You're a moron.   Talib went down, JOnes barely played and I am not sure Nink was healthy after his end of year injury.

Flacco didn't have to play a "perfect game", there were recievers wide open all over the field...it was like shooting fish in a barrel. He didn't have to scramble, reset his feet, rush into a throw...he had all day, and yet you're right, he wasn't perfect. He had guys WIDE open right after Talib went down and he flat out missed them. They (or Flacco) left points on the board right there. Gifts missed.

Listen Brady played poor. The offense played poor. The play calling was poor. Adjustments were poor. About the only thing I can say went well was the overrall protection and Hernandez I thought tried to play tough. Lloyd gave us what he usually does (an average performance) and the runners were doing ok. We fumbled and I'll tell you it was a great hit, but this guy Ridley does that stupid stupid spin move where his whole body is exposed and he has no idea where the defender is coming from and BOOM!! I've been saying it all year with him - he turns his back to the defenders - and sooner or later he was going to pay.

I'll blame the offense because I've come to expect nothing from the defense. Nothing. We will never win a Super Bowl with the defense the way it is...no way...never will happen.

In response to mthurl's comment:

In response to pezz4pats' comment:

In response to RockScully's comment:

In response to jri37's comment:

Nobody is denying the offense wasn't good but that fumble did matter. at that point they were down 8 and still moving the ball effectively.

Bottom line the offense insability to cash in red zone oppotunities for TD's in the 1st half and the welker drop, Ridley fumble and the uneven and somnetimes poor play by Brady did them in for the 2nd half.

Defensively, the lack of secondary depth caught up to them and was the achilles heel in the 2nd half I hope to never see Cole, Arrington and Gregory in coverage again. Gregory can not cover any TE.

Agreed.  I agree all of it matters. The D didn't rise up and bail out the inpetitude of the offense either, which was disappointing. I think losing Talib hurt and that's why they started throwing. I would have done the same thing.  Cole was on an island and it hurt.

It wasn't good enough on D, but it would have been nice if the offense, for ONCE, in these recent playoffs HELPED the D a little bit.

The one TD to Boldin over McCourty was just a nice play on their part.  Ball thrown at the right point, the right arc, nice catch, etc.

Even down 14-13, our offense just couldn't bear down and put drives together.

No, it would have been nice to see the DEFENSE help the offense for once as they surely needed it.

A batted down pass, a fumble recovery, a pick, a sac or a little pressure to cause a bad throw, tackling, no stupid penalties, no balls flying over there heads for 20 yards or allowing RB's to run free.......... Any thing but allowing 4 td's in 4 RZ attempts would have been just swell.

This is it in a nut shell, and that will be it for the rest of eternity apparently. It's been the story for 8 years now. We will not win a Super Bowl with the defense like it is now...not going to happen. I'm just going to get used to it and enjoy the regular season when we go up against the trash cans from our division - those teams that lay down like dogs in December (because they are out of the playoff picture) that lend us a false sense of security.  

You're a moron.   Talib went down, JOnes barely played and I am not sure Nink was healthy after his end of year injury. That affected the pass rush.  The youngest D in the league is actually a strength of this team, but the better players can't be hurt either.

Meanwhile, NE's offense is as healthy as its been minus Gronk which they went 5-1 without, yet  whenever the D has a serious injury or two, you ignore it.   Whether it be 2007 on D or now, the common denominator on offense hasn't changed and that's #12 with the ball in his hands.

Go look at his last 3 AFC title game TDs and INts. It ain't pretty.  Ain't pretty. 

You also just said NE's D gave up 28 points to Houston, which isn't fair whatsoever. 3 came on a FG on a kick off return to start the game.  What are they supposed to do get an INT, a fumble or force them out of range from the 5 to please you?

Do you even watch these games?

Keep pissing in the wind because the last time I checked how your QB goes, is how your team goes.

In response to mthurl's comment:

Flacco didn't have to play a "perfect game", there were recievers wide open all over the field...it was like shooting fish in a barrel. He didn't have to scramble, reset his feet, rush into a throw...he had all day, and yet you're right, he wasn't perfect. He had guys WIDE open right after Talib went down and he flat out missed them. They (or Flacco) left points on the board right there. Gifts missed.

Listen Brady played poor. The offense played poor. The play calling was poor. Adjustments were poor. About the only thing I can say went well was the overrall protection and Hernandez I thought tried to play tough. Lloyd gave us what he usually does (an average performance) and the runners were doing ok. We fumbled and I'll tell you it was a great hit, but this guy Ridley does that stupid stupid spin move where his whole body is exposed and he has no idea where the defender is coming from and BOOM!! I've been saying it all year with him - he turns his back to the defenders - and sooner or later he was going to pay.

I'll blame the offense because I've come to expect nothing from the defense. Nothing. We will never win a Super Bowl with the defense the way it is...no way...never will happen.

BINGO!!!  Flacco had receivers wide open all over the field.  We rarely saw Pats receivers so wide open and when they were, they dropped the ball.

In response to agcsbill's comment:

In response to mthurl's comment:

Flacco didn't have to play a "perfect game", there were recievers wide open all over the field...it was like shooting fish in a barrel. He didn't have to scramble, reset his feet, rush into a throw...he had all day, and yet you're right, he wasn't perfect. He had guys WIDE open right after Talib went down and he flat out missed them. They (or Flacco) left points on the board right there. Gifts missed.

Listen Brady played poor. The offense played poor. The play calling was poor. Adjustments were poor. About the only thing I can say went well was the overrall protection and Hernandez I thought tried to play tough. Lloyd gave us what he usually does (an average performance) and the runners were doing ok. We fumbled and I'll tell you it was a great hit, but this guy Ridley does that stupid stupid spin move where his whole body is exposed and he has no idea where the defender is coming from and BOOM!! I've been saying it all year with him - he turns his back to the defenders - and sooner or later he was going to pay.

I'll blame the offense because I've come to expect nothing from the defense. Nothing. We will never win a Super Bowl with the defense the way it is...no way...never will happen.

BINGO!!!  Flacco had receivers wide open all over the field.  We rarely saw Pats receivers so wide open and when they were, they dropped the ball.

Actually, I am shocked at how bad these receivers are in tough games at getting separation. Without Gronk around they just plain suck against tough defenses.

Has Lloyd gotten daylight between him and a defender even once all year? Every pass to him looks like it has to be perfect to be completed.

What I didn't understand is beginning at some point in the 2nd half of the 2nd qtr, Ridley seemed to be getting 4-6 yards per carry. This continued into the first drive of the 2nd half...then they stopped feeding him the ball. When Baltimore took the 14-13 lead, what do we do? 3 straight passes for a 3 and out (although to be fair, Solder's holding penalty negated a first down conversion).

Why take it out of his hands when he seemed to be getting hot?

What I didn't understand is beginning at some point in the 2nd half of the 2nd qtr, Ridley seemed to be getting 4-6 yards per carry. This continued into the first drive of the 2nd half...then they stopped feeding him the ball. When Baltimore took the 14-13 lead, what do we do? 3 straight passes for a 3 and out (although to be fair, Solder's holding penalty negated a first down conversion).

Why take it out of his hands when he seemed to be getting hot?

In response to BabeParilli's comment:

In response to agcsbill's comment:

In response to mthurl's comment:

Flacco didn't have to play a "perfect game", there were recievers wide open all over the field...it was like shooting fish in a barrel. He didn't have to scramble, reset his feet, rush into a throw...he had all day, and yet you're right, he wasn't perfect. He had guys WIDE open right after Talib went down and he flat out missed them. They (or Flacco) left points on the board right there. Gifts missed.

Listen Brady played poor. The offense played poor. The play calling was poor. Adjustments were poor. About the only thing I can say went well was the overrall protection and Hernandez I thought tried to play tough. Lloyd gave us what he usually does (an average performance) and the runners were doing ok. We fumbled and I'll tell you it was a great hit, but this guy Ridley does that stupid stupid spin move where his whole body is exposed and he has no idea where the defender is coming from and BOOM!! I've been saying it all year with him - he turns his back to the defenders - and sooner or later he was going to pay.

I'll blame the offense because I've come to expect nothing from the defense. Nothing. We will never win a Super Bowl with the defense the way it is...no way...never will happen.

BINGO!!!  Flacco had receivers wide open all over the field.  We rarely saw Pats receivers so wide open and when they were, they dropped the ball.

Actually, I am shocked at how bad these receivers are in tough games at getting separation. Without Gronk around they just plain suck against tough defenses.

Has Lloyd gotten daylight between him and a defender even once all year? Every pass to him looks like it has to be perfect to be completed.

Well that's it pretty much. The guy has to be perfect, how do you think he'd do against our defense with Flacco's receivers? When they were showing the replays...guys weren't open and I knew we were cooked. It's not like our defense was going to win a game for us. Game over.

To be honest he could/should of played better - it's just getting old knowing that the margin of error has to be so tiny for this team to win games. It's a sign that we relay on this guy way too much.

Crusto it was kind of Bibilcal,Wes Welkers hands turned to stone,and beside the oline the rest of the offence became made of cheese,and melted.

In response to HonkeyTonkman's comment:

Crusto it was kind of Bibilcal,Wes Welkers hands turned to stone,and beside the oline the rest of the offence became made of cheese,and melted.

yes and your defensive backfield covered receivers like they were pillars of salt  : )

I'll end the debate for y'all.  There's enough blame to go around on this one, but if anyone thinks Brady is absolved, someone needs to inform Tom Brady that there are potential stalkers on this board. 

Brady missed plenty of throws to open receivers. 

If perfection is demanded of others then it should be demanded of Brady as well.  And if Brady is one of the best ever (which he is) then perfection ought to be much less of a stretch for him than the rest. 

Brady was the one who failed to manage the clock at the end of the half.  No one else. 

Brady is responsible for tipped balls at the line of scrimmage. 

My pointing these things out doesn't absolve the defense either.  They couldn't handle Baltimore, but that said, they were less expected to dominate Baltimore's offense than Brady's offense was expected to dominate Baltimore's old defense. 

I've cited this before - I'll do it again.  NE's scoring was down more than 21 pts from the Reg Season while the D gave up only 7 more points than usual.  Telling.

In response to agcsbill's comment:

In response to mthurl's comment:

Flacco didn't have to play a "perfect game", there were recievers wide open all over the field...it was like shooting fish in a barrel. He didn't have to scramble, reset his feet, rush into a throw...he had all day, and yet you're right, he wasn't perfect. He had guys WIDE open right after Talib went down and he flat out missed them. They (or Flacco) left points on the board right there. Gifts missed.

Listen Brady played poor. The offense played poor. The play calling was poor. Adjustments were poor. About the only thing I can say went well was the overrall protection and Hernandez I thought tried to play tough. Lloyd gave us what he usually does (an average performance) and the runners were doing ok. We fumbled and I'll tell you it was a great hit, but this guy Ridley does that stupid stupid spin move where his whole body is exposed and he has no idea where the defender is coming from and BOOM!! I've been saying it all year with him - he turns his back to the defenders - and sooner or later he was going to pay.

I'll blame the offense because I've come to expect nothing from the defense. Nothing. We will never win a Super Bowl with the defense the way it is...no way...never will happen.

BINGO!!!  Flacco had receivers wide open all over the field.  We rarely saw Pats receivers so wide open and when they were, they dropped the ball.

Actually, I am shocked at how bad these receivers are in tough games at getting separation. Without Gronk around they just plain suck against tough defenses.

Has Lloyd gotten daylight between him and a defender even once all year? Every pass to him looks like it has to be perfect to be completed.

Nobody cares about your indie-skewed analysis which wavers between stating the obvious and saying nothing.  Your perspective with ZERO investment in this team unlike people this board is for, has no credibility so shut up and go home to flatsville USA and rub your blue horseshoe