Pick Six: Wild Card

The loss was the equivalent of a mugging. The Patriots didn’t see it coming, and before they knew it, New England was on the ground, wondering what happened.

There’s no sugar-coating this. They got whipped. Baltimore came out with a fury and the Pats had no answer for the rapid flurry of haymakers.

This is easily the worst loss of the year because the expectations were, despite the difficulties over the course of the year, they would respond to adversity and put up a good fight. But the Pats couldn’t stop the freight train moving at full speed.

Now that the season is over, head coach Bill Belichick has to take a real tough look at his team and no one is spared. Players, coaches, and scouts must be evaluated and determine who’s doing a good job and where there’s room for improvement. Based on Sunday, looks like a lot.

1. The Patriots playoff winning streak at home came to an end. New England won eleven straight home playoff games. The franchise’s first ever home playoff loss was the first home playoff game in 1978.

2. The Pats had their worst two consecutive quarters of the year. After giving up three straight touchdowns to Houston in the fourth quarter last week, Baltimore ripped off a 24-0 start in the first quarter, for a total of 45 straight points.

3. It took until 7:40 left in the first quarter for the Pats to gain their initial first down. New England didn’t have two first downs in a drive until 10:28 left in the third quarter.

4. Believe it or not, but I found a couple of positives. Congratulations to OLB Tully Banta-Cain on his first career playoff interception. And WR Julian Edelman had his first two touchdown game in his career.

5. Even kicker Stephen Gostkowski made a miscue. Before his fourth quarter miss on a 44-yard field goal, Gostkwoski hit his last 32 kicks in the fourth quarter. That streak included extra points.

6. Tough day for the receivers: four drops, two interceptions came off of the receiver's hands. Sam Aiken had it particularly hard as he dropped two, failed to come back on one route and was knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter.

Two points: Very classy for the coaches to name WR Wes Welker a team captain for the kickoff. I can only imagine what Wes would had told the team at halftime…A tip of the cap to the Patriot players selected to the Pro Bowl: QB Tom Brady, NT Vince Wilfork, and Welker. WR Randy Moss and S Brandon Merriweather will attend as injury replacements.

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