Packers throttle Falcons: Going in, I was pretty sure of 2 things. 1) The Packers' A game was better than anyone else's A-game in the NFL with the possible exception of the Patriots, certainly better than the Falcons'. 2) While the Packers can throw out anything from an A game to a C- game, the Falcons aren't going to deliver much less than a B game. I was half-right. The Packers hit their stride and were absolutely unstoppable. The Falcons wilted under the consistency of the Pack's offense and essentially lost the game by the end of the first drive of the second half.
Bears outmuscle Seahawks: As a Seahawks fan, I shouldn't be upset with a poor effort from a 7-9 team that already won their Super Bowl over the Saints the week prior. But as a fan I was incredibly disappointed that my team got psyched out by the bad weather and the cold. The Bears were efficient, and Seattle couldn't stop them, nor could they put 3 plays of offense together without (literally) dropping the ball. I have to believe the number of dropped passes reached double digits, as only 2 Seahawks bothered to show up before the end of the 3rd quarter: Matthew Hasselbeck and Brandon Stokely.
It reminded me of the 2004 Seahawks' wild card playoff loss at home to the Rams. In that game, Hasselbeck and DE Chike Okeafor were the only 2 players who showed up (even steady as a rock Bobby Engram dropped the game-tying TD pass from Hass on 4th down), capping off the most frustrating season in Seahawks fan history. I was not impressed with either the fight of the players or the preparedness of the coaching staff, but for year 1 of a desperately needed rebuild, it did exceed expectations.
Jets back up their talk I could not imagine a scenario where the Patriots wouldn't not only win, but cover the spread. The Jets were clearly talking up a storm to distract the pundits from the fact that they could not go toe-to-toe with the Patriots. And for one drive, that was the game playing out in front of us. Then Tom Brady threw that interception. After that the Patriots were a different team. A team lacking confidence. A team unsure of itself, and unsure of how to attack a Jets defense that featured 11 defensive backs on its 45-man roster. Time after time Brady would drop back, look at his first option, then his second, then his third, then his fourth, and maybe even a fifth before finally the rush got to him or he had to throw it away to avoid a sack.
It was also a very unBelichickian* performance by the coaching staff. BenJarvis Green-Ellis was gaining 5-7 yards a pop. But Danny Woodhead was logging the snaps. I have seen coaches who have their way of running a game and will not change it for anything or anyone (Mike Martz, Mike Holmgren). Belichick isn't like that. The Belichick I know would have kept pounding Green-Ellis against the occasional blitzes or usually nickel and dime defenses the Jets were putting out there to frustrate Brady. This Belichick kept throwing into them, or running the 6-inch Woodhead, who's smaller than most of the defensive backs anyway. Add in a fake punt just before halftime, and yikes. Yes Belichick will be aggressive, but it's usually when facing an offense he doesn't feel he can stop. Like a Peyton Manning-led one in his heyday. Not a Mark Sanchez-led one. And Belichick isn't Andy Reid. That almost-8-minute drive in the 4th quarter that got no points was mind-boggling in its lack of urgency.
And the defense...well, it just shows you the difference between the dynasty Pats teams and the more recent, title-less ones. When Brady was a little off, those teams got the stops they needed (with just one exception: the Carolina Super Bowl). It wasn't Tom Brady and the Patriot 52, it was the New England Patriots. The defense shut down Peyton Manning year after year until the Colts cried uncle and forced the league to adopt the illegal contact rules. Now, the young defense has lost its leaders and is still finding its way. But in its current state, they're not getting the stops they have to have. There is no way the 2001-2004 Pats would have allowed Sanchez to lead the Jets down the field for a touchdown after the offense finally got the lead down to 14-11. No way.
It was a lot like the Giants Super Bowl upset. Team from New York with an active defense smacks the favored Patriots in the mouth, and keeps the offense off-balance for the most of the game without doing much blitzing. The New York team keeps a small lead for the better part of the game, and the Pats defense can't get the stop they need after the offense begins to show signs of life. The Holmes catch wasn't as crazy as the Tyree helmet grab, but the parallels are there too.
So, was this season a disappointment for the Pats? Yes and no. No because this is such a young team that will keep getting better with a year under their belts. But that 8-game run to close out the regular season at 14-2 raised the expectations. No one came into the playoffs hotter than these Pats. The 2007 16-0 Pats didn't come into the playoffs as hot as the 2010 Pats. But their margin for error wasn't as large as it seemed, and when a team hit them in the mouth, they didn't react well, owing in large part I think to their youth.
*As an aside that I found funny, unBelichickian was flagged by spellchecker. The suggested replacement? chickenhearted
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