The 2011 defense was possibly the worst defense ever to take the field in a Super Bowl.
Agreed except they got them there and they played to their ceiling winning the game, allowing 13 points until the end. It was literally the greatest coaching job of BB's career coming off a Lockout with no camps, a rushed preseason and a rebuild. Who goes to a SB on the front of a rebuild? Just incredible in an offensive era to hold a team in a SB to 13 points.
The Pats offense played far below their ceiling. This happened in both SB losses to the Giants. You can't tell me you walk into a SB and say "14 points should be enough, no problem". It's just preposterous to think that in this era.
The Andre Carter injury was the blow they couldn't absorb as it weakened their rush badly and made Mark Anderson basically the key pass rusher, where it would have been a lot better if he was a sub rusher. I remember when he went down and I was like "that can't happen if they're going to go deep into a postseason"..
They spent the year playing mostly 4-3 and just didn't a 3-4 capability which hurt them during the rebuild. It just wasn't there. But, that has nothing to do with the D outperforming the offense in that postseason, because that's what happened. Ironically, in the game when they struggled vs Tebow in November in December,Carter went down in a heap in the 3-4, but th3 faster 4-3 is what worked better vs the Tebow crap and they shut the door with it in the second half of that game, and then obviously blasted him again the postseason with it. But, it would have been nice to use the 3-4 vs the Giants RBs in the SB, sure.
13 points allowed if Brady isn't lazy to take that Safety, throw an INT on 1st down to start the 1st qtr on an irresponsible throw to Gronk on one leg, almost in FG range, or the slightly off throw to Welker off his back foot with him wide open. All 3 were just horrendoys gaffes which allowed NY to take more clock than what should have been NE's clock since these occurred on 1st downs. Ugh. Even typing this makes me annoyed.
If just 1 of those god awful bad plays/mental miscues does not occur, and BJGE gets like 5 more carries, NE wins the SB with 3 points allowed in the 2nd half. They played brilliantly considering the lack of overall talent and depth. The latter was more the issue in a game like that.
This is really where the lack of accountability started with Brady, too. Giselle came down after the game pointing fingers as Brady was trying to hush her all embarrassed. The undermining of BB the GM and Coach, was already in play then when our best players on offense were letting us down (Brady, Mankins, Welker).
