Patriots defense

Have to be happy with the Patriots defense, they held New England in the game, hoping the offense would get it going. 

Jamie Collins had two sacks in the game to lead the defense and the defense was getting off the field on a consistent basis, especially in the second half. 

The only thing the defense didn't do was get a takeaway that could have turned momentum early on, but other than that it is hard to be too critical of them. 

Tom Brady

Tom Brady's struggles in Denver continue as he now falls to 2-7 all-time at Mile High. 

Brady went 27 of 56 with 1 touchdown pass and two interceptions, the first was thrown right to Von Miller and the second was thrown into double coverage as he was getting hit. 

Brady has also lost three straight AFC Championship games to Peyton Manning. 

Gostkowski

Stephen Gostkowski missed his first extra point in 523 attempts, translating to 9 years of football, and it ended up playing a big part in the Patriots loss. 

The missed extra point forced the Patriots to have to go for two at the end of the game, which they ultimately did not get. 

Gostkowski did make two field goals in the game, but the missed extra point was costly.

Second Guesses

The Patriots had to play the AFC Championship game on the road because they lost 4 of their last 6 games of the regular season. 

Of those four games, the home game against the Eagles hurts because New England was up 14-0 before attempting an onside kick. The onside kick did not single handedly cost the Patriots the game but it turned momentum all the way around. Eagles went on to win. 

In this game, Belichick and the Patriots had two possessions in the red zone, prior to finally scoring, and failed to come up with points after going for it on 4th and 1 and 4th and 6 respectively. 

Hindsight is 20/20 of course and knowing the result it's easy to say they should have kicked a field goal, but kicking a field goal at least on the first possession when there was still 6 minutes left may have been the play. 

Offensive Line

The Patriots offensive line was not good in this game, letting Tom Brady get hit 23 times and sacked five times. 

The times he did not get sacked or hit he was on the run or had to at least hurry the throw. 

Marcus Cannon was matched up against Von Miller and and Miller had a monster game. There was at least one play where it looked like Miller was past Cannon before Cannon even moved. 

The O-lines problems were compounded by Denver's coverage in the secondary, forcing Brady to hold the ball for more than 1-2 seconds.