[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I'm a Patriots fan as well and was very disappointed with their final game. I really didn't think that they had much of a chance to win as the Bills are clearly a much better team. But I thought that they'd make it a game and and maybe get lucky.

But looking back at where they were and what our expectations were at the beginning of the season, this year was a success. After losing the greatest player ever to play the game and having so many players opt out for Covid last year they missed the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. The Bradyless Patriots were much worse than so many of us thought they would be.

So at the beginning of this season, we had a bit of hope. A new rookie quarterback that the coaching staff was and still is very high on and two excellent looking running backs as well as some great additions on defense made us more hopeful.

Then they lose the first game of the year against the Dolphins in Foxboro on a Damien Harris fumble on the six yard line when all they needed was a field goal. Then they had a couple of wins and losses. Then suddenly they appeared to hit their stride and won seven games in a row. Many thought that they were unbeatable and were actually the favorites to go to the Super Bowl.

Then they missed a field goal by about six inches to lose to Tampa Bay. We still were thinking that they were going to recover from that but they didn't.

Thinking back if Harris didn't fumble and that field goal was six inches to the right they would have won the division in spite of their downward slide over the last five games.

The point is that with the 7 game win streak we all got out hopes up and though they might have another Super Bowl win. But looking back, they accomplished exactly what we hoped they would in this first rebuilding season.

The future looks good except for the fact that Buffalo and Miami are now contending teams where in the past we could almost count on those four wins. The AFC East looks very different now. Buffalo is by far a better team and I would be surprised to see them get to the Super Bowl this year. Miami has improved tremendously and is likely to continue doing so.

We've gotten so used to The Patriots winning the division and going to the Super Bowl so many times over the past twenty years that it's a real disappointment to see what is going on now. But they are still a team and can continue to compete and maybe get back to a Super Bowl again in the near future.

The twenty year run was unprecedented in the NFL and it's unlikely that something like that will ever happen again. But hopefully we can continue a great competitive football team that has a chance every year.