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Cool. I'm happy for them both.

Our opponents will have to turn around, bend over, and "embrace the F ... *ck."

Stupid too.

heath's advice is obviously very valuable, but would it be alright if we also checked with DLed first?

DiMarco is the best fullback in the game (or at least top 3). Losing him will hurt. But even with that said, he was not part of the core of what made us great. I wish we could have kept him, but it comes down to us allocating money to other areas. I'm not worried.

Yeah, one thing this breakdown shows is that these teams were closely matched. Because we got our points early and they got theirs late, it shows up as a blown lead. But in reality, we were never going to hold them to 9 or 12 points. And they held us to significantly fewer points than we normally score (only 21 offensive points). So they were a very good defense. And of course, a good offense, as we knew ... but it took them a while to get going. Getting out to an early lead has tons of advantages, but also a few drawbacks. For one, the other team will go for it on 4th downs, be more aggressive, etc. Also, often the time of possession gets out of whack as it did here. Biggest lesson -- a high powered fast offense like ours needs to master the "ball control mode." Otherwise, a tired out defense is our Achilles heel.

Totally agree. Watson will be good. Somewhere between average starting QB for years, and incredible. Any team that needs a QB would be stupid to pass him by ... and I don't think many will. He'll go in the 1st round or I'll be shocked.

I see the "rah rah", and I've wondered about it. But I think the ace in the hole for Quinn is how good he is at spotting talent (both players and coaches). Plus, beyond the "rah rah", there's an ocean of mental toughness.

Makes sense. Keep it in perspective though ... he led the entire NFL in sacks. If you explain some of it away as "cleanup", fine, but he's still well above average.

Sure, I know some owners hold some head coaches accountable -- sometimes by firing them. To be clear -- are you recommending that Blank fire Quinn?

Amen. If you're going to run a Shanny style attacking offense, one of your staff members needs to keep track of snap counts, and let the OC know when things are heavily out of whack. And the OC then has to adjust the play calling to eat some clock. A quick strike offense that is effective has one HUGE achilles heel, and we just saw that achilles heel cost us a Lombardi. THAT is the lesson Quinn and Shanny (and any other smart coach) needs to learn from our loss.

OK, let's say he should be held accountable. He's the best coach we've ever had. Clearly one of the best head coaches in the NFL. What exactly are we supposed to do to hold him accountable? Fire him? Clearly that would be stupid. Just insult him for a while? Problem is, the reason he is such an incredible head coach is he has more mental toughness than Deadpool. He doesn't give a flying dam what you or I or anyone else thinks about him. He focuses on his goals and the things in his control that can get him there. What do you mean, "hold him accountable"? He's the greatest hope this franchise has ever seen. What could we possibly do, other than thank him profusely and see if he needs us to fetch him another soda?

This is good thinking, OP. It's a good out-of-the-box idea, even if analysis shows it not the best. If we kicked an onside kick and recovered, that is considered a fumble by the Pats. So I believe they would have already had their first possession. At that point, I believe a field goal by us wins the game. The danger is that the Pats recover, and then they have a short field for a TD, which would win them the game. Under normal circumstances, that is just too dangerous. But in this case, Quinn and the whole world knew our defense was exhausted. So taking the change of recovering the onside kick makes a ton of sense. Also, I think coaches around the league haven't thought about this enough. I bet you will see them begin to realize that sometimes, starting overtime with an onside kick makes a lot of sense. Really, though, they need to change the overtime rules so that both teams have the chance to possess the ball at least once. This has been needed a long time.

EXACTLY! Just because the city and the fans are neurotic, bitter, past-laden fools, doesn't mean the TEAM is. This team wasn't around for ANY of the first 50 years of crap. That's OUR burden, not theirs. This team is YOUNG, HUNGRY, TALENTED, and FOCUSED. They just exceeded expectations -- no, they just completely BLEW EXPECTATIONS OUT OF THE WATER. They have no reason to feel anything other than confident and fired up. It's the morons on the outside who need all the f-ing therapy. (And hurry up and get it too! I'm tired of hearing all this sh1t).

Wow, you're right. You made me see the light. We should fire Quinn immediately. He obviously doesn't know how to build a roster or get the best out of his players. (Purple in case you are BRAINDEAD). The dude took us from the sewer to the superbowl WAAY faster than anyone dared dream. When you hire an awesome coach, you take the good with the bad. No one is perfect, but I guarantee you Quinn is by far the best coach we have ever had. If we fired him, I bet 20 teams would be willing to fire their head coach immediately to hire him.