scott99 said:
I don't think the better team coughs up the ball 5 times. BB is a deity to me, but I disagree with hime. The better team won, period. So many people are saying "Other than the 5 turnovers" and "We outgained them 420-286", big deal, The 5 turnovers were the reason for the loss, and unfortunately, they did happen, so we can't say "Other Than". The better team had 1 turnover.
So you think that Denver is a better team than New England??? Is that really what you think??? I can understand you saying that we didn't deserve to win but I don't understand, based on what we all saw Saturday Night, what impressed you about Denver.
Our defense was the best unit on the field.
Let me break it down like this. If the refs don't blow all those calls, what's the score look like then. Remember, the defense was playing amazing.
The fifth turnover was a desperate heave at the end. That doesn't happen unless they're in a desperate situation so let's set it aside for the moment. So now we're basically working with 4 turnovers. Of those 4 turnovers, all but Troy Brown's fumble were forced. So let's throw that one out.
What does the game look like minus the bad officiating and minus Troy Brown's fumble?
We were leading 3-0 when Faulk fumbled to setup the outragious pass interference call. Based on the way our defense was playing, I find it unlikely that they would have scored a TD without that call. It's quite possible we would have stopped them outright but for arguments sake let's say they got a FG.
SCORE: NE 3 - DEN 3
Hobbs' fumble then set up their 50 yard FG. But wait!!! We're assuming that the officiating was good and Denver actually had an uncalled false start on the 50 yard FG attempt, we're going to wipe it off the board.
HALFTIME SCORE: NE 3 - DEN 3
That means that on that pivotal 3rd down where Brady was picked, the score should have been 6-3 in our favor instead of 6-10 against us. It's quite possible that with a 3 point lead, Brady doesn't feel the need to force that ball in there and is willing to settle for a FG and a 9-3 lead.
But let's give Denver that interception anyway. But instead of getting run down at the 1, this time the officials call a touchback. So instead of trailing 17-6, we still lead 6-3.
Who knows what the final score would've been but the entire game looks very different just buy eliminating the officiating errors.
Even if we add in our 4th turnover (Brown's muff) we likely win this game.
In other words, we had enough to overcome our own mistakes. What we couldn't do was overcome our own mistakes PLUS the mistakes of the refs. Combined together, those mistakes allowed an inferior team to claim the victory. In other words, the entire game was a mistake.
The best team really didn't win. The best team in the league will be sitting at home during the Super Bowl.
