Week Ten - @ Indianapolis Colts

Never have I seen a team so thoroughly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They put up 34 points on a team that previously hadn't allowed more than 23. They forced Indy to punt more than they had all season. They gave up two endzone turnovers and still held a 17 point forth quarter lead. Then they sent their cheerleaders onto the field for the final 15 minutes to give the best roll-over-and-play-dead impersonation I've ever seen. Commentators and reporters are billing it as a phenomenal Colts comeback and singing Manning's praises. But that ridiculous! That's perhaps the worst quarter of football the Patriots have played all season. And the coaching!? Handing the ball to Peyton Manning on your own thirty with a 6 point lead?! Are you flippin out of your mind?!?! I haven't seen a decision that bad since the Bills kick returner ran it out of the endzone in Week 1! Now any hope of home field advantage in the playoffs and probably a first round bye is long gone. But worse then all that is now the Colts have a free ride to break our record 21-game winning streak and match our unprecedented 16-0 regular season record from 2007. We had our chance to do something about it but we handed it to them on a silver platter. Had we won we would've pulled into a tie with them for most games won this decade (109), a statistic that certainly would seal our legend as the team of the decade. But now all that goes out the window along with Belichick's heralded 4th quarter decision making.

Ok, now that I've gotten that rant off my chest, there is some good we can salvage from this miserable turn of events. First of all, for three quarters we absolutely handed it to arguably one of the best teams in the league right now. For three quarters the Patriots looked really good. The defense held up fairly well against a prolific passing attack and totally shut down the run game. For the most part our offense marched up and down the field boasting huge plays in the secondary. Even our kicking and coverage teams were having a great game. So it's definitely time to say the Patriots can compete with elite teams. Secondly, a little wake up call like this during the regular season has historically been a good thing for the Pats. It means a team who's usually known for playing a full 60-minutes won't make this same mistake again, which is extremely important come playoff time. You can't let good teams hang around, even by 17 points, and hopefully now we won't have to learn that lesson again. And last of all, it was only a regular season game (albeit to the rival Colts!) and we still hold a two game lead over Miami in our division. A win here definitely would've made things a little easier for us, but for now it's all about making the playoffs--that's when it really counts--and it looks like we're still on track for that. As for me, I'm gonna go bury my sorrows in writing a theology paper or something.