Oh, that hurt. It hurt so very much. ESPN had it right, I am going through the stages of grieving. I can’t stand to do a full analysis of this travesty, I’ll just mention a few points.
* Our offensive line was not very good. They’ve been incredible the whole year, this game they were overwhelmed. Three false starts even!
* Partially as a result of that, Tom Brady wasn’t very good. Over the course of the season, he has become less and less accurate. (Tennessee game excepted.) There was quite a few times where the receiver was wide open, Brady had time, and he just threw a bad throw.
* The reffing was generally good. There were only two BS calls. There was an offensive pass interference where Burress(?) pushed Ellis Hobbs off to get open for a sideline catch. There was also a fumble recovery, where the Giants recovered the ball in the scrum. Is this play reviewable? It was obvious the Pats had possession, what are the rules here? Would it have mattered? I can’t bear to watch the tape, so I don’t know what yard line we were on.
* Our defense was fine. Holding the Giants to 17 points is doing your job. It was the offense that let us down.
* What was with the going for it on 4th and 13 instead of trying for a long field goal. On the play, Tom Brady passed it well out of bounds. Oh, by the way, we lost by three points.
* In the fourth quarter, we started throwing to Randy Moss. And we looked good. Why weren’t we throwing to him before? Even if he’s a decoy to draw a double-team, you have to test it once in a while. By my memory, we were 3 out of 4 throwing to him, excluding the garbage time Hail Marys.
* There’s no doubt we got outplayed. On the other hand, I honestly think if we played that game 7 times, the Pats would win 5 of them.
* Could you still give the Pats the best single season team ever? On the one hand, the Dolphins ’72 season was against pathetic competition (only two opponents had winning records.) The Pats set just about every offensive record there is. 18 wins is still more than anyone has ever done. On the other hand, without the Super Bowl, is it all meaningless?
* Next season will be rough. Even if the Pats are incredibly dominant again, no one will give them a second look. Brady is human and a choker. The mythology has been destroyed.
I’ll stop there. It hurts to type.