A day after we watched our offense and special teams all but hand the game over to the 49ers there are still people blaming the defense...and, surprisingly, not Babe. =0

The offense gave the 49ers the ball back to start their drives on our side of the field through out the entire half, the Patriots defense only had 3 bad plays and they all resulted in points, but the offense didn't help them one bit until the third quarter down by 21.

Let's go over the 49ers scoring plays, shall we?

7-0 = Bad play by secondary, both guys were expecting help over the top, but McCourty read it wrong and swayed to the middle of the field instead of playing over the top of the CBs. Dennard and Arrington should've put hands on Moss and Walker though, but that's besides the point.

14-3 = No, this 14 wasn't from the defense giving up a score afterthe 49ers INT Tom and walked the ball back to the two. No, this was a bad play by, the now benched, Steven Gregory being no where near his zone to help Dennard and forcing Dennard to pick up his guy along with Walker. Walker walks in, but again, Gregory got benched half way through.

17-3 = Defense makes a goal line stop, but Mayo gets blocked in the back for a 3-20 conversation, but no call.

24-3 = Ridley fumbles (WHY THEY KEPT BRINGING HIM IN IS A MYSTERY TO ME!!! WOODHEAD WAS THE ONLY EFFECTIVE RUNNER!!!) and the 49ers take it to the 3. Gore picks up a CK fumble and walks in.

31-3 = Brady INT, takes the ball to the New England 27. CK splits the safeties, again was Gregory who didn't even keep up with his WR and let the WR run right past him. McCourty couldn't get there to bail him out in time. Once again, glad BB finally benched Gregory. The guy is a bum. 

31-10 = The offense finally wakes up.

31-17 = Defense does job, gets off the field, offense scores again.

31-24 = Defense does job, gets off the field, offense scores again.

31-31 = Defense does job, gets off the field, but loses Dennard and is stuck with Arrington. We all knew it was coming (An Arrington mess up), but Brady scored to tie up the game.

38-31 = Arrington thinks we're playing touch football. Whiffs after ST gives offense great positioning.

41-31 = Brady couldn't get the offense another 7, offense stalls, 49ers kick a FG.

41-34  =Only get to mid-field, missed the onside kick.

GAME!

Not saying the defense was elite, but the offense was no better. Luckily for us, Chung replaced Gregory and with a healthy Gronk Brady has another option to go to. I think defense know how to handle Wes now, just stick you number 1 CB on him and you can take him out of the game. -_-

In response to 49Patriots' comment:

Welker is getting double teamed at times too so someone needs to step up and get open when this happens.  The D got beat on some plays, the ST gave it away and the O had way too many turnovers.   THis was a team loss!! 

However, the Pats have some great film on the 49'ers, they know what they need to fix.  I think it's a different game should they play again!

Agree with you overall but the D still takes some blame. 

No pressure on the QB

Wide Recievers blowing by the CB and Safties for easy TD's

Poor tackling

In response to Patsman3's comment:

the offense did all they could to hand the 49ers the game in the 1st half and 1st part of the third quarter....then they came all the way back, and proceeded to p.uke on their shoes again at the end of the game.

In response to glenr's comment:

No surprise, I place blame where it belongs. The O and the D both played badly at times, the officiating was abysmal and lady luck was a ho. But special teams lost this one more than any other factor.

Reality is once again the Pats will be drafting CB's and Safeties in the upcomping draft. 

In response to Patsman3's comment:

Brady haters unite!  LMAO.  You jealous Jets fans just can't wait for a chance to blast the guy who has caused you so much misery this past decade.

No NFL team, the Pats included, can turn the ball over 4 times on offense and expect to win.  No NFL team, the Pats included, can allow pass plays down field to be completed repeatedly  on their defense and expect to win.  No NFL team, the Pats included, can have such consistently poor play on special teams throughout the game and expect to win.  The Pats had an awful game across the board and should have lost the game.  No excuses, period.

What I find astounding is that, in spite of all that, they had a chance to win the game.  

The blame for this loss goes around equally

Suck y loss but really, Pats (and fans) can get over this and move on.  Had NE had Gronk, outcome might've been different.  Welker would've gotten his yards, etc.  Weather seemed to adversely affect the Pats more than the Niners, but it was a sloppy 1st half all around.  Refs missed some blatant holding calls, etc.  You know BB will use it and turn the page.  Woe to the Jags.

12-4 will keep second place, which likely was going to happen after Houston won in the afternoon.  If Houston had lost that game and NE still laid the egg, then I'd be a lot more upset b/c 1st place and home field would've been on the line.  

Another way to look at it all is, NE was down by 28 to arguably the best D in the league, and they tied the game with 6 minutes to go.  WT F?  Not many NFL teams make the game respectable, much less winnable.  We saw a bizarre Jeckyll and Hyde thing in this team last night and I hope they learn from it fast.

Meanwhile, Gronk is getting healthy.  And hungry. 

Defense is not at fault. What are they suppose to do when the offense hands them a short field due to 4 turnovers and terrible special teams play.

Nope it wasn't the defense out their sputtering for a whole half and the first few minutes of the the 3rd quater.

The truth is is that the defense is still a liability.  The defensive backfield and lack of a rush is still a weakness.  The Pats are going to face good teams like SF in the playoffs.  Expect more the same.

You simply cannot turn the ball over 4 times and expect a win.

This team will only go so far as Brady can carry it.  Nothing has changed.  Nobody is blaming Brady for this loss.  Too many other things to point at.  Besides, there only so much one guy can do when the whole team is going down the crapper.

In response to garytx's comment:

I thought there were a lot of good things about the D last night . . . they were put in a number of bad situations by offensive and special teams gaffs.  At the same time, they also made a number of bad plays, both in pass defense and run defense.  Offense was also good and bad all game.  (Special teams were mostly bad to mediocre.)    The problem is you can't have as many lapses as the Pats had in all phases of the game against a very good team like SF that is playing pretty well.