The sport of politics. The politics of sport.

The New England Patriots may need to make some important personnel additions and subtractions for the upcoming season, but let’s not overlook that the coaches themselves need to do some soul-searching, because aspects of their Super Bowl game plan left much to be desired.

Specifically, the Pats:

1. Should have allowed Stephen Gostkowski to attempt a long field-goal kick rather than go for a long bomb to well-covered Jabar Gaffney on 4th down and 13. When we saw that failed play, we knew the Pats would regret it.

2. Should NOT have called for a blitz in the red zone as the Giants were threatening to score the go-ahead TD with 40 seconds on the clock. Did they think the Giants weren’t prepared for that? The play left corner Ellis Hobbs isolated with no help against wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who predictably burned Hobbs in the end zone with a lobbed pass from Eli Manning. Mind you, this was the same pass, only on the opposite side of the end zone, that the Giants used to score their final touchdown in the regular-season matchup between the two teams. That touchdown narrowed the score to 35-38, a Patriots advantage secured only by Mike Vrabel’s recovery of the Giants’ ensuing onside kick.

3. And the BIG ONE — Should have engineered a pragmatic progression up the sidelines with 35 seconds left on the game lock. (See related post, “Non-Ticking Time Bomb,” on the extra 30 seconds added to the fourth quarter by a frozen clock.) Instead of following the logic of Football 101, the Patriots undertook an inexplicable exercise in futility — again, trying to get two long bombs to a double-teamed Randy Moss. (One down was lost when Brady was sacked.)

Rather than setting themselves up for a game-tying field goal, or better, the Pats just wasted the time they had left with what some of us saw as an arrogant bid for big-time glory rather than JUST WINNING THE GAME. Welker, Donte Stallworth, Heath Evans — those were the guys they needed to go to in that PARTICULAR situation.

At least one fan I’ve spoken with attributes the lack in judgment by the Patriots coaching staff toward the end of the game to “tunnel vision” — an affliction that can occur when teams get stubbornly committed to a course of action based on an over-inflated sense of their own superiority.

After licking their wounds, this incredibly talented Patriots team should bounce back nicely in the 2008-09 season. Its forced feeding in the Super Bowl on New York-style humble pie will have been digested by the time training camp rolls around, and football fans can look forward to seeing a team chastened by that “character-building” experience and determined not to make the same mistakes again.