In the aftermath of something like this, the truth sits somewhere in the rubble, buried in piles of questions and missed opportunities. Sifting through the debris can take some time, and in the NFL, there is rarely any rest for the weary.
So what do you think: In the modern NFL, are the Patriots really that close to a championship? Or was this postseason some indication they are as flawed - or more so - than the other teams who consider themselves to be at the top of the league hierarchy?
Where the Patriots go from here remains to be seen, but let’s start with the positives. In 2009, the Patriots were bounced in the wild-card round of the playoffs. In 2010, they were bounced in the divisional round.
This year, they made it all the way to the Super Bowl before succumbing to the New York Giants, 21-17, Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in a wonderfully competitive and entertaining game that ended in heartbreak.
The point is that the Patriots are getting better, for sure, though they are not yet where Bill Belichick and Tom Brady expect them to be.
What Sunday night reaffirmed, if anything, is that the Patriots still have some work to do, particularly if they expect to maximize the final years of Brady’s (and Belichick’s?) career. Last month, Brady told us the clock is ticking. With or without a healthy Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots need a viable receiving threat outside the numbers and they need help on defense, at least if they expect to win Super Bowls.
This year, more than any other in recent memory, the NFL affirmed that regular-season play and postseason play are entirely different things. Balance still wins.
The NFL seems to have become a jazzed-up version of the Arena League during the regular season, no fewer than six quarterbacks passing for more than 4,600 yards this season. The list includes Drew Brees, Brady, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, and Eli Manning, the last of whom had easily the best defense among the group.
So guess who won the championship?
Eli.
Of course, New England fans are likely to point out that the Giants’ defense during the regular season was marginally better than the Patriots’, but that’s missing the point. In their final six games this season, the Giants played the Jets, Cowboys, Falcons, Packers, 49ers, and Patriots.
All of those clubs ranked in the top half of the league in scoring, the Packers, Patriots, and Falcons finishing a respective, first, third, and seventh. New York held that group to an average of 14 points per game, the large majority of that play coming during a postseason in which NFL officials generally swallowed the whistles and actually started letting people play football again.
