Monday, December 16, 2013

Day 260: I Really Don't Want to Talk About the Patriots.

The last thing I want to talk about tonight is that hideous loss by the New England Patriots on Sunday. I don't want to talk about how their last-second luck has finally run out. Or about how on paper, they played a pretty good game offensively. But once again, they can't seem to play the defense necessary to hold back even a mediocre team. This type of play is going to get them ousted from the postseason pretty quickly if they can't pull it together.

This game against the Dolphins was one of those trap games. It was a game the Patriots should've won handily if they could just get out ahead of a team and actually hold the lead. The Pats could've clinched the division with a win. The 'Phins needed the victory to keep their playoff hopes alive. I guess we know which team wanted it just a little more.

My guts were in a twist the entire fourth quarter. I had that bad feeling, deep down, that this was going to be that game, kind of like that game against the Panthers, where fourth quarter heroics would fall short. Where the curse of the midget receivers would haunt Tom Brady. Where the absence of Rob Gronkowski would be as obvious as a neon sign flashing "free beer." Anyone who things the Pats are going to get past the AFC Championship game without that giant target called Gronk is delusional.

Tom Brady's stats for the game weren't bad—34-for-55 for 364 yards and two touchdowns. The one miscue happened on the last play of the game when the Dolphins intercepted #12 in the end zone to put the game out of reach for New England. And the Pats had two 100+ receivers for the day—Julian Edelman had 13 catches for 139 yards and Danny Amendola pulled in 10 catches for 131 yards.

Brady was visibly disgusted after the loss. In a short and not so sweet post-game interview, he said, "We had plenty of chances all day. We made some good plays and we made plenty of shitty plays."

He should be disgusted. A win against the Dolphins would've have kept the Pats atop the AFC and get them one step closer to home field advantage throughout the playoffs. I bet the Broncos were pretty happy. I know I wasn't.

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