Patriots - Biggest Collapse in Conference Championship History

[Born in the Bronx]

I guess it took a few days to sink in, but the Patriots were up 21-3 and Brady had the ball at midfield.

Brady and the offense also had the ball and the lead with around 3.00 minutes left and they were unable to run out the clock.

I greatly respect the Patriots, but I wonder if this loss will have any lingering effects. Sometimes bad losses are the harbinger of bad things to come. I wonder how we will all look at this loss 10 years from now. It's the biggest collapse in conference championship history, but will it be one of those defining moments that changes the whole direction of the franchise?

John Freidah (in today's Providence Journal) has the sick feeling that Tom Brady has played in his last Super Bowl.

 

[patsfaninpa]

About as much as it affected your baseball team. They went out and won their division title in 05 and 06 after the greatest collapse in team sports history. Pats will be fine. I'd be more worried if I were a Colts fan.

 

[The Predator]

I guess it took a few days to sink in, but the Patriots were up 21-3 and Brady had the ball at midfield.

Brady and the offense also had the ball and the lead with around 3.00 minutes left and they were unable to run out the clock.

I greatly respect the Patriots, but I wonder if this loss will have any lingering effects. Sometimes bad losses are the harbinger of bad things to come. I wonder how we will all look at this loss 10 years from now. It's the biggest collapse in conference championship history, but will it be one of those defining moments that changes the whole direction of the franchise?

John Freidah (in today's Providence Journal) has the sick feeling that Tom Brady has played in his last Super Bowl.

Seriously? When did this happen? I had no idea.

 

[Born in the Bronx]

About as much as it affected your baseball team. They went out and won their division title in 05 and 06 after the greatest collapse in team sports history. Pats will be fine. I'd be more worried if I were a Colts fan.

I think it affected the Yankees somewhat, but baseball and football are like apples and oranges.

 

[buddhaman]

Needed to run the ball more and the DB's played soft and gave too much ground in second half.....Asante must have played off of Harrison by 10 yards thje whole seccond half......The Mugging no call in the endzone didnt help......and the drops of 2 potential scores by Reche were icebreakers.....


...................................................................................Buddhaman

PS.....Manning did not win this game ....our beloved PATS lost it.......

 

[WestPat]

if the coach of this team was anybody but BB, and the core different people other than Brady, Seymour...and co. I would have been worried, but there is a fire and a drive to win in this organization, and they have sound future plans, and unlike baseball, football teams change from season except for the core mentioned above..so no I am not worried that Tom Brady will never be in a SB again.

 

[JoeSixPat]

We've seen the Colts come back from behind against the Patriots like that before - so that's nothing new.

Statistically, when the Pats have the lead with 3 minutes remaining I don't think they hardly ever lose

But I know I looked at the clock and said "that's a lot of time... too much time" when the Colts had the ball so its really not a shock to me...

...same with the fact that Brady had 1 minute to score a touch down - Brady's good but that's pretty damn hard to do

What's more interesting is that, if that bobbled ball had come down in a Patriot player's hand, we win the game. The fact that the Colts recovered helped them seal the victory.

That - and any number of other small plays - determined the outcome of the game. I guess I just have a bit of perspective and don't feel all that bad about losing the way we did.

The Colts played Patriots-like football - and the Patriots didn't pay half bad themselves. While that's surprising I can't help but have some respect for that.

 

[pepper03]

What's more interesting is that, if that bobbled ball had come down in a Patriot player's hand, we win the game. The fact that the Colts recovered helped them seal the victory.

That - and any number of other small plays - determined the outcome of the game. I guess I just have a bit of perspective and don't feel all that bad about losing the way we did.

The one Wayne bobbled? If the Pats did recover that was coming back because of the roughing call on TBC. Was there another one?

It was shocking to see the Pats lose like they did, never expected it with this team, and I really still don't believe it happened.

 

[Fanfrom1960]

I guess it took a few days to sink in, but the Patriots were up 21-3 and Brady had the ball at midfield.

Brady and the offense also had the ball and the lead with around 3.00 minutes left and they were unable to run out the clock.

I greatly respect the Patriots, but I wonder if this loss will have any lingering effects. Sometimes bad losses are the harbinger of bad things to come. I wonder how we will all look at this loss 10 years from now. It's the biggest collapse in conference championship history, but will it be one of those defining moments that changes the whole direction of the franchise?

John Freidah (in today's Providence Journal) has the sick feeling that Tom Brady has played in his last Super Bowl.

A lot of people compare Brady to Joe Montana. After Joe won 2 super bowls, he and the 49ers were one and done in their next three playoff appearances. Joe also had mid-season back surgery in 1986,, which a lot of people said would end his career. He came back and won two more super bowls. How can anybody say anything like Freidah at this point? Foolish if they do.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Let's see, the Pats forced two fumbles in the second half, both recovered by the Colts. The one would have gone back due to the penalty, but without the penalty help recovering one would have pretty much sealed Indy's fate.

Smells like a total collapse alright, pretty close call for an Indy team playing at home against a flu ravaged club with two cross-country flights under it's belt. Indy won the game - life sucks and you prepare for the draft.

 

[Jimke]

Rather than point fingers and blame Reche Caldwell, Laurence

Maroney, our linebackers, and the officials, let's admit that our

beloved team fell apart in the second half. A team that allows

32 points in one half of a football game does not deserve to be

in the Superbowl game.

 

[lobster]

I greatly respect the Patriots, but I wonder if this loss will have any lingering effects. Sometimes bad losses are the harbinger of bad things to come. I wonder how we will all look at this loss 10 years from now. It's the biggest collapse in conference championship history, but will it be one of those defining moments that changes the whole direction of the franchise?

John Freidah (in today's Providence Journal) has the sick feeling that Tom Brady has played in his last Super Bowl.

I don't agree with Freidah - Brady will be back and if he gets a better QB coach the Pat's could be challenging for the Super Bowl. Of course there's a minor problem of the Colts who are going to have ideas about two-in-a-row, not to mention the Chargers.

Brady should demand a better QB coach, although Testeverde seemed to help. Brady is likely frustrated and soon Cassel could be challenging him for his job. Belichick is also going to be under pressure from the Kraft's to make some coaching changes - McDaniel's is an obvious weakness.

Brady was severely hampered in the 2nd half against the Colts because the Pat's called only 5 running plays the entire half. When the Pat's first got the ball in the 2nd half, they had an 8 point lead. Then McDaniel's and Belichick decided that would be a good time to go one-dimensional? Someone has to pay for that decision! The Colts succeeded because they continued to run the ball effectively.

 

[PATSNUTme]

I don't agree with Freidah - Brady will be back and if he gets a better QB coach the Pat's could be challenging for the Super Bowl. Of course there's a minor problem of the Colts who are going to have ideas about two-in-a-row, not to mention the Chargers.

Brady should demand a better QB coach, although Testeverde seemed to help. Brady is likely frustrated and soon Cassel could be challenging him for his job. Belichick is also going to be under pressure from the Kraft's to make some coaching changes - McDaniel's is an obvious weakness.

Brady was severely hampered in the 2nd half against the Colts because the Pat's called only 5 running plays the entire half. When the Pat's first got the ball in the 2nd half, they had an 8 point lead. Then McDaniel's and Belichick decided that would be a good time to go one-dimensional? Someone has to pay for that decision! The Colts succeeded because they continued to run the ball effectively.

Both Dillon and Faulk out for the second half had something to do with that. Both guys werre playing very well before that.

Also we were forced to play the immortal Rashad Baker at safety for a long time during critical situaltion.

These are not excuses- just overlooked facts.

 

[WestPat]

s.

Brady should demand a better QB coach, although Testeverde seemed to help. Brady is likely frustrated and soon Cassel could be challenging him for his job. Belichick is also going to be under pressure from the Kraft's to make some coaching changes - McDaniel's is an obvious weakness.

this is the funniest thing I have read in a very long time....thanks for the laugh!
Matt Cassel challenging Tom Brady for the job...and soon!!LOL

 

[chris66]

I wouldn't worry about the colts next year. They put all their eggs in one basket with the signing of wayne last year. They are already at the cap for next year and they have four defensive starters as ufa's. R. Morris, C. June, D. Freeney, and N. Harper. Harrison and Manning already restructured last year so they could sign Wayne. If they win it all this tear I can see Polian blowing up the D to get under the cap.

 

[Bella*chick]

this is the funniest thing I have read in a very long time....thanks for the laugh!
Matt Cassel challenging Tom Brady for the job...and soon!!LOL

I know. Some people need to lay off the sauce!

 

[cubedoggy]

I don't agree with Freidah - Brady will be back and if he gets a better QB coach the Pats could be challenging for the Super Bowl.

I believe Hufnagel's looking for work...

 

[Fogbuster]

We've seen the Colts come back from behind against the Patriots like that before - so that's nothing new.

Statistically, when the Pats have the lead with 3 minutes remaining I don't think they hardly ever lose

But I know I looked at the clock and said "that's a lot of time... too much time" when the Colts had the ball so its really not a shock to me...

... because you knew, as we all did, that the Colts had solved our D at that point. They were marching at will up and down the field, since the end of the first half.

Our D was just depleted and gassed. We were making substitutions all over the place, and the guys were not getting replaced looked like they needed respirators -- hands on hips, getting down for the snap at the very last second, etc.

The subs coming in were just not up to the task of stopping the Colts team that was on the field. Harrison, Wayne, and Clark were catching everything thrown their way. I believe Polian got into the heads of the league brass and they made it impossible to play Patriots defense: no chucking of receivers at the line, none at all. You give Harrison and Wayne free reign to go down unmolested and you need top guns to stop them downfield, and we just did not have them. Samuel and Hobbs made some plays but the Colts just kept making more plays.


//

 

[JTO Smooth]

I have a sinking feeling that this is the end of the road for the Pats. We've seen the glory days and now we're on the decline. I hope not, but I think we're on a slide for the next few years.

And Tom Brady was finally exposed as a mere mortal when he couldn't get a first down on the next to last drive, and then threw the interception right to Marlin Jackson on the final drive of the season.

 

[richpats]

A team that allows 32 points in one half of a football game does not deserve to be in the Superbowl game.

Agreed. The defense's collapse in the 2nd half has been so overlooked, it's like people won't accept that it actually happened. The Colts had 4 consecutive scoring drives that were all sustained drives, not results of turnovers.

Look at both sides of the football. The offense generated 14 points in the 1st half and had 2 successful drives in 4 series. They scored 13 points on 3 of their first 5 possessions in the 2nd half. Their production only dropped 1 point between halves -so how did the offense "collapse" in this game?

The defense only allowed 2 successful drives out of 5 in the first half, allowing 6 points and essentially negating those points with a pick-6 (+XP). In the 2nd half, the D allowed 5 successful drives out of 7 series (and 3-for-3 TDs in the 3rd), giving up 32 points. Their points contribution went from a +1 in the 1st half to a -32 in the 2nd. A 33-POINT REDUCTION! How do we ignore this collapse and blame it all on the offense?!?!?!