Whose fault is it for the drop? Welker or Brady?

Super Bowl XLVI - Stephen_D_Luke-Flickr

Wes Welker knew that he was going to be blamed for dropping the ball that was being passed by Tom Brady during the last four minutes of Super Bowl XLVI.

“That’s one of those plays I’ve made a thousand times. It hit me right in the hands. I just didn’t make it. It’s the most critical situations, and I let the team down,” said Welker, putting all of the blame on himself.

"The ball was right there. I've got to make the play. It's comes at the biggest moment of my life, and I don't come up with it. It's discouraging," Welker said.

The Patriots went into fourth quarter with a 17-15 lead. Brady's first past during the fourth quarter was an interception. When the Patriots regained possession, they drove down the field. During that drive, Brady's pass to Welker was not successful. Brady threw the ball way to far to the left for Welker to catch it. The pass behind Deion Branch was also incomplete. Receiver Deion Branch and tight end Aaron Hernandez both had dropped passes during the game. Welker should not take all the blame.

Brady was disappointed on a lot of the plays that the Patriots didn't make this year. Not just Brady, but Hernandez too.

"It's frustrating to lose knowing that if we would have made those plays, we would have come out with a victory, " Hernandez said.

No one should really be blamed for losing this game.

"We had too many errors and too many mistakes. We started off sloppy, and when you make mistakes early, they catch up with you later in the game," Hernandez said. The team might not be ready for the Super Bowl. Welker and Brady both should not be blamed for the outcome of the game. It's the whole team's play.

Wes Welker's drop: No need to blame

Super Bowl XLVI- astrolame- Flickr

The New England Patriots’ loss to the New York Giants was affected by Wes Welker’s drop, yet who was to blame: Tom Brady or Welker? It really does not matter, because a single person is not responsible for a team’s loss, and plays like this are inevitable in a game like the Super Bowl.

A game’s outcome is never caused by one play, but is instead the end result of all the players’ performance. Certainly one play is not the factor that decides which team will win. As Brady said in a San Francisco Chronicle article, "You win as a team, and you lose as a team."

Neither, though can Welker’s drop be called the turning point of the game. It could have been Aaron Hernandez’s or Rob Gronkowski’s dropped passes that changed the game.

Placing the blame on one person does not help the team. Instead, it discourages players and hurts the team as a whole.

A victory or defeat is collective and the whole team shares in the result, whether it is a win or loss.

Who really dropped Super Bowl XLVI?

Super Bowl XLVI- sciondriver-Flickr

Was it really Wes Welker who dropped Super Bowl XLVI? Did Tom Brady throw a bad pass to lead the New York Giants to victory? All of these are invalid questions and can’t be correctly answered. The New England Patriots lost to the Giants 21-17, a second Super Bowl that slipped away. Many plays influenced the fall of the Patriots at the Super Bowl, but one play flew under the radar.

With 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Brady was feeling the pressure of the Giants defense and had to make a play. In a shotgun formation, Brady launched a long pass deep to the right to tight end, Aaron Hernandez. The ball was incomplete and there was a flag on the play. The Giants were called for having 12 men on defense. The flag was declined and the Patriots had the ball at their 49.

 If the Hernandez catch was complete, the Patriots would be in the red zone and liable to score a touchdown. The game would have rested on Tom Brady’s ability to score in the red zone where he was very effective.

Since the pass wasn’t caught, the Patriots had to settle for a Hail Mary play. The Hail Mary play was very close, but leaping All-Pro tight end, Rob Gronkowski, couldn’t catch the tipped ball.

Prior to the Patriots last drive, one mistake by Giants running back, Ahmad Bradshaw, gave the opportunity to make a final push to score. At the last play of the Giants drive, Bradshaw was supposed to stop at the one yard line in order for the Giants to run down the clock. He stumbled and scored a touchdown giving Brady a chance to score. Even thought the chance was blown, the Patriots should have made all of their catches at crunch time.