MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — I don’t know about you, but I’m tired.
Tired of detailing how the Patriots got out-coached.
Tired of weighing their present mistakes against the promise of their future.
Tired of hearing about the team they claim to be and the actual version that shows up on Sundays.
Granted, no one outside New England would stand for this whining. The same media and fans who rode shotgun for the greatest ride and dynasty in NFL history objecting to the inevitability of a rebuild a few years later? Oh, boo-hoo. Get bent.
Well, allow me to complain/explain.
However you want to carve these 3-9 turkeys, the Patriots’ bottom line is this: even in a rebuild, it doesn’t have to be this bad.
The Patriots trailed 31-0 in the fourth quarter Sunday. They were flagged 13 times, including six for pre-snap penalties. Their head coach explained the four touchdown passes his defense allowed by citing miscommunications in a secondary that boasts 200 career starts; miscommunications caused by shifts and motions the Patriots had prepared for all week.
“It wasn’t a secret,” Jerod Mayo said.
One of those secondary members later spilled some beans suggesting the Patriots suffer from a lack of focus. And whether Jonathan Jones is right or not, frankly, doesn’t matter. Something is amiss in Foxboro.
Because untalented teams, like the Patriots, win football games. But too often, the Pats are not just untalented. They’re undisciplined. Or disorganized. Or lacking attention to detail.
Blame, during seasons like this, belongs to everybody. Coaches, players, the front office, all the way up to ownership. And lest the Patriots want to risk more winds of change sweeping through their facility this winter, they must show real, tangible progress over their final five games.
Start problem-solving.
Like Miami did defensively, allowing 53 yards of offense in the middle quarters after Drake Maye led an 80-yard march on his second possession. The Dolphins had the Patriots in a headlock until the fourth quarter when Maye yanked them free on fourth-and-15, launching a 38-yard touchdown pass under pressure. At that point, the Pats owed all of their points and more than one-third of their yards to Maye’s ability to extend plays.
Maye’s ability to create plays off-schedule too often is what keeps this offense on schedule. That’s on coaching. Almost every opposing head coach sees it, noting Maye’s mobility and playmaking after facing him.
This was Texans coach DeMeco Ryans after Maye’s starting debut in Week 6: “One thing he does as a quarterback, his escapability is really good for them. And I think it’s a positive for him. Like, being able to pull it down and when things aren’t there, being able to make plays on the run; as rushers, you have to be aware that this guy can pull it down and run. … That sets them apart, makes them a little different.”
And this was Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel on Sunday: “(Maye) made some plays in similar fashions that he made on tape. I think when you’re able to be a pocket passer but then extend plays and make teams pay when you’re in man coverage or two-man, it’s a problem.”
Except, Miami hardly played any man coverage Sunday, and consequently controlled the game. That problem went unsolved because the Patriots are out of the problem-solving business as of late. Instead, Mayo is throwing his challenge flag to contest a first-half completion that coincided with a defensive penalty, which would have granted the Dolphins a first down even if the completion had been overturned.
Woof.
So, cut that out, and start small. Like with your left tackle, Vederian Lowe, who took four penalties in Miami. Or your left guard, Michael Jordan, who yields near automatic pressure when confronted with basic, two-man stunts; an issue on his tape that dates back to September. In the first half alone, Dolphins clobbered Maye for a sack and another QB hit running stunts through Jordan.
Or start anywhere defensively, where the Patriots allowed four straight scoring drives and young Christian Barmore, fresh off one practice all week, recorded one of the Pats’ two quarterback hits. Even with Barmore, Mayo’s defense ranks among the least effective and least talented Patriots defenses of the modern era. But while one was inevitable, the other was avoidable; like clinching a third losing season and fourth in five years, but spiraling, undisciplined and inattentive, in the process.
Not too long ago, it used to be the Pats played their best football this time of year; Tom Brady and Bill Belichick steeling their team down the stretch, year after year in the playoffs before the playoffs. The start of “real football season” right after Thanksgiving.
The playoffs, of course, were never within reach for these Pats. But that time is upon them once again, and the urgency post-Thanksgiving football kindled must return, too.
Not in the name of the postseason, but progress.
After taking another step back Sunday, it’s time for a leap forward.
