Prepare for a long week of Patriots bashing.
There is nothing the other 44 states outside of New England like more than the Patriots falling on their faces — when you're the New York Yankees of the NFL as the standard of excellence, it comes with the territory — so they're going to get their shots in.
And, make no mistake, the Patriots coughed up this game in excruciating fashion as Kenyan Drake sprinted past a flailing Rob Gronkowski (who shouldn't have been on the field) as time expired for a 69-yard score.
New England fans are lucky. Aside from all the shiny Lombardi Trophies they get to look at, most other fanbases have these kinds of losses once or twice a season. The Patriots endure them every couple of years — at most. So everyone is going to have their fun with the Patriots.
They should enjoy it while they can.
Unless you're into cosmic forces and what this might portend for New England this season — and at 3-4 on the road this season, the Patriots have never advanced to a Super Bowl with four road defeats — this heartbreaking, what-the-hell-just-happened 34-33 loss to the Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium doesn't really change all that much for the Patriots.
If they go into Heinz Field on Sunday and defeat the Steelers — whom New England has defeated five-straight times, including twice in that building — no one's really coming to remember this game.
Tenth-straight division title? Check.
A likely first-round bye and home-field advantage in the divisional round? Check.
Is the AFC's top seed out of reach barring an upset? Probably. But the chances of that happening were going to be long in any event (FootballOutsiders.com pegged the Patriots' chances at getting the top seed at 17 percent entering Sunday's game).
Most likely, the Patriots were going to be in the same position they are now — winning their divisional round game and hoping for an upset in the other game to force the AFC championship back to New England. If not, it's time to gird up and win a playoff game on the road.
Sure, they haven't done that in 11 years but that's only because the Patriots having to win a playoff game away from Gillette happens about as often as a solar cycle.
If anyone tries to say this loss brings in wild-card weekend ... please, that's hyperbole and hysteria. If the Patriots take care of their own business, they will earn a bye. If they don't, that's their own fault and doesn't really have anything to do with a fluke final play and their kicker not doing what he's paid to do in Miami.
But, a few words about this debacle (and then I promise to give you one morsel of promising information to sooth this a bit):
- We talked about how rare a loss like this is for the Patriots (the Steelers have them every other week) in the regular season. The contenders for biggest gut-punches/infuriating losses in recent memory? 2015, Week 12 at Denver: the Chris Harper muff game. 2015, Week 13 vs. Eagles: the Mortar Kick game. 2015, Week 16 at Jets: Patriots kick after winning OT coin flip, lose. 2015, Week 17 at Dolphins: The Steven Jackson Offense game. ... Man, '15 was a bad year and ended in the two-point AFCCG loss at Denver. 2012, Week 6 at Seattle: A Brady intentional grounding penalty at end of first half costs the team points (sound familiar?) and then Tavon Wilson allows a 46-yard bomb to Sidney Rice with less than 90 seconds to play.
- That's it, that's all I've got. Bill Belichick is the best coach ever, but that doesn't mean he's infallible.
- And he wasn't in this game. Brady took the blame for taking a sack and three points off the board with his sack at the end of the first half, but that's on the coach. Game management is Belichick's realm, even if the quarterback is Brady.
- Gronkowski should not have been on the field on the final play. Period.
- It wasn't a Hail Mary situation — Ryan Tannehill could barely move and he didn't throw for multiple weeks this season due to a bum shoulder. There is absolutely no need for a jumper.
- It was obviously a "Desperado" situation. That means Devin McCourty is on the field and Gronkowski is off. For that matter, so is Kyle Van Noy as a rusher and undrafted rookie J.C. Jackson, who took a terrible angle on his tackle attempt. Put Matthew Slater and Nate Ebner on the field. They are your best open-field tacklers and you're paying them plenty as special teamers.
- You had two timeouts remaining. Use one to make sure you have this thought out.
- Probably not the brightest idea to have Danny Shelton inactive for the second-straight week when you're dealing with heat/humidity and the Dolphins will have to run the ball to be successful. The Patriots allowed 9.0 yards per carry and Brandon Bolden scored twice, once from 54-yards out. The Dolphins had four plays over 30 yards and two of them were rushes.
- Brady was, outside the final 30 seconds, masterful in the first half: 18 of 26 (69.2 percent for 231 yards, three touchdowns and a 135.3 rating. Second half: 9 of 17 (52.9) for 121 yards and a rating of 77.3.
- Patriots first-half possessions: TD, punt, TD, TD, TD, punt, half. Second half: Missed FG, punt, field goal, field goal. What happened after halftime to Brady and the offense?
