Quick thoughts after a long walk that I took when the game ended:
1. Thank God the NFL season is over, because I need a very long break from the Patriots -- perhaps one that will extend beyond next season.
2. Tom Brady is the greatest game-manager QB ever in the NFL, and that's it.
3. Defense wins championships. Eating up the middle of the field and scoring lots of points is great against bad-mediocre teams in the regular season, but it doesn't mean squat in the playoffs.
4. Brady and Bellichick will have to listen to people questioning the legitimacy of their legacies for the rest of their lives because they've been utterly un-clutch in big moments since Spygate.
5. I was already pessimistic about this team, but I don't think I'll ever have any faith in this core group again until the confetti is literally falling on another Patriots' victory. I know Brady and Bellichick both have plenty years left, but I think this is the curtain call for them. They'll have some more big wins, and they might even threaten to go to another Super Bowl, but I don't think anybody is really going to think of them as a real threat again.
6. Patriots fans deserved a better 4th quarter than that. What an awful, pathetic end to the season.
7. So much for mental toughness. The intentional grounding and 12 men on the field penalties really killed the Pats, not to mention the false start on the 3rd down stop late in the 3rd quarter deep in Giants' territory.
8. I think Pats management has to seriously look at making some major shakeup moves to remodel this team. The all-out offense, bend-but-not-break defense scheme just doesn't cut it.