PromisedLand
Virtual Internet Person
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2004
- Messages
- 3,367
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- 30
So this is the mourning after (and yes, the double entendre is intentional). I, like so many others here, have spent a mostly sleepless night trying to come to a sense of acceptance about what happened. But, while I do feel a lot better than I did last night, I am still finding this one very tough to swallow.
Sure, I know we have been the luckiest fans in the world over the last few years, and I certainly know we have no divine right to win. I even understand that fans of other teams are people who live and die by their team too, and I'm enough of a man to be happy for them. Still, there is something gnawing at me, and I think I know what it is....
It's the sense that we had IT in our hand, and then we lost IT.
We had Immortality in the bag, and then Fate snatched it away.
We were up 21-3 and driving to another score, a score which would have given us an almost insurmountable lead and would have mostly likely sapped all the remaining fight out of the reeling Colts. We had just made another first down deep inside Colts territory, but it was overturned on a questionable offensive pass interference call against Troy Brown. Winston Churchill's said about the Battle of El Alamein, "Before Alemein we never had a victory. After Alemein we never had a defeat". It was almost like that, only in reverse.
There was clearly something wrong with our defense in the second half, one of the top defenses in the league over the regular season. First line guys were sitting on the bench getting stretched out for cramps, and others were clearly suffering from the flu which had been reportedly hit the team during the week. It was almost as though Forces Greater than Man were arrayed against us. Our formerly solid defensive wall turned into a wall of mush as the Colts scored almost every time they had the ball. And yet, thanks to heroics by the offense, we were still leading as time ticked away in the 4th quarter. But more inexplicable missteps were about to befall us - Reche Caldwell dropped an easy touchdown pass in the end zone (on a drive where we later scored anyway) and then dropped an equally easy pass where he stood, alone, uncovered and undetected by the Colts defense, for at least 10 seconds before the snap of the ball. That play could have ended the game. If only Caldwell had caught the ball, he could have waltzed into the end zone.
And there were so many other "if onlys" as time was winding down. 12 men in the huddle? When was the last time you saw that from a Belichick-coached team? Brady FAILING to pull off the miracle with a minute left and two timeouts? Come on, didn't we all think he was going to do it once again? Didn't we all think it was all part of the cosmic script for this team?
So I guess that's what's bothering me. I know we have no right to expect to win the Super Bowl every year - the odds of winning only once are 1 in 32 - and we have won not once, but THREE times in the past few years. I know we have no divine right to win and that other teams have just as much right as we do. I'm happy for the Colts and their fans, really I am. But it is just the sense that we had IT - a chance to be the odds-on favorite to win our 4th Super Bowl in 6 years, which would have
We had IT, until Fate cruelly pried it from our hands. And that's why it hurts so much.
Sure, I know we have been the luckiest fans in the world over the last few years, and I certainly know we have no divine right to win. I even understand that fans of other teams are people who live and die by their team too, and I'm enough of a man to be happy for them. Still, there is something gnawing at me, and I think I know what it is....
It's the sense that we had IT in our hand, and then we lost IT.
We had Immortality in the bag, and then Fate snatched it away.
We were up 21-3 and driving to another score, a score which would have given us an almost insurmountable lead and would have mostly likely sapped all the remaining fight out of the reeling Colts. We had just made another first down deep inside Colts territory, but it was overturned on a questionable offensive pass interference call against Troy Brown. Winston Churchill's said about the Battle of El Alamein, "Before Alemein we never had a victory. After Alemein we never had a defeat". It was almost like that, only in reverse.
There was clearly something wrong with our defense in the second half, one of the top defenses in the league over the regular season. First line guys were sitting on the bench getting stretched out for cramps, and others were clearly suffering from the flu which had been reportedly hit the team during the week. It was almost as though Forces Greater than Man were arrayed against us. Our formerly solid defensive wall turned into a wall of mush as the Colts scored almost every time they had the ball. And yet, thanks to heroics by the offense, we were still leading as time ticked away in the 4th quarter. But more inexplicable missteps were about to befall us - Reche Caldwell dropped an easy touchdown pass in the end zone (on a drive where we later scored anyway) and then dropped an equally easy pass where he stood, alone, uncovered and undetected by the Colts defense, for at least 10 seconds before the snap of the ball. That play could have ended the game. If only Caldwell had caught the ball, he could have waltzed into the end zone.
And there were so many other "if onlys" as time was winding down. 12 men in the huddle? When was the last time you saw that from a Belichick-coached team? Brady FAILING to pull off the miracle with a minute left and two timeouts? Come on, didn't we all think he was going to do it once again? Didn't we all think it was all part of the cosmic script for this team?
So I guess that's what's bothering me. I know we have no right to expect to win the Super Bowl every year - the odds of winning only once are 1 in 32 - and we have won not once, but THREE times in the past few years. I know we have no divine right to win and that other teams have just as much right as we do. I'm happy for the Colts and their fans, really I am. But it is just the sense that we had IT - a chance to be the odds-on favorite to win our 4th Super Bowl in 6 years, which would have
- equalled the 70's Steelers as the best dynasty ever,
- brought Tom Brady even with his boyhood hero Joe Montana the only quarterbacks ever to win 4 Super Bowls, and
- made Bill Belichick the only head coach besides Chuck Noll with 4 Super Bowl wins.
We had IT, until Fate cruelly pried it from our hands. And that's why it hurts so much.
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