See, you're arguing things that happen in pretty much every game suddenly equal not deserving to win. I don't buy that argument. You don't deserve a win when you come out flat and stay that way, when you benefit from a gift call, you get a lucky bounce, or something like that. That's not what happened today. Today, the lost the player that so many here have been insisting the team is game planning around, had their best receiver seemingly playing at less than 100%, missing their OG1 because he's home on his couch and their OG2 because of injury, and were forced to fight their way out of an early hole.
If they'd won, people would be touting a gritty comeback. Because they lost, their trying to rationalize that loss.
Deus, I don't want to get caught up in the semantics of "deserve". It's obviously subjective, and I've arbitrarily established a high standard. I'm not the universal arbiter of what "deserving" means, so I'm not surprised that others have different interpretations. My guess is that BB holds the team to a pretty high standard, and that he would have been less than thrilled with their execution and performance regardless of whether they managed to pull out a win at the end. I give the team full credit for hanging in and making enough plays to bring the game down to the wire, and I would have been more than willing to take the win if the chips had fallen differently.
I PM'd OTG this morning with what I hoped to see from the Pats out of this game (besides a win, which obviously didn't happen). My list:
mayoclinic said:
1. No signifiant injuries. Folks will get banged up. But it's important to stay healthy and not have any major loses.
I would call Hernandez' injury "significant', though we don't yet know how long he'll be out. Obviously, that was outside of the team's control.
mayoclinic said:
2. Focus, intensity, effort and aggression. I loved the energy and intensity last week on both sides of the ball. I want to see the team bring that week after week. I don't want any signs at all that the team is looking past this game towards the Ravens next week (like the Cleveland game in 2010).
Again, with respect to Andy's comment that it's hard to judge intensity from one's TV speed, I just didn't see the same kind of energy that I saw against Tennessee last week.
mayoclinic said:
3. Line play. The DL should dominate against a weak Arizona OL. I want to see utter annihilation of Kolb and the AZ offense. The Arizona defense is another matter, and will be a good challenge for our OL.
The DL dominated, though perhaps not quite as much as I had hoped for. The OL struggled with a good Arizona defense.
mayoclinic said:
4. Offensive diversity. Loved what they did last week. I want to see Welker more involved and more use of draws, screens, and quick passes to the RBs.
I don't think I'm the only poster who felt that the offensive play calling was not up to expectations.
mayoclinic said:
5. Lack of mistakes and turnovers. The Pats need to finish drives, and not make key mistakes with menalties and turnovers. I loved that the OL had no false starts and no holding penalties last week. That kind of mental toughness will go a long way down the stretch.
The offense made a number of mistakes and one major turnover. They failed to score a TD through 3 quarters, which qualifies as failing to finish drives in my book. A number of other drives stalled in Arizona territory without producing points. Penalties and mental mistakes killed a number of drives.
Suffice it to say that I was disappointed with the team's overall performance, and that it didn't meet my expectations going into the game. Arizona obviously had something to do with that, but there was enough to make me feel that the team's overall performance was sub-par, and therefore "not deserving" in my (admittedly subjective) book.
