Its been a week and a half and I’m finally ready to discuss the game.  That was a really frustrating and really disappointing game to watch.  The Patriots had so many opportunities to win that game.  To get a 21-3 lead on the Colts in Indy and then lose it the way that they did was hard to take.  So what happened?

First, it feels to me that there were many many plays that might have changed the outcome of the game if the Patriots had made them.  Right after the Pats went up 21-3, they held the Colts to a 3 and out.  Then they were driving down the field again and got the to the 20 before an offensive pass interference call on Troy Brown and then an illegal shift call on Ben Watson pushed the Pats out of field goal range.  Before the penalties it looked like they were going to drive and score.  They still ended up pinning the Colts deep in their own territory with two minutes left.  They stopped the Colts on the first two downs, but then gave up the first on 3rd and long and the Colts drove to score.  I think this long drive along with the Colts first two long drives in the second half really exhausted the defense.  Another key penalty was late in the game with about 4 minutes left.  The Patriots got the ball with a field goal lead but had a penalty for 12 men in the huddle before they even had a play.  They went 3 and out and gave the Colts back the ball, and the Colts drove down to score for the lead.

The defense was extremely exhausted in the second half.  Whether it was the physical game the week before, the long trip from San Diego, the flu they had that week, or the heat in the RCA dome, they looked pretty tired.  It didn’t help that their best linebacker, Rosie Colvin, was out most of the second half, their best lineman, Richard Seymour, was missing plays for some sort of injury, and other players such as Artrell Hawkins and Vince Wilfork were missing occasional plays because of cramps.

The positive note was the play of the Patriots defensive backs.  In the first half, Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs were incredible.  There were quite a few long passes attempted by Manning that Hobbs and Samuel had great position on and made great plays to knock the balls down.  In addition, Hobbs had an 80 yard kickoff return and Samuel had an interception return for a touchdown.  Still, even in the first half, the fact that the Colts were so close to breaking some long passes and were only stopped by some great plays was worrisome because they couldn’t make great plays on every pass attempt.

It was a dissapointing end to the game but the Pats should be back next year… they have two first round picks.