Which coping/rationalization is working best for you?

pheenix11 said:

We were effin robbed. If Manning is sacked there or if a penalty is called like it should have been then the Giants are looking at either 4th & 15 or 3rd & 15.

Regardless of how the offensive line played, or the defense or the coaches, we had a lead of 4 points. We had Manning sacked and the Giants facing 4th down and it was stolen from us.

That play is a friggin travesty.

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Much worse than the tuck play when you think about.

Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks...

Our only loss was to a team that won the superbowl, nobody else can say that.

The only way Im coping is that Im not watching any sports except on line news.. to get me thru.. Its sick to see Manning commercials, it sick to change the channels there is QVC hawking Giants gear... The loser of the super bowl always is forgotten, unfortunitly this team will not be forgoteen in the wrong sense... Im trying to be rational, but its not working..

As bad as Sunday seemed, it was still much better than the 80's and 90's!

Since the 2001 season, we've seen this team accomplish the following:
a) The team has won 3 Superbowls (.429)
b) The team has won 4 AFC Championships (.571)
c) The team has made the post-season pretty consistently (.857)
d) They have a .750 winning percentage in the regular season (82-28)
e) They have a .800 winning percentage in the post season (12-3)

2) You can argue that the team is struggling for a second ascent since the last Superbowl victory, improving each year by one more step:
a) 2005 - Lost in the Divisional Playoffs
b) 2006 - Lost in the AFC Championship
c) 2007 - Lost in the Superbowl

There's far more positive than negative happening in Patriot nation. You just need to take a stoic attitude and look forward to next season. I wouldn't want to trade places with the fans of any other team.

JJC

Many things went wrong in the game, but they still had a great chance to win. The patriots played a bizzaro game and almost won. The giants pressured Brady all game and still needed some fluke plays to win. We're still a great team with a great future. But for that one lonely game we didn't play as well as the previous 18 games. When it is all said and done Brady and Bill will own every Super Bowl record.

BradyManny2344 said:

We didn't deserve to win

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Forget about the best team ever... the team that scores the most points deserves to win.

That wasn't us on Sunday.

Most Pats fans are smarter than your average football fan. They are football fans FIRST - and they understand that concept.

Had the Patriots played an incredible game and seen the last play decided against them on what was an indisputable bad call that would really hurt.

As it stands, while there were some judgment calls that could have gone our way, the Patriots didn't play well enough to win - it was that simple.

Nothing is working for me. I still feel like crap. I can't sleep. All the what-ifs keep running through my big stupid head. I am attempting repression, but it's not kicking in yet. I am damaged for life.

Other than that, doing real well here.

It was fun while it lasted!

Well, coming to this board was helping until it disintigrated into blaming the refs.

Why this makes people feel better, I'll never know.

I scoff at it when our opponents do it, and I'm not about to engage in it now.

Giants won because they made the plays that counted when they counted and we didn't. They are fully deserving champions.

What is ultimately working for me is the recognition that a fan's relationship with his team is a complicated thing that is not, at the end, just about winning. The story is always more complicated, and it's the mosaic that counts. The relationship is forged and a fan's character built not during the championships, but between them.

Without even reading the rest of this column, I am coping by scrupulously avoiding the press and talk radio. I am only scanning the headlines here and not contributing much. The Pats are my team and the loss was heartbreaking. I cannot stomach all the pundits and opinions (some gleeful) about how and why they lost. I am only reading Mike Reiss's blog as his understated report of the loss mirrored my own quiet pain. I will recover in a couple of weeks and will be back when the loss is not front & center.

I went to the game and AZ is beautiful. Would recommend a trip to Sedona or the southern rim of the Grand Canyon to all.

To me this year kind of 'makes up' for 2001. Look at the talent on that team and to say we won a super bowl with it cancels out a team as good as the 2007 Patriots NOT winning one.

3 titles in 7 years is still alot.

Law of averages says you cant expect more than that plain and simple, especially with the way the league has become. Our team has more talent than we ever did right now and as long as we continue drafting well, good chance we keep up that 3:7 ratio and win at least 3 of the next 7, which would put our franchise in the books as the most successful in league history.

i can't get past it......it was a great year, but if they weren't undefeated going in , it would be easier i guess....i don't know.....who wants to play QB for the AFC with Osi Umenyiora going against Light again.....no wonder Brady said....goodbye Pro Bowl......hello Costa Rica ! Light is a great player.....but he didn't look good against Osi.....

pheenix11 said:

It doesn't matter. Just because we went 18-0 we have to win by 20 points or it doesn't count?

Its tough to win a football game, BB says that all the time. Its hard enough without the refs looking the other way.

There were 2 refs looking right at what was going on, they didn't see O'Hara with his arm around Seymours neck?

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If the shoe were on the other foot, I would have thrown a fit if the refs called a hold on that play.

That holding call would have effectively decided the Super Bowl. Rest assured, the Giants defenders went into that play KNOWING they could hold and that it would NEVER be called.

Late in the Super Bowl, your own side of the field, the ref is NOT going to call a hold.

RoughingthePasser said:

http://www.giantscheated.com/

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That website is a disgrace to all Patriot fans. I'm embarrassed.

PatsFaninAZ said:

Well, coming to this board was helping until it disintigrated into blaming the refs.

Why this makes people feel better, I'll never know.

I scoff at it when our opponents do it, and I'm not about to engage in it now.

Giants won because they made the plays that counted when they counted and we didn't. They are fully deserving champions.

What is ultimately working for me is the recognition that a fan's relationship with his team is a complicated thing that is not, at the end, just about winning. The story is always more complicated, and it's the mosaic that counts. The relationship is forged and a fan's character built not during the championships, but between them.

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Great post. I don't understand the stuff w/the refs either, particularly holding calls. I HATE when other fans talking about "so and so was being held all game." The holding call the Patriots got against Baltimore that saved the game for them was very much the exception, not the rule.

As for "dealing with the loss" I have to say, I have no strategy. For me, devastating sports losses just hurt until, after some time, they hurt a little less. I can't intellectually decide that something shouldn't hurt, it just does. I know that rationally a game played by a bunch of millionaires who don't know or care about me really shouldn't affect me, certainly not this much. But it does.

I will say this--in some ways the pain is a part of a conservative outlook on life, that everything must be paid for. A friend who recently lost a long-time family pet made that point, that the pain his family was feeling was the payment they had for so many years of pleasure. As sports fans, payment always comes due as well. Look at the Celtics, who had such an amazingly long run of success--the payment there was years in the wilderness, and genuine tragedy on the team, more than once. The Yankees had their payment for unprecedented success by having an unprecedented collapse in the playoffs. And we have this. But this, too, shall pass.

aluminum seats said:

The Yankees had their payment for unprecedented success by having an unprecedented collapse in the playoffs. And we have this. But this, too, shall pass.

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Yeah, but we don't deserve it.

upstater1 said:

Yeah, but we don't deserve it.

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What does the Clint Eastwood character say in Unforgiven? "We all deserve it, Kid."

I've just moved on. Sure, it sucks. Losing the SB is painful, but shorter lived than the joy of winning one.

I can replay my original Three Games to Glory or any one of a number of NFL Films specials from my TIVO and remember the magic.

This site is starting to make it worse with the complaining. It's ridiculous as if it's relevant to change the game. It needs to stop.