We have almost six months to digest Blame Pie before it all starts up again.
The clarity and light of Monday did nothing to diminish the regional disappointment that accompanied the Patriots' 20-18 loss to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game. The Super Bowl is less than two weeks away, and most New England folks believe that the Patriots should still be playing. The Patriots did this to themselves.
Here are some takeaways from a wasted opportunity that should have ended with Tom Brady's record seventh trip to the Super Bowl . . .
It reminded me of a famous Stan Grossfeld photo of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar inhaling oxygen while sitting on the bench at the sweaty old Boston Garden during Game 5 of the 1984 NBA Finals. The Celtics won that epic series at home in Game 7. They won because they played at home in the critical Games 5 and 7.
The Celtics earned that home-court advantage by taking care of business during the regular season, and it enabled them to beat a Laker team that was at least as good as, and maybe better than the Celtics.
Clinching home field is what the Patriots failed to do at the end of their 2015 regular season. Bill Belichick's arrogant/ambiguous game plan at Miami Jan. 3 (a 20-10 loss to a terrible Dolphins team) goes down in Patriot lore as his Grady Little moment. Unlike Grady, Bill will survive because he has the track record.
Actually, he sort of did make this rule. This is what Belichick said in January 2014, when he lobbied the league to push the PAT back to the 15 yard line: "I personally would love to see the kicking game remain as a very integral part of the games . . . so that extra points are not over 99 percent converted, because that's not what extra points were when they were initially put into the game back 80 years ago, whatever it was.''
Having reminded you of this, let's not put too much blame on Stephen Gostkowski. The Patriots kicker put all the blame on his own shoulders after the game, but we need to remember that he'd made 523 in a row, and that there were 47 minutes left in the game when he missed Sunday. It wasn't as if he went all Cundiff on us at the end of the game.
Gostkowski deserves the same break we gave Tim Wakefield after Wakefield surrendered the walkoff to Aaron Boone in 2003.
The Patriots did not give up. They were still fighting at the end. Swell. That's what they are paid to do, and this was a game with a berth in the Super Bowl at stake.
If you are a sports fan, it's OK to find goats (even if they are the GOAT) and complain about decisions made and plays not made. That's part of the fun of watching sports.
The Patriots know they will win their division just by showing up. It'll be eight straight and 13 out of 14. Ho-hum. The Patriots will get the first-round bye and the second-round home game. That's when the serious football starts.
And here's hoping that next year they remember that home field is more important than anything in the NFL playoffs.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Dan_Shaughnessy.