FOXBORO, MA — An 0-4 start seems to have a profound effect on the attitude of fans and critics for any team that has to endure such a start to their season. It also reminds us that the NFL has become a league of results, forever asking the question of not “What have you done?”, but “What have you done for me lately?”.
That’s where Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe seems to be finding himself these days.
With just 125 yards he’ll become the team’s all-time leading passer, surpassing Patriot Hall-of-Fame quarterback Steve Grogan, who took 16 years to do what Bledsoe has done in just 8 seasons. But should Bledsoe struggle and take yet another beating this weekend against the Denver Broncos, fans will look past what should be a great accomplishment.
They will blame yet another loss on the man who continually gets up after taking hit after hit because his offensive line no longer allows him the time to pick apart defenses. They will blame the man who year after year has lost most of the weapons he had during New England’s 1996 Superbowl campaign.
But he’s made no excuses after each loss this team has ever endured, and he’s taken the blame for all that went wrong with his team during that weekend whether it was his fault or not. He’s never been one to point fingers, and if the team went 0-16 he would take all the blame, never once complaining of a block that wasn’t made, a receiver who didn’t get open, or a blitz that wasn’t picked up.
Yet slowly New England is turning on the man who helped bring them from mediocrity to respectability.
Frustration is beginning to get the best of the fans who are looking for answers after New England’s 0-4 start. They live in a land where quarterbacks are expected to single-handedly win games regardless of how many defensive players are grabbing at them as they make their throws. They live in a land where they believe he doesn’t need a runningback to strike fear in opposing defenses who have to honor a back who can get them 3 or 4 yards whenever they demand it. They believe he can do it on his own, all by himself.
But that’s just not how it is.
Each year there are always two teams representing the AFC and NFC in a game that millions of people plan for and watch with friends and family in what is the pinnacle of the NFL season, the Superbowl. Since 1990 they’ve watched some great teams win the Lombardi trophy, and there has always been one very noticeable tendency from one year to the next.
Each team has always had solid runningback.
In 1990 even John Elway couldn’t get past Joe Montana and the 49ers and endured an embarrassing 55-10 loss in a game where Elway threw for a mere 108 yards and 2 interceptions. Elway at that time was in his seventh year in the league and many began to doubt whether or not he would ever be able to bring Denver a championship. Without Terrell Davis that was true. With him, he won two in a row and retired.
The Dallas Cowboys won three titles during the 90’s, and would never have done it without runningback Emmitt Smith who during that time was in the peak of his career. Having a healthy Smith helped quarterback Troy Aikman become one of the top passers in the NFL. When Smith’s production declined and the threat of a running attack disappeared, defenses came after Aikman relentlessly and he’s suffered several concussions as a result. Now he’s pondering retirement.
Last year Kurt Warner and the Rams won a Superbowl after passing for a record 414 yards during the game. With Marshall Faulk lining up in the backfield as both a rushing and receiving threat, they were able to keep the Tennessee defense off balance throughout the game en-route to the win. The Titans had a great back of their own in Eddie George who rushed for 95 yards during the game, and was one of the reasons why Tennessee was able to make their championship run last season.
But the problem is New England doesn’t have that anymore. They no longer have Curtis Martin lining up in the backfield to keep defenses off balance. They don’t have what 99% of all the teams that have played in the big game have had over the last 10 years, and what Dan Marino never had. They don’t have a viable running back that will keep a defensive coordinator up at night. This is no slight against Kevin Faulk who has been one of best stories of this current gloomy season, but unfortunately he isn’t Eddie George or Terrell Davis and he’s not the long-term answer to what this team is searching for and hasn’t found since Martin headed down to New Jersey.
To add to this problem is the fact that former Patriot receiver Shawn Jefferson headed off to Atlanta during the offseason, when unfortunately, New England failed to put him on their list of priorities of players they needed to keep. They decided instead to keep several players who had no place on this football team. Those players instead took money that could have been used to help Jefferson remain with an organization he gave his all to since he joined in 1996. They also never replaced Ben Coates with a viable tight end, and the days of having players like Sam Gash or Keith Byers to spread the ball around to are gone.
No longer are there all the weapons that made this team the dangerous threat that made them what they were during their title run in 1996. No longer do they have an offensive line that, back then, allowed a mere 30 sacks to protect their quarterback. No longer does a week go by where receivers fail to get open, or a defensive player is kept away.
No longer do people remember many of the things that helped make this team so great.
Instead, they see that #11 isn’t able to carry this team by himself. They see that he takes a pounding each week and fails to notice the courage it takes to keep getting up and putting them in a position to pull out a victory, despite the fact that they haven’t pulled one out through the first four games. It leaves them searching for answers that are much more difficult to analyze but far easier to point the finger at a quarterback who, since being drafted, has gotten their team mentioned again with the NFL’s top teams.
And he’ll always take the blame and put it on himself, no matter what. That’s just the kind of guy he is.
So trade him away for draft choices, because having first-round picks has always worked out well, especially for the Patriots. New England had several 1st round picks following the Bill Parcells era and fans who know anything about this team has seen what good having a bunch of draft choices has done them. Instead, they should get back to concentrating on what they have failed miserably at doing since 1997, and that’s replacing the talent they’ve lost over the years. They need to get back to building around the guy who helped get them to where they are, and they need to put together a cast that can protect him better. Otherwise, the talk will continue to get worse, and eventually, the fickle fans of Boston who no longer feel they need him may get their wish.
Hopefully, they’ll enjoy watching the team that Bledsoe heads off to get their championship. Meanwhile, New England fans will go back to enjoying mediocrity, all because they couldn’t see through the real problems on this team. And then they’ll be sorry.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
