The New England Patriots are going back to the drawing board after two consecutive historic defeats.
Their 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, followed by their 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints, marked the two worst losses of Bill Belichick's entire head coaching career. They brought the Patriots to 1-4 on the season, putting them on track to miss the playoffs for the third time in the last four years.
After Sunday's loss to New Orleans, Belichick said it was time to "start all over" but declined to share specifics for what that entails.
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"Obviously it was a poor performance today, so just plain and simply, we've got to find a way to play and coach better than that," Belichick said. "So, that's what we are going to do, start all over and get back on a better track than we're on right now."
On the latest episode of Tom E. Curran's Patriots Talk Podcast, Phil Perry shared his thoughts on what "starting over" midseason could mean for New England.
🔊 Patriots Talk: Jakobi Meyers is symbolic of where Bill Belichick and the Patriots have gone wrong | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube
"I do have a theory now, at least, on what starting over might mean," Perry said. "I think what it probably means is almost treating this week like a bye week, at least the early part of the week, and doing a lot of self-scouting, and a lot of introspection and figuring out, 'What do we actually do well here? Can we drill down on that? Can we focus on that?' And then you get to the gameplanning stuff for Vegas maybe a little bit later in the week. But because the situation is so dire on the homefront, that you try to take care of that first in the way that you might during a bye week.
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"That's something that was brought up to me in the last 24 hours or so about, 'What does that even mean? Starting over? What are you talking about? Do you go back to training camp practice one?' No, I don't think that's what it is. I think it's, 'OK, time to really look at ourselves here and take a look in the mirror.'"
Also discussed in the episode:
- The decision to move on from Jakobi Meyers is symbolic of where the Patriots have gone wrong in recent seasons.
- Curran and Perry break down why Belichick’s inability -- or unwillingness -- to identify a good offensive player at this point in his career is the root cause of the team’s problems.
- What changes can realistically be made to save this season?
- What should Robert Kraft do? How should the team handle the rest of the season and going forward beyond that?