It took me a long, long time to forgive Welker. Only in the last year or two when he started showing up in the crowd and at team stuff and seems like a cool dude.
But after dropping that pass, dropping the pass in the AFCCG against Baltimore a year later, and going to Denver and injuring Talib on a pick play in the following year's AFCCG, if you're overconfident about the 2012 & 13 teams you could make the argument that he cost us three superbowls.
Personally I think that the 2013 team had a long way to go to beat Denver that day (though having Talib healthy makes it a lot closer) and would've had a tough time against the Seahawks even if they won. The 2012 game changed 180 degrees on that drop, but there was still a half to play and things seemed to be trending in the Ravens' direction. But if he catches that and the Pats cash in on the drive, it's 20-7 in the third. There's still a lot of ifs and buts along the way, but I'll say there's a decent chance the Pats win if he caught that (and I think we beat the 49ers too). 2011 Superbowl, no question that he cost us that game. That's a catch an all-pro wide receiver absolutely has to make, and if he pulls it in, that game is pretty much over. So he cost us one, and maybe two superbowls. Probably not a third, but helped prevent us from putting up a better fight in that game.
Because of that, it's only been recently that I can admit that Wes seems like a decent dude and that I can look back at his 2007-2011 contributions with some degree of fondness.
