What doomed the patriots?

[Sunstroke]

After watching that insane hit that Pollard laid on Ridley, I'm just happy as hell that nobody died in this game...

[MikeO]

You hear this, MikeO?  Defense wins championships.

There is a HUGE difference between a team playing a good defensive game and claiming a team won a championship because of its defense!!

[el diablo]

If Ridley doesn't lower his head, that doesn't end that way. I'm thankful Ridley wasn't seriously hurt. But you can't blame Pollard for that hit.

[EDGECRUSHER]

As much as I hate Brady, he was roughly two defensive stops and a miracle that didn't happen away from 2 Superbowl victories against the Giants. It's not his fault Eli threw a Hail Mary that was caught by his receivers helmet and then his defense gave up the winning TD with virtually no time left.

Just as it wasn't his fault that his defense let the Giants march down the field for the GW TD yet again. Hell, Brady was marching but Welker made the biggest play of the game by dropping the ball.

Not winning the big one doesn't mean you can't. Just look at Marino. Who hear blames him for not winning a Superbowl?

[Landshark]

As much as I hate Brady, he was roughly two defensive stops and a miracle that didn't happen away from 2 Superbowl victories against the Giants. It's not his fault Eli threw a Hail Mary that was caught by his receivers helmet and then his defense gave up the winning TD with virtually no time left.

Just as it wasn't his fault that his defense let the Giants march down the field for the GW TD yet again. Hell, Brady was marching but Welker made the biggest play of the game by dropping the ball.

Not winning the big one doesn't mean you can't. Just look at Marino. Who hear blames him for not winning a Superbowl?

Despite the rules changing towards more of a passing league you still need a somewhat balanced attack.  54 pass plays for the Patriots and only 28 running plays is not a balanced attack.  The two teams that are still playing have strong running games to go with their quarterbacks.

[SCFinfan]

After watching that insane hit that Pollard laid on Ridley, I'm just happy as hell that nobody died in this game...

That was the first thing I saw when I turned on the game. I thought the man was dead after that.

[fyo]

Regardless from the replay, it still didn't look like a fumble to me.  He was down long before the ball came out.

Ridley was out cold (and clearly so) making possession impossible. Regardless, the ball was coming out before the back of his leg touched the ground (most easily seen from the "front" replay where the ball hits Ridley's shin and starts to come out -- that last part isn't easy to see in the side replays they kept showing).

[Brian Fein]

^^ It looked to me like his other knee, the left, was down before the ball hit his right leg and came out.  Possession does not consider consciousness.