Pats Went 1-4 to End Season. What Was The Cause of Implosion?

[Scotty]

What Steve Belichick rumours ?

 

[Lagaffe_07]

What Steve Belichick rumours ?

If I am not mistaken it is that the players were not happy with him.

The narrative going around according to Bedard is that Steve was responsible for the D early in the year until they were 2-4 at that time Bill supposedly took over the D went 7-0 and gave it back to Steve in the bye week to finish the season 1-5. And in my opinion, it makes absolutely no sense.

 

[Scotty]

If I am not mistaken it is that the players were not happy with him.

The narrative going around according to Bedard is that Steve was responsible for the D early in the year until they were 2-4 at that time Bill supposedly took over the D when 7-0 and give it back to Steve in the bye week to finish the season 1-5. And in my opinion, it makes absolutely no sense.

Thanks for the info. I dont know about this. Obviously there is something wrong be it coaching or players. Just have to believe that coaches/organisation/players can resolve this. I just listened to the latest Bedard video on Youtube and dont know what to believe

 

[Salsalife]

My Take, worst coaching staff Bill has had in his career. Blunders, mishaps, pre snap errors, specials teams. Un-Excusable.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

My Take, worst coaching staff Bill has had in his career. Blunders, mishaps, pre snap errors, specials teams. Un-Excusable.

Worst coaching staff that Bill has assembled in his career. I will not left Bill off the hook for this coaching staff.

your post make it look like Bill inherited this coaching staff without say.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Mazz: Bill Belichick failed Mac Jones

If you're New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, here’s the truth after a playoff disaster: you hung Mac Jones out to dry.

985thesportshub.com

 

[ivanvamp]

That is the kind of season that gets coaches shown the door. Will be interesting to see what changes are made.

And then you stop and think, well, they were 7-9 the previous year, missing the playoffs, and then started a rookie QB and improved by 3 wins and went to the playoffs. THAT is NOT the kind of season that gets coaches shown the door.

So it all depends on your point of view, I guess.

 

[ivanvamp]

AFC teams ahead of the Patriots....KC, Tennessee, Cincinnati, Miami, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Buffalo, San Diego, Oakland.... all these teams have better rosters
but I think the pats are in the same rung as a couple of these teams but the lack of talent on the Patriots is disturbing

Then the Pats' coaching staff must be off the charts amazing then, because they won more games than Miami, Baltimore, Indy, and the Chargers, and won the same number of games as Cincy and the Raiders, with apparently a lot less talent.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

If I am not mistaken it is that the players were not happy with him.

The narrative going around according to Bedard is that Steve was responsible for the D early in the year until they were 2-4 at that time Bill supposedly took over the D went 7-0 and gave it back to Steve in the bye week to finish the season 1-5. And in my opinion, it makes absolutely no sense.

Doesn't sound right.

Team started 2-4 because the crappy offensive line with Durant/Herron at RT was getting Mac killed.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

Honestly it could range. Bill's usually going to have his team ready to pick off the bad teams and we will get a few of those. I hope we can get to a point where we can beat some of the bubble contenders and actually hang with the contenders. But a lot of this year was that we got a lot of luck. Put it this way, if this were even the 2019 team with Brady and some okayish WR's we probably get the 1 seed easily

Sad thing is even with the GOAT QB here in 2019, that 2019 offense completely nose dived the last 10 weeks. Only scored 17 a game after Halloween of 2019. This was with the GOAT QB here and also Edelman. The staff around BB is rotten particularly on offense.

.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

I feel like it will.

I was cycling through the NFL playoffs the last 10-15 years, and I found that teams that get blown out (lose by 3 possessions) often don't make it back the next year.

The few ones that did make it back - like the 2013-2014 Colts - didn't make it back afterwards. (The 2014 colts had a lucky run to the AFCCG - Cincinnati's key players were injured and Peyton's decline started.)

What this seems to imply is that usually, if you get the brakes beaten off of you in the playoffs, it means that your team as constructed is heavily flawed, not good, and easily exploited, and was lucky to make the playoffs in the first place. Or it means that it was the end of the road for a championship window (think of the 2016 Packers, that was the end of that 2010 Super Bowl window). It means you should probably blow up or shake up the team.

For starters, our front 7 is mush. Our run defense sucks - to where a team like Buffalo can run on us (even though Buffalo did improve the last few weeks, they were not a good running team).

Our offense is cute, but it's not explosive at all. We have a good running game, but when teams really want to stop our rushing attack, they can with ease. Our passing attack is limited - no complex route trees, passing concepts, etc. Why? Our receivers aren't great, and Mac has limitations (for instance, have we seen him throw a 30 yard bullet pass on a post pattern route, in stride, with enough velocity to beat the coverage? No? That's because Mac's arm strength is not great enough to constantly make those throws, and our receivers don't have the crisp route running and speed to do so).

The locker room splintered after the bye week. Was it a Steve Belichick thing if the rumors were true?

Lastly, our special teams was ass. Matthew Slater is 36, and had more errors this year.


To conclude (sorry for the long post), I feel like we'll be 8-9 next year and miss out. There's too many holes to fill and fix (espeically if some guys retire), our cap space is not a lot, and Bill rarely has a great draft 2 years in a row.

We had a lot of "if this or that happened" losses this year, but that happens when you're not a good team. And we got breaks this year that may not be there next year.

I fear you are right. Will be hard to exceed 9+ wins next year unless they can fix fundamental issues: the OC, OLine, Godchaux, and Bentley.

 

[203Pat]

Or it could just be true. Either way, it is on him. He is the head coach and if his coaches are underperforming the buck stops with him. This rumor if true doesn't exonerate him. If he knew his players weren't buying into what Steve and mayo were selling, he needed to step in and take back over the defense or coach up his coaches.

If it is true then it looks even worse for Bill. His kid or Mayo, or both, don't know what they're doing and it means Bill can't properly evaluate his own staff and needs to take over as the DC. Or Bill was running the defense all along and either he can't coach them up (which I doubt) or the defense he put together is bad (which I believe). Bill should get credit for getting this team to the playoffs with an aging slow defense and a rookie QB but he should also get blame for the things that fell apart down the stretch.

 

[Lagaffe_07]

Doesn't sound right.

Team started 2-4 because the crappy offensive line with Durant/Herron at RT was getting Mac killed.

That was only part of the problem. They lost also because the D couldn’t make a stop when they needed too. You remember McCourty comment after the 3rd and 25 against Dallas where he basically called out the coaches saying they called the wrong play.

 

[203Pat]

You're telling me after blowing $200M in contracts that the offense is still deficient in talent? Would be embarrassing if so. Would it perhaps be self-inflicted like benching their best OLineman Onwenu for 9 weeks, or having zero clue how to even throw pass attempts to Jonnu Smith?

Yes the offense is loaded on talent and under-performed due to mediocre offensive coaching.

The defense had major flaws with crappy players yet played great for most of the year via smoke and mirrors. Crappy players include Godchaux, Bentley, and SloJuan

This offense is in no way "loaded on talent". Spending money doesn't equate to quality players. In theory that is the case but not in reality. HH is a solid starting TE but he cant block. Jonnu got paid for what we hoped he would be and not what he is. There was a near consensus on here (which almost never happens) when Agholor was signed that he was overpaid and he was. Bourne is a solid player and so is Jakobi but both of those guys are complimentary players and will never be the focal point of the offense. It was a pedestrian offense regardless of how parts of it are paid.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

That was only part of the problem. They lost also because the D couldn’t make a stop when they needed too. You remember McCourty comment after the 3rd and 25 against Dallas where he basically called out the coaches saying they called the wrong play.

Yes agree. On the flip side when crappy Godchaux and Bentley are playing, the defense gave up a whopping 270 rushing yards in a game, then 226 rushing yards, and 195 rushing yards. Total disaster on run defense. Starting with sh-tty Godchaux who is not a nose tackle and Bentley routinely takes horrible angles.

 

[Rob0729]

If it is true then it looks even worse for Bill. His kid or Mayo, or both, don't know what they're doing and it means Bill can't properly evaluate his own staff and needs to take over as the DC. Or Bill was running the defense all along and either he can't coach them up (which I doubt) or the defense he put together is bad (which I believe). Bill should get credit for getting this team to the playoffs with an aging slow defense and a rookie QB but he should also get blame for the things that fell apart down the stretch.

I get you don't like Belichick. But just because he either made a mistake by not having a clear cut DC or just put people in the wrong positions doesn't make him a bad talent evaluator when it comes to coaches. He has been successful getting coaches top notch coaches in all three phases of the game. I know people who want to slam Belichick now say he is a product of Brady, but Brady didn't make great DC coordinators or special teams coaches like the ones the Pats had in the past. You look at guys like Flores, Daboll, O'Brien, etc and they have had success outside of this system.

 

[DropKickFlutie]

This offense is in no way "loaded on talent". Spending money doesn't equate to quality players. In theory that is the case but not in reality. HH is a solid starting TE but he cant block. Jonnu got paid for what we hoped he would be and not what he is. There was a near consensus on here (which almost never happens) when Agholor was signed that he was overpaid and he was. Bourne is a solid player and so is Jakobi but both of those guys are complimentary players and will never be the focal point of the offense. It was a pedestrian offense regardless of how parts of it are paid.

I hear you. Ok I take it back. It's not loaded. But I think if the philosophy is throw to the open guy, the team has 6 decent pass catchers. It is a problem especially if the OC is mediocre. And this OC never did anything without a HOF receiver in Moss, Gronk, or HOF QB. But I still want to spend all 3 high picks on defense first. Defense carried this team but has even more glaring problems to fix in terms of CB, NT, and ILB.

 

[203Pat]

I get you don't like Belichick. But just because he either made a mistake by not having a clear cut DC or just put people in the wrong positions doesn't make him a bad talent evaluator when it comes to coaches. He has been successful getting coaches top notch coaches in all three phases of the game. I know people who want to slam Belichick now say he is a product of Brady, but Brady didn't make great DC coordinators or special teams coaches like the ones the Pats had in the past. You look at guys like Flores, Daboll, O'Brien, etc and they have had success outside of this system.

I always love how on this board the slightest bit of criticism means "you don't like Bill". I think Bill is the best coach to ever do it far and away but people seem to want to give him a pass for everything going forward no matter what happens. I am looking at just this year. Not the last 20. He either promoted the wrong guy (if there is one actual DC) or he didn't make it clear who was "the guy" between Mayo and his son. Either way whatever he did didn't work. I don't even necessarily think it the the defensive coaching so much as they don't have the horses to compete on defense the way Bill has constructed things. The Collins re-signing and Gilmore release made no sense whatsoever. We released a still pretty good aging veteran, and signed an over the hill veteran who is pretty much done. The LB core is toast and this offseason is when we should be saying "now we can transition the LB core to guys like Uche, Wino, Jennings, and Perkins" but instead we don't actually know if any of those guys can play since they have been stuck behind overpaid old dinosaurs. Bill didn't do himself of whoever the hell the DC is with the pieces he put in place on defense.

 

[amfootball]

I always love how on this board the slightest bit of criticism means "you don't like Bill". I think Bill is the best coach to ever do it far and away but people seem to want to give him a pass for everything going forward no matter what happens. I am looking at just this year. Not the last 20. He either promoted the wrong guy (if there is one actual DC) or he didn't make it clear who was "the guy" between Mayo and his son. Either way whatever he did didn't work. I don't even necessarily think it the the defensive coaching so much as they don't have the horses to compete on defense the way Bill has constructed things. The Collins re-signing and Gilmore release made no sense whatsoever. We released a still pretty good aging veteran, and signed an over the hill veteran who is pretty much done. The LB core is toast and this offseason is when we should be saying "now we can transition the LB core to guys like Uche, Wino, Jennings, and Perkins" but instead we don't actually know if any of those guys can play since they have been stuck behind overpaid old dinosaurs. Bill didn't do himself of whoever the hell the DC is with the pieces he put in place on defense.

Why isn't Bill coaching the defense? This is the part I have never understood. He is a defensive genius yet he is leaving it to his son or Mayo? For $25 mil a year he needs to be the one doing the defense.

 

[Rob0729]

I always love how on this board the slightest bit of criticism means "you don't like Bill". I think Bill is the best coach to ever do it far and away but people seem to want to give him a pass for everything going forward no matter what happens. I am looking at just this year. Not the last 20. He either promoted the wrong guy (if there is one actual DC) or he didn't make it clear who was "the guy" between Mayo and his son. Either way whatever he did didn't work. I don't even necessarily think it the the defensive coaching so much as they don't have the horses to compete on defense the way Bill has constructed things. The Collins re-signing and Gilmore release made no sense whatsoever. We released a still pretty good aging veteran, and signed an over the hill veteran who is pretty much done. The LB core is toast and this offseason is when we should be saying "now we can transition the LB core to guys like Uche, Wino, Jennings, and Perkins" but instead we don't actually know if any of those guys can play since they have been stuck behind overpaid old dinosaurs. Bill didn't do himself of whoever the hell the DC is with the pieces he put in place on defense.

Sorry, but I remember correctly, you have been part of the the pro-Brady/anti-Belichick crowd for a while now. If I am wrong, I am sorry. I not basing what I am saying based on the one post I responded to.

And as for Gilmore, he would have helped, but he was a shell of himself in Carolina this year. He looked good for a game or two but played like crap (at least for him) for the rest of the year. I don't know if Belichick was as wrong as people think for trading away Gilmore. He would wouldn't have been the difference down the stretch.