Rich Eisen joins Tom E. Curran on the Patriots Podcast to share a national perspective on the Patriots’ blowout loss in Dallas
The New England Patriots are starting to make national headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Sunday's miserable loss to the Dallas Cowboys -- a 38-3 rout -- marked Bill Belichick's most lopsided defeat in his 29 years as a head coach. Quarterback Mac Jones contributed to the blowout with the worst performance of his young career, turning the ball over three times with two of those turnovers resulting in Dallas touchdowns.
Suddenly, the Patriots find themselves limping into Week 5 with a 1-3 record and national pundits questioning the futures of Belichick and Jones in New England. One of those national figures, Rich Eisen, joined Tom E. Curran's Patriots Talk Podcast to share the nation's perspective on the Patriots' woes.
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"I had Chris Long, a former Patriot, on my show today and he said what I think everybody is feeling, is that the Patriots have never been further away than now in the post-(Tom) Brady era," Eisen said. "And that's the way I get the sense of it. That I'm hoping against hope in the first four games of the season that Bill O'Brien's presence and whatever changes they made to the roster in the offseason would result in something better than a 1-3 record coming off getting curb-stomped by the Cowboys, with the '1' in the 1-3 being courtesy of the blown-up Achilles of Aaron Rodgers. ...
"So that just lends to a general sense of unease. And I think that everybody's got a pair of eyes and senses that right now."
Belichick may have fallen out of favor with some Pats fans amid the team's post-Brady era struggles, but Eisen remains on the "In Bill We Trust" side.
"If there's anybody who can fix it, for the lack of a better phrase, and who can come back this coming week and the week after and put a product out on the field that suddenly looks vastly improved, it would be him," Eisen said of the Patriots head coach.
"You're the one who's more boots on the ground there about how Belichick's sense of the situation is and how people feel about it. But I'm still in the camp of "In Bill We Trust." I just don't know what's going on with the quarterback right now."
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The good news for New England is its schedule appears to ease up after the difficult first four weeks of the campaign. Belichick's team is favored at home against the New Orleans Saints this Sunday, then it will travel to Las Vegas to take on a Raiders team with its own set of glaring issues.
After two tough divisional matchups against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, the schedule softens again with a five-game stretch against the Washington Commanders, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers, and Pittsburgh Steelers. But before you chalk those down as Patriots wins, heed Eisen's warning.
"The Commanders are not a just a W on the schedule. They are not," Eisen said. "They can they can put up points. The Chargers can put up points. ...
"Can (the Patriots) pull it together and win those games? Absolutely. Are we having recency bias based on that curb-stomping in in the Metroplex? Absolutely. But again, there are a lot of people that can cause the same havoc that (Cowboys linebacker) Micah Parsons did.
"(Chargers linebacker) Khalil Mack, six sacks alone. (Raiders edge rusher) Maxx Crosby is another one (Jones is) going to be facing a ton. (Saints edge rusher) Cam Jordan coming up this week. There are a lot of disruptors that if Mac Jones doesn't pull it together and start playing in a way like we've seen from his rookie season, it could be a long season."
Also in the episode:
- Breaking down what went wrong for Mac Jones against Dallas.
- What will it take for Jones to bounce back?
- Bad loss or is this who the Patriots are?
- Full interview with Eisen.
