Patriots end up on losing end of football’s overdue, thrilling weekend
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The 2016 schedule suggested it might turn out this way. But then again, the schedule has suggested a lot this season that has looked promising only to wind up being played with the complete disinterest of your average Thursday Night game. Sunday was different.
The Denver Broncos tip-toed (literally) their way to a 25-23 win over the New Orleans Saints, blocking an extra point and returning it the length of the field for what turned out to be the game-winning score. Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott may have cemented his name in the Most Valuable Player conversation (with all apologies to Cyrus Jones, the Rookie of the Year nod is already a given) with a 114-yard, two-touchdown (including the back-breaker) afternoon to lead the Cowboys past the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 35-30 tug-of-war that put the Cowboys in the drivers’ seat for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
We’re even willing to forgive the Los Angeles Angels’ 9-6 win over the New York Yankees, if only because I spent my Sunday morning picking up the Rams and Jets defenses for separate fantasy teams. Houston-Jacksonville (Texans 24, Jaguars 21) was a good game. Not that you would — or should — have noticed. The Kansas City Chiefs can still believe they’re among the best teams in the AFC with a 20-17 comeback win over the Carolina Panthers, who have no reason to believe their among the best teams in the NFC any longer.
They were all appetizers for the main feast Sunday night.
Dallas and Denver may disagree, but it’s clear that the NFL would benefit from another February showdown between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, teams that, once again, rode an intense wave of drama to the one-yard line. This time the Seahawks emerged with the win, 31-24.
They’d kick you out of sequel writing camp for suggesting that this showdown between these two teams would come down to similar circumstances to those in Super Bowl XLIX. And yet, we had it all, both with Seattle head coach Pete Carroll making the head-scratching decision to go for two points with his team up by seven late in the fourth quarter, right to the Patriots opening the door for every Monday morning quarterback from Providence to Presque Isle for their final-play decision.
While running back LeGarrette Blount might have been able to find his fourth touchdown of the game from the one-yard line, forcing a tie game and likely overtime, the Patriots instead chose to try and have quarterback Tom Brady throw the ball in relative desperation to Rob Gronkowski. But the tight end initiated contact with Seattle’s Kam Chancellor, and wasn’t going to get the pass interference flag that 70,000 patrons at Gillette Stadium voiced was their birthright after stepping foot in the 02035 zip code.
The Patriots will be roasted for their dubious decision-making in the final seconds of the loss. The team’s defense will be put under the microscope after its shoddiest effort of the season, delivered less than a fortnight after head coach Bill Belichick made the baffling decision to trade linebacker Jamie Collins to the Cleveland Browns. (There should be “Bend, Don’t Break” merchandise on sale already at the Patriots Pro Shop, the phrase adorned with a haunting silhouette of Matt Patricia’s beard.)
“Our execution wasn’t great,” Brady said after throwing for 316 yards in his first loss of the season, a game that included his team’s first interception of the 2016 campaign. “They make you earn every yard. That’s what I respect about that team, that defense. They play to the end. They’ve been in a lot of close games and it came down to one yard at the end and…we didn’t get it.”
Nope.
Yet still, you can’t help departing from a game like this, despite the dark clouds hovering over the skies Monday, figuring like Patriot fans deserved something like it, especially after having to watch the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Houston Texans, and Cleveland Browns at different points this year. Last month’s game in Pittsburgh was one of those few regular-season games circled on the schedule. That one paid off. Not as well as this one though, a game that saw a whopping seven in-game lead changes, the sort of seesaw battle the NFL needs to escape its doldrums.
It turns into one of the only two-loss regular seasons in Gillette Stadium history. Because of this, the Patriots will be declared “done” in taverns across the Commonwealth. A small fraction of those among the argumentative will remember the days when a two-loss home slate meant you cleared your calendar for January.
The way this NFL season has gone, with boring matchups and diving television ratings, some of us had stopped clearing them for next week.
One Sunday like this in the books though, we might even watch Monday night.
Thursday? Like, let’s see how next week goes first, OK?
But the NFL had one hell of a day on Sunday. Football had one heck of a weekend.
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