I can already hear the Patriot fans on WEEI later today:

"They should change the overtime rules!"

"It's not fair that New England never got the ball."

"Go to the college system!"

And all those fans will be wrong. There is nothing broken with the NFL overtime rules. There is nothing unfair about them. To be successful in the NFL you need to be balanced team, strong on both offense and defense. The current overtime rules reward those teams that can be effective on both sides of the ball. If they win the toss, you need to stop them to win, simple as that.

Even without overtime, New England failed to execute when needed, in all three phases of the game, to secure victory. Gostkowski makes a 40-yard field goal and maybe it never goes to overtime. Brady hits Welker in stride and he might have sauntered all the way to the end zone. Meriweather doesn't "taunt," and Marshall might not score the game-tying touchdown on the next play. In a game of what ifs and second chances the Patriots just couldn't execute at the right time.

The Broncos on the other hand, overcame what should have been costly penalties to come out on top. I've never seen two penalties on fourth down punts to extend drives. And yet all the Patriots could manage was Matthew Slater downing the ball at the 2. Denver responded by marching 98 yards to tie the game. The defense had 98 yards behind them to hold Denver and they couldn't get the job done.

The defense isn't the only factor in this loss. I put a big chunk of this defeat on Tom Brady's shoulders. His 97.4 passer rating doesn't show how poor he looked. He consistently missed receivers with underthrows and overthrows. Welker even made a couple of slick catches to save Brady's skin. The overthrow of a wide-open Moss was a prime example that he is not the old Brady, yet. I'm not throwing away the season, but he still has a lot of work to do.

As the Patriots head home they'll have plenty of time to think of how this game could've went differently. Then they'll be preparing for a 0-5 itans team that stumbles into Foxboro next Sunday.