Were the Pats Just Tooling Up for 2010 or Beyond?

Lets Try It Again Next Year Fellas

Just like that, a mere minutes into yesterday’s playoff game, an uninspired Pats season unofficially came to an end.  Obviously the official end came once the clock struck 0:00 of the fourth quarter, but at no point this season did the Pats show they could handle adversity, that they could come back from a deficit, or that they could play at a consistently high level; thus it was over with circa 8:00 minutes to go in the 1^st quarter.  Its not specifically a fault of the team in any inherent way, they simply weren’t as good as previous teams, and more importantly, weren’t as good as the other AFC contenders.  I actually wonder if the Pats (front office and eventually players) realized this was a retooling year.  In reality they may have simply achieved; neither under nor over.

The season started very sinisterly, first by trading Richard Seymour to Oakland for a future #1 and then by barely squeaking out a gift wrapped victory over a poor (middling?) Bills team a mere days later in week 1.  Brady magically led them to that week 1 victory and many of the teams flaws were hidden by snagging a win.

The next 7 games were a microcosm (can a little under half the season be a microcosm, or would that be a cosm?) of the Pats season.  Up and down against the good teams (beat a healthy Falcons teams playing their best ball of the season, and pull off a win over the undefeated Ravens; losses to the Jets and Broncos) and wins against their inferior opponents (Tennessee, Tampa, and Miami at home).  Heading into the Colts game the Pats were 6-2, but in reality not a consistent team that proved they could hang with the league’s best.   The Sunday night game in Indy was their measuring stick.  A team that has consistently been among the best in the league wants to win championships, not division titles.  Even though they hung with the Colts, and by all accounts could/should have won the game, they didn’t.  They left everything they had on the field that night, played as complete a game as they could, led with the ball in the last two minutes, and still lost.  The team knew they weren’t Superbowl contenders; the team knew it wasn’t their year.

The season ended much like it began, with the Pats beating the inferior teams and losing to the solid teams (New Orleans, at Miami).  Coming into the playoffs the Pats knew that to even get to the Superbowl would require wins at Indy and San Diego, and that’s assuming they beat a very good Ravens team.  The team wasn’t up to the test, and were totally demolished Sunday.  Thinking on the season brought me back to week 2 or 3, when chatting American Football with a coworker, I told him that I thought Belichick may have seen the 2009 season as a rebuilding year.  He (a Bills fan) of course gave me some ‘Of course a New England would say that’ comment, but answer me these questions:

1. Did Belichick trade Seymour knowing that even with him the team wasn’t a championship contender, snagging value for him while he could?
2. Did Belichick realize that knee injuries, and specifically torn ACLs, take more than a year to recovery fully and that Brady wouldn’t be back too full strength until well into the 2009 season?
3. Was it probable the team could make the playoffs with a mediocre team, while still retooling for the future?
4. Did the team catch on to this, lead to Moss taking a few halves off, several players showing up late to practice, amongst other mid-season dramas usually unknown to Belichick teams?
5. Did all of this culminate in a miserable performance Sunday?

Its plausible; either way the playoffs march on sans Pats.  Either way ‘In Belichick We Trust’.  Either way, New England turns it attention to Josh Beckett, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia with a mere 6 weeks (and plenty of great football) separating us from Spring Training.