How I Feel As A Patriots Fan: Concerned

I am not concerned about the Patriots making the playoffs. I'm not even concerned about them winning the division, but I am concerned about this team being a Super Bowl team.

As a Patriots fan we can keep holding on to this team being a bend, but don't break defense. Sure, I'll play along and even understand it, but sometimes (like yesterday) it isn't good enough. When the Patriots did that on-side kick yesterday I thought it spoke volumes about how this team feels about it's defense. Every time the Steelers got the ball they would drive. Maybe not leading to touchdowns, but they got first downs. In my eyes, I didn't feel at any point the Patriots were going to get the Steelers offense off the field.

So, from that standpoint I don't blame Belichick for doing what he did. It really didn't bother me as much as it seems to be bothering everyone else. WHAT DOES BOTHER ME is the moves he has been making for years now. The trading of draft picks to stockpile later picks. Not fixing glaring problems (pass rush) either through the draft or free agency. Cutting people for seemingly no reason. Can anyone really sit here and tell me the Patriots weren't a better defense with Bodden, Meriweather (I know I hate him too), and James Sanders? They wouldn't be a lot better, but they are more talented then the undrafted guys were are throwing out their in our secondary.

I believe Belichick is one of the best coaches in the game, but his role as GM has been pretty questionable for awhile now. I know, there are probably Patriots fans that just threw their computer across the room, because God forbid you question their moves, but I am still not over the fact of how much better this team could be if they drafted better and made better free agent pickups. Coaching can get you so far, at some point you need talent. When they did that onside kick, it was because they knew they couldn't stop the talent on the Steelers.

Now, I agree with Rob the problem yesterday was the offense. If they don't score 35+ point they will most likely lose. There was 2 reason why the Patriots offense got shut down. First was the Steelers excellent gameplan of playing press coverage on the Patriots WRs, which threw off the timing of the offense. The Patriots don't have deep threats, so you throw off the timing, game over. The other thing that threw off their timing was the fact the Steelers seemingly had the ball the whole game. You keep an offense off the field, especially a timing offense like the Patriots, and they just aren't going to be as sharp.

Can they turn this around? Sure, the offense can be THAT good when the timing is on. I don't think there are many teams that can do what the Steelers did, so there is a chance they go far, but if you ask me how I feel as a Patriots' fan today I'll tell you that I'm concerned.