Losing or Not

Losing is terrible. Everything that’s good about winning is nowhere to be found in losing. Losing is depressing. It sucks. It hurts like a kick in the balls. Okay, it doesn’t hurt that badly (having experienced both I feel safe in making this judgment) but it’s close. So, why do I feel so good today?

This may all be a massive rationalization and you certainly wouldn't have heard me saying, “Gee, I really wish the Pats had lost” today if they had won but I feel as good about the Patriots after their 26-21 loss as I did before.

Let’s start with the score.

In their previous two games at home, the Packers scored 55 and 53 points. In fact, the Patriots are the only team so far to hold Green Bay under 30 points at Lambeau Field. Their previous low was 31 points against the Jets in Week 2.

And there's this…

The Patriots did not play their best football and still had a chance to win in the 4^th quarter.

The defense gave up a lot of yards, could not get off the field on 3^rd down and the Jordy Nelson TD just before halftime was a back breaker. Despite all of that, they were solid in the red zone and seemed to turn things around in the second half. There were five or six plays where coverage held up for what seemed like 10-12 seconds (because it was 10-12 seconds) that ended with Rodgers simply throwing the ball away. The defense sacked Rodgers three times and certainly should've had more but these guys can cover.

Brady’s 22/35/245/2/0 slash line isn't bad. In fact, it would look great next to Brian Hoyer's name. It would've been just fine had New England been able to run the ball for 200 yards as many thought would happen. But it didn't. LeGarrette Blount averaged 5.8 per carry but only handled the ball 10 times. The Patriots weren't able to sustain drives and the passing game did not look pretty when Edelman got dinged up and had to leave the game.

The Patriots didn't get much from their kicking game, either.

This was a B-/C+ game from the Pats in all three phases and as noted above, they still had a chance to win. New England can and will play better in all three phases of the game than they did in Green Bay last Sunday. I'm looking at you, San Diego Chargers. Nothing personal. You're just in the way.

Finally, a slice of humble pie can cleanse the palette.

It's probably a good thing Patriots players didn't come to believe it was easy beating division leaders by 20 points. It's probably a good thing they have a chance to regroup and re-commit to these last four games. Rather than humble pie, I think this Packers game winds up being something of a Zen Slap for the Patriots. This is a good team, perhaps a championship team, but like most teams they are not without their flaws. This is a teachable moment. I expect Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, Darrelle Revis and every member of the Patriots to take full advantage of everything they learned – or re-learned – from this game.

That losing is depressing. It sucks. It hurts almost as badly as a kick in the balls. And they never want to feel that way again.

I mean, really; who does?