Blame for loss starts with Tom Brady, offensive game plan

The Patriots were coming in off of a game in which LeGarrette Blount rushed for 166 yards and four touchdowns, and the team rushed for six total on the day.

It was a new kind of smashmouth football that had many picking the Patriots to actually win in Denver today, as the mantra of great playoff football has long been having a strong running game and strong defense.

The Patriots defense certainly is owed their fair share of the blame for the 26-16 loss to the Broncos in the AFC Championship game today, but the Patriots played an unbalanced game on both sides. The blame for this one has to start with Tom Brady and the offensive game plan.

As mentioned before, LeGarrette Blount was carrying this team through the final weeks of the season. Today, he saw the ball only five times for six yards.

In fact, the Patriots only carried the ball 16 times. A lot of this obviously had to do with the fact that the team found themselves down early. A combination of some stellar play by Peyton Manning on the other side, an injury to Aqib Talib and Alfonzo Dennard being overmatched against Demayrius Thomas.

The Broncos defense also seemed dedicated to stopping the run, as the Patriots could not get anything going on the ground early. The Pats strangely forgoed the run on first downs, The Patriots passed on first down every time but once in the first quarter. Putting them in third and long situations on two of their three drives. The one time they had third and short, the call was a deep pass down the sideline to Matthew Slater, which went incomplete.

That set the tone for the game for the Patriots offense.

And that's just the thing, with the game turning more to the passing game, Brady and the Patriots receiving corps could not hold up their end of the bargain. Tom Brady was uncharacteristically off in Denver.

He missed a long pass to a wide open Julian Edelman on play action that would've been a touchdown. He also missed a streaking Austin Collie down the sideline at the end of the first half that would've at least gotten the Pats a field goal before the half.

These were just a couple of the example of missed throws, that in games as big as this, quarterbacks have to make.

It's troubling that before the fourth quarter of this game, Brady had gone eleven straight quarters without a touchdown pass. Certainly, he didn't need to in the divisional round against the Colts.

While the team put together a furious rally in that fourth quarter, it was the first three that lost the game. Peyton Manning and the Broncos came to play, and the Pats could neither keep up with them in the passing game, or keep them off the field with the running game.

It was Blount Force trama that got the the Patriots to the AFC Championship game. Today, it was Blount watching on the sideline as the team decided to put the ball in the hands of their hall of fame quarterback.

Unfortunately, Brady just did not deliver.