Pats start the season 10-0 -- looking like the best team in the NFL.
Normal amount of injuries: Soldier goes down, Mayo plays like crap -- but Pats keep rolling.
Then more Sh*t happens:
Best 2 RBs lost
Our best outside WR is playing, but he sucks now
Edelman and Gronk injured and not quite at 100% heading into playoffs.
And the result is heading into Denver, this team was 3-4 in their last 7 (2-4 to finish the season, +1 in divisional round).
Maybe the idea that this Pats team is still elite was a myth and they just got lucky against KC?
Count me as one of the few who agrees with this post. The Patriots lost to two of the very worst teams in the league down the stretch; they just were not a good team. I was not as impressed as most at the 7 point win over KC, which passed for a blowout, whereas last postseason a 38 point win was a blowout. I was shocked by the complete giddiness from every media member that the Patriots would crush the Broncos; I thought it would be a close game with the Broncos likely winning in...actually, it was more one-sided than I expected, but I certainly did not think the Patriots would go in there and whip the Broncos.
In addition, Edelman had 100 yards against the Chiefs...on 16 targets. One of his worst games in years when you look at it from that perspective. Many jumped the gun that the offense was in full gear.
The offensive line did not play that well against the Chiefs...Brady was just able to release the ball faster, partly due to homefield and not dealing with the crowd noise. That, and both of the Chiefs key pass rushers will badly banged up. It seemed like they were a well-oiled machine, clicking on all levels, yet they scored 27 points...that goes to show how far they had sunk because last postseason they scored 35 on the Ravens, a great defense, 45 on the Colts, an average defense, and 28 on the Seahawks, a historically great defense. Feeling like they executed to perfection and scoring 27 points at home? Should have been a pretty big tipoff right there they might not go into Denver and score easily on the league's best defense.
It's okay, this just wasn't their year. The best I felt about them was when listening to pundits and reading fluff articles going into last week. When the games actually were played, they haven't been highly impressive in two months. They'll rebound next year and BB will diagnose their problems. Many teams, even the remaining two, have flaws as well. Their weakest link on the o-line just happened to be too much to overcome.
