This was a thoughtful post in its entirety. I have just a few comments, as perhaps my way of dealing with the sudden and crappy end to what was otherwise a good season:
"the current playoff format does crack the window open just enough to give us hope each season" and then crush our hopes like a bug on the windshield. 😖
"In the regular world, when failures happen, we often can apply hindsight and logic to reflect and demonstrate the mistakes that were made." We all fail. Most of us just don't do it before a national audience. I'm sure Devin feels THE WORST about all of this, but nobody thinks he's a bad person or player, and he will rebound.