I dunno. If you were talking about Hightower, then I may be more inclined to agree. The offense scored 34 in a SB victory the year before, and put up 33 without him a few months ago (without a punt, right?).
I think the only real argument in terms of getting more offensive production would be the decision of Brandin Cooks to try and jump over a DB instead of picking up an easy first and goal. That terrible choice led to coming away with zero points because Gost then proceeded to miss the FG, and that was a spot where they almost certainly should’ve had 7. I think common sense states that having Edelman would increase the odds of winning, but their offensive output saw over 600+ total yards, so for me, it’s hard to imagine them improving upon that kind of showing, whether it was Julian Edelman or Jerry Rice.