The International House of Bacon

1) Lack of aggression. Everyone’s all pissy about Belichick deciding to go for it on 4th and 13 as opposed to a 50 yard field goal - I liked that move. I didn’t like Belichick not throwing a red flag on the fumble that Woods clearly fell on and then the Giant defensive lineman stole after the play was called dead. I didn’t like Belichick punting from 4th and 3 inside the Giants’ 50 yard line. I didn’t like the fact that the Pats didn’t make a single memorable vertical attempt the entire first half.

2) Game planning. It was apparent in the first half that whatever the plan was, it wasn’t working. The Pats scored one touchdown in part due to a pass interference call, and that was essentially it. In the second half, though, it appeared to me that the adjustment was to…not adjust. Brady was getting wrecked, but I didn’t see extra tight ends in there. I didn’t see an extra blocking back, Faulk was still going out for passes. They finally got rolling in the 4th quarter with the slant patterns, but why did it take so long? The Patriots came back in the first game against the Giants in part because the blocking was much improved in the second half. What happened last night?

3) Bad luck. After all, the Pats got very lucky against the Ravens this season, had some significant breaks in the last 8 games leading up to the Super Bowl anyway, but, with the exceptions of the 12 men review and the pass interference on Watson, the luck didn’t go New England’s way. The fumble recovery by Woods, the blatant offensive pass interference on the sideline throw, that absolutely incredible catch by Tyree against Harrison in that final drive - sometimes, the football gods just say “enough,” and that’s that.

At the end of the day, the Patriots simply got outplayed, though. Outplayed, outcoached, outclassed. I haven’t seen that since the 2002 season, and that’s what makes this loss somewhat heartbreaking. Kudos to the defense for stepping up as well as they did, but that’s about it. The rest was a dismal failure I haven’t seen from this football club in years.

Ah well - 10 days until pitchers and catchers.

If anyone’s even reading at this time of day.

* Personal opinion: Patriots 38, Giants 20. I don’t see this being close.

* From The Locker Room, an article at Tech Central Station about the successes of free market reforms around the world. A pretty interesting list.

* Cato at Liberty on Ted Kennedy actually getting it regarding the role of the judiciary v. the role of the legislative branch. I suppose you can teach an old dog new tricks.

* John Tierney at the New York Times signed he and his wife up to eHarmony to see if they could get a match, and then wrote about the results. A pretty interesting insight into the whole eHarmony thing.

* FactCheck.org debunks the long-standing myth that the unemployment stats don’t count folks who aren’t recieving benefits. A piece worth reading even if you already knew that.

* I’m very glad John Edwards is gone, but The Munchkin Wrangler posted a beautiful takedown of Edwards’s campaign yesterday that’s worth linking to.

* Julia Sweeney does a one-woman show about her atheism, and lists 10 things she’s learned.

Have a good weekend.