Monday, February 04, 2008

Why did the Pat's lose?

It seemed confidence in the offense and concern about the defense might have been at play.
Early in the game, Bellicheck was seen ignoring the offensive series as he worked with the defense to adjust the initial plan. The Pats did stop the mostly running game, it seemed to me.

Yet the Giants kept the Brady Bunch off the field for large portions of time. Giving up two touchdowns and a field goal: You cant fault the defense too much, although one touchdown and two field goals would have been better. There might have been a feeling that our hot offense would click eventually .. when was the last time the Pats were held to less than 20 points?

We will probably look back at the 4th down we went for in the first half as a place where we could have gotten 3 points, enough to null the actual outcome. But that was the Pats style all year. So it seemed right at the time. But it also reflected a confidence in the offense that did not pan out this day.

Really the question is 'why did the Giants win?' No other defense was in the Pat's backfield as much as the Giants were. Except for two series, we were mortal. They got to the passer. They covered the receivers. They stopped the running game. They made some great plays. They played a great game.

I was transfixed when Brady led the team down the field to take the lead with less than two minutes to play. I'd seen this so many times before. It was errie calm. The boys tried, no question. I said to Cecelia: Now we just have to Hold On." And put on "[We got to] Hold On" by the Radiants.

Then a great scramble, pass and catch, got them in the Red Zone. Balls that we might have intercepted another time, we didnt. And then Eli Manning found Burgess in the end zone corner five steps ahead of Ellis Hobbs, who'd covered the hell out of The Placebo all night.

They couldnt hold on. This has been a memorable season. For a Pat's fan, finally, a great dissapointment. I think I will listen to some blues records.

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