The One That Got Away

Last night's game at Indianapolis was frustrating to watch. Knowing that the Bills had already lost earlier in the day, the Patriots had a chance to take over sole possession of first place in the AFC East while further pushing the Colts out of the playoff picture. Following the loss, the Patriots are now in a three way tie for first place and the Colts are right back in the wild card race. Surprisingly, the Patriots outplayed the Colts in nearly every facet of the game but still came up short because of some costly mistakes. At least I think they were mistakes. Maybe they were just Bill Belichick's way of firing up his team for next week.

Anyway, here are just a few thoughts on the game while I wonder if we're seeing the real Bilichick (that wouldn't be a good thing) or if he's just messing with us:

• Who's Who?
Team A: Time of possession was 34:24, 342 net yards, 140 yards rushing, 67 offensive plays, 22 first downs.

Team B: Time of possession was 25:36, 301 net yards, 47 yards rushing, 50 offensive plays, 18 first downs.

Despite a clear advantage is every category, Team A still came out on the losing end last night.

• Jabar Gaffney should not have been allowed to fly back with the team last night. Gaffney's drop will be remembered for a long time. Cassel hit him in stride and there was no defender within ten yards. That was an easy touchdown taken off the board and a huge difference in this game.

• Belichick clearly didn't bring his A game last night and I can only hope he did this on purpose. The challenge of too many men on the field was a perfect example of being stupid. The Patriots had just picked up a first down so they hurry to the line of scrimmage in an attempt to draw a penalty and run a play for no gain. So instead of setting your offense and running a developed play, you try to run some kind of play designed to draw a penalty? Why not just design a play to pick up yardage? And the challenge was weak, anyway.

• More on Belichick: Clock management wasn't his strong suite last night, either. He burned his three timeouts with more than 11 minutes left in the game. I also didn't like him running down the sidelines to use the last timeout of fourth and 1. His timeout call negated the first down that the Patriots picked up and then he chose to kick a field goal afterwards. Just a weird sequence.

• In general, I thought that the play calling was way too conservative. I know that Randy Moss was double and triple teamed all night but at some point you've got to air it out and let Moss go get it. And if Moss was drawing that type of defense, someone else had to be wide open more often. And I don't consider Ben Watson a viable option.

• I could have written 100 different scenarios in which the Patriots could have lost last night's game and I would never have thought for one second that Adam Vinatieri kicking a 52 yard field goal for the winning points would be one of them.

• I like Cassel not getting sacked yesterday. I didn't like Peyton Manning not getting sacked yesterday.

• Not sure what Dave Thomas was thinking on the late hit but even Rodney Harrison would have thought it was late, which tells you something. That was a killer penalty since it made it third and 16 and pushed them out of field goal range. Here's the thing, though. On the next play, Cassel threw a shovel pass to Faulk for no gain. That seemed like poor play calling right there.

• Even if Laurence Maroney can come back healthly next year, I'm convinced that I don't ever want to see him in a Patriots uniform. You could put a blindfold on Kevin Faulk and BenJarvis Green-Ellis and they would still hit the hole better than Maroney.

Despite the loss, I'm encouraged by the play of Matt Cassel and the offense, as well as the way the defense came up big on numerous occasions to stop the Colts' offense. In this game, a few calls either way is the difference between winning and losing and last night, the Patriots had those two or three calls all go against them. Up next for the Patriots are the suddenly struggling Bills in a showdown for first place.