The AFC Championship Game did not go as many believed it would. That is not to say that nobody expected the Denver Broncos to win the game; I believed they had a legit shot at beating the New England Patriots. It is the way that it happened. The fact that the offense was suffocated by the Broncos' defense and barely able to move the ball past midfield until desperation time set in. There were a lot of mistakes made by a team that very rarely makes many mistakes. I'm going to start before the ball was even teed up. The Patriots won the toss (obviously), and elected to receive. Wait what?? The Patriots never want the ball. They didn't even want the ball to start overtime against the New York Jets!! Deferring is what Bill Belichick and the Patriots do. Not this time. They took the ball. That was their first mistake. They knew how good the Denver defense was. They also knew that the Denver offense was not that good and they could stop them with a top defense of their own. That being the case, they should have deferred and let their defense set the tone, instead of allowing the Denver defense to set the tone and get the crowd into the game. Oh, and by the way...before yesterday's game, they had won the toss and elected to receive only twice since 2008. Both were losses. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Defer. Next in the long list of what the Patriots did wrong, falls on Stephen Gostkowski. Gostkowski was one of the best kickers in the league this season. He was one of six kickers to not miss an extra point. In fact, he had not missed an extra point in NINE SEASONS. He had made a record 523 extra points. Dude, of all the times to miss an extra point you choose the AFC Championship Game?? Great, now we have to listen to Tony Massarotti ramble on about how he's not worth the money. Can't wait for that. If he hit that point after, they would not have had to attempt a two point conversion to tie the game. An extra point would have been enough. Now is as good a time as any to get into the offensive line. That was painful to watch, I can only imagine how physically painful it actually was for Brady. Brady got hit 20 times. TWENTY TIMES. That is the most any quarterback has been hit since 2006. TWO THOUSAND AND SIX. Brady wasn't good, but the offensive line is the real reason he wasn't good. How can you expect him to be good when he's getting hit half the times he drops back? Nice job, offensive line. Way to step up in the big game. Yes, I know that is a nasty pass rush that the Broncos have, but there were multiple occasions when Von Miller went literally untouched. There was one play when Cam Fleming was in as an extra blocker on the right side. Extra blockers usually have one job, as their position indicates, and that is to block. Fleming did not lay a finger on Miller as he flew past him to drill Brady. Needless to say, I think Fleming is going to be cut. I had a big problem with the play calling on Sunday. I've said for years that Josh McDaniels is a wildly overrated offensive coordinator and I would love for a team to hire him as their head coach. Good luck to that team. He reaffirmed my belief on Sunday afternoon. The Patriots have faced great front sevens in the past. The Detroit Lions last season. The Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Hell, they faced one last week when the Kansas City Chiefs came to Foxboro. The game plan in those games were all pretty similar...have Brady in the shotgun and get rid of the ball within two seconds of him receiving the snap. They didn't even try to run in those games. All three of those games were victories. The Broncos may have the best defense out of that group of teams, but no matter how good the defense is, if you're getting rid of the ball in under two seconds, nobody is going to get to you. Instead, Brady was forced to hold the ball longer than desired and got hit a record number of times. Some of that could be the fact that the receivers weren't getting open, but I have a tough time believing that nobody was open that quickly so often. What bothered me even more than that, though, was the attempt to run the ball. I know, I know. They only handed the ball off 14 times. However, those are 14 wasted plays. You are not going to be able to run on Denver. If I can tell you that, I'm sure Pink Stripes knows it and relayed the message to Belichick and McDaniels. Not only are they tough to run on, but you don't have the personnel to run! Your offensive line was a disgrace, and your running backs are just not good. Keep the ball in the hands of your best player. With 6:03 left in the game, the Patriots decided to go for it on 4th and 1at the Denver 16. A lot of people that I've talked to had a problem with the play call, which was a play action rollout to then find Julian Edelman on the opposite side. I didn't hate that play. In that situation, it may not have been the best call. However, it is a play that the Patriots never run, so it makes sense to think that the defense would be caught off guard. That being said, it was play action. The Broncos knew they were not going to run the ball. However, the play is not the biggest problem I had with that series of events. I had a problem with not taking the points. And, yes, I said that at the time. This is not me second guessing based on hindsight. I understand going for it. They had not been down in that territory all day, and had a legit concern that they would not be back there. But Brady in desperation mode is something special. If he needs to get down there, he will probably get down there. So if they took the points, all they would need is a touchdown to win the game. Instead, they needed a touchdown and extra point to tie the game. Ryan Allen was horrible. He, like Gostkowski, had been so good all year, but just did not show up when they needed him to yesterday. Britton Colquitt, on the other hand, was very good. When the Broncos were backed up, he booted it deep so the Patriots wouldn't be starting at midfield. He also pinned them inside the 20 in four out of his nine punts. And they were actually starting a lot of those drives backed up to their own endzone. Tough to go 98 yards on that defense. Just for fun, if that's what you want to call it, let's go back a little ways and take a look at one more mistake the Patriots made. They needed to win one game down the stretch. One. If they won, they would have been at home for the AFC Championship Game, and may not even have had to face the Broncos. Their three losses that should've been wins were at home against the Philadelphia Eagles, and on the road against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. All three games should have been wins, but all they needed was one. If they did not do that stupid mortar kick with Nate Ebner they probably win the game against the Eagles. If they cared in the final two games, they probably win one of those games. Now, he could have believed that the Broncos were going to lose in the first round and the AFC Championship would be at home, but that clearly was not the case, and you can't bank on something like that. The Miami game is the one you really have to question. Not only did they not try, they trotted their A team out there. Either play your starters and play to win, or don't play them and basically forfeit. Instead, Belichick was arrogant enough to believe that he could win no matter where he played. All this being said, the Patriots should be one of the favorites, if not the favorite to win the Super Bowl next year. This team will compete for sure. It is a very good team. It is a better team than the Broncos. Despite playing so poorly yesterday, they showed heart. They showed grit to fight back and almost tie a game that they had absolutely no business still being in it. They just have to do their job and they'll be right back in the AFC Championship Game, hopefully at home next time. Follow @SamPericolo for the latest sports talk and news
1 Comment
Anonymous
1/25/2016 02:25:38 pm
Mcdaniels was thoroughly out coached by Phillips. That's all you needed to say.
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SAMUEL PERICOLOSam is a graduate of Assumption College where he studied History, Marketing, and Political Science and was a Co-Producer on a weekly sports talk television show. Archives
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