Aside from the obvious kick-to-the-groin dull pain still throbbing after Sunday’s game, there is a bright spot to New England’s 33-14 embarrassment at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. Finally, after years and years of gathering dust, writers can dig those Patriots dynasty obituaries out of their filing cabinets and set them to print. It must’ve been a very touching moment for many of them, having waited so long to see their long-awaited words in print after all these years. I’m happy for them in the same way I’m happy when my dogs, after an hour of intense work, figure out how to get that lost Cheerio out from under the chair.
It is the end of an era, let’s be perfectly clear about that. Over the last decade, the Patriots won more games than all but one team in the NFL, won more championships than any other team, set a handful of records, and outpaced the expectations of any pre-2000 fans by a hundred fold. Honestly, having watching the team prior to Brady and Belichick showing up, did anyone ever imagine that the Patriots could sustain a 9-year string of excellence like this? This franchise was a laughingstock for most of its first 40 years – everything since 2001 has been gravy. To have done it in the modern era of free agency and parity makes it all that much more remarkable.
Unfortunately, it’s what also makes the ultimate fall from grace that much harder to watch. In truth, this has been coming for the past two years and the seeds were there at least one season before. Having a team like Baltimore stomp into Gillette on Sunday was the perfect storm – a physical defense paired with an offense that runs the ball effectively and passes when necessary. It was the worst possible match-up to throw against an offense that was all finesse with very little substance and a defense that has never been particularly good at stopping the run. As tough as it is for me to say this as a Patriots fan, it could’ve been worse – that could’ve been the Jets bouncing the Pats around, and considering how New York played against Cincy on Saturday, that’s exactly what would’ve happened. It’s bad enough knowing The Sanchezception actually has a playoff win under his belt – having it come against the Pats would’ve been like rubbing hot sauce into an open wound.
After taking yesterday as an official day of mourning, I can accept what’s happened to my favorite team and am ready to move on. One thing I can’t accept is the contention by many people that this all goes back to Belichick trading away Richard Seymour and Mike Vrabel at the beginning of the season. Tony Massarotti made if the centerpiece of his Pats eulogy yesterday… Ooooh, look! They had to move Vince Wilfork over to right end in the second half! That’s where Richard Seymour used to play! Did you know that they don’t get that pick until 2011? I heard Belichick was the second gunman on the grassy knoll… Give me a break.
Ya know what Tony? You’re right. Had Richard Seymour and Mike Vrabel been lined up for the Pats on Sunday, there’s no way in hell that the Ravens would’ve rushed for 234 yards. No way. With those two monster players in the lineup, they would’ve only gotten 190 yards – 200 yards tops.
I say that because, unless my memory has slipped drastically, both Seymour and Vrabel were starting on defense the previous 3 years when New England couldn’t stop the rush to save their lives. Despite this glaringly obvious fact, the prevalent feeling seems to be that Seymour would’ve shed double team after double team and devoured Ray Rice and Willis McGahee, carrying the Patriots all the way to the Super Bowl, and then declaring that, during his off time in the playoffs, that he’d discovered a cure for both the common cold and athlete’s foot. And Vrabel would’ve not only intercepted Flacco three times, he would’ve been on the receiving end of a pair of Brady touchdown passes – just like the old days. Of course, this once again ignores a rather huge fact – that neither Seymour or Vrabel are the same players anymore. If you look at their stats, both had rather pedestrian seasons this year – perhaps they aren’t washed up, but it’s hard to believe either of them being the difference in this game. If anything, the Patriots missed having a guy like Tedy Bruschi in the lineup; a player who was always around the ball whether it was a pass or run. But that isn’t much fun to point out because he retired and it can’t be pinned on an individual so the conspiracy morons can say – Look, HE’S the one who screwed up the defense! In fact, I won’t blame the defense for this game any more than saying this: they were about on par with what I’d expect from a rebuilding defense chock full of young players with little or no playoff experience.
No, the blame for this game, and much of the season goes to the area of Tony’s article that gets it right – coaching and offense. For all the film the Pats had on Baltimore, they seemed ill-prepared for what was in front of them on both sides of the ball. The offensive gameplan was lame and the defense seemed confused. Going further than that, the Patriots were exposed as a team that had little depth on offense and couldn’t function once Wes Welker was out of the picture. Everyone seems to forget this, but the offense was supposed to carry this team – Brady turned the ball over 3 times, Moss was invisible, and aside from Kevin Faulk it didn’t seem like anyone else wanted to run the ball against Baltimore. The big assets of this team were supposed to be its coach, quarterback, and explosive offense – in the end, that’s also what let them down the most.
Am I depressed about what happened to the Patriots? Yes, it was a miserable thing to watch – not just because they lost but because they did it without any kind of effort or heart. That was the one thing you could always count on before this year, that no matter what was happening, the team was going to come out and play their asses off. Not the case anymore. That’s the area that needs to be rebuilt first and foremost before any personnel start flying around, and it starts with the coach and his staff.
Continues tomorrow with a look at what the Patriots should do in the offseason. Stay tuned.
