We'll be back in the Super Bowl next year folks

[Proudiddy]

Even with cheating, the patriots only went 18-1 once and still didnt make it to the superbowl every year.  This is what sucks about this...  to come this far and lose.  You never know if you'll get that opportunity again.

I believe and hope we will, and id even say odds are in our favor.  We have the right key pieces in place, but nothing is guaranteed...  to make it 19 games with only a few significant injuries, to have a lot of officiating go your way and catch lucky breaks (up until the superbowl), and all that line up every year...  man, it is depressing to think about.  But, i do believe we have taken the step from perennial laughingstock also-ran to legitimate winner and perennial playoff team...  but, making it all the way to THE superbowl, that's tough.

[stankowalski]

1 minute ago, Chris1 said:

I agree some of the unforced fumbles were strange. But Shula still made no adjustments, if he actually coached a good game and the fumbles still happened, fine. But he didn't so he gets a lot of blame.

Chris how long have you been watching football?  I'm not trying to disparage you or anything like that but a statement like that leads me to believe you haven't been watching for long...maybe 5 years?  Denver's defense was outstanding.  There's not a lot you can do against defenses that have legit impact players in every phase from the defensive line to linebackers to secondary.  They were legit top 10 of all time good.  And even with them being that good if we would have taken care of the ball we would have won.  And Remmers was a major liability at right tackle.  He even got some help but still played pretty bad.  People say why not just play max protect all game long...well then you have 3 mediocre (2 inexperienced really) receivers going against a damn good secondary.  We wouldn't have fared very well even then.  We did what we could do to the best of our ability and the truth is they overmatched our offense from the get go with the talent and scheme on their defense.  

[BIGH2001]

6 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

Even with cheating, the patriots only went 18-1 once and still didnt make it to the superbowl every year.  This is what sucks about this...  to come this far and lose.  You never know if you'll get that opportunity again.

I believe and hope we will, and id even say odds are in our favor.  We have the right key pieces in place, but nothing is guaranteed...  to make it 19 games with only a few significant injuries, to have a lot of officiating go your way catch licky breaks, and all that line up every year...  man, it is depressing to think about.  But, i do believe we have taken the step from perennial laughingstock also-ran to legitimate winner and perennial playoff team...  but, making it all the way to THE superbowl, that's tough.

yep.  Aaron Rodgers has only made it once.  Brees once, Flacco once.  It took manning 10 years to get to his first one and almost 20 to win 2.  How many teams only make it once before going through a whole cycle and having winidows close and maybe making it back a decade later.  the 04 team should be everyones example here.  we wasted a huge opportunity tonight and odds are against making it back

[Chris1]

12 minutes ago, stankowalski said:

Chris how long have you been watching football?  I'm not trying to disparage you or anything like that but a statement like that leads me to believe you haven't been watching for long...maybe 5 years?  Denver's defense was outstanding.  There's not a lot you can do against defenses that have legit impact players in every phase from the defensive line to linebackers to secondary.  They were legit top 10 of all time good.  And even with them being that good if we would have taken care of the ball we would have won.  And Remmers was a major liability at right tackle.  He even got some help but still played pretty bad.  People say why not just play max protect all game long...well then you have 3 mediocre (2 inexperienced really) receivers going against a damn good secondary.  We wouldn't have fared very well even then.  We did what we could do to the best of our ability and the truth is they overmatched our offense from the get go with the talent and scheme on their defense.  

I understand all of this but even if they hadn't fumbled the ball a touchdown wouldn't have been guaranteed considering how good Denver's defense is like you were saying. Good adjustments can overcome good defense and Shula didn't make any. We were more talented than New England but they played w/more effort against Denver's defense because they're better coached.

[Snake]

Its very likely we want next year. Not many team can give that much energy two seasons in a row.