I can assure you I was nothing less than heart broken by this loss, seeing as though I hate the god damn Colts. I also despise that ad campaign whore "Seyton" Manning. So the loss weighed me down momentarily, but I've always been a man who can see more positives in a loss like that, than negatives. In all the Patriots played a better game. Maybe not defensively in that 4th quarter, but their offense put up over 450 yards against the Colts and put up a lot more points than any other team had all season on their team. We also made a few careless mistakes which made the score a lot less than it should have. For example the Brady interception in the Red Zone and Maroney's dumb fumble. Right there 14 points that we should've had. In a loss like that I look at the other team who is 9-0 and I see that they were given a gift. You learn more from losing a game when the other team comes from behind to snatch a victory right from your hands.
Many people question Belichick's call to go for it on 4th and 2 from their about their own 30 yard line with roughly 2 minutes left. It is one that should be questioned but people need to relax. Belichick knew the risk. He also knew that the Colts had freely driven that field the entire quarter, stomping all over the Patriots defense. It was a disgraceful showing of defense. All of a sudden
it became apparent how young and inexperienced the defense was all in that one quarter. Belichick at that point of the game saw how bad his defense was and he had to send a message to them. The message was that he would rather have his offense on the field than his defense because he knew that if they had to go 30 yards or 70 yards, Peyton Manning was going to drive that football field in 2 minutes the way the defense was playing. His decision was bold and it showed the Defense that they simply have to execute better in the future and that he had no confidence in them. I can only imagine how practice is going to be this week for the defense for how they played in that forth quarter. It reminded me of their play in the 4th quarter of the Denver game where the Broncos trailing a touchdown drove 98 yards for the touchdown to tie the game. They simply have to learn to execute better as a defensive core. At times you catch them with flashes of brilliance but they are a young unit and they need these type of losses to learn how to execute better.
In all of the years when they Patriots won the Super Bowl they continued to improve with every game they played. They continued to grow as a squad and execute better. This season has been in my opinion very much like their Super Bowl winning seasons with the ups and downs of the early season. The team does also seem to be playing better and better every week. While they are still making mistakes, it is evident that they are playing better, certainly offensively. That 4th quarter was uncharacteristic for their defense but it will make them learn what they have to do to make sure their team wins. If the Pats offense would've bailed them out in the 4th quarter with that 4th down completion which was also questionable by the refs, than the message wouldn't have been received as much. They would've wiped their foreheads and said "phew, we almost blew that one."
It is important that we have losses in this season as we continue to build our team and our defense. If we had gotten away with poor play on defense it would've given them breathing room to slack some more in the future because they will have it in their minds that the offense will always be there to pick them up to win the game. It was our game to lose. We had the lead and had outplayed them the entire game. Patriots fans need to relax. We're so used to winning every game for the last decade it seems that we freak out any time a loss occurs. Yeah, it sucks that we lost to Indy and that most likely they will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs at this point, but it makes for a far greater narrative if they win in regular season and get home-field and we march into Lucas Oil Stadium and make them look like clowns during the AFC Championship.
Colts Fans, Swallow your pride for your team, cause it won't be long before you're looking at Peyton Manning pouting because the Patriots ran a train on his ass in the playoffs.
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