There wasn't much, if anything, to like about the New England Patriots' performance in Thursday night's Week 3 loss to the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.
It was an ugly 24-3 defeat that felt even worse than what the score would suggest.
The main problem, of many, for the Patriots on Thursday was the offensive line. After a decent showing in the Week 1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, this group has put together back-to-back lackluster performances, and the Week 3 defeat was easily the worst.
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Penalties were a problem. In fact, on one drive in the second half, the Patriots offensive line was called for holding on consecutive plays, and then it allowed a sack on the next play. Pass protection was the primary issue with this group, though.
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Patriots quarterbacks Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye were sacked a total of seven times and hit 15 times. The offensive line allowed pressure on 53.8 percent of all dropbacks, which is way, way too high. Maye made his NFL debut on the final drive of the game, and despite only being on the field for a little more than four minutes, the rookie was sacked twice and hit five times.
Does head coach Jerod Mayo believe these offensive line issues can be fixed internally, or is external help required?
"No, I believe we can correct the problems internally," Mayo told reporters Friday during a video conference call. "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."
What were some of the main issues with the pass protection?
"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," Mayo said. "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."
It would be one thing if Thursday night's offensive line disaster was an outlier. But it's clearly not, because this group has struggled over the last two games, and it also was bad throughout training camp and the preseason. Frankly, the offensive line has been subpar for two or three years now.
You can't escape bad offensive play. It has a huge impact on every facet of your offense. And until some major corrections or adjustments are made, the Patriots offense will continue to have an extraordinarily difficult time finding the end zone.
Luckily for the Patriots coaches, they have a few extra days to prepare a gameplan for their Week 4 road game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sept. 29.