I know everyone blames Reche Caldwell's drop for 100% of that loss, but I don't think that's fair. Yeah, he should have caught it. But we scored 34 ****ing points that day.
There wasn't much money spent on the offense, but it's not like we had a ton of money left over gaining interest. Miguel's cap page from that year has us pretty low on cap space, and he mentions that according to other figures, we were around 76 cents below the cap.
Miguel's UNOFFICIAL 2006 Patriots Salary Cap Information Page
Very little money went towards the offense, but that money went towards a defense that gave up 32 points in the second half of that game. Caldwell could have dropped every pass in the second half and it shouldn't have mattered.
He's become our Bill Buckner, but like Bill, he didn't deserve even a quarter of the blame that he's gotten over the years. 34 points on the road should be enough. If the defense gives up 27 points or less in the second half, we go to the Super Bowl with that cheap piece of **** offense.