1st Glance, Missed Opportunities

I hate this feeling...

I would like to know how Nate Ebner and Tavon Wilson could get so burned by Sidney Rice on that final TD pass from Wilson. The replay showed a nice move by Rice, but Wilson has to know the situation there. A FG there doesn't help Seattle, the worst possible thing you can do is let a man behind you. Terrible.

The injuries continue to pile up: Patrick Chung left with an arm injury, Brandon Lloyd looked to tweak his shoulder, Matthew Slater limped off, Brandon Bolden did not return after injuring his knee. Add this to Steve Gregory, Dont'a Hightower, Tracy White, and all the guys who battled through the pain to play. At 3-3, things are really starting to look shaky.

This Defense was supposed to have improved upon last year, but they continue to make the same mistakes. The Secondary got burned on deep passes over and over. Overall, The Defense did well to stop the running game, holding Seattle to only 85 yards (their lowest of the season). However, Russell Wilson was able to consistently extend plays with his legs, opening up deep receivers. I think shifting Rob Ninkovich to LB hurt The Patriots ability to contain Wilson in the pocket. Still, injuries happen, and The Patriots had plenty of opportunities to put this one out of reach.

First of all, The Patriots went 1/6 in the Red Zone. Brady turned the ball over deep in Seattle territory to squander two promising New England possessions. New England was decent on 3rd downs, converting 44.4% of their chances and limiting Seattle to 33.3%. The killer was just the deep plays, and the long pass interference penalties. Brady's two intentional grounding penalties were costly. Likewise, there was bad clock management to end the half to squander at least 3 points. Just sloppy stuff.

On the bright side, Chandler Jones played very well, registering 9 tackles, 3 QB hits, 2 sacks, 1 TFL, and a forced fumble. Also, as bad as the secondary was, Devin McCourty had a good game. I think the Safety play was far worse than the CBs. Steve Gregory needs to get healthy fast. Offensively, Danny Woodhead played very well, and he picked up a few critical 3rd downs. Welker was just plain dominant, Gronk had some nice moments, and it was nice to see Aaron Hernandez back making plays.

We knew this would be a tough match-up, and it lived up to the billing. It hurts to lose yet another game that could have been won though. Without that debacle at the end of the half, The Patriots would have been up by 9 at the end of the game. It was an uncharacteristic mis-management of the clock, but how many times do we need to see mistakes like this before it becomes commonplace. These 2012 Patriots are not closing out games or capitalizing on opportunities in the way that we are used to see Belichick teams operate. We need to turn it around against The Jets comes Sunday. This division is very close, and divisional games are paramount in making the playoffs.