What doomed the patriots?

[raptorsfan29]

sort of like a shame of the game thread but with a different spin talking about the pats against the Ravens.

so for those that watched the game what could you see from the patriots side on why they lost the game. I personally didn't watch the entire game, just caught the end of it.

[Landshark]

Tom Brady threw 54 passes, and the Patriots had only 28 rushing attempts.  That's 65% to 35% ratio in favor of passing.  When your quarterback is involved in 65% of the plays, you are going to have some bad ones.  At some point in the second half, the Ravens defense figured out that the Patriots abandoned the run and pinned their ears back and went after Brady (while putting their hands up to bat down passes).

I'm sure the loss of Gronk might've had something to do with it too.

[el diablo]

Arrogance.

[Pappy13]

I heard the unthinkable this morning on my ride into work listening to the Mike and Mike show, I heard Greeny question Tom Brady's ability to win the big game. I immediately agreed, Tom Brady can't win the big one...not by himself.

For years I have defended Dan Marino as one of the best QB's of all time and for years I have had it thrown in my face that he'll never be considered one of the best QB's of all time because he couldn't win the big one. The problem with this logic is that QB's don't win the big one, teams do. Dan couldn't win the big one because his team wasn't good enough, not because he wasn't good enough. Tom hasn't won the big one in recent years, not because he's not good enough, we all know he is, but because his team hasn't been good enough.

Those early years when NE was winning all those SB's it wasn't solely on the strength of Tom Brady, in fact Tom has been a much bigger factor in his team's success lately than in those SB years. Those teams had a more dominant defense though and while I don't agree that defense wins championships I do agree that it's tough to win a championship without at least a pretty darn good defense and in the 2nd half of that game yesterday their defense wasn't very good.

NE didn't lose yesterday because of Tom, I think they lost primarily because Aqib Talib got hurt and couldn't play in the 2nd half. Go and look at NE's defensive play this year and you'll find that it improved once they aquired Talib and they were doing alright yesterday until he went out. After that point they couldn't stop Baltimore and not being able to stop Baltimore meant Tom was sitting on the bench, helpless to help his team win. This is the same way that they beat Marino, force him to sit the bench and watch while his team fell behind which forced him into forcing the ball into spots that it just won't go. That's what happened to Tom yesterday, his team became one dimensional and a 1 dimensional team, no matter how good that 1 dimension is won't beat a 2 dimensional team.

QB's don't win championships. Defenses don't win championships. Teams win championships, very good teams.

What doomed the Patriots? A better team, the Ravens.

[Spider-Dan]

It is becoming more and more clear that if Tom Brady's career were inverted, he would be considered the biggest choker of all time.  Like Peyton Manning, but FAR, FAR worse.

[MikeO]

The Pats teams that won last decade were loaded with Vets who had been through it all. Nothing phased them and they knew how to win. When the going got tough, the Pats got going!

These Pats teams of recent years were filled with young guys, guys with little experience in big games,  low character guys (Randy Moss), and when the going gets tough now the Pats look lost.  They can't handle adversity like they once did.

[bsfins]

I agree with the team part,and above with MikeO about the adversity...

Sorry this isn't exactly why they lost yesterday...

(I don't follow the Patriots closely so this could be way off)
It seems like to me,other than Tom Brady,and Coach Belichick everyone else around them them changes...They have the same running back,Wr's,etc for 1 or two years,then dump them all and change everything..Next Year Brian Daboll will be back on the coaching staff,Josh Mcdaniels is back on the staff,after taking other positions on other teams.They seem like a constant revolving door everywhere...

I'm impressed at how they've been able to keep winning despite all the changes...

[MaineDolFan]

Me.  I happened.

Never let a Dolphins' fan into the stadium, much less for free.

You're welcome, rest of the NFL.

[masterfins]

One part bad game by Brady.

One part looking past Baltimore.

One part Bill Belichek thinking he can plug any guy into his system and win.

Interesting to note that the Giants and Ravens both beat NE with strong defensive play.

[Landshark]

Interesting to note that the Giants and Ravens both beat NE with strong defensive play.

You hear this, MikeO?  Defense wins championships.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Two things:

1) Aqib Talib injury. He was absolutely vital in stopping the big plays.  Without him the secondary is horible. 

2) The Ridley injury/fumble.  Not as much the loss of Ridley as the turnover.  I was very very surprised, Raven's didn't get a 15 yard penality on that play with NE keeping the ball, for the blatent helmet to helmet hit.   

[myami54]

The hit looked ok to me. Not sure how they interpret helmet to helmet when the ball carrier lowers his head.

[Pappy13]

I don't think a helmet to helmet collision with a ball carrier is illegal.

[Landshark]

I don't think a helmet to helmet collision with a ball carrier is illegal.

You're right.  The rule only applies to a hit on a defenseless receiver.  A running back carrying the ball is not defenseless.

[Brian Fein]

If anything, Ridley should have got called for helmet to helmet cause he's the one that lowered his head.

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

Regardless, I think the Patriots loss is squarely on their unaddressed weakness in their secondary.  They couldn't stop Flacco the entire game, and worse when Talib left.  They went and got this guy for a reason.  As soon as he left the game, the Ravens could move at will.

Until the Patriots improve their defensive backfield, they will continue to be a liability and cost the Patriots games against teams with big and fast receivers and athletic TE's.