Whose fault is it? I blame...

[oldrover]

Belichick. Not Brady. Belichick.

Now, blame is a strong word. How can you blame a guy whose coaching has been as consistently productive as his?

But realistically, it's not Brady's fault he has no receivers, minus Edelman.

It's not Brady's fault that neither line can perform at crunch time.

It's not Brady's fault that the defense can't get off the field. (although I think if you knew the Broncos would score 26 in this, you'd think, 'Super Bowl, here we come!' )

It's not Brady's fault that the coach didn't take two field goals and an extra point, which would have made it 26-23 in the waning moments.

Brady did miss a couple of long throws. That's on him. But otherwise, it's on the planning, the coaching prep and the in-game decisions. That's all on the coaching and GM-ing, and THAT's all on Belichick.

All that said, do I want Belichick gone? HECK NO. I am very grateful for the run of success that Brady and Belichick have given us as fans. It's just disappointing to continually get so close, and miss. But that is on Belichick. Not Brady.

Again, JMHO. I am still very excited about 2014.

 

[SebertJr]

Personally, I think the Defensive side of the ball did their job, keeping the Bronco's to just two TD's, in that weather, in their park...outstanding, what... were they on the field for over 35 minutes ???, they had to be winded.
The Talib injury hurt, but the Offense couldn't stay on the field and get some time consuming drives to give the D a break. I think coaching & depleted roster killed us, although I did however expect them to put up a better fight!!!
The offense just never got in any rhythm until it was too late, it was almost like they weren't sure who they wanted to be.

 

[Bella*chick]

I'm sure the team wouldn't agree, especially Brady. He didn't play as well as he should have, no one did.

BB didn't do his job as well as he should have yesterday, he will be the first to say that. But he held this team together with duct tape and an old fashioned stapler and for that he deserves commendation.

 

[SebertJr]

I guess I have a hard time blaming Belichick for: Hernandez [allegedly] doing the unthinkable, Gronk taking a bad hit to the knee just as he was getting going, Amendola playing the whole season without his groin muscle actually attached to any part of his body and each of the three rookies receivers – who showed promising flashes and in the case of Dobson excellent development — being injured late in the season.

Just the tight end situation alone completely altered the complexion of this offense, and they got pretty far nonetheless.

Anybody else wonder why Mulligan was never give more chances ??

 

[BelichickFan]

My God not another one.

The plan was to have Hernandez and Gronk. One killed someone (after FA and the draft) and one tore his ACL. The plan was to have Amendola and Dobson. The former was hobbled all year, the latter missed most of the second half of the season.

Blame fate, not Belichick.

 

[Sciz]

If there's ever any blame, it goes to Belichick. He'd be the first to tell you that. I think a lot of what happened this season doesn't really fall on anybody, though. Sometimes you're going to suffer injuries and be completely outmatched. At a certain point, a deep roster and a great coach can't overcome that.

 

[Tunescribe]

Threads like this testify to the sheer ignorance of many football "fans."

 

[nabwong]

Total team failure. End of thread.

 

[Ivan]

Everyone-Except Collins, Allen, and Gostkowski. Belichick is responsible for the coaching, preparation, and gameplans, and yesterday they all sucked. Brady played like ass, they were outhit in every facet of the game, they couldn't cover and they couldn't get open. Denver completely outplayed them and to say they deserved the win is an understatement. end of season, end of story. Sad to see it end that way but it is what it is and we should be thankful we root for a franchise that gets this quality of play from its team each and every season with this coach and QB. If anything what has been taking place in recent years is that they are going farther than their talent level should take them and that's why they aren't winning it all in the end, because they really weren't good enough but were overachieving all along. had they gotten to the Super Bowl it is very unlikely they would have had much of a chance in it because with Seattle playing a jailbreak defense and sending 8 guys on every play they simply don't have the receiving corps to spread them out and beat them down the field, so Brady would have gotten his ass kicked and they would most likely have lost anyways------and that's coming from an optimist (HOMER) who always picks the Pats, even when they clearly don't deserve it.


That said I still believe in Belichick and Brady, and most of the pieces on this team, however they clearly have a lot of work to do this offseason and it should be really interesting to watch how they go about it. i doubt either Talib or Blount will be back but they really need to find a way to re-sign Edelman, and that should be their priority when it comes to their free agents.


Congratulations to the Bronco's, they earned it and deserved it.

Go SeaHawks.

 

[Texxx]

The Patriots front office was pathetic the last "two" off seasons. They refuse to understand that you need quality wideouts with size to make plays in the post season. It kills them in every post season loss.

Kraft,McDaniels, and Bellicheck failed this team in the off season.

 

[Sciz]

The Patriots front office was pathetic the last "two" off seasons. They refuse to understand that you need quality wideouts with size to make plays in the post season. It kills them in every post season loss.

Kraft,McDaniels, and Bellicheck failed this team in the off season.

Well damn, it's almost like they tried adding one of those guys high in the draft. He was limited with a stress fracture. Not much you can do when the guy that's supposed to fill a hole gets hurt.

 

[oldrover]

Threads like this testify to the sheer ignorance of many football "fans."

If watching every Patriots game since Jim Plunkett's rookie year makes me a 'fan'... what does it take to remove the quotes? LOL

Actually, posts like yours testify to the self-sanctified snarkiness of those like you (apparently) who consider themselves the 'elite' fan-dom... not the 'rabble', as you seem to be categorizing me.

Congrats! You've made it!!! You're right there with Shaughnessy! LMAO!!!

 

[Brady'sArmy]

The Patriots front office was pathetic the last "two" off seasons. They refuse to understand that you need quality wideouts with size to make plays in the post season. It kills them in every post season loss.

Kraft,McDaniels, and Bellicheck failed this team in the off season.

would not have been an issue if Gronk and Hernandez were available

granted, Gronk being injury prone should have been taken into consideration but NO One could have foreseen the hernandez fiasco

 

[Texxx]

would not have been an issue if Gronk and Hernandez were available i
granted, Gronk being injury prone should have been taken into consideration but NO One could have foreseen the hernandez fiasco

This is the exact delusional crap you guys continue to spew. The Pats haven't won squat with healthy TE's. You need some big fast wideouts to stretch the field. Look what Manning did with his his wideouts this season. Hell look at how good Luck and Hilton are becoming. Hilton stretches the field and opens everything up.

This idea that you can win with some TE's hasn't pegged out once. The Pats also had the best slot Wr of all time when they had those TE's. They let him go to Denver which was a team that had two elite wideouts.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I blame both Brady and Belichick. And I also blame Collins, Dobson, Edelman, Jones, hightower, AquaTaliban, McCourty, and even to a small degree, Gronkowski. In addition I blame everybody whose name I didn't spit out there.

Oh wait. I thought you meant "Whose fault is it that a team that should be one-and-done-in-the-wildcard-round on paper, at best, won its division and made it to the AFC championship."

************ people. I will not get into who we should have drafted, who should not have gotten injured, etc. etc. etc.

Just let it be. Time to tolerate the draftniks again. Time to tolerate the "hot stove league" again. This team punched well above its weight all season, and "blame threads" make me sick in the best of years.

I know for some "fans" the heart of fan-hood is to establish an unrealistic expectation and "hold them to it." Sort of a one-trick pony, to me.

This team - and coaching staff - wins or loses as a team. Yeah I saw that game. Yeah I saw TFB unable to dial in on the throws. Yeah I saw this, I saw that, whatever you want to slice and dice and blame it on.

The Broncos were the best team on the field yesterday. The giants were the best team in the SB both times we played them.

Flip side of the OP caveat: Yes, I think they need to get better. I think you need to get better even if you WIN the SB.

But god damn.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

This is the exact delusional crap you guys continue to spew. The Pats haven't won squat with healthy TE's. You need some big fast wideouts to stretch the field. Look what Manning did with his his wideouts this season. Hell look at how good Luck and Hilton are becoming. Hilton stretches the field and opens everything up.

This idea that you can win with some TE's hasn't pegged out once. The Pats also had the best slot Wr of all time when they had those TE's. They let him go to Denver which was a team that had two elite wideouts.

If that's the lesson you want to take from the last 4 years, that's up to you.

 

[Tunescribe]

If watching every Patriots game since Jim Plunkett's rookie year makes me a 'fan'... what does it take to remove the quotes? LOL

Actually, posts like yours testify to the self-sanctified snarkiness of those like you (apparently) who consider themselves the 'elite' fan-dom... not the 'rabble', as you seem to be categorizing me.

Congrats! You've made it!!! You're right there with Shaughnessy! LMAO!!!

Silly me for calling out your ignorance decades in the making (since Jim Plunkett's rookie year). Apparently you've worked quite hard at it and are proud of your right to lay misguided blame on the coach of a team that made it all the way to the AFCCG DESPITE losing nine of 22 starters with a whopping 15 players on injured reserve. Yup, you definitely qualify as a "fan."

 

[Joker]

Rover???..c'mere boy...here ol rover!!!...

 

[fxkane]

Is there another NFL team that had as many KEY injuries in 2013 as we did. If so, let me know how that team did.

I know there are many teams with more talent than ours who did fair to poor.


P.S. You can fight past injuries, but at a certain point, the fight has to wane a little.

 

[Tunescribe]

Glad to see this thread land where it rightfully belongs. :singing: