Learn to Lose with Some Dignity

This just goes out to a few people on here. It sucked that the Patriots lost today and I was saddened as much as the rest of you. But let's lose with a little dignity and not go throwing the coach, kicker, and quarterback under the bus.

We all knew going to Denver was going to be tough. And we knew their defense is fantastic and found a way to drag an average to below average offense to 12-4.

A lot of us were asleep on Denver and Vegas should have had this game as EVEN considering the Broncos were at home and the Patriots have had a history of losing games in Denver.

It was an exciting game that went down to the final few plays. That is the mark of a pretty successful season considering all the adversity. As the offseason approaches, let's fix some of the holes on the roster. But let's not throw away all the goodwill from last year by whining or being ungrateful.

MainePatsFan26 said:

This just goes out to a few people on here. It sucked that the Patriots lost today and I was saddened as much as the rest of you. But let's lose with a little dignity and not go throwing the coach, kicker, and quarterback under the bus.

We all knew going to Denver was going to be tough. And we knew their defense is fantastic and found a way to drag an average to below average offense to 12-4.

A lot of us were asleep on Denver and Vegas should have had this game as EVEN considering the Broncos were at home and the Patriots have had a history of losing games in Denver.

It was an exciting game that went down to the final few plays. That is the mark of a pretty successful season considering all the adversity. As the offseason approaches, let's fix some of the holes on the roster. But let's not throw away all the goodwill from last year by whining or being ungrateful.

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Think everyone can agree the Broncos were just flat out better than the Patriots. It doesn't mean we can't overanalyze, complain, think of the "what ifs" and everything about the season. It's the nature of being a sports fan on a sports forum. You aren't going to change the way fans think with this post, not really sure the point of it. No offense.

Just a lot of spoiled fans that weren't on board until the turn of the century..

You can be pissed.. But some act like everyone should lie down to the Patriots..

My ONLY gripe of this game is if we took points instead of trying to make fourth down conversions agains this defense we probably would have won.. But that is BBs thing... Always has confidence in his offense.. It has worked for him before.. But since it didn't work yesterday he has to be killed??

MainePatsFan26 said:

This just goes out to a few people on here. It sucked that the Patriots lost today and I was saddened as much as the rest of you. But let's lose with a little dignity and not go throwing the coach, kicker, and quarterback under the bus.

We all knew going to Denver was going to be tough. And we knew their defense is fantastic and found a way to drag an average to below average offense to 12-4.

A lot of us were asleep on Denver and Vegas should have had this game as EVEN considering the Broncos were at home and the Patriots have had a history of losing games in Denver.

It was an exciting game that went down to the final few plays. That is the mark of a pretty successful season considering all the adversity. As the offseason approaches, let's fix some of the holes on the roster. But let's not throw away all the goodwill from last year by whining or being ungrateful.

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Don't think Vegas was that wrong. It took a lot of worst case situations in the first half for us to be in that hole. A 50:50 flag on third down followed by a TD pass by Manning that just needed a fraction of an inch to be tipped, a 11 yard scramble by Manning, another deep pass by Manning that could have been intercepted by Butler but ended up being a completion by Sanders. Add in the idiotic penalties we had on offense and two interceptions.

Essentially we should have used up our entire margin of error in that first half but our defense still kept us in the game until the bitter end.

Also people overvalue history. The only somewhat relevant game historically was the regular season matchup this year. But even then those were completely different teams. The team that lost in Denver in 2005 had no connection whatsoever with the one that lost yesterday and failed for different reasons.

Thought the guaranteed win was a tad overhyped, was less concerned about Peyton* and more concerned about their D which seemed healthy..

Sure BB would like a couple of plays back, but BB's hallmark is to trust Brady and the offense.. to have made it to the championship game with the amount of injuries we had, is remarkable.. even yesterday Edelman looked a little slower, Gronk was cramping up.. but they all played on to a very high level.

A lot to be proud of here folks, enjoy this ride..

This week we will have the opportunity to listen to the local mediots play the blame game.. good week to listen to the ipod..

SunshineSammy said:

Just a lot of spoiled fans that weren't on board until the turn of the century..

You can be pissed.. But some act like everyone should lie down to the Patriots..

My ONLY gripe of this game is if we took points instead of trying to make fourth down conversions agains this defense we probably would have won.. But that is BBs thing... Always has confidence in his offense.. It has worked for him before.. But since it didn't work yesterday he has to be killed??

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I agree about the spoiled fans. It's so annoying. They expect the Pats to win every single game which is not realistic. They don't realize what we are seeing is once in a lifetime and will never be seen again. We got beat by the better team. Denver deserved homefield. They beat more playoff teams than we did with a backup qb playing the majority of the year. They beat GB, Pats, Vikings, KC and the Bengals. Denver outplayed the Pats and dominated our offensive line which was my biggest concern going into the game.

I love that BB was aggressive. I re watched the Belichick football life this weekend. I actually liked it better than Do Your Job. All this guy thinks about is putting the team in the best position to win. He has earned trust from the fan base. Of course he makes mistakes, but I wouldn't want any other coach. His track record speaks for itself. I love how every time we lose (which doesn't happen often) people think they know more than the best coach of all time. BB takes chances and the majority of the time he is right like not calling a timeout before the Butler interception. I can't wait for next year! The roster will be one of our best in the last 10 years

And getting pissed at the kicker who has done nothing but kick several desperation long range field goals his whole career..

The long extra point was designed for doubt.. He missed one..

But let's string him up..

Yet the missed extra point was moot. That happened in the first quarter.

titletownpats said:

I agree about the spoiled fans. It's so annoying. They expect the Pats to win every single game which is not realistic. They don't realize what we are seeing is once in a lifetime and will never be seen again. We got beat by the better team. Denver deserved homefield. They beat more playoff teams than we did with a backup qb playing the majority of the year. They beat GB, Pats, Vikings, KC and the Bengals. Denver outplayed the Pats and dominated our offensive line which was my biggest concern going into the game.

I love that BB was aggressive. I re watched the Belichick football life this weekend. I actually liked it better than Do Your Job. All this guy thinks about is putting the team in the best position to win. He has earned trust from the fan base. Of course he makes mistakes, but I wouldn't want any other coach. His track record speaks for itself. I love how every time we lose (which doesn't happen often) people think they know more than the best coach of all time. BB takes chances and the majority of the time he is right like not calling a timeout before the Butler interception. I can't wait for next year! The roster will be one of our best in the last 10 years

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Just imagine the gigantic ****storm last year for BB not taking a timeout when he saw the Seahawks scrambling if Butler doesn't intercept Wilson at the endzone.

It is the classic example of playing the percentages... he saw "confusion on their sidelines and decided to not let them off the hook" (quote DYJ documentary) and that time it worked out big time and somehow nobody talks about it anymore. Because to most people the only thing that matters is the outcome. Which is fundamentally the reason you see so many crappy coaches in the NFL. Very rarely do you see coaches straying from the traditional choice simply because that would open them up to media/front office scrutiny.

Yesterday the feeling was that we were more likely to get a yard on fourth down than to see the redzone again and except for a miracle fourth down and long conversion from Brady to Gronk into deep double coverage he was not wrong about it.

SunshineSammy said:

Just a lot of spoiled fans that weren't on board until the turn of the century..

You can be pissed.. But some act like everyone should lie down to the Patriots..

My ONLY gripe of this game is if we took points instead of trying to make fourth down conversions agains this defense we probably would have won.. But that is BBs thing... Always has confidence in his offense.. It has worked for him before.. But since it didn't work yesterday he has to be killed??

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Do you mean this board or the band wagon? Cause I don't think anyone was on this forum back in 86. Also there are a lot of "old school" fans whining today too. That being said the whining and finger pointing is really annoying, however I expect that it would get really boring if we ask just agreed with one another.

meatface said:

Do you mean this board or the band wagon? Cause I don't think anyone was on this forum back in 86. Also there are a lot of "old school" fans whining today too. That being said the whining and finger pointing is really annoying, however I expect that it would get really boring if we ask just agreed with one another.

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This was a sad loss, but it seems we were either the 3rd or 4th best team in the league this season. Let's focus on building for next season and celebrating a good, but not great, year.

I'm so pissed. If Gostkowski misses again in his next 530 tries they need to cut his ASS!!!!!!!!

Feckin Belichick never should have allowed Scarnecchia to retire.

And they should trade Malcolm Brown for a high second round pick. (He will be a free agent in 4 years and they need to get value while they can.)

There are a million other things I am soooooo pissed about and I will be back to list them (in alphabetical order and catalogued by month) after I reread the full season of game threads.

Can't even lie, the Broncos' defense did their thing. Their pass rushing was exponential. Wade Phillips should really give himself a pat on the back.

PatsGirl2011 said:

Yet the missed extra point was moot.

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A moot boot? When it happened I was speechless (mute).

MainePatsFan26 said:

This just goes out to a few people on here. It sucked that the Patriots lost today and I was saddened as much as the rest of you. But let's lose with a little dignity and not go throwing the coach, kicker, and quarterback under the bus.

We all knew going to Denver was going to be tough. And we knew their defense is fantastic and found a way to drag an average to below average offense to 12-4.

A lot of us were asleep on Denver and Vegas should have had this game as EVEN considering the Broncos were at home and the Patriots have had a history of losing games in Denver.

It was an exciting game that went down to the final few plays. That is the mark of a pretty successful season considering all the adversity. As the offseason approaches, let's fix some of the holes on the roster. But let's not throw away all the goodwill from last year by whining or being ungrateful.

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good post.

Throwing under the bus department...

I'm not throwing BB under the bus. the offense sucked all day and Brady was on his butt 23 times, so BB had no reasonable expectation that they were going to get that close again or that Brady would still be alive if they did, so going for it was perfectly reasonable.

I'm not throwing Gostkowski under the bus...BUT...it's a Championship Game, big guy. You can't miss an Extra Point. I don't want anybody else kicking for the Pats and I love your regular season stats and no one is throwing you under a speeding bus for missing your first attempt in 254 tries, but no one would have "blamed" #4 for missing the kicks that tied the snow bowl ("greatest kick under pressure in the history of the NFL") or that won SB XXXVI and XXXVIII with time expiring or a handful of seconds left on the clock...but he made them...he made them...you're still upright on the sidewalk and the bus has gone by and plenty of other people are more to blame for the loss, but you can't miss an XP in a Championship game when Vinatieri has set that standard...

Anybody who's throwing a QB under the bus after he got hit 23 times in a game should be thrown under a convoy of 18 wheelers.

glm said:

Can't even lie, the Broncos' defense did their thing. Their pass rushing was exponential. Wage Phillips should really give himself a pat on the back.

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its probbaly about as well as they have played all season. Their Pass rush was obviously great and I dont know if a healthy Vollmer and Solder would have done much; chris harris had some very nice plays especially on that edelman 4th down pass, he played it just about perfectly

The Denver defense swarmed like crazy the whole game. Crowd noise was a huge factor, I was there and my ears were ringing. The Pats made way too many uncharacteristic mistakes, field-position sucked. Penalties were not a factor IMO, looked like a push, just too many of missed opportunities. They couldn't convert on 3rd downs, which is how the Pats beat you. Hats off to the Donkey defense, they had a game plan that worked and they executed.

Optimistic about next season. Start grinding early this year boys! Bring the trophy back in 2016-2017.

dignity is overrated

I prefer pulling a Nancy Kerrigan for the crowd........curl up in the fetal position and scream 'why?

do that for 10 minutes and you forget why you were even doing it'

IllegalContact said:

dignity is overrated

I prefer pulling a Nancy Kerrigan for the crowd........curl up in the fetal position and scream 'why?

'

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Best description of a game thread ever.

KoolAid said:

The Denver defense swarmed like crazy the whole game. Crowd noise was a huge factor, I was there and my ears were ringing. The Pats made way too many uncharacteristic mistakes, field-position sucked. Penalties were not a factor IMO, looked like a push, just too many of missed opportunities. They couldn't convert on 3rd downs, which is how the Pats beat you. Hats off to the Donkey defense, they had a game plan that worked and they executed.

Optimistic about next season. Start grinding early this year boys! Bring the trophy back in 2016-2017.

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Right on the money.

They don't get the prize this season but a lot of good things happened in terms of team development. They are both in good shape in many ways and they have real needs. They have a number of ways to create cap space and important deals to get done. It's on to 2016 and I'm looking forward to watching how they handle this off-season.