Ivan

2011 SB Champs New York Giants-Week 15 Loss to Washington 23-10

2010 SB Champs Green Bay-Week 15 Loss to New England 31-27

2009 SB Champs New Orleans Week 15 Loss to Dallas 24-17, Week 16 Loss to Tampa Bay 20-17, Week 17 Loss to Carolina 23-10

2008 SB Champs Pittsburgh-Week 16 Loss to Tennessee 31-14

2007 SB Champs New York Giants-Week 17 Loss to New England 38-35

2006 SB Champs Indy-Week 16 Loss to Houston 27-24



Late season losses in no way indicate that a team is going to win the Super Bowl, however they also in no way end a really good team's hopes for a Lombardi. This is a really good football team and they have shown it all season. Last night's loss sucks, they all do, but the real season is just about to begin and that loss won't harm them in any way when it does.

BlueThunder

Everything that could go wrong for he Pats did so in one game.

Watch the tape, fix it and move on.

Get everyone healthy and come out firing on all cylinders and nobody can keep up.

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Ivan

Pretty much how i see it. Sloppy game, watch it, fix it, put it behind them.

PatriotSeven

I agree. The only thing that sucks about last night to me is that the last 2 games are less meaningful to us now with us no longer being in control of our seeding destiny and I think Tom's probably lost the MVP race.

That's a bummer and the only thing that will really make up for it, is a Superbowl MVP instead, another ring on Tom's finger and another Lombardi in our trophy case.

BoTown

Adding...

2004 SB Champs New England - Week 15 Loss @ Miami 29-28

These things happen, we can only be glad it didn't happen in the playoffs. Here's to finishing strong and a return to the Superdome, whether it takes 2 or 3 playoff games to do it.

BrainTrust66

Very true - and for anyone who's ready to jump off the bridge because the Pats likely won't get a bye, look at how many of those teams listed went to the SB without a bye. All but two, I believe (2008 Steelers, 2009 Saints).

There is a path here...Pats just need to clean some stuff up.

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"The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win."
- Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.

"It's not a lie if you believe it"
- George Costanza

mayoclinic

Also consider:

- The 2011 Giants lost to the 49ers and Packers but beat both en route to the SB
- The 2010 Packers lost to Atlanta, then blew them out in the playoffs
- The 2004 Pats lost to the Steelers but won convincingly on the road in the AFCCG
- Both the 2001 Pats and 2007 Giants beat teams in the SB to who they had list in the regular season

Pats imploded. 49ers played well, Pats imploded, and Pats still had a shot. Move on.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

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IllegalContact

while a win would have been real nice, the fact that the pats provided plenty of game plan on how to make the niners defense look stupid by scoring 31 in a half, shows that if the pats showed up for the niners the way they showed up for the texans, the result would have been the same......

the niners didn't stop the pats, the pats stopped the pats.....

do you see solder rag-dolling aldon smith when justin smith could not get a grab of him?

my perspective is that I hope this slap in the face gives the pats enough motivation to last 6 games.....but then again, if the ravens lose again, the pats may have nothing to play for week 17 and could give players who need it a bye week the week before the broncos and texans get theirs.

also, whoever gets to play the pats which is likely going to be the broncos, sitting a week will hurt them

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“ I think good coaches will coach with the personnel they have, and if you only have one (good) linebacker, you’re not going to play a 3–4. ”
—Hank Bullough, who installed one of the first 3–4 defenses with the New England Patriots.

dales804

Clearly the season is not over. It is just disappointing that they probably won't end up with a bye. Stranger things have happened, though. Maybe KC will somehow surprise DEN in week 17.

Good post, Ivan. I always think of that 2007 game @ NYG and how things changed in the Super Bowl. Nice to see other similarities in that list, too.

Ice_Ice_Brady

I think the Week 15 thing is more of a statistical anomaly, but the point is taken that a late season loss is not a death blow.

What I do think is very true is that teams that have won a tough game on the road are generally more battle-tested and confident than teams that haven't. I think the Giants had an advantage over the Pats in both Super Bowls having crawled through the gates of hell to get there. The Super Bowl to them was a neutral site; to the Pats it would an uncomfortable purgatory without 60,000 screaming fans willing them to victory.

Even before the Super Bowl last year, there was almost an unsettling feeling that I had that the Pats still hadn't quite done something. They hadn't really gone into another team's stadium and taken the life out of the crowd like so many SB champions had.

My favorite Patriots game of all-time was the '04 AFCCG against the Steelers.

Anyway, the price of earning one of these confidence-building, championship moulding wins (and one that would be so critical for this defense) is high. Winning on the road is difficult, and the Pats last road playoff game was in 2006, that horrible loss to the Colts, and the year before that, 2005, the meltdown to the Broncos. Clearly winning in Denver would be quite a challenge, but if they could win that game, I think this team wins it all.