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Apologies for my lackluster posting over the last two days, instead of just jumping into the furious blame-game I like to take a few days to gain some distance and perspective on the season before I start making commentary.

So if you’ve been knee deep in all the mud that the media has been flinging,  without a beacon of Patriots homerdom like you get here, I’m sorry.

My TV went off as Brady’s last pass fell incomplete and it has not been turned back on to a channel that might show anything Super Bowl related since, but I’ve kept a lazy eye towards all the fallout.

From Gisele’s post-game analysis, to the Boston media finally getting a free shot on Tom Brady, to today’s Butterfingers that were delivered to Welker, it seems like an unending parade of ancillary story lines that conveniently ignore reality.

The most ironic part  is how all season long we heard how bad the defense was, that it was their major weakness, and yet it wasn’t the defense that lost this game. The Giants offense made the critical plays at the critical times. The Patriots offense did not.  End of ball game.

Of course this is far too simple for those who get paid to write thousands of words about what went wrong. Everything has to be linked to Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s legacy, with a grand “what does it all mean” spin off of every last detail of this single game.

So does this mean every outlet can run their “Patriots dynasty is over” or “Belichick is no longer a genius” article again for the twelfth time since 2007? Hardly.

The 2011 Patriots proved that as long as Bill Belichick is there this team will be competitive. And for those who cried all season long about how untalented this team was, how they didn’t have a deep threat or a pass rusher, or whatever else, none of it really mattered. We lost the game on what had been our strength.

They couldn’t execute when it counted most on offense, something they had done a great majority of the season, and that sealed their fate. There’s no way to “fix” that. And when you lose a game because you can’t land your best punch you deserve to lose.

You can look at Brady and Belichick and yes, they’re the all time winningest coach-QB tandem, but clearly they are closer to the end of their run than the start. That’s all common sense and fine, and sure, you can say their window might be closing.

But the unsexy thing that no one wants to talk about is how this young defense, much maligned all season long, is only at the start of their trajectory. When you look at the experience that Tedy Bruschi, Ted Johnson, Willie McGinest and others gained in the loss of Super Bowl 31, you can see how that set them up for the dynasty run.

This current defense is no different, with pieces like Mayo, Spikes, Chung and McCourty clearly in place for the long haul. Couple them with all the draft picks that will be added again this season and it’s hard to really feel down about the Patriots, unless you’re solely beholden to Tom Brady’s legacy and your only factor for enjoyment is ensuring that Brady is the undisputed greatest QB of all time.

31 teams don’t win the Super Bowl, and even when the Patriots are the best of those 31 it’s still of little consolation. But there was a lot to enjoy about the 2011 season. Records were again broken. Rivals were dispatched. And the Patriots once again were AFC champs.

There’s no doubt the 2012 Patriots will be back and ferocious as ever, it just might take a few weeks to get over the sting of losing to the Giants. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and once we get there we’ll be winning games and trying to make another Super Bowl, which is more than you can say for at least half of the rest of the NFL.