I have a big silver lining here: in a Superbowl a few years ago (I think it was Seattle), I remember that only a single starter or player who entered the game was a rookie. It was a ridiculous stat, I thought, so I went and looked at a few rosters of recent SBs. Very few rookies.
So, my silver lining?
Asiasi, Bryant, Dugger, Herron, Jennings, Keene, Maliua, Onwenu, Taylor, Uche...
Hall, Thurman, 2nd year
Bailey, Cowart, Harris, Harry, Johnson, Meyers, Olszewski, Stidham, Williams, Winovich, 3rd year
Most of those guys - both OT, both TE, all LB - played a lot of snaps last night, with Terez Hall being the only one who's not a rookie.
More than that, the only players there with a decent amount of game experience are the punter and Winovich. A lot of the above-mentioned guys show flashes, and then make huge rookie mistakes.
They played the (legitimately) Number 2 seed in the AFC, a team that is on a roll and with one of the better OCs and QBs in the league. They got rolled. Predictably.
They played hard for much of the game, but Buffalo was simply light-years ahead of them...oh, and the Patriots had no QB.
The Pats have money to spend. BB should know what he's got going forward. Some of those guys mentioned above are going to be starting caliber, some not, but they're all cheap for a couple more years. They've got a ton of holes, but they're poised for a rebuild. Flores did it in Miami, McDermott did it in Buffalo. BB evaluates vet talent as well as anyone, so he should be able to bring in a few solid pieces in FA.
First job: get a QB. If they're keeping Cam, might as well bring in Tebow, so if Cam gets hurt, the rest of the team will know exactly what to expect...
I'm curious, though, if BB will blow it up (Flores-style), or keep some of the vets around to help the transition.