wouldn't demand to be the center of the offensive scheme.

The Pats were one impact player away from another Super Bowl, maybe even a healthy Gronkowski away. Take your pick, WR, DB, OLB, DE, any one of them would have made a difference on Sunday.