The Nest

As my sainted Mother used to say of the Red Sox during the Yawkey era:

#$!# #%&!@ Red Sox! – Can’t stand Prosperity!!!

It seem the Patriots can’t stand prosperity. They went into Sunday night’s game with the chance to take over sole possesion of 1st place in the AFC East and couldn’t. Questionable management of timeouts in the second half, an ill advised two point conversion attempt that failed, a made to order touchdown pass to Gaffney dropped and a stupid, unnecessary roughness penalty added up to the Pats losing a game they could have won handily.

One bright spot: Their running game was clicking for once. They took advantage of the Colts’ safeties playing back to guard against anything deep, leaving their frontline vulnerable and opening the door for the Pats to gain decent yardage on the ground

Maybe they like the drama this scenario creates. A win would have put serious pressure on Manning and the Colts to scuffle to make it to the post season but with a 4-4 record, Indianapolis can set its sites on a very doable wild card berth.

Meanwhile the Patriots have to share 1st place with the Bills and Jets. Their future rests in their own hands as they play those two teams in successive weeks starting this Sunday. They’ll have to play better and smarter than they did against the Colts but I’m not ready to call Belichick out yet. He’s made a living out of making adjustments and learning from mistakes.

Putting a spin on the loss, Belichic said “We came up a couple plays short”. I guess that’s a good way to look at it.

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