So hopefully by the end of the day today we’ll be able pin the exact one thing that was responsible for the Patriots loss.
Was it Welker’s benching? Was it Patchung!’s bobbled fake punt? Are the wide receivers simply unable to get open? And where was Aaron Hernandez? Do Woodhead AND Law Firm now need to be replaced? Tom Brady’s lost three straight playoff games, let’s get rid of him! And so on…
Trying to find the one or two ingredients responsible for a loss is like trying to find one or two ingredients in meatloaf. Yes you can see some of the obvious ones, but others you can’t, and ultimately it’s the special combination of ingredients that are responsible for the result, each contributing in their own small special way.
The Patriots did not execute like champions and they deserved to lose. There’s no one positional fix or upgrade that is going to solve all the problems we did or didn’t see against the Jets.
The off-season will begin with a good hard look at the Patriots personnel and coaching staff based on the entire season. Some big picture concerns based on not just what we saw yesterday:
- pass defense – biggest weakness of the 2010 Patriots.
- pass protection – break downs in the last three playoffs losses.
- pass rush – loss of Mike Wright/Myron Pryor didn’t help.
