On an icy Monday morning in Boston, the headlines in the city’s two major newspapers were as cold as the January weather.

“It’s over!” blared the cover of the Boston Herald after a New England Patriots’ wild-card playoff loss that the newspaper said closed the door on a dynasty. A column in the Boston Globe declared the loss the “end of an era” and asserted that “even a pigheaded Patriots pigskin buff must acknowledge that the dynasty is over.”

Those stories may sound like reaction to New England’s playoff loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night, but they actually came in response to another Patriots’ playoff debacle. Many made the mistake of prematurely declaring the Brady-Belichick dynasty dead a decade ago after a humbling 33-14 wild-card loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Jan. 10, 2010.

Of course, New England’s era of dominance didn’t end that night — far from it, in fact. Thanks to Tom Brady’s sustained excellence and Bill Belichick’s remarkable knack for adapting to constant roster turnover, the Patriots added three more Super Bowl victories in the 2010s and made the AFC championship game 8 of 10 seasons.

Let that be a reminder to everyone dancing on the Patriots’ graves today. The future of the Patriots may be murkier than it was a decade ago, but their dynastic run doesn’t have to end if they can correctly assess how much Brady has left, find a long-term answer at quarterback and address their glaring lack of playmakers on the edges.

Whether to move on from Brady is obviously the big question, one that will dominate the NFL news cycle for the next few months. The Patriots must determine how much of their struggles on offense were a result of their 42-year-old quarterback’s declining performance and how much were a result of the lack of dynamic skill-position talent surrounding him.

When the Patriots bolted to an 8-0 start during the first half of the 2019 season, their pedestrian offense was masked by a tissue-soft schedule and a dominant defense that scored touchdowns or created scoring opportunities. New England’s glaring lack of firepower became apparent from midseason on as the Patriots went 0-4 against the four AFC teams still alive in the playoffs and lost all five games in which their defense surrendered more than 17 points.

One big problem was that opponents didn’t have to fear the Patriots scheming their way into mismatches anymore. Aside from a hobbled Julian Edelman, the Patriots’ weapons simply weren’t capable of consistently winning 1-on-1 matchups.

Outside receiver became a huge weakness for New England after the off-field issues of Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown prompted the Patriots to sever ties with both of them. Surrendering a second-round pick to acquire Mohamed Sanu didn’t pan out, nor did 2019 first-round pick N’Keal Harry prove ready to be a savior during an injury-plagued rookie season.

The lack of options at receiver only highlighted the mistake New England made not recognizing the severity of Rob Gronkowski’s back problems and failing to groom a replacement. In their first season without Gronk, the Patriots had no tight end who was a viable receiving threat.

The running game wasn’t much help either, as former first-round pick Sony Michel did not build on the promise he showed during the 2018 postseason. Michel ran like a back who does little more than get what his blocking provides — and that sometimes wasn’t much with the Patriots down a pair of starting offensive linemen from 2018 and playing without fullback James Develin for much of the season.

Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick stand on the sidelines during the Patriots loss to the Tennessee Titans in the AFC wild card game. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) More

Making matters worse, the offense became very predictable based on which running back was on the field. Michel was the power back. James White was the pass catcher. Opponents who recognized this pattern gambled correctly more often than not.

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