What was your toughest Patriots loss to take?

[Boomer B]

You guys think you had it bad? I was THERE. In Phoenix. Witnessing that disaster firsthand left a scar that never will heal. Imagine having Giants fans less than 10 feet away screaming with joy when Burress caught that scoring lob to put New York ahead with 35 seconds left. I can still see them jumping up and down. Adding insult to injury was getting seated next to a Giants fan on the flight home afterward.

That’s like my own personal hell

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

You guys think you had it bad? I was THERE. In Phoenix. Witnessing that disaster firsthand left a scar that never will heal. Imagine having Giants fans less than 10 feet away screaming with joy when Burress caught that scoring lob to put New York ahead with 35 seconds left. I can still see them jumping up and down. Adding insult to injury was getting seated next to a Giants fan on the flight home afterward.

Curious, how I despise the Giants more than the Jets.

I think it's the posturing and the accepted myth that it is an iconic, great franchise. Historic, yes, but they have decades more suck than even the Jets.

Included in that amazing twenty year stretch of Patriots greatness are over a dozen bitter losses. There may be less tangible material and detail, but for me the Giants suck much worse than the Jets. Giving them those two championships are, as you said, are scars that will never heal.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

This post is mostly ********.

Yes, it is.

...Wait, you're talking about yours, right?

I accept that, in the five Super Bowls we lost, that all the coaches (including Parcells) and players earnestly, genuinely did their best to win.

One thing they all have in common is failure to utilize the run. Yes, they did win without doing so many times, but that doesn't change the facts. Even against the Bears, had Grogan started I expect he would have ignored Berry's ridiculous strategy of pretending Eason was Dan Marino. Throwing Steve out there when they were already three touchdowns down late in the first half is not the same.

And when McDaniels dropped Tom back to pass with plenty of time, all of our timeouts plus the two minute warning, our defense unable to stop anybody and the opportunity to cross up their defense right in front of us, I got that unfortunately familiar feeling of impending doom and of course it led to our only turnover of the day.

If you want to say the SB42 team was emotionally taxed, stressed out, and blindsided by Tomase and Arlen Spector that would be accurate.

They were inundated by bull **** from everyone about CryGate all season, so I think Tomase and Spector were just piling on, I don't know that it affected their preparation or performance.

BB tanking the game because he didn't want to make the Giants look bad? That's an irresponsible thing to say.

I didn't say that, but if they were intentionally tanking, their in game strategy was pretty close.

I doubt the following conversation took place:

Belichick: "Lawrence, Tom is banged up, and the single solitary thing this Giants team does well is rush the passer, so we're going to run you and Kevin at least 20-25 times. We're counting on you."

Maroney: "OK Coach, I'll be ready."

And, I doubt Belichick posted in the locker room the headlines about the Giants stepping off the plane dressed in black for the Patriots' 'funeral', in a season dedicated to Marquise Hill who saved a woman's life before losing his.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Guys, that team like the 15-1 Vikings was too dependent upon Moss, and simply didn't have the championship drive.

All Gary Anderson had to do was make a field goal indoors like he had all year long and the game would've been out of reach for the Falcons. However, the defense still had a chance to stop them, but couldn't do it. Speaking of the Falcons, still to this day nobody takes them seriously as they were 14-2 and a pretty good team. I remember when they were going to play NE, I thought the Pats were going to bring them down to earth only to get handed a brutal beatdown. Chris Chandler had the biggest fluke year, but Jamal Anderson was a beast, had two good WR's in Martin and Mathis and many veterans on defense. With that said, I think SF squeaks by them had Garrison Hearst not gotten injured.

The Patriots came out flat as a pancake for both Super Bowls against the Giants. They were good enough to almost win.

I don't have an excuse for 2011, but Bruschi and Harrison have said the pressure was building with each win and they played not to lose by the time the Super Bowl came around. Sammy Morris and Rosevelt Colvin were key injuries. I think they would've ran more if Morris were playing and Thomas would've been in coverage possible eliminating Kevin Boss's long reception which led to a TD.

Week 18 vs Buffalo

We're going to find out fairly soon whether that affected the franchise or not.

 

[Actual Pats Fan]

All Gary Anderson had to do was make a field goal indoors like he had all year long and the game would've been out of reach for the Falcons. However, the defense still had a chance to stop them, but couldn't do it. Speaking of the Falcons, still to this day nobody takes them seriously as they were 14-2 and a pretty good team. I remember when they were going to play NE, I thought the Pats were going to bring them down to earth only to get handed a brutal beatdown. Chris Chandler had the biggest fluke year, but Jamal Anderson was a beast, had two good WR's in Martin and Mathis and many veterans on defense. With that said, I think SF squeaks by them had Garrison Hearst not gotten injured.

One of the best Falcons teams ever, but they needed everything to go right to beat the Broncos.

Eugene Robinson getting busted for solicitation shortly after receiving the Bart Starr Award and going out to dinner with his wife and in laws didn't help...

 

[Wax Frog]

I'm stealing this one!

 

[The Brandon Five]

SB42 seems like the obvious choice, but SB52 almost seems worse since the loss was unnecessary. Record offensive output in a SB (yards) and they lose? Bench a known clutch DB when you can't stop the opposing offense?

I am going to kick myself in the balls now.