Patriots Film Review: Tom Brady Unsuccessfully Relies On Deep Ball

Edelman obviously gives them someone who can get open quick.

Theoretically, winning the game could’ve been regarded as just as important a priority, considering a victory would have clinched home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick had little to say about his offense, which was held to 196 total yards.

The loss dropped them to 12-4 on the season, but at the end of the day, no one will remember this game in another month if this team is in California. Brady wound up attempting 16 passes after halftime compared to five before the break. Brady should have come out after getting banged up.

How is that even possible?

In only his second game as a Patriot, Steven Jackson received an opportunity to become the featured running back in the New England offense, but he failed to deliver. Belichick and Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels somehow got it in their heads that they couldn’t win without trickery and deception. Over the first ten games the Patriots offence would average 32.3 points per game. You know, I’ve always dealt with injuries. No, they let themselves believe the injuries caught up to them. “I wanted to stay in there and play yesterday and see if I could do some stuff to help our team….” A first-round bye and a divisional playoff game at home still put the Patriots in a decent position for a championship run, but the road to the Super Bowl now goes through Denver, and that’s never an easy road to travel.

If the reason the Patriots were running it was to keep Brady out of harm’s way, that’s understandable. The Patriots were converting third downs at a 50 percent rate when before Edelman got hurt. In a fiasco that lasted over the entire offseason, Tom Brady fought against the penalties, issued by the NFL. Jones made up the ground but ran into Chandler before the pass reached its destination.

Brady walked gingerly after the play. You try to do what you think’s best and if you think that’s what we should do, take those risks, that’s fine.

Playoff seeding is a amusing thing.

A loss in Week 17 to the Miami Dolphins cost the Patriots a number-one seed, but as the number-two seed, the Patriots will still receive a first-round bye. “He’s going to be one of the best players in the league”. This weekend’s wild card games – AFC, Saturday: Kansas City at Houston, 4:35 p.m., ESPN (simulcast on ABC); Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, 8:15 p.m., CBS. Neither of those teams should strike fear in the hearts of Patriots fans. The Patriots had been plagued by injuries all season, early in the regular season most of the injuries were on offensive linemen, this caused the offensive line to become a revolving door.