The ending was uncomfortably on the nose. Tom Brady dropped back to pass, the ball wound up in the hands of an opposing defender and it went back for a game-sealing touchdown. The Tennessee Titans won. The New England Patriots lost. And there was a bombshell question lingering over the NFL:

Was this the end of Tom Brady?

The reason the Patriots had to play on the first weekend of the playoffs was that they had lost on the last Sunday of the regular season to the Miami Dolphins, one of the NFL’s worst teams. So it wasn’t surprising by any stretch of the imagination when they lost to a good team six days later, during the wild-card round.

New England fell to sixth-seeded Tennessee 20-13 and the loss was as much about the present as much as it was the future. The Patriots have lost before—contrary to popular belief, they don’t win the Super Bowl every single season.

But this one had a different and potentially profound meaning. There’s now legitimate uncertainty about the future of the player most responsible for their dynasty.