Fortunately, I did not watch the entire Miami game or I would have been very depressed. IMO, the game was a microcosm of the Patriots year. They looked out of synch and uncoordinated. Clearly credit goes to Miami for playing well on defense, but the Patriots looked inept and did little to inspire confidence.
The issue from my perspective is that the team has had a very difficult time playing consistently. One week they will look good and the next they will look terrible. It is the tale of two teams — will the good Patriots or the bad team show up? This is unlike the Patriots; historically they have been somewhat inconsistency early and then settled down and played their best football at the end of the season. We don’t see that trend this year.
I am not trying to be excessively negative, but the reality is that the Patriots have not shown that they deserve to be in the playoffs. Assuming the make the playoffs, I anticipate that they will lose in an early round. Playoffs are all about playing consistently your best and the Patriots have not shown an ability to do that. Hopefully I am wrong….