Since the Pats lost to the Giants:
Pats vs opponent: start / middle / end
Wk 16 vs Mia: 0-17 / 27-0 / 0-7
Wk 15 at Den: 7-16 / 27-0 / 7-7
Wk 14 at Was: 14-17 / 20-10 / 0-0
Wk 13 vs Ind: 3-3 / 28-0 / 0-21
Wk 12 at Phi: 0-10 / 38-3 / 0-7
Wk 11 vs KC: 0-3 / 27-0 / 7-0
Wk 10 at NYJ: 6-9 / 17-0 / 14-7
Total: 30-75 / 184-13 / 28-49
Are slow starts something to be concerned about? Absolutely; you don't want to get in a habit of digging yourself in a hole.
Conversely, that 184-13 stat may have had something to do with why I was simply shaking my head but not getting particularly upset while a sports bar full of Pats fans around me were going ballistic at halftime on Saturday, and nobody could understand when I was telling them 'relax, there's plenty of time left in this game'.
I do not at all think that slow starts are a concern. It mostly means every team in football is studying our offense and forcing us to adjust to whatever oveplay they think is going to throw us off.
If you look at last year, with a fairly good chance our secondary at least was better, if we couldn't go up by a couple scores, our defense was relatively soft and our offense was befuddled by one game plan adjustment by the Jets.
I'm worried as hell about our secondary, but being able to adjust offensively, and playing hard nosed defense with good pressure when behind will take us a long way.
Being a front runner is a liability, see the 2001 rams, most of the colts teams etc.
Again, the secondary scares me, but it's awful unlikely most playoff games will have one team going up and coasting, while the other folds. Playoff games are fights. This team has a lot of fight in it.
The difference between this year and last year is we're a target. We haven't had our passing system rolling since the championship years, with the Moss Brady being a whole different thing, then Brady hurt, Brady hobbled and the new offense last year with the rook TEs. Teams have had a look at the awesomeness and 500 yard games and they game plan and copy anyone with any success.
Teams that fight and adjust and get better as the game goes on are more likely to be championship teams. Even our Giants SB team wasn't prepared for an alternative to what the giants pulled because there was no need to find an alternative during the season.
We're actually better offensively than last year with Welker at full speed and Gronk, Hernandez rolling. WR is about a wash and we have more options art RB. We're just not going to face a balanced defense because teams know if they don't mess up our rhythm right away and score points, they might as well go home, so they are scheming and taking chances to throw Brady off balance.
We're better, except the secondary IMO. Our D Line and linebackers were just faking it half the season last year. Much stronger now IMO.