To paraphrase Nigel Tufnel in Spinal Tap, this one doesn’t go to 11.

But then when a punter forces you to fumble, you don’t deserve to win, and you certainly aren’t living up to the performances that allowed you to win a record 10 straight playoff games.

Of course, it’s not that simple, Patriot fans. But it’s not as simple as blaming a back judge for a terrible pass interference call or having a very inconclusive replay go against the soon-to-be former champs, either.

The Patriots made the most critical mistakes this time. They hadn’t for 10 straight post-season games. Maybe they were just due.

The fumbles. The false starts. The interception in the end zone. All of the mistakes the other team used to make.

The Patriots luck ran out last night, and in every instance but one, they had nothing and no one to blame but themselves.

Tom Brady was erratic. Adam Vinatieri was most unclutch. Troy Brown, the best special teams player the Patriots have ever had, made a back-breaking mistake on a punt return. Kevin Faulk and Ellis Hobbs helped the Broncos close out the first half the way the Patriots usually closed out first halfs. Promising drives were stalled by penalties and bad throws.

It was a game of ups and downs for the Patriots and their fans. Defensive stands in the first half were quickly negated by weak offensive drives.

The offense slogged along for most of the first half. Three false start penalties and an inability to protect Brady early. The defense couldn’t get any pressure on Jake Plummer (although they didn’t exactly bring the house on every pass rush, either) and gave up a first down on 3rd-and-17. Two dubious play calls by Mike Shanahan near the goal line, a QB sneak and a fade to Ashley Lelie, bailed the Pats out of giving up the first score.

Shanahan made another questionable decision on the next series, calling a time out after Samuel’s reception and giving Bill Belichick more time to deliberate over whether to throw the replay flag.

In the course of about two minutes, Patriot fans went from thanking the football gods for a 3-0 lead going into halftime to wondering how Todd Sauerbrun, a punter/kickoff specialist, could force a fumble. I guess we now know why Sauerbrun was the first kicker ever implicated in a steroid scandal last year when he was with the Carolina Panthers. Apparently, he really wanted to pop somebody.

The third quarter started out so promising. The defense was dominant. The offense was moving the ball. And then Brady morphed into Drew Bledsoe and forced a throw in the area of the one guy in the Denver secondary you can’t force throws to, Champ Bailey.

It was the most uncharacteristic mistake in a night where you could pile the uncharacteristic mistakes by the Patriots a mile high.

With Brown’s fumble, they were dancing in the streets of Denver, and Indianapolis, and probably in the halls of the NFL home office, too, because the NFL wants a dynasty right now about as much as Judge Alito wants to have a drink with Ted Kennedy.

The time for perspective on this season will come. With time to reflect, we’ll probably conclude that the Patriots got as far as they could considering all they had lost.

But those moments of reflection will probably be delayed because the team that never beats itself did exactly that last night.