Is anyone really responsible for the Patriots’ loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI?

Who is to blame for the Patriots' loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI? Football is a team sport where one shouldn't carry the whole team to a victory. Many sources such as ESPN and Yahoo Sports blame Wes Welker for the dropped pass and Tom Brady for the inaccurate pass, even though there are other factors that was crucial to the game, such as the 38-yard pass to Manningham late in the fourth quarter that gave the Giants momentum and confidence to get the win. “He wasn’t the only one dropping passes.” said a Pawngo company spokesman in a Daily News article. It was just a broken connection between Brady and Welker, and that happens every time, even in professional sports.

Welker, leading the NFL with 122 receptions, is one of the best active wide receivers without a doubt. "Ninety-nine percent of the time, he makes that grab," fellow receiver Deion Branch to ESPN. "It's football. Nobody's perfect." Even his teammates support him, and they don’t blame him for the dropped pass. “He’s a hell of a player," Brady said to NFL.com. "I’ll keep throwing it to him as long as I can.” In the Super Bowl, Welker completed seven of eight targeted passes. The dropped pass turned out to be the most crucial.

This season, Brady proved to doubters that he still is one of the best players in the NFL. Brady won three Super Bowls with the Patriots and is also a three-time MVP and a seven-time Pro Bowler. Not only that Brady knows how to dodge tackles and move on his feet, but he is also one of the most accurate throwers in the league. The chances of the Patriots going to the Super Bowl without their amazing quarterback is very slim, so it’s not really logical to blame Brady for the loss. If you watch the highlight of the throw to Welker, you can see two safeties near Welker, so maybe Brady had a difficult decision not knowing where to throw, making sure the pass wouldn’t be intercepted. It’s not really the quarterback’s throw that cost the Patriots the most important game of their season.

In each football game, there are a few plays that would decide who will win the game. In this game, the dropped pass by Welker was just one of them. It isn’t really fair to put the blame only on this pass. Something that could’ve happened was Patriots forcing a turnover, either an interception or fumble and not allowing Giants to finish their final drive that won the game. Also, if they didn’t have the 12-players on a field penalty earlier in the game. That would’ve given them the fumble recovery early in the game in the first quarter; those plays would’ve made a big difference.

The Patriots missed many opportunities during that last drive. The AP reported, “The Patriots also had several drops on their final drive, and there were many more plays that cost them their fourth Super Bowl championship in 11 years.” It shows that maybe the Patriots aren’t so good under pressure. “It always comes down to one or two plays in this game. If you make it, you’re celebrating. If you don’t, you don’t sleep for a week.” said Tom Brady to NFL.com. No one is really at fault for this dropped pass, because missed opportunities happen often in professional sports.