Take this to the Bank,The 3 Reasons we lost to the Colts.

[vyrago]

We lost because our defense was gassed in the 2nd half. ... They still had a great year, even though its very disappointing to come up short (so short!!) like they did yesterday.

Agreed. If the Patriots score 34 pts., they should win the game, easily. This game reminded me of the Pat-Panthers SB, where we seemed to have it sewn up only to have the Panthers come back and tie it.

The Patriots went further than any of us had a right to expect considering the loss of player personnel through FA, trade and injury, the patchwork lineups, the travel of the last two weeks, the flu (with accompanying dehydration exacerbated by the tropical climate in the dome), etc.

It's a tough loss because at the half, it looked as though the Patriots might run away with it, and these windows of opportunity don't stay open forever. But if there is any organization that can get back to this point, it's the N.E. Patriots--Belichick, Pioli, Kraft and Tom Brady,et.al.

 

[marty]

We truly lost as a team. The defense really got gassed participating in a track meet. The offense couldn't sustain any drives in the second half to try and give the defense a rest. There was mental errors on both sides. Can you believe Payton let the game clock run out? That matches up with our 12 man in the huddle IMO. Bottom line, we couldn't close the deal, our guys probably left too much in SD.

 

[Patriots4Ever]

1.Any Defense that allows 32 Points in a half of football doesn't deserve to win......A 21-3 lead should have been enough.....TBC,Bruschi and the rest of the DL were horrendous in the 2nd half.

2.Recche Caldwell and Kevin Faulk,to put it mildy,just choked.....there's,no other way to put it.
Their critical drops were crushing,and along with Maroney's lack of focus,they were the primary reason for our loss.

3.Tom Brady,I know nobody wants to hears this,but he was so-off target,on some many easy throws.that i think that he cost us a chance at another SB victory.

In both the SD and Indy Games,Brady had many chances,but now,he seems too rattled to succeed.

I don't think he can do it anymore.....he's become too erratic,

Overall,it was a great season,but I was most dissappointed in:Lawrence Maroney ,Tully Banta-Cain and Richard Seymour

The loss was not in any way Tom's Fault.The Defense was dog tired,and it showed.Do we forget that half the team was battling the Flu all week? I dont care how great of an athlete you are,Playing in a swealtering hot dome and having the flu would tire and one of us or them down..Seymour was playing hurt..Maroney? He's a ROOK...Or was anyway...

 

[ilduce06410]

RE: We Truly Lost As a TEAM

We truly lost as a team. The defense really got gassed participating in a track meet. The offense couldn't sustain any drives in the second half to try and give the defense a rest. There was mental errors on both sides. Can you believe Payton let the game clock run out? That matches up with our 12 man in the huddle IMO. Bottom line, we couldn't close the deal, our guys probably left too much in SD.

PatsChick, you know i loveya.
i got a couple of alternative ideas.
1. IMHO the colts won it. our boys didn't lose it. dolts have an EXPLOSIVE offense. rams, 2001. dolphins, 1972. dolphins, 1986. i can't think of an offense more scary than those.
they finally got in synch, and when they're seeing familiar defenses they just light it up. they score on every series. on everybody. we didn't have any crazy alignments/schemes ready for the 4th qtr.

2.ol' peyton's choked for all these years because pats showed him bizarre defenses in the 2nd half. no RAC. no Mangini. there's got to be a creative brain drain in there somewhere.

3. we would have won this danged game if deion and givens had been the WRs. caldwell, gaffney, are a poor substitute for those two. c'mon, you can't let a SB MVP walk and not pay the price.
ya wouldn't have seen those drops. further, ya wouldn't have seen incompletes as a result of caldwell or gaffney taking the wrong options on their routes.

4. i don't know why corey wasn't in the game.
for years pats have gotten the ball with 3:45 left and simply closed out the game with the run and with dinks and dunks, keeping the ball inbounds. i was truly surprised to see brady passing late in the 4th qtr.

summary: COACHING. DEION and GIVENS.

 

[Brady'sButtBoy]

The Brown penalty changed everything, no doubt about it (and I'm not hating on Troy at all, it a was a very ticky tack call for a game like this).

Caldwell's second drop was a killer, just a killer. He latches on to that ball and we at least burn a couple more minutes off the clock, not to mention having a real shot at punching in a TD instead of a FG like we did.

But the failure to get a couple first downs on our next to last possession was what lost game. Even after all of Manning's heroics, after the 292 yds in four drives, we were ahead, we had the ball and the clock in our favor. A championship team gets it done in cases like that - and it was Colts who got it 'done' by forcing a three and out.

I was perplexed by the play calling at that juncture as well. I'm not saying we shouldn't have passed at all but putting the ball up risks giving the other team extra time - just like what happened. But more so, when you are making the case that you're the world champs, there comes the moment when you must simply overcome whatever your opponent can throw at you. I felt like it was time to put the three TE's out there with Evans and just ram the ball straight at the Colts - play to be the dominant team, not the twitchy nervous one we looked like trying to throw 3 times in a row!

Imagine how different the demeanor of Brady and team would have been at that moment with just under 3mins left if we would have needed to score to win. Instead, we came out just trying to squeeze out a first down or two and played like we were just trying to hang on, instead of that blood-in-the-eyes we are going to take this darn game behavior when we need to go down and score to win. Just like last week....