The earth is still spinning, my office is still where it always was and my hangover has subsided...slightly. This is not an alcoholic hangover, mind you (although I wish it were). It is a "lost a winnable game" hangover. In Belichick's Monday pressers, he alluded to "a few plays" costing them the game:
"I don't think the competitiveness of the game was reflected in the score," said Belichick. "We did a lot of good things, but we offset it with missing some opportunities and not being able to make a few plays at the right time."
Now, Bill is supposed to be upbeat and positive, even in the face of the worst possible circumstances. Contrast the above with his conference minutes after the game:
“San Diego obviously did a good job tonight, a lot better than we did. They hit the deep balls on us. They did a good job of getting field position in the kicking game, and offensively. They were able to keep us out of the end zone, until the end. They played a solid game in all three phases. They just did a better job than we did. Give them credit. We need to work harder and just do a better job all the way around than we did tonight. It’s as simple as that.”
That's a somewhat different message than "missing some opportunities". Again, I don't expect Belichick to lay his team out for all to see and rip them a new one. Circle the wagons and get back to work, that's what I'm talking about. But, Dr. Belistrator did allude to some issues with the secondary:
"Well, any time the ball gets thrown over your head in the secondary that's not good, so it's every defensive back's job to keep the ball in front of them. The intent is never to get it thrown over your head, so whether there is a pass rush or not that's the last line of defense. You got to prevent the big play, and if they hit them they can hit them in front of you. Ultimately, it's got to fall, long-passing stuff, with the secondary. You're always looking for more pass rush and always looking for tighter coverage, but you got to defend the deep ball first and we didn't do a real good job of that last night."
Thrown over your head... oh boy. I don't think I'd want to be a defensive back this week. Nor would I want to be Dom Capers. If Dom isn't beating the daylights out of the secondary, Bill will be sure to assist. Granted, I could be reading too much into this, but I don't think so. Belichick is usually very cagey about any problems with his team, but here he calls out a problem very clearly. He's sick of a soft defense and especially sick that SD burned them on the long ball, IMO.
This isn't the end of the world; there's still 11 games to play and plenty of time to correct what ails us. 3-2 is not cause for alarm, is it?