Great post. The big difference was Dillon. Dillons legs gave out on him in 2005 due to age. He looked noticeably slower in 2005 compared to 04. It showed up on the stat sheet too, going from 1600 yards in 04 to only 800 in 2005. Dillon gave us one last great year in 04 before he hit the dreaded RB age of 30.
As far as the D goes, some of those players began to age, bruschi suffered a stroke and he was never the same again. Harrison Willie Mac Vrabeal Law all one year older and slower on the wrong side of 30.
It was the decline of those great Pats Ds of early 2000s plenty of hall of famers on those teams. So clutch, always made a play when we needed it
2005 was a disaster, we got blown out by manning 40-21. Only patriots team ever blown away by manning. If only we had gotten by Denver in playoffs, we would have beaten Pitt at home in afc championship, no doubt in my mind. We looked so undisciplined in that Denver game, after a great wild card performance vs Jacksonville.