Patriots message board

[rkmsuf]

I think it's safe to say NE gave the game away. Total inexpicable but Denver did nothing most of the night except fall on fumbles and go 10 yards for a score. Belichick and the coaches had the correct gameplan(especially coming out of halftime) but they didn't execute. A rare occurance.

[TroyF]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

I think it's safe to say NE gave the game away. Total inexpicable but Denver did nothing most of the night except fall on fumbles and go 10 yards for a score. Belichick and the coaches had the correct gameplan(especially coming out of halftime) but they didn't execute. A rare occurance.

And yet again, this doesn't give Denver nearly the credit they deserve. If you talk like that, then you have to say the Patriots were given a lot of their wins the last few years. How many times did teams have fumbles or INT's inside the 20, dominate the game and still find ways to lose it? (can we even count the number of critical turnovers the Patriots forced inside the twenty these last few years?)

The Patriots fans response to that has always been to say great players make great plays and great teams make their own luck.

Then when the switch is flipped, it's "The Patriots gave the football game away"

I have no problems if people were consistent, but you can't have it both ways. Denver forced a lot of the bad NE play with aggressive defense and not being afraid to smack Brady in the mouth. To say otherwise is foolish IMHO.

edit: One final thing. For those who keep saying the Denver offense did nothing the second half. You are only partially right. When NE needed to make stops in the second half, they didn't. After the muffed punt, they gave up a TD. After NE scored to cut it to 24-13, Denver ate up 4:41 of the game clock with a 61 yard drive. Denver touched the ball two times in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. They ate up over 8 minutes of the clock and scored 10 points. Did NE "give" them those 8 minutes?

[jeff061]

If you talk like that, then you have to say the Patriots were given a lot of their wins the last few years.

And that's exactly what those teams and their fans said . I'm assuming the Pats had those statements in mind when they gave all the credit to the Broncos.

In any case, the credit does go to Denever for not turning the ball over and for owning the field position all night, both of which were huge.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

But I don't think they are in that position if they don't fumble that ball. That fumble creates two problems, one it kills morale on the defense who just worked to get a turnover, and two, it puts Denver in great field position. I think the Bailey INT was the nail in the coffin, but the tone of the game was changed by that turnover sequence.

The tone may have been, but the Pats were still in good shape. I agree with Troy: Brady doesn't throw that pick, Pats are likely going up 13-10 instead of going down 17-6. HUGE difference at that point.

Sure, without the fumble they may have already been up at that point, but the game was still well within reach. The pick put it back at a 2-score game and deflated the offense.

[Castlerock]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

I think it's safe to say NE gave the game away. Total inexpicable but Denver did nothing most of the night except fall on fumbles and go 10 yards for a score. Belichick and the coaches had the correct gameplan(especially coming out of halftime) but they didn't execute. A rare occurance.

Originally Posted by TroyF

And yet again, this doesn't give Denver nearly the credit they deserve.

Gotta agree with TroyF on this one. Denver deserved to win that game. Football is about a lot of things but making oponents pay for their mistakes one of the marks of a good football team. Denver did that they deserve congratulations.

I remember early in the Patriots run, teams would get beat by the Patriots (the Steelers comes to mind but there are other examples) but refuse to accept that the better team one. It is infuriating (and wrong). We lost. Give Denver the credit they deserve.

[Desnudo]

Originally Posted by Castlerock

Gotta agree with TroyF on this one. Denver deserved to win that game. Football is about a lot of things but making oponents pay for their mistakes one of the marks of a good football team. Denver did that they deserve congratulations.

I remember early in the Patriots run, teams would get beat by the Patriots (the Steelers comes to mind but there are other examples) but refuse to accept that the better team one. It is infuriating (and wrong). We lost. Give Denver the credit they deserve.

Ditto. Brady is as tough as they come, but he was getting levelled play after play. I think what Denver did, and does, is remove that extra split second that a QB needs to really comfortably throw. It was almost imperceptable, but you could see Brady rushing throws just a little bit all night.

[ISiddiqui]

Definately agree with Troy on this one. It is a shame that some Pats fans can't admit the better team won. Especially knowing the history of the Pats, where some in St. Louis still think the better team lost in the Pats' first SB win.

[Crim]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

...Especially knowing the history of the Pats, where some in St. Louis still think the better team lost in the Pats' first SB win.

Exactly. I sat down to watch that Superbowl fully expecting, and relishing the prospect of, New England getting pasted. I'm a Broncos fan, but the Patriots definately earned my respect that day, from the way they imposed their will and outplayed the more talented team from St Louis.

Then, after the game, comments from the Rams and the genius analysts all seemed to be trying to convince me that what I saw was not what I saw... the Patriots didn't win; the Rams just failed to execute, blah blah bullshit.

This year's version of the Patriots weren't enough to get it done. If it hadn't been the Broncos, it would have been the Steelers knocking them off next weekend. Either way, their season is deservedly over, better luck next year, see ya later bye.

And, go Broncos!


Crim