And, again, they witnessed a funeral.

R.I.P 2010 New England Patriots, 28-21.

The cause of death was eerily similar to three years ago: failure to match the improvement exhibited by a foe defeated in the regular season.

Sure, it wasn’t exactly the same. The Patriots squeaked by the New York Giants at the Meadowlands, 38-35, to close a perfect 16-0 regular season. Then the Giants harassed perhaps the greatest offense in league history into an uncharacteristically poor performance with an avalanche of quarterback sacks, hits, and tight coverage in a 17-14 Super Bowl victory.

Yesterday, the Patriots faced a Jets team they had beaten, 45-3, about five weeks earlier.

While the Patriots came in with a similar attack again, the Jets altered their game plan, tightened their coverages, and left quarterback Tom Brady looking confused, bewildered, and not confident again.

Just like three years ago.

And now the Patriots’ season is over. No ring. No Super Bowl appearance. Not even one postseason victory. That makes three straight years without one. Meanwhile, the Jets are headed to their second straight AFC Championship game. And Mark Sanchez has four postseason victories since Brady’s last.

“I just think we didn’t play well or coach well,” Bill Belichick said. “We didn’t do anything well enough. We gave up too many points, didn’t score enough, didn’t have good field position. We just didn’t do a good job.”

And the Jets were exceptional. As bad as they were Dec. 6 – and it was an embarrassing display of football and overthought game plans – they were just as tremendous this time around.

Give credit where credit is due. The Jets, from general manager (and Needham native) Mike Tannenbaum to coach Rex Ryan and coordinators Brian Schottenheimer and Mike Pettine, simply outdid Belichick and Co.

And as hard it is to believe that a group of professionals can simply play better and produce a result that is 180 degrees different, the Jets insist they did.

“The last time we were up here they caught us on our heels, they came out and jumped on us early,” said linebacker David Harris. “We came out with no passion, no intensity, and before we knew it, we were down, 21-0, and it snowballed from there. We knew all week that if each man did their job, we would be successful. And that’s what happened.”

The Jets did do some things differently on defense. In a scheme that was almost a carbon copy of the one used by the Browns in their 34-14 beatdown of the Patriots Nov. 7 – the last time the Patriots tasted defeat – the Jets were able to put doubt in Brady’s mind. It’s probably no coincidence that the Browns’ defense was coordinated by Rob Ryan, the twin brother of Rex Ryan. It’s obvious the two compared notes.