I was sort of interested in what Reiss posted this morning:
"
All of the Patriots’ eight postseason losses under Bill Belichick were a rematch from that regular season:
- 2013 AFC Championship -- Broncos
- 2012 AFC Championship -- Ravens
- Super Bowl XLVI -- Giants
- 2010 divisional -- Jets
- 2009 wild card -- Ravens
- Super Bowl XLII -- Giants
- 2006 AFC Championship -- Colts
- 2005 divisional -- Broncos
His posting this only fueled an anxiety that I have developed -- that maybe the Pats are vulnerable that second time around and that when teams have seen them once they are ready to take them down.
But I think this is sort of foolish actually.
Not only is there little link to the 05 Broncos here but, more importantly, every one of these teams on Reiss' list showed earlier evidence of actually being pretty tough match-ups (even the Jets). Each of these teams either beat the Pats or at least played them really close in the earlier game. That blown out Jets team won the first game that season by 14!
(And anyway, some of these Pats teams were not that great or were playing despite some big holes, in retrospect: 05, 09, 12, 13 to my mind.)