Patriots Go 11-5, Miss Playoffs
In the 2008 calendar year, Brett Favre has screwed over the New England Patriots twice. First, he throws an interception in overtime of the NFC Championship Game that caused the New York Giants to advance to Super Bowl XLII. And if Super Bowl XLII actually had happened, I’m sure the Giants swarming pass rush would have been too much for the 18-0 Patriots, leading to one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. But that’s all purely hypothetical.
But yesterday, the Curse of Brett Favre’s 250 Year Old Right Arm reared its ugly head once again. Favre threw three of the ugliest interceptions these eyes have ever witnessed, and handed the AFC East Division crown to the Miami Dolphins without much of a fight. Patriots fans should have known they were in trouble following last Sunday’s slate of games when the phrase “They need the Jets to win” was uttered, and taken seriously.
Let’s think about that for a second, shall we? We, as Patriots fans, were relying on a team that lost to the Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks, and needed miracles to beat the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills, to beat a red-hot Dolphins team. We sat there and talked ourselves into counting on Brett Favre and his paleolithic right arm. We believed that Eric Mangini, who in all rights is a fine defensive coordinator or defensive backs coach, would come up with a game plan that didn’t entail relying solely on Coach Klein’s green notebook. What were we thinking?
Well, luckily for Jets fans, and hilariously for Patriots fans, Coach Fredo Mangini was fired this morning. I guess someone has to take the blame. Now, if the Jets can talk Brett Favre into retiring, and then gently place him back in his sarcophagus without any serious damage, the Jets might actually look like a football team in 2009.
But enough about the laughingstocks down I-95. Let’s get serious and talk about the Patriots. I cannot say enough about this team. They had every right to throw in the towel after Bernard Pollard’s low hit on Tom Brady, eight minutes into the 2008 season. They had every right to just pack it up and play for 2009 after losing Laurence Maroney, Adalius Thomas and Rodney Harrison. But they kept playing, and if it weren’t for a few bounces here and there, the Patriots would be in the playoffs today. I can say with confidence that the last time I was this proud to call myself a fan of the New England Patriots was when Rodney Harrison intercepted Donovan McNabb’s last-second heave in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Matt Cassel is going to go down in New England sports folklore, right alongside guys like Dave Henderson, Dave Roberts, Derek Lowe, James Posey and Mike Lowell. Despite not making the playoffs, Cassel proved every doubter wrong, putting together a spectacular 2008 campaign, that, had the Patriots advanced to the playoffs, could very well have been an MVP season. He was that good, and even better if you remember how bad it looked in Week Three when he was scraped of the field by a spatula following the Dolphins’ shellacking of the Pats in Foxboro.
For the Patriots, they obviously have questions to answer. But that’s for another day. Today is a day of reflection. And like an Irish Wake, we’re here not to mourn a loss, but to celebrate a life. The 2008 Patriots went down swinging, and that’s all you can ask for, is your team to show life when it matters most.
Am I right, Jets fans?
