Patriots wouldn't have won, but they would have kept the Super Bowl a lot closer

It would have been a sad day in Foxboro

The Broncos did not look like a Super Bowl team. Understatement of the century.

After being an offensive juggernaut all season, and the heavy favorite to win the Super Bowl, Peyton and the Broncos fell flat on their face. They were unprepared and outplayed for the entire game.

So what if our Patriots had won the AFC Championship game. Could they have won the Super Bowl?

Here's Greg Bedard's thoughts on the matter:

"They would have done a little better. They would have kept it closer. They're a better coached team. Belichick would have had them on the fundamentals. The snap thing early in the game would not have happened for the Patriots, even though we say that and the last time they were in the Super Bowl they took a safety on their first drive. But that was just a blown block. This was a big mistake. The Patriots would have kept it closer, but still the end result would have been the same: they would have gotten dominated by the Seahawks."

Bedard is spot on. There really isn't anyway you can imagine it where the Patriots offense gets rolling against that Seahawk defense. Probably at most the Patriots put up 17 on them, and that is AT THE MOST. But the Patriots wouldn't have the miscues that plagued the Broncos all game long. That botched snap wouldn't have happened. Mannings floating ducks (leading to a pick and a pick six) wouldn't have happened. Fox's stupid challenge five minutes into the game wouldn't have happened. You can bet that Bill and Brady would have had the Patriots much more prepared to face this Seahawk defense than John Fox did with his team.

We still would have lost, my guess in a 27-10 game. Brady would have been now 50% in Super Bowls and we would had to listen all offseason about if Brady is finished? Is the magic over? Was it really all just because of Spygate? So I guess in retrospec, it's not all that bad we lost in the AFC Champ game.

Photo via cbssports.com

- Pete Rogers
@ftcsports
@petahrahgas