so...safe to say Welker dropped the superbowl championship?

[Eja117]

It was a bad pass to Welker...Brady cannot make those soft, touch passes.

And Welker saw it, got ready for it, got his hands on it, dropped it, and didn't want to look at the world afterwards. 

Contributory negligence report

Welker ..90%

Brady...10%

Giants defense...0%

the elements ...0%

[Moranis]

Tom needs to get his wife under control

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/06/gisele-tom-brady-super-bowl-patriots-lose-giants/

If the Giants fans can't take what they dish out to a man's wife it's not my problem.  

She threw Tom's co-workers under the bus.  I am sure Tom doesn't want or need that being out there.  

Actually I think it's perfectly fine for his coworkers to hear his wife getting heckled 50 on 1.  The Pats have a saying "Do your job." He did his. They didn't do theirs.  If she gets heckled and says what a lot of people are thinking that shouldn't be his problem. A couple of them  need to watch their backs in this upcoming draft and worry about getting better, not what Gisele is saying to heckling fans.
If you think Belichik is being supportive and is offering a shoulder to cry on to any of the receivers right now, I gotta say I think you're way off.

except Brady didn't do his job, that was a terrible throw.  The interception towards Gronk was underthrown by at least 10 yards.  The safety was just awful.  He missed plenty of other throws as well, many of which his receivers actually bailed him out of.  Brady missed a lot and most of the fault of the offenses struggles lies with him and the play calling. 

[Eja117]

Tom needs to get his wife under control

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/06/gisele-tom-brady-super-bowl-patriots-lose-giants/

If the Giants fans can't take what they dish out to a man's wife it's not my problem.  

She threw Tom's co-workers under the bus.  I am sure Tom doesn't want or need that being out there.  

Actually I think it's perfectly fine for his coworkers to hear his wife getting heckled 50 on 1.  The Pats have a saying "Do your job." He did his. They didn't do theirs.  If she gets heckled and says what a lot of people are thinking that shouldn't be his problem. A couple of them  need to watch their backs in this upcoming draft and worry about getting better, not what Gisele is saying to heckling fans.
If you think Belichik is being supportive and is offering a shoulder to cry on to any of the receivers right now, I gotta say I think you're way off.

except Brady didn't do his job, that was a terrible throw.  The interception towards Gronk was underthrown by at least 10 yards.  The safety was just awful.  He missed plenty of other throws as well, many of which his receivers actually bailed him out of.  Brady missed a lot and most of the fault of the offenses struggles lies with him and the play calling. 

I thought he made some bad plays and some good ones (like 16 completions in a row), but I didn't think he made game losing plays, and they did. 

One underthrown td pass attempt where Gronk didn't adjust, which has the effect of a very well placed punt, isn't the same as Welker's drop, which was basically like saying to the Giants "Oh hey. Here. You have this ball. We don't want it. We're pretty sure our defense will stop you. No no no. I don't want to catch it. It's ok. You take it".
The safety was horrible, but wasn't game losing. Brady led them into the halftime up 1.

[Rondo2287]

Everytime I close my eyes I see this play on the back of my eyelids.  Any suggestions on how to repress memories?

[Donoghus]

Everytime I close my eyes I see this play on the back of my eyelids.  Any suggestions on how to repress memories?

Jagermeister has always been an effective tool.

[nickagneta]

I will say that before I say bad throw by Brady, I would like to know what the route was supposed to be.

Brady threw the ball over Welker's outside shoulder when there were clearly Giants safeties on his inside, though not that close.

Was Welker running a seam route or a fade. Should Welker have been turned the other way and fading on the route or running a straight post seam route which would necessitate him looking over his right shoulder rather than his left?

Much of what the Pats do is reading what the defense gives you and at times making the proper route adjustments. Was Welker supposed to adjust the route given no outside defender and safeties coming from the inside?

The only people who know for sure were in that huddle and the one taking the blame is Welker.

I will say though that there were too many pretty well thrown Brady passes that should have been caught. Welker should have had that, regardless of the difficulty. Hernandez dropped a simple one. Branch had one over the middle slightly behind that sailed right through his hands. I think I counted 4 drops in the fourth quarter by receivers. That can't happen.

That said I think Brady's under throwing a wide open Gronk that lead to an interception was the game. It was first down. He could have run it and slid for a three yard gain. Clock would still have been moving. Horrid decision there and on the first play of the game by the Pats killed their chances of winning.

Gotta say though, without those two errors, I thought Brady played great. I thought the defense played great. But in the fourth, game on the line, Manningham makes the spectacular catch and Pats receivers dropped balls.

[Rondo2287]

Everytime I close my eyes I see this play on the back of my eyelids.  Any suggestions on how to repress memories?

Jagermeister has always been an effective tool.

See Don's this is why I root for BC, they will never give me the illusion that they can win it all and then crush my hopes

[Eja117]

Everytime I close my eyes I see this play on the back of my eyelids.  Any suggestions on how to repress memories?

I focused on the GoDaddy.com stuff and turning the tv off as fast as I could

[Donoghus]

Everytime I close my eyes I see this play on the back of my eyelids.  Any suggestions on how to repress memories?

Jagermeister has always been an effective tool.

See Don's this is why I root for BC, they will never give me the illusion that they can win it all and then crush my hopes

Tempered expectations certainly make things easier to handle.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Tom needs to get his wife under control

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/06/gisele-tom-brady-super-bowl-patriots-lose-giants/

If the Giants fans can't take what they dish out to a man's wife it's not my problem.  

She threw Tom's co-workers under the bus.  I am sure Tom doesn't want or need that being out there.  

Actually I think it's perfectly fine for his coworkers to hear his wife getting heckled 50 on 1.  The Pats have a saying "Do your job." He did his. They didn't do theirs.  If she gets heckled and says what a lot of people are thinking that shouldn't be his problem. A couple of them  need to watch their backs in this upcoming draft and worry about getting better, not what Gisele is saying to heckling fans.
If you think Belichik is being supportive and is offering a shoulder to cry on to any of the receivers right now, I gotta say I think you're way off.

except Brady didn't do his job, that was a terrible throw.  The interception towards Gronk was underthrown by at least 10 yards.  The safety was just awful.  He missed plenty of other throws as well, many of which his receivers actually bailed him out of.  Brady missed a lot and most of the fault of the offenses struggles lies with him and the play calling. 

I thought he made some bad plays and some good ones (like 16 completions in a row), but I didn't think he made game losing plays, and they did. 

One underthrown td pass attempt where Gronk didn't adjust, which has the effect of a very well placed punt, isn't the same as Welker's drop, which was basically like saying to the Giants "Oh hey. Here. You have this ball. We don't want it. We're pretty sure our defense will stop you. No no no. I don't want to catch it. It's ok. You take it".
The safety was horrible, but wasn't game losing. Brady led them into the halftime up 1.

I think a lot of fans aren't taking into account the overall effects of some of the non-Welker plays. For example, some people say the safety didn't cost them, because it was only 2 points, but not only was it 2 points FOR the Giants, but possibly 3 or 7 points LOST for the Patriots.

Example 2: Some are comparing the interception to a well-placed punt; problem is, Brady threw that pick on FIRST DOWN, and it was badly underthrown -- put that another 5-10 yards downfield and it's likely a TD to Gronk -- so even though the Giants didn't get any points on their ensuing possession, the Patriots LOST OUT on a possible 7 (or at least 3) points because of that pick.

It's not just about what you give up, but also about what you FAILED to get yourself. These two examples comprise a possible total of 14 points missed -- and both mistakes were on Brady. Of course, it was possible that the Pats would've still gotten 0 points total off those two possessions, even without the turnovers, but I trust that you all get my point.

As for Welker, yeah he had two hands on it, probably should have caught it, but that was his only mistake of the game -- which was at least one less than Brady had -- and he had to make a remarkable move just to get in position to make the catch, contorting because Brady (there's that guy again) threw it behind him. And why? Brady wasn't hurried on that play. Welker made a good read of the defense and got to the open zone between spaced-out defenders, and Brady made an off-target throw -- which was a continuation of how he played in the first quarter, and in virtually the entire Ravens game. Let's face the possibility that Brady, after winning three Super Bowls and marrying a supermodel, may just no longer have the gumption for postseason football.

[kozlodoev]

I think a lot of fans aren't taking into account the overall effects of some of the non-Welker plays. For example, some people say the safety didn't cost them, because it was only 2 points, but not only was it 2 points FOR the Giants, but possibly 3 or 7 points LOST for the Patriots.

Not only that, take the safety off the table, and it's a whole new dynamic on the last Giants drive, since it's no longer a 1 FG game on the Giants' final drive.

[Eja117]

If I remember correctly (and i'm having  hard time finding this so maybe I'm not) I could have sworn the first Pats play from scrimmage in SB 36 was a long deep pass by Brady that was caught. Maybe it was a different game. That would have been from pretty deep in their own territory. I don't remember people saying it was too risky or anything. Everyone loves deep passes when they're caught. I'd rather throw it to an open deep Gronk calling for a pass against a LB all day long, than throw it to Manningham in deep double coverage, if I don't have to

[StartOrien]

A precursor to my comments to save myself some agony: The interception was terrible. Brady shouldn't have thrown it, and he's been burned enough on it this year to know that the results haven't been favorable for him.

But in a world of over analyzing, I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up -

Gronkowski made a terrible decision, in that he got behind the safety after Brady extended the play and for some reason took off for the opposing flag. In order to complete the pass Gronk forced Brady into throwing across his body, whereas if he had ran in the right direction, or even just ran straight up the field he would've made it MUCH easier on Brady.

Again, once Gronk headed in the wrong direction Tom should've been smarter and put the ball away. But I was surprised to see that not talked about at all.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

A precursor to my comments to save myself some agony: The interception was terrible. Brady shouldn't have thrown it, and he's been burned enough on it this year to know that the results haven't been favorable for him.

But in a world of over analyzing, I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up -

Gronkowski made a terrible decision, in that he got behind the safety after Brady extended the play and for some reason took off for the opposing flag. In order to complete the pass Gronk forced Brady into throwing across his body, whereas if he had ran in the right direction, or even just ran straight up the field he would've made it MUCH easier on Brady.

Again, once Gronk headed in the wrong direction Tom should've been smarter and put the ball away. But I was surprised to see that not talked about at all.

Good point. TP.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

If I remember correctly (and i'm having  hard time finding this so maybe I'm not) I could have sworn the first Pats play from scrimmage in SB 36 was a long deep pass by Brady that was caught. Maybe it was a different game. That would have been from pretty deep in their own territory. I don't remember people saying it was too risky or anything. Everyone loves deep passes when they're caught. I'd rather throw it to an open deep Gronk calling for a pass against a LB all day long, than throw it to Manningham in deep double coverage, if I don't have to

I love deep passes, and this situation presented a good opportunity ... except that the pass was so long and so underthrown that it gave the LB time to get in position under it. As StartOrien said, Gronk should've ran TOWARDS Brady's side of the field, or at least down the middle, not AWAY from Brady's side. And on top of that, he then failed to get position in front of the LB.