I have been thinking about the loss Saturday night and have a different outlook on it today than I did earlier in the week.
Bottom line is the Patriots turned the ball over 5 times and in the playoffs, that is not going to cut it. I have to give the Donkos credit as their defense bent but did not break. The Patriots got within striking distance five times and ended up with a FG, FG, INT, missed FG and TD. First and goal on the five and no points, actually seven points the other way was a killer. Put aside the 10 point swing in the first half as they had the second half to make up for it. It was 10 to 6 when Brady threw the pic, Bailey made a great play on it, Denver scored, 17 to 6, ballgame.
The Patriots have forced other teams into numerous mistakes the past four years on the way to 3 Super Bowl wins, so give credit to Denver for doing the same to the Patriots. They beat the Patriots twice this year, so in my opinion, they were the better team this year, end of story.
All of this "the better team did not win, we beat ourselves", etc, etc is getting old ............
Bottom line is the Patriots turned the ball over 5 times and in the playoffs, that is not going to cut it. I have to give the Donkos credit as their defense bent but did not break. The Patriots got within striking distance five times and ended up with a FG, FG, INT, missed FG and TD. First and goal on the five and no points, actually seven points the other way was a killer. Put aside the 10 point swing in the first half as they had the second half to make up for it. It was 10 to 6 when Brady threw the pic, Bailey made a great play on it, Denver scored, 17 to 6, ballgame.
The Patriots have forced other teams into numerous mistakes the past four years on the way to 3 Super Bowl wins, so give credit to Denver for doing the same to the Patriots. They beat the Patriots twice this year, so in my opinion, they were the better team this year, end of story.
All of this "the better team did not win, we beat ourselves", etc, etc is getting old ............