The New England Patriots need to get back to the basics in their Week 5 showdown with the Miami Dolphins.
They've struggled on both sides of the ball throughout their three-game losing skid, especially in their last two blowout losses to the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers. In Week 4, they went 0-for-3 in following ex-Patriots QB Brian Hoyer's keys to victory: getting back to their identity (the run game), patience to stay on track, and handling San Francisco's defensive stars.
This week, Hoyer is keeping it simple. He has just one key to taking down a Miami team in just as bad of shape -- if not worse -- heading into the matchup.
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"You can't win until you keep from losing"
"This is a statement that Bill (Belichick) used to preach to the team all the time, 'You can't win until you keep from losing,' Hoyer said.
"I think last week when you saw the Patriots play out in San Francisco, they got away from protecting the football. Rhamondre (Stevenson) loses a fumble. There's a pick-six from Jacoby (Brissett) on an amazing play by Fred Warner. On top of that, Jacoby gets sacked six times. There's pressure on over 50 percent of the pass plays, and he never really established a running game.
"So I think what the Patriots really need to do this week is eliminate the losing football from the offense. That means better blocking in the run game. That means better pass protection. That means receivers getting open when they need to get open and everybody just doing their job one play at a time and keep stacking those plays together.
"We saw them do it Week 1 in Cincinnati. Stay ahead on down and distance, don't get in bad situations, don't have negative plays. It really comes down to people doing their job because what I see a lot of is nine guys, eight guys doing their job really well and a few guys not doing it, and everybody's taking a turn, 'My bad, I'll get it next time.' "
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The Patriots knew heading into the season that they didn't have enough firepower on offense to make up for their self-inflicted wounds. When they welcome the Dolphins to Gillette Stadium on Sunday, they must focus on not beating themselves.
"This week it's not about an opponent. It's not about who you're playing," Hoyer added. "You just so happen to be playing a Miami Dolphins team that's kind of in the same situation as you, going through some tough times. They have a lot of injuries. They've played four quarterbacks in a matter of three weeks. So I think what really this game comes down to is, whatever team makes the fewest mistakes will win this game. So, how do you do that?
"Especially now, we just learned about David Andrews is gonna be out. You're gonna have your fifth offensive line combination. Those guys need to work really well together during this week to make sure they're good on their double-team blocks, they're good in pass protection, they're good on blitz pickup. When Jacoby gets the ball back there, give him a little bit of time to find those receivers and throw the ball down the field."
While Hoyer stresses the Patriots' need to protect the football, he doesn't want Brissett and the offense to fear taking shots downfield.
"I like the idea of taking some shots down to Ja'Lynn Polk," he said. "I know it was ruled incomplete, but they threw a 50-50 ball to him last week, he came down with it. Keep taking some shots like that throughout the game while staying on track and eliminating the negative plays. I think that's the biggest thing. We can't all take turns saying, 'My bad, I'll get it on the next one,' because if everybody does that throughout the entire game, there's gonna be more losing plays than there are winning plays.
"So I think the key this week is huge. 'You can't win until you keep from losing.' And I think if you just keep from losing, especially this week against a Miami Dolphins team who's reeling just like the Patriots, you'll come out with a victory if you have less mistakes and play better football than they do on Sunday afternoon."
A bounce-back win over Miami would give New England some momentum heading into a relatively easy stretch of games -- though no matchup should really be considered "easy" for this year's group. After the Dolphins, the Patriots will take on the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Jets, Tennessee Titans, and Chicago Bears.
Kickoff for Pats-Dolphins is set for 1 p.m. ET in Foxboro.
Watch Hoyer discuss his key to a Patriots victory in the video player above, or on YouTube below: