Well, THAT kind of mess won't create a stampede of free agents to the Patriots next March.
Before we get to a handful of pithy observations from Thursday night’s not-so-surprising pulverizing (I’ll get to why it wasn’t a jaw-dropping surprise), the circumstances surrounding the face-plant need mentioning.
The Patriots have been a bad team since about December of 2021. They’ve shown their whole ass on national television a bunch of times. (Previous lows: Bears loss in 2022 when Mac Jones got benched for Bailey Zappe, the playoff loss in 2021, the Raiders loss in 2022, and the Germany game in 2023.)
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But with Bill Belichick on the sideline, the conversation presented to the nation was, "This just doesn’t look like a Bill Belichick team right now, but Bill will figure this out …" All would nod, the national audience would nod along too, everyone would pack up their attention after three hours and move on from New England.
Even as it kept getting worse and more dysfunctional, national media would chuckle out loud about the very idea that Belichick wouldn’t run the Patriots until HE decided he’d had enough. Despite the rampant instability, his presence still exuded stability. Even though it was chaos, he gave the illusion of calm.
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With Belichick gone, the Patriots are -- at best -- a national curiosity. The success of the first two weeks and the presence of Drake Maye piqued that. Is this a FRISKY bad team? But Thursday night probably doused that curiosity and returned them to afterthought. They’ll remain there until they get the resources to pull an upset like they did in Week 1. And -- with injuries to an already shakily constructed team -- that’s going to be a while.
Meanwhile, it’s pretty much nothing but "Sunday at 1" for the rest of the year, so the chance to showcase improvement to a national audience and prospective players went poof Thursday night. The only emotion any prospective free agents who happened to tune in likely felt was concern for Jacoby Brissett, who -- it appears -- signed up to be a human piñata.
It was not a good night for the Patriots' national Q rating.
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How did the Patriots go from beating a very good team on the road with a very good quarterback to what we saw last night?
A few reasons.
First, the offensive line was somewhat different and inexperience caught up to it. Chukwuma Okarafor, who’s since left the team and won’t be coming back, started at left tackle. He got the hook and a banged-up Vederian Lowe came in and played pretty well the rest of the way. Thursday night, it was rookie Caedan Wallace -- a right tackle in college -- pressed into duty as the starter since Lowe couldn’t go.
Michael Jordan, a practice squad call-up, played outstanding (relative to expectations) in Week 1 at right guard. He did not Thursday night at left guard. He’s playing because Cole Strange and Sidy Sow are both hurt and have been for a while. Layden Robinson, another rookie, started at right guard.
Second, teams had tape. The pressure on Brissett has gotten increasingly more intense each week as defensive coordinators see on film where they can confound blocking schemes and take advantage of inexperience.
As Jerod Mayo said Friday morning, “I believe we can correct the problems internally. It comes down to details, and we were not sharp on our details as a unit. That's what the offensive line is. It's not just one person. It's a unit. Being able to see the picture out of the same set of goggles, we just didn't do that last night. I do think it's correctable internally.”
Mayo also said, “We had some young guys out there that showed a few different looks that maybe caused some confusion, but the communication as a whole has to be better. I still have faith in those guys to get the job done. We've got to be very intentional about the way we approach the game and the way we adjust in-game.”
That goes for the Patriots defense, too. Seattle had Geno Smith spread the Patriots out and played up-tempo, preventing the Patriots from pre-snap chicanery and then playing short-yardage pitch-and-catch. After watching Smith pick them apart, I had a feeling it would be even worse when Aaron Rodgers got a crack at them, and it was.
Through three games, Joe Burrow, Smith and Rodgers have combined to complete 75 percent of their passes against the New England defense (81-for-108). And the 49ers are up next.
Third, the loss of Ja’Whaun Bentley on a short week was probably a tipping point for what had been a smart, fast, sure-tackling defense for two weeks. The tackling was eye-poppingly bad (14 missed tackles) and the room receivers had to operate after the catch was disturbing. No Bentley, no Christian Barmore, the absence of a pass-rush to make Rodgers or Smith edgy, losing at the line of scrimmage in a way they hadn’t in the first two weeks -- all of it contributed to them getting bulldozed.
Finally -- and maybe most importantly -- the efficiency on both sides of the ball was close to 100 percent against the Bengals. One sack, 6-for-15 on third down and five penalties for 40 yards while the Bengals were allowing three sacks, going 4-for-11 and turning it over twice. The Patriots created and prevented at least 13 points with turnovers and gave no points away. They won.
Against the Jets, they allowed seven sacks, went 2-for-11 on third down, Brissett missed one of his only downfield chances throwing wide to Austin Hooper, they had five penalties for 70 yards, the Jets were 10-for-15 on third down. In short, the Patriots stunk. Soup-to-nuts.
They still performed somewhat efficiently against Seattle, but you could see the cracks. The bulk of the passing game production came on Brissett improv and throws to Hunter Henry. The hits on Brissett started to accumulate. Seattle was 7-for-15 on third down and the pressure New England gave was modest. Still, if it weren’t for 10 points given away on a defensive bust and a blocked field goal, they’d have won.
“It really didn't come down to the plays,” Brissett said after Thursday's game. “It was just, they just beat our ass, to be honest with you.”
Few -- if any -- quarterbacks could "excel" right now with the Patriots' offensive setup.
But I’d go as far as saying none, NONE, would be capable of stiff-upper-lipping it the way Brissett has so far.
He’s 42-for-69 for 368 yards with one touchdown, nine sacks, 10 hits, and 35 hurries and pressures. He is getting 1.7 seconds to throw.
His “time to rise” (a new stat I just made up) is estimated to be 3.3 seconds after each sack. He’s getting PUNNNNNNIIISSSSSHHHEEEDDDD.
And he says after the game, "I mean, I'm a big man, I can take it. I'm always going to get back up. You know, that's one thing about me. I'm always going to get back up, you know, and find ways to make plays, man, that's what it comes down to.
"You know, it's football. I'm supposed to get hit, you know, I didn't sign up for this sport to not get hit, so I don't really pay attention to that."
That’s a model employee right there.