Here are 13 much better reasons why we were even in that position to begin with, and did not deserve to win the game:
1--We only stopped TWO Carolina drives the entire game. They scored on us at will with 3 TD's and 1 FG. The other two drives were punts, but when you only force a team to punt two times, you aren't going to have much of a chance to win
2--At one point Ian tweeted a stat that we had given up 8/11 third down conversions. I'm not sure how much it changed after that because I haven't looked at the final stats, but I'm not expecting much of a difference. Either way, giving up 8/11 third down attempts continues the horrid trend that we saw with Cincy, Miami, and the NYJ when we had some stretches in there that included giving up 6 or 7 straight third down conversions in two separate games. That is totally unacceptable on every level
3--We missed many key tackles, including a few on Newton that allowed them to have huge gains on key third down situations. On top of that, we also missed the tackle that allowed Ted Ginn to score the game winning TD
4--We failed to even produce ONE turnover for the first time in 35, 36, 37 games (I'm not sure where the streak was at) which had been the NFL's longest streak. As a whole we ended up -2 in the turnover battle. Check out the odds of winning a game at -2, they are downright awful
5--Ridley once again showed his tendency to not only fumble, but to fumble at the most inopportune time of the game. We had all of the momentum in the BUF game and were running away with it when Ridley fumbled in the red zone. In the PIT game, we were once again running away with the game and Ridley's fumble allowed them to make a furious comeback and tie the game, totally swinging the momentum. Tonight, yet again--he fumbled while we were driving down the field and in the red zone getting ready to score. It is just not Patriots football, and you cannot make huge mistakes like that
6--Talib was invisible, getting torched by an old Steve Smith. To make things worse, his 5 week layoff which cost us some games, seemed to do nothing for his hip injury, as we are once again back at square one as he is injured yet again. For a supposed "top cover corner" he tends to disappear at the most inopportune times imaginable, and yet again we are stuck with a lack of talent and depth at CB
7--Our offensive play calling in the game's most crucial situation with the score tied at 17 after a very nice comeback was horrid, as we had a golden opportunity to put pressure on the Panthers by going up 24-17 late in the game. Instead we decided to try a ridiculous pass play on a crucial 3rd and 1 when we NEEDED to score a TD to win the game. To make matters worse it was a stupid play design (a bunch formation with a pick, or even a bubble screen would have been a much better choice if they wanted to pass that badly). They had a ton of success running the ball the entire drive and then failed to take advantage of one lousy yard to score the TD
8--The offensive line was once again, very suspect. We allowed a couple/few important sacks, and a ton of pressure up the middle. This has been an ongoing problem for quite some time, and may be one of our biggest problems
9--We had a couple/few very "non-Patriot like" unsportsmanlike penalty calls on Mankins and Talib, two of our best players and leaders. Both of these penalties either cost us points or allowed CAR to continue their scoring drive. There are many teams who we'd see this from, but NE is not one of them. That is not acceptable on any level either
10--There were 2 very bad snaps by Danny Aiken, both saved by Ryan Allen--although the second hold by Allen wasn't too hot. Mistakes like this cannot be made moving forward, especially when it's the only job these guys have to work on all week
11--We have now lost 2 of our last 3 games coming off the bye week. It's not my team and not my call, but I will admit that I wasn't crazy about the idea of 6 straight days off. That pretty much took up an entire week, so it was really like any other week in terms of game planning. I assume that Belichick made this decision due to the injury/health situation, but there was a time when we may have put better use to the opportunity to utilize important time to prepare for two very hard games in a row
12--Once again, we experienced very key injuries. It seems like glue is holding this team together, and one just has to wonder how far they can possibly get with injuries so severe and important. We are now down to only 5/11 starters from the week one defense
13--We got absolutely no pressure on Newton whatsoever, and this too has been a trend that is unacceptable. When you allow the QB all day to make his decisions, it isn't often going to be a good result
