It’s over twenty four hours later and it still is difficult to talk about the events of Sunday night without getting angry. People tried yesterday, but I just could not talk about it without swearing a whole lot. It’s something that just does not happen to the Patriots ever.
This was a game they completely dominated for most of the game. This was a game that in the 2nd quarter, right before I had to stop watching the game to attend a fraternity function, me and my dad started texting about how this looked like a blowout in the making, the sign that the Patriots were back to being the ass-kicking team they have been for the last decade. This was a game that during said function, I was constantly checking the score, seeing that the score was 31-14 and losing all worry. Eff the Colts, this was the Patriots time to shine.
Maybe I angered the football gods too much, maybe I missed something while watching the first half, and maybe it was just bad luck, but somehow the Patriots found a way to lose the effing game.
First of all, the team shouldn’t be in a posistion to even have to make a 4th and 2 call late in the game like that. If my least favorite Patriot Laurence Maroney (who by the way has clearly been trying to win me over these past few weeks with the way he had been running) doesn’t fumble at the one yard line, the game is over. The Colts can’t recover from that blow. It’s then 31-14 in the 3rd. The Colts shut it down and the Patriots roll. Yes, the Pats scored a couple minutes later, but it would have been OVER. You can’t stress that enough OVER. The Pats win and we are talking about today how the Patriots may be the best team in football. Instead, the story continues to remain Bill Belichick using his time outs (the same time I got back to watching the game) and going for it on 4th and 2.
I see both sides of the story. You don’t go for it because you give Peyton Manning a short field, you show no confidence in your defense, and it’s overall a risky call. But it’s calls like these that I LOVE Bill Belichick for. He’s never afraid to make these calls. He wanted to win the game and the best way to guarantee that win was to get the 4th down right there. You never want to give Peyton Manning ANY field to operate late in the game, especially the way the defense had been playing down the stretch in that game. The moneymaker the past few years has been the OFFENSE not the DEFENSE. You let your best players try to win the game which is what he did.
No, the issue of the game is Bill Belichick pulling a Andy Ried and completely screwing up time management down the stretch. He must have had some idea that he would probably go for it in a 4th and short situation on the drive, right? (Right?). So if Belichick knows this, why the FUCK is he using two time outs on the drive including one right after the TV timeout and then one when he should have some EFFING idea what play you are going to call in 4th and short. AND if you know you are going to take this risk and you know that if the Colts are going to get the ball and try and score a touchdown and leave you with no time remaining, WHY ARE YOU WASTING THOSE TIMEOUTS. EVEN I CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT THE COLTS WILL TRY AND DO IF THEY GET THE BALL BACK AND THE ONLY THING I DO THAT’S MODERATELY CLOSE TO THAT SITUATION IS PLAY MADDEN! You NEED to understand that situation. Talk about the drive during the TV timeout. Is it really so hard to say “Tom, if it’s 4th and short we are going for it and we are running “insert shitty play here that barely gets us past the first down marker”. Okay Tom? Now go out there and don’t waste my timeouts so that you can pull off some Tom Brady magic if the Colts somehow score.” I would have rather that pick six happen. At least then we would have more then a minute AND a timeout to drive down the field and get a game winning field goal, cause you know, Brady has NEVER done anything like that before in his life.
Oh and defensively? You haven’t stopped them in the last 15 minutes…. LET THEM SCORE! Just do “Oh crap Reggie Wayne just burned me, I guess he just scored. Oh well, go get them TFB.” They are going to score anyway, EVERYONE knew it. Just let your offense get back on the field and win the game for your team.
I watched it happen in disbelief. Watched the Colts celebrate, watched Belichick walk off the field again, left the Johnson center and just started walking, I had a water bottle with me and just started walking. I walked back to the dorms, around the dorm area, over to the gym back to the dorms back to the other dorms and just kept doing that for about a hour. I didn’t answer my phone. I just didn’t want to listen to anybody. Just walk and think about what I just witnessed. Those are the type of losses that are killers. Sure, you can lose a game that you KNOW you should lose. That sucks but it doesn’t hurt, but to lose a game that you absolutely DOMINATED. For 55 minutes, and then to lose it like THAT? I just thought about those kind of things during my walk and still could not put it together how the Patriots of all teams could lose a game like that.
This is such a hard loss to recover from. Chances are we are not getting a first round bye now and a AFC title game against Indy now has to played in Indy instead of making Peyton come to snowy, cold Foxboro. Best cure for post Colts-depression? Sticking to Rex Ryan and his stupid effing words and reminding the Jets and Mark Sadchize that the Patriots remain the team to beat in the AFC East.
6-3
Until Next Time
~Benti
