Worst Pats playoff loss in the BB/Brady era

[ensoul]

2007 and it isn't close. Perfect season ruined and I still get upset when I think about what could have been.

 

[Spiral]

2009 vs. the Ravens wasn't the worst b/c a Lombardi wasn't on the line, but it was bad to me b/c there were players who flat-out quit during that game.

 

[Efstratios]

IMO

SB 42> SB 52> 2010 AFC Divisional> 2006 AFCCG> SB 46>2015 AFCCG> 2009 Wildcard Game> 2012 AFCCG> 2005 AFC Divisional> 2013 AFCCG> 2019 AFCCG.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

I picked “07”, but the ravens loss was the worst to me. It was over when Rice broke through for the long td run in q1. Team showed as much energy as an out of gas yugo.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

2006 AFCCG to Manning
A layup in the SB had we won
Fake penalty gave Manning his legacy. Huge halftime lead evaporated. Went out & bought wine to celebrate.

2007 was SO over hyped. Pats played like crap and deserved to lose unlike 2006. I was away from media and missed all the Spygate runup.
Could not care less then or now about a 19-0 season

 

[Pape]

I still feel like there was a slight chance Brady would have retired after that season if we had won. The Tom vs Time documentary seemed to be leading up to it and he would have gone out on his best statistical SB performance along with a league MVP. I don't think it was a big chance but if there was ever a time I though he would hang it up it was heading into that super bowl week.

If by "slight" you mean "none", then i agree

 

[TinhWoodhead]

07
12
13
17
10

 

[denverpatsfan]

I was at several of these games. The worst for me was that loss in Denver 2006. Never saw that coming. Brady had never lost. The team played like crap. Lost to a journeyman QB. Crappy home field calls going to Denver. Donks fans celebrating like they won the Superbowl. One of the worst hangovers of my life. Ugh

 

[FCB02062]

2007 because it was a chance at immortality. If they had beaten the NYG, the 2007 New England would have been mentioned with the 27 Yankees, the 98 Yankees, the 77 Canadiens, the 86 Celtics as THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME. And the Patriots would have a rightful claim to that throne. Going undefeated, winning the Super Bowl, in a salary cap league would've put the 07 Pats at the top of the list. There is absolutely no way any other loss in franchise history can compare.
2006 ranks up there me because it would've been a conference title win ON THE ROAD. Road playoff games are the mark of an incredible team - that's why the 2018 edition should get TONS of credit bc they won AT KC. Plus the 06 team would've played a crap Bears team and probably wiped the field with them.
2005 at Denver is a personal one for me. I, and probably many other fans, just couldn't believe Brady lost a playoff game. We thought he was invincible - remember, he started his career 10-0 in the playoffs.
Those are my top 3 anyway...

 

[stinkypete]

2007 is the only right answer, but 2010 stings like few of the rest.

That 2009 team had no chance. It was gross to watch, but at least you could emotionally check out early (the team sure did).

 

[Patriot Missile]

I'm the "Other"

There have certainly been worse losses in terms of embarrassment (2010 Jets), humiliation (2009 Ravens) and what was at stake (AFCCG, SB, etc).

I can't really explain it but the divisional loss to the Broncos in 06 (2005 season) just sticks with me.

No question the team had flaws and played poorly but I just recall being down in the dumps after that loss for a solid week.

That Broncos game was a catastrophe. Turned the ball over 4 otr 5 times. A possible td turned pick which should of been a touch back. Outgained them in yards. For all of everything that went wrong with that game they should of had their doors blown in but lost 27-13.

tbh, the Patriots had some strokes of good fortune from 01-04. But they also had their share of bad luck. 05, 06 07 were all winnable games.

 

[h0c2000]

Superbowl XX, they had the lead. I could feel it was destiny.

 

[Patriot Missile]

2007 because it was a chance at immortality. If they had beaten the NYG, the 2007 New England would have been mentioned with the 27 Yankees, the 98 Yankees, the 77 Canadiens, the 86 Celtics as THE GREATEST TEAM OF ALL TIME. And the Patriots would have a rightful claim to that throne. Going undefeated, winning the Super Bowl, in a salary cap league would've put the 07 Pats at the top of the list. There is absolutely no way any other loss in franchise history can compare.
2006 ranks up there me because it would've been a conference title win ON THE ROAD. Road playoff games are the mark of an incredible team - that's why the 2018 edition should get TONS of credit bc they won AT KC. Plus the 06 team would've played a crap Bears team and probably wiped the field with them.
2005 at Denver is a personal one for me. I, and probably many other fans, just couldn't believe Brady lost a playoff game. We thought he was invincible - remember, he started his career 10-0 in the playoffs.
Those are my top 3 anyway...

2007 obviously for stated reasons. Isn’t a month that goes by I dont think of that game.

Agreed on 06. They had just beaten the best team in the league on the road. The 14-2 Chargers that had destroyed the Colts earlier. Got jobbed so bad in the 2nd half. To this day, if I can’t blame the refs for the obvious homecookjng I blame the front office for not getting a deal done with Willie McGinnist. Call it what you will, but he doesn’t let that defense fail in 06 or 07. Not on his watch.

 

[PF_SU]

But they also had their share of bad luck. 05, 06 07 were all winnable games.

The though thing about all those losses is, all of these games probably had this one play, that if it went in the Patriots' favour could've swung or decided the game. In 2005 it was the Champ Bailey interception. In 2006 it was the OPI on Troy Brown on a 3rd down conversion late in the 1st half deep in Colts territory up 21-0. And in 2007 it was obviously the whole helmet catch sequence.

 

[Brotherblues]

I'd like the poll better if we excluded the Super Bowls. Hard to compete with the '07 hearbreak. Only the '11 season and the Foles SB can come close to that.

But yeah outside of SB losses, the biggest ones that pop harder in my head are:

"THAT WAS A TOUCHBACK!!!"
21-3
"WTF WE BEAT THEM BY 50 LIKE 2 WEEKS AGO"
"LOL WHY ARE THEY CALLING THEMSELVES OUR RIVALS, THAT'S CUTE"

If I had to pick one, I'd go with 21-3. I'll never get over it. There was literally a free ring at stake.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Great question.

Top 5 for me:

1. 2007 Super Bowl loss. This is an easy call. Initially watching the game was a blur as I was a nervous wreck the entire game. After finally mustering up the courage to watch it again a couple years ago, Eli tried to lose the game within the 1st Q tossing up 3 INT's that the Pats could only catch one. Not to mention Bill not challenging the clear Pierre Woods fumble recovery, chucking it deep on 4th and 13 instead of the field goal, Asante dreaming about his next paycheck leaving Harrison out to dry on the Tyree catch, the entire O-line holding on that catch, Seau wanting to stick with Pee's call of the all out blitz, etc. This game really should've been over at halftime and you could tell the Pats were a nervous wreck and could never settle down.
2. 2011 Super Bowl loss. Pats were going to avenge their 2007 loss right? Nope. Only this time they blew a 17-9 lead. I still have nightmares of lil' Wes Welker helplessly trying to get his little hands on that Brady pass. Pats had all the momentum going up 17-9 with Hernandez "opening the vault and making it rain" after his TD only to have every other drive stall.
3. 2006 AFC Championship loss. Pats really had no business being in the game as they should've lost to the Chargers the week prior with Brady's INT. So you think the Pats were going to take care of business being up 21-6 at Halftime right? Nope. Their LB's started dropping like flies which gave Manning life throwing to any TE that was being defended by Eric Alexander. Oh yeah and how about that made up "face guarding" call that somehow Phil Simms knew was coming. Anyone else think that was bizarre? Lastly, the poor Corey Dillon being so gassed on that long run, he had to concede out of bounds with a defender behind him.
4. 2005 AFC Divisional loss. This was tough because this was the first postseason loss for Brady and BB. Bill initially had a great game plan doing something he hasn't been able to do against Shanahan and that was stifling the Broncos ground game. However, the Broncos were the first defense that really got into Brady's head (John Lynch in particular). They were running the short lived "11 up" defense which they copied from Parcells who briefly used in Dallas. Brady always looked confused every pre snap, counted each Broncos defender at the LOS and took forever to decide on a setting the protections. Then you have the bizarre Brady fumble recovery awarded to the Broncos, the Watson chase down awarded back to the Broncos. After the Brady INT, the Pats D broke down and Plummer gave us an encore of their regular season meeting throwing deep bombs over the Pats DB's to seal the game.
5. 2017 Super Bowl loss. This is going to be short and sweet. I wasn't even that upset and could easily take this off my list. Why? When you bench a starter playing 98% percent of the snaps in favor of Rowe (the worst rated CB in the league), then putting Rowe on the Eagles best WR, Jordan Richards, and Johnson Bademosi told me Bill didn't really care about winning the game. Pure negligence by Bill.

Honorable mentions:

1. 2015 AFC Championship loss. Like 2017, this was the year of arrogance. Bill wanted to take 2 weeks off starting with the Jets and Dolphins in weeks 16 and 17 and didn't care if they gave up the #1 seed to the Broncos. The bizarre uncharacteristically handoffs to the RB's on 3rd and longs in the 1st half of games were extremely frustrating. Mike Lombardi said they did this on purpose because they were scared to get anybody else injured. Then Bill had a wonderful game plan allowing the noodle armed Manning throw bombs against a soft D for two consecutive TD's. Once Bill pulled his head out of his a** and came after Manning, they stifled the Broncos O.
2. 2012 AFC Championship loss. Pats had the Ravens dead to rights until Talib got injured. Not having Gronk really hurt but still should've been able to move the ball better against their slow a** D and pedestrian CB's.
3. 2010 AFC Divisional loss. Losing to a Mark Sanchez lead team was pretty pathetic. Then you have Braylon Edwards doing back flips in the endzone was insult to injury.

 

[italian pat patriot]

2 0 0 7

 

[crawhammer]

Holy sh*t! Is this the cheer me up thread?

Gotta be Super Bowl 42... that f*cking game sucked the life out of me for a month. Things I remember most about that horror...

Patriots take the lead on Brady to Moss, the perfect culmination to a perfect season, no way the defense is going let Eli steal it away. Wrong! I can still see the ball slipping through Samuel's outreached fingertips.

Of course the Tyree debacle... that's a 10K thread by itself... don't really wanna get into it.

On one of the last two pass attempts downfield to Moss, Brady nearly dropped in the perfect bomb... now that would have been another one for the ages. Oh well. If any good came out of this loss then it's that I don't think Brady would have kept on going now well into his 40's. Like all of the all-time greats, defeat only strengthened his determination to succeed.

 

[doesntmatter1]

2006 hands down. All losses suck but I can get over them and accept it just wasn't our day. What I can't accept is blatant cheating from refs. Garbage pi calls over and over. It wouldn't matter if we had 11 hof on defense that day. The refs already made up their mind that they were going to turn a blowout into a close game. Probably for ratings etc.

 

[crawhammer]

Regarding the 2006 AFCCG... can someone explain to me why Belichick had Eric Alexander attempting to cover Indy's TE's from start to finish when it was pretty evident from the jump that he couldn't do it?