Krause: No postseason for Pats; time to reflect and reevaluate

All right. No crying. No complaining. No cursing Eric Mangini and the New York Jets.When you put your fate in someone else’s hands, you have to live with what happens. There were four or five instances this season where the Patriots could have helped themselves immeasurably. They didn’t, and now they’re done for the season.That’s life.When Tom Brady went down with his knee injury in Game 1, most people speculated that the Patriots might win 10 games without him. Of course, most people also thought 10 wins, based on previous seasons, would be enough to get them into the playoffs.But this was an odd season. The very balanced AFC East played the horribly wretched AFC West in their crossover games, and, for the most part, dominated. The very balanced AFC East also played the horribly wretched NFC West, too, and got the best of those games, cumulatively, as well.This is one of the reasons for a glut of 11-win teams, and why one of them (New England) will be home watching on TV next week.First, let’s give credit where credit is due. Nobody thought Matt Cassel would turn out to be an offensive force this year. Most people suspected that the defense would be good enough to eke out 10 wins, but that just didn’t turn out to be the case. The defense let them down horribly at times.The season came down to two or three plays that, had they been made, or not made (as the case may be, in one instance), would have guaranteed the Patriots victories and a spot in the playoffs.Particularly maddening was the loss to the Indianapolis Colts, because a win there would have probably crippled Indy’s chances of getting back into the playoff picture (the Colts never lost again), and two of those plays happened there. First, Jabar Gaffney’s dropped pass was a killer. That was a nip-and-tuck game – a game of dueling kickers at the end – and a touchdown at that point would have been huge.The other was an unnecessary-roughness call on Dave Thomas that negated a long gain and stopped the Pats dead in their tracks late in the game. It may have been a chintzy call, but Thomas has to know what’s going on in that situation, and the fact that he didn’t is inexcusable.But for my money, the most agonizing moment came in overtime against the Jets, after the Patriots had worked so hard to tie it (with Randy Moss’ highlight-reel catch with no time left on the clock). The Patriots had the Jets pinned back deep in their own territory with a third-and-15. Any kind of a defensive stop at all would have forced a punt, and given them the ball and a decent chance to steal a huge game.Instead, the defense allowed a 151/2-yard completion for the first down, and the Jets marched downfield and kicked the field goal to win the game.Of their five losses, the Patriots were thoroughly outclassed in three of them: the Dolphins (who knew, at the time, how much of a portent of things to come that game was), San Diego (still can’t understand that) and the Steelers (and it was still a game until the Patriots started fumbling the ball all over creation). They make a play or two in the other two games, and we’re talking 13-3 and maybe a bye.So when you look at it that way, the Pats deserve a lot of credit for hanging tough in the face of key injuries. While losing Brady obviously hurt, losing Rodney Harrison and Adalius Thomas ultimately hurt more.On the other hand, Harrison’s injury allowed Brandon Meriweather to step forward, and he did so quite nicely. As did Jerod Mayo at linebacker.The Patriots, after being thoroughly humiliated by Pittsburgh back on Nov. 30, could have packed it in. But they didn’t. They started their resurgence with a nifty comeback in Seattle, and then ran roughshod over two opponents – Oakland and Arizona – that they should have demolished. Yesterday’s win over Buffalo was pretty impressive, too.But at 4:15 yesterday afternoon, we were faced with the prospect of rooting for the Jets, but having the gnawing feeling that they’d lose. Why? Because teams with nothing