The 2012 Regular Season has come to an end. Thankfully, we have more football to look forward to with the playoffs starting next week. But thanks to the Houston Texans' loss to Indianapolis earlier, the Patriots' win over Miami today clinched them the #2 seed in the AFC, and therefore, a first round bye.
It seems like the Miami Dolphins did not want to play this game. They knew their season was already over and the windy & chilly conditions didn't help their cause either. The Patriots on the other hand, manipulated the positives from freezing weather and played superb. All of the problems they experienced in the Jacksonville game were all fixed today. That's what we were hoping to see and that's what we got.
The Patriots had a nice display of offense but I wouldn't say it was explosive. Of course that is debatable but I just viewed this evening's match as a healthy display of offense from New England. Wes Welker opened the scoring for New England from a 9 yard TD pass from Tom Brady. The TD pass from Brady extends his streak of consecutive games thrown with at least 1 TD pass to 48 games. That passes Johnny Unitas' 47 and creeps closer to Drew Brees. Stevan Ridley had a great bounce back game, shreadding the Dolphins rush defense with 2 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter (one of them on 4th down). The return of the Incredible Gronk was a debated issue on many social network sites. Some said he should have started and some say he shouldn't have. Either way he made it through the game fine and added a touchdown in the 4th quarter to make the game 28-0. I was very impressed that the Offensive Line protected Tom Brady throughout the match. If that O-Line does what it did today in the playoffs, then I cant see why this team can't go back to the Super Bowl. In addition, the defense played with tremendous effort. Even without Aqib Talib and Alfonzo Dennard, the Patriots showed their aggressive play. When a team's defense shows confidence, it will be successful. Overconfidence on the other hand will kill a team and I liked how the Patriots defense made the transition from overconfident to confident. They had forced fumbles and got many sacks on Ryan Tannehill. The Patriots have to keep this up in the playoffs if they want to go to the Super Bowl again. Enjoy the week off Pats fans and Let's Go Patriots!
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