What your seeing with the New England Patriots is nothing new, its a key game, during a key season, when we look back and realize it was when a dynasty died.
During the 1970s the Pittsburgh Steelers were the ultimate team…the first 4 Super Bowl winner, having won 4 Super Bowls in 6 years, a total Dynasty, the last one in 1979.
In 1980, something was just different. It didn’t happen all at once, they started 2-0 and made it to 4-1 with one loss by 2 points to the Cincinnati Bengals, a team they dominated for a decade. But then week 6 came, and the Bengals beat them again, swept by the Bengals, unheard of. It started a 3 game losing streak and a 4-4 record. Pittsburgh missed the playoffs.
The Dallas Cowboys were “America’s Team”…they owned no decade, they 
just won consistently, every year. They were always in the playoffs, usually won their games, went to a few superbowls and won a couple. They were just winners, any year, every year. Then came 1985, and the 5-1 Cowboys played in Philadelphia and went for a 3rd and 1 run play. It failed and the Cowboys lined up to run it again on 4th and inches. They ran the same play, and the Eagles stuffed Tony Dorsett. Dallas went 5-5 the rest of the way, including a 44-0 loss to the Chicago Bears and a 50-24 loss to Cincinnati, the worst losses in team history. The Cowboys under Tom Landry were done, they spent the next four years with double digit losses.
The San Francisco 49ers spent two decades with double digit wins, they were the opposite of the Bucs! They had a miracle wild card comeback win over the Giants in 2002 before losing to Tampa Bay. Opening day 2003, the 49ers 
were beaten by the Chicago Bears 49-7, and lost 5 games by 3 points or less. The once proud 49er era of Joe Montana, Steve Young, was gone.
Usually its the end of a key player’s career that finishes the team. With the Steelers, their core group had gotten older, Terry Bradshaw was getting hurt a lot. Tom Brady is going through that now, getting up in age, and Patriot fans may be going through what so many fans have had to realize- Time catches up to all teams and all players.
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