Question for the New England Patriots: What's Next?

Throughout the decade of their dynasty, the New England Patriots have made a living under Bill Belichick’s philosophy of moving on to the next thing, whatever that may be; the next practice, the next meeting, the next game, or what have you.

Well, now that they got bumped out...nay, knocked out of the playoffs in the first round, the next thing happens to be next season.

Harsh words for a harsh reality that Patriots fans are living today.

So what’s next for the Patriots?

They certainly have a lot of assessment of their personnel. Between SportsCenter and WEEI Sports Radio, I think I heard just about everyone get thrown under the bus.

The defense. Tom Brady. The offensive line. Coordinators. Belichick. Floyd Reese. Bob Kraft.

None were spared in this melee of analysts finding a scapegoat while Boston fans went headhunting for the murderer of their dynasty.

Many accused the defense of digging a hole too deep for its offense to climb out of.

Joe Flacco only had to throw the ball 10 times, because Baltimore's running game was simply that effective. From the very first play, the Ravens’ offense proved they were simply going to outmuscle New England’s defense, and it happened with consistency.

The defensive line repeatedly got blown off the ball.

While that may be the case, and a 24-0 first-quarter deficit certainly isn’t an indicator that you’ll be running the ball anytime soon, it’s not as though the Patriots were anything but a passing team, a pretty effective one at that.

Though 33 points is a lot to give up, 14 points is a pretty flat performance by the offense, to say the least.

They certainly missed Wes Welker, but his presence alone probably wouldn’t have saved the game.

Like it or not, the offense needs to take some of the blame here.

The Brady we saw Sunday was nothing like the guy who completed 65.7 percent of his passes on the season, the second-best percentage of his career.

Nor was he anything like the Brady who took only 16 sacks this season, even lower than in 2007 when he enjoyed some of the best blocking in the history of the sport.

His four turnovers were costly, and resulted in over half of Baltimore’s 33 points.

One could say that the pass rush threw Brady out of rhythm, and that’s pretty obvious when you watch replays of Terrell Suggs’ strip-sack-fumble-recovery at the 17-yard line, or Ray Lewis flying up the middle, untouched by Bony Maroney.

But what about when the Ravens only rushed three linemen? There were times when Brady had five or six seconds in the pocket. Even with all that time to make the throw, his passes were still off-target.

Don't get me wrong; I don't blame Brady entirely.

It would have helped if Brady had someone to throw the ball to besides Randy Moss, who rarely got open against Dominique Foxworth. Julian Edelman had a great game with his two touchdown catches, but the Patriots need to address their depth at wide receiver and stop relying so heavily on their top two targets.

It also would have helped if the Patriots had someone, anyone, who could block a speed pass rusher.

After the game, Brady and others spoke on the lost leadership in the locker room with the departure of veterans Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison, and Tedy Bruschi.

Some players on the team were expected to fill those voids. Jerod Mayo was one of those guys, but the question remains of whether he assumed that role or was simply labeled with it.

Brady has long been a leader for this franchise, but somehow seems to have lost his way.

So it’s clear the Patriots have a lot of issues to address from a personnel standpoint.

But will Belichick be the one addressing the issues? What are these "rumblings" NFL.com’s Vic Carucci speaks of? Was Belichick really ready to leave after the ’07 season? Have he and Kraft really been rubbing each other the wrong way as of late?

If the Patriots were stuck with more questions than answers when Welker went down with a knee injury, where are they now?

Stuck between a rock and a hard place with more questions than answers and no food or oxygen? I wouldn’t go that far.

But who saw this coming? Not many. In fact, a lot of analysts and fans had the Patriots as their favorite to go all the way in the AFC this season.

The same way people heavily favored the Dallas Cowboys to return to the Promised Land back in 1996, the year after they won their last Super Bowl title, and their third of the previous four that made them a dynasty.

Could the Patriots be in for a similar fate?

Not so fast. Rebuilding seasons often take five or six years, but with an uncapped season coming up in 2010, it may not be a terribly long time before the Patriots return to their winning ways of old.

Many teams make the turn-around from the bottom to the top in a year or two. The Patriots are nowhere near the bottom; suffice it to say, any team that has Tom Brady and Bill Belichick has the chance to be competitive year-in and year-out.

Perhaps we weren’t watching a funeral, as Carucci said, as much as a reminder of the progress the Patriots still need to make in their rebuilding project.

Although the Patriots plan to "let the dust settle" before answering any questions, that certainly won’t stop their fans from asking, all the way to next season. The next thing.