The Patriots were doomed the second they lost home-field advantage

[Soul_Survivor88]

Mental errors and coaching blunders deprived our beloved team from claiming the top seed.

The Patriots had four losses in the regular season and, effectively, four chances to solidify homefield advantage. In each one of these four games, something went disastrously wrong, and they were all things that could have been avoided. And please don't blame it on injuries. Even with the injuries, all four of these games were still the Patriots to win. Had Belichick and the team simply taken care of business during the regular season, the Patriots would be making Super Bowl travel plans, not cleaning out their lockers.

This team has consistently proven that it can win playoff games when given home-field advantage. And the numbers back this up: since their championship run began in 2001, the Patriots are 15-3 at home and 3-4 on the road in the playoffs.

(Interesting note: The Patriots have lost their last three road playoff games. And all three losses were in the AFC Championship and all three were to Peyton Manning-quarterbacked teams.)

Ultimately, the Patriots have only themselves to blame for not hosting the AFC Championship, and losing in Denver.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

My mind keeps drifting back to the "Commitment to Run" in the Miami game. Worst of both worlds.. no win and no run..

 

[VectorPrime]

(Interesting note: The Patriots have lost their last three road playoff games. And all three losses were in the AFC Championship and all three were to Peyton Manning-quarterbacked teams.)

This stat physically pains me.

 

[A Defiant Goose]

Maybe if Peyton could have not gone one and done so many times he'd be on the **** end of that stick instead

 

[A Defiant Goose]

And no, they didn't lose that game at any point in the season until they failed the two point conversion. That's really all it is. They were thoroughly outmatched and overwhelmed on the OL and it did them in. That's not to use injury as an excuse, it's just a reality. You lost because your players were worse than theirs in the trenches. The players were bad because they were backup quality players. The 2015 Patriots aren't the first and certainly not the last team to be undone by bad depth and a couple of untimely bad plays. Oh well

 

[VectorPrime]

During the regular season Brady was sacked and hit at an abnormally high rate compared to years previously. We figured it was just because Edelman was gone. Turns out the warning signs about the OL were there, we just didn't listen.

 

[LightSkinSmurf]

You already know I agree with you. I've been hammering this point even before the playoffs started. I said if we lose in denver in the AFC championship belichick deserves alot of blame. We had an amazing opportunity to not have to travel in the playoffs and belichick decided not to aggressively go after HFA. This season didn't have to end this way if our coach thought as highly of HFA as most of us do.

 

[IcyPatriot]

.

 

[Brewskies]

Give credit to the coaches of the Broncos. They developed a game plan with flexibility that confused Pats coaches because the Denver players followed the game plan. As for the reason the Pats didn't win HFA all on the coaches.

 

[RecoveringCowboy]

Some will say the best team wins home field advantage in most cases....Pats were always on the road the first time they won it - they got hot in the playoffs that year.

 

[Tony2046]

I like the OP's post because it's true. If they had won any of those four games the Pats would have had HFA and most likely went on to the SB.. How that would have turned out with this O line is another discussion.

But, while I was watching the game it wasn't the missed XP that bothered me and it wasn't the two INT"S either. What bothered me throughout the game (and season) was the historically bad protection from the O line.

If it wasn't for the Defense the Pats would have been blown right out of town. It was just insane how little time Brady had in the pocket.

Anyways I do agree with the OP in that I think that BB tried to play a little too conservative over the last 6 weeks of the season but I am really not sure if the Pats would have been able to pull out a SB win with that O line anyways.

Easy to second guess BB playing the "get healthy" game but I guess that's how it goes.