What are your favorite moments from the 2011 season?

[tobias funke]

I know it's chic to believe it's a 'wasted season' if you don't win the Super Bowl, but I've never really thought that way. It's not about one day in February, it's about sitting down for 3 hours every week, cheering your team on for 4 months. I think it can be easy to forget that, because we're being conditioned to move on from the past immediately. The previous season gets broken down statistically, and is reduced to being referred to numerically.

For that reason, I thought maybe it would be nice to hear your favorite memories of the 2011 season.

Here are the first 10 things that come to my mind, hopefully getting some of the obvious ones out of the way:

- Gronk drags Redskins. I think this would be a pretty popular one. His preseason gronkdrag of Laurinitis should be on the list, too.
- Gronk channels Gumby while landing on his neck. Still very tough to watch, but once I'm watching, I can't look away.
- Gronk eats an energy bar.
- Vince picks off two passes.
- Wes Welker comes up with an utterly incredible diving fingertip catch in Denver on the goal line. For all the **** he'll take for the SB drop, this catch showed off how great of a receiver he really is.
- Gronkowski tips the ball to himself in mid-air against the Broncos in the playoffs.
- The back-to-back comebacks vs. the Bills & the Dolphins.
- Ninkovich having his yearly multiple-interception game against a divisional opponent.
- Sterling Moore vs. Lee Evans. I'll file Cundiff's miss under this one, also.
- Brady's touchdown pass to Hernandez to beat the Cowboys.

 

[Frezo]

Watching the D chase Tebow 20 yards deep into his back field late in the Denver game.
Watching Gronk land on his head in the endzone and then get up to spike the ball.

 

[Jackson 2]

Watching the replay of "Sugg's a Thug" mouthing the words "Oh my God" (as if any deity in her/his right mind would ever listen to that a-hole) as Cundiff's kick hooked wide. I'm laughing even as I type this remembering...

 

[PatriotReign]

Beating those putrid Ratbirds in the AFC Championship game.

 

[supafly]

If I HAD to vote for one moment that I felt was 'the' turning point of the season, it would be the NYJ primetime game where we fielded some no-names on defense that the network crew didn't even have pictures for.

That was a must-win game having come off of 2 straight losses to the Steelers and NYG.

That Jets game (#2) was probably the biggest turning point of the season, and it allowed us to remain the team to beat in the division, as many were predicting the 'changing of the guard' that night.

Later on in the season, I feel that the DEN game was also a very defining moment, as they came back from an early deficit to stop the Broncos cold in their tracks and prove the whole world 'wrong' once again. That momentum allowed them to carry some good vibes down the stretch towards wrapping up HFA going into the playoffs, and also probably gave them some momentum towards their 2nd meeting in the divisional round here in Foxborough when January rolled around.

2 defining moments that happened at key times during the season.

 

[Nikolai]

In no order...

1. Gronk against the Skins. He made two really nice plays in that game.
2. BJGE paying his respect to MHK.
3. Kyle Love blowing up Lilja. He has at least one of those hits a year. Eye-popping.
4. Exposing Tebow in Denver.
5. Wilfork's first interception. I know he had two, but that first one was just sweet.
6. Tom Brady's punt.
7. WWW's 99-yarder against Miami.
8. The comeback against Miami. I was watching in a room full of Pats haters, and to hear the sweet silence after three quarters of blabber was...cathartic.

 

[tobias funke]

I completely forgot about the punt.

 

[BradyManny]

It's truly unfortunate that the depressing ending of the season makes looking back on even the great moments of 2011 a painful act. For me, at least.

The #1 moment for me was without a doubt the Brady-to-Hernandez TD pass in the Super Bowl and then Brady pointing to the MHK patch. I would've bet my life at that point they were going to win that game.

 

[BradyManny]

I know it's chic to believe it's a 'wasted season' if you don't win the Super Bowl, but I've never really thought that way. It's not about one day in February, it's about sitting down for 3 hours every week, cheering your team on for 4 months. I think it can be easy to forget that, because we're being conditioned to move on from the past immediately. The previous season gets broken down statistically, and is reduced to being referred to numerically.

I agree with this sentiment, and it's rational - and right. But it doesn't translate to feeling for me. Logically, I know we should be proud of how far this team got as it continues to rebuild, and as it fought injuries and a weak roster in the secondary. But emotionally, it's impossible for me to look back without agonizing over how close we were to something I'd just about kill for.

 

[The_Chuck_Rule]

The Chicago Bears "Snow Game"...and listening to Brian Urlacher's comments after it.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

The Chicago Bears "Snow Game"...and listening to Brian Urlacher's comments after it.

Pretty sure that was in 2010

 

[Spergon Wynn]

Winning the AFC Championship. Too bad the worst point came two weeks later.

The #1 moment for me was without a doubt the Brady-to-Hernandez TD pass in the Super Bowl and then Brady pointing to the MHK patch. I would've bet my life at that point they were going to win that game.

Yep. Same here. I was thinking to myself "how many times has the team that scored a TD to end the first half and scored a TD to begin the second won the game?"

d%#*!@t...

 

[mayoclinic]

Albert Haynesworth clotheslining Reggie Bush:

Albert Haynesworth tackles Reggie Bush with one arm - YouTube

Almost made the Haynesworth trade worthwhile.

 

[Ron Sellers]

If I HAD to vote for one moment that I felt was 'the' turning point of the season, it would be the NYJ primetime game where we fielded some no-names on defense that the network crew didn't even have pictures for.

That was a must-win game having come off of 2 straight losses to the Steelers and NYG.

That Jets game (#2) was probably the biggest turning point of the season, and it allowed us to remain the team to beat in the division, as many were predicting the 'changing of the guard' that night.

I absolutely agrre, that was definitely the turning point in the season - not just for the Pats, but for the Jets too.

The Pats were 5-3 and had lost two in a row. They just lost at home in the game that Haynesorth was benched and then cut. The Pats had held opponents to less than 21 points just twice and the defensive yardage stats and rankings are well documented.

Now the Pats were going to have to go on the road against the team that knocked them out of the playoffs the previous year and had gone further in the playoffs than the Pats had in each of the two previous seasons. After losing three straight the Jets seemed to have turned it around, from giving up 30+ points in each of those three losses to allowing an average of 13 points in three straight wins. At that point there was a three-way tie between the Pats, Jets and Bills at 5-3 but the Jets seemed to be headed up while the Pats appeared to be heading down. Many Patriots fans as well as local media members had written this game off before it was even played, assuming the Jets would win - and were openly questioning if the Pats could even make the playoffs as a wildcard.

When the Jets took the lead in the 2nd quarter the doom and gloomers were out in full force on Pats message boards. But the much maligned Patriots defense came through with three turnovers, the cherry on top being Rob Ninkovich's pick six for the final points in a 21-point win.

After the Jets had taken that 2nd quarter lead the Pats outscored them 31-7 the rest of the way, and took sole possession of first place in the AFCE. For the Patriots that was the springboard to a ten game winning streak. The loss sent the Jets into a tailspin; they lost the following week to the Broncos (who had started the season 1-4), and from the Pats game forward they went just 3-5; it was as if they totally lost their confidence and focus after that game.

 

[MrNathanDrake]

1. Every moment from the AFC Championship game vs. the Ravens. Amazing game.

2. Gronk scoring a TD vs. the Jets and damn near spiking the ball on one of their players heads

3. Welker 99 yard TD

4. Nate Solder destroying Cameran Wake in week 1

 

[Hardboiled]

Pretty sure that was in 2010

It was. And I'm still cold. But a great away game.

 

[Hardboiled]

The #1 moment for me was without a doubt the Brady-to-Hernandez TD pass in the Super Bowl and then Brady pointing to the MHK patch. I would've bet my life at that point they were going to win that game.

You ain't alone brother. I also thought of that play thinking about his thread.

 

[MP-Logick]

14 plays, 96 yards for a go-ahead touchdown. Because we lost the game, that drive won't be remembered as one of the greatest Super Bowl drives of all time. But it really was.

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

After the MHK moments,

Brady spiking the "O" of Broncos, in the endzone

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

All of the jets losses