"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

The NFL playoffs this year are unassailably lackluster, mediocre, unentertaining, and flat. The reason for this can be traced back to Week 1 when Tom Brady got knocked out for the season. Losing the best QB of all time effectively diluted the talent of the entire NFL because without his caliber of play, other teams were not as driven and motivated to play at 100% at all times. Every team was gunning for the hated New England Patriots and this made everyone play better. Without Brady in the mix to bring everyone up to this level of competitiveness, all teams were not at their best. As a result, the playoffs admitted "average" teams like the NY Giants and Arizona Cardinals. Had Brady played, other teams would have played better, had better records, and prevented such uninteresting teams from their respective playoffs berths. 

I just tried to write that in the most objective, logical way possible and it still had a two-fold effect of making me throw up in my mouth a little, as well as pollute the surrounding vicinity with it's inanity. 

The Patriots went 11-5. They didn't go 0-16. They still played well. Contrary to popular [sic] belief, the world does not revolve around Tom Brady. Nor did Bernard Pollard have the biggest impact on the NFL this year (another similar contention). Not everything needs to be traced back to a deeper subtext. Some things can be explained in simpler terms, like a slumping defense or a bad call or an ill-timed interception or a brilliant offensive coordinator. 

Maybe it's easier to look further into things to rationalize your team's failure, but often it's really as simple as other teams were better than your team.