I don’t know about you, but I was depressed while trying to watch this debacle. The Patriots can’t do anything right. Mac Jones is done as a starting QB. He has lost his confidence between the disastrous coaching job last year and the porous offensive line this year. Jones mechanics are all screwed up and he is trying to do too much. His pick six was another case of trying to do too much. Just take the sack and protect the ball. Bill O’Brien calls a brilliant toss play out of what appeared to be the tush push. Only thing is that Mac Jones has never been an option Quarterback. He tried an option type lateral rather than a simple toss. His toss was high and behind Rhamondre Stevenson for another turnover. Oh, by the way, the announcers said that it probably would have gone for a TD. Jones was hyper at the start of the game and overthrew his 1st two passes.
New Orleans was a top 10 defense coming into the game. They played the same type of defense as Dallas did last week. Press man against the Patriots wide receivers who cannot get separation. Rushed just 4 and dropped LBs protecting the middle of the field. Two high safeties forced Jones to pass to the sidelines. Jones does not have a strong enough arm to make all the sideline passes. With only rushing 4 the Saints still had a 46% pressure rate on Jones. New Orleans loaded the box with 10 players and a single high safety.
The Patriots used their 5th different starting Offensive Line with Cole Strange inactive and Reilly Reiff in the starting lineup. The first few plays the line blocked well. Jones had a clean pocket off play-action but overthrew open receivers. Michael Owenu re-injured his ankle and was very slow pulling for the sweep. He held up the running back. Trent Brown turned into a turnstile by the end of the game. Antonio Mafi was chewed out by Belichick on the sideline.
Belichick appeared to quit on his team by not going for it with the ball on the 40-yard line early in the 3rd quarter. Later he didn’t challenge and interception by Kyle Dugger. The replay showed that Dugger caught the ball.
The body language of the Patriots players in pre-game warmup was very bad as noted by Scott Zolak who reported this live on the Patriots Pre-Game Show with 98.5 Sports Hub with Jim Murray and Chris Gasper. During the game I didn’t see the defensive players flying to the ball and trying to force turnovers.
Mac Jones said in his post-game press conference that the team wasn’t ready to play. Is that a shot at the coaching staff? How can they be not up for the game, in what was a must win game. The Patriots only had 5 first downs with another 3 coming on penalties to New Orleans.
Belichick in his post-game press conference said they must start over. When pressed by what he meant by Greg Bedard, Belichick just shrugged and repeated start over again.
Bailey Zappe was awful as a replacement and completed just 3 of 9 passes.
Demario Douglas had a nice catch but was injured on a head-to-head cheap shot hit. He was out with a concussion as Douglas’ head bounced off the field. JuJu Smith-Schuster (concussion) and Michael Owenu (ankle) were also hurt in the game.
Bob Kraft is complicit by allowing Bill Belichick to hang around while attempting to break Don Shula’s career win record. This kind of play is not acceptable. Players need to be held accountable and heads need to roll. The players walked on and off the field like nothing was happening. Have some pride in yourself. 72-3 in the last two games! This is the worst since the 1970 Boston Patriots! Need to shake things up. Fire Belichick and tell the players their jobs are on the line. I would immediately cut two or three players to show the other players how serious the new coach is about blowing up this team. The Patriots have 20 players playing in their contract year. They should be playing for their next contract.
I don’t want to always write about the bad things the team did, but there was nothing good in this game. Joe Cardona has become un-reliable with another two bad snaps, one resulting in a bad punt after Bryce Baringer barely snagged the low and wide snap. That resulted in a bad punt and the good field position, starting at the Patriots 40, led to the Saints first TD. Chad Ryland didn’t properly play the swirling wind in the stadium and had his FG blow left being taken wide by the wind. He has missed half his FG attempts.
What a jerk Bill Belichick is. He comes to the podium for his post-game press conference and takes the middle microphone and pulls it out of the holder and places it on top of the podium. That mic was the one for the room and the writers asking the questions, couldn’t hear the mumbling Belichick response to their questions.
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Merrimack Valley native and lifelong fan of the New England Patriots. My earliest memories of the Patriots were attending as a child with my dad, the off-season practice at Phillips Academy. I was at the Patriots game at Harvard Stadium in 1970 where Bob “Harpo” Gladieux was called out of the stands by the stadium announcer over the PA to play in the game. Analyzing the draft since ESPN first started to televise it in 1980 and former writer for the Lowell Sun Newspaper.
