I hate waiting til next year

SPORTING GOODS

I hate when some athlete, after a loss, will say something like "We are the better team, but they beat us tonight," to try to diminish their opponent's victory. I don't think the Patriots should be saying that tonight, but at the same time I don't think we'll ever know who truly was better, because the Pats didn't even give us a chance to find out.

That could have been a great game, the way those two defenses were playing. It could have really gone down to the wire. But the Pats offense and special teams seemed determined to give their defense no chance. How far did the Broncos travel for their 3 touchdowns, 15 yards combined? Brady was off, players who have been clutch (Brown, Faulk) gave two huge fumbles, even Vinateiri missed. That terrible interference call was eating at me for a while, but in the end it didn't matter. The Pats just didn't show tonight.

I had hoped that if the Pats run was going to end, it would be at the hands of an opponent that was clearly better. Maybe the Broncos are better, but we didn't get to find out. Instead, all we found out was that the Pats played worse.