Patriots News 12-28 And Patriots Routed 40-7 By LA
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Good morning. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Here are your Patriots news and notes for December 29. The Patriots were demolished by the LA Chargers 40-7 at Gillette Stadium. Justin Herbert was outstanding throwing for 281 yards and three touchdowns.
The Chargers owned the line of scrimmage and at times made the Patriots offensive line look like turnstiles. LA owned time of possession as well 40:32 to 19:28.
More observations below.
Netflix Christmas Football:
The streaming service did well, especially after the Tyson-Paul “fight.” However, the games were awful, and that isn’t Netflix’s fault. The bigger question is, Do we really need Christmas football?
Christmas isn’t Thanksgiving, which had a tradition with football long before television came on the scene. My hometown of Woburn has played Winchester 123 times. There’s no Christmas tradition for football.
This is just the NFL reaching into the fans’ pockets once again. It isn’t a big deal for me; I have a streaming account with them for the shows they produce. My favorite is “The Last Kingdom,” but for others who don’t they have to fork out cash in an already tough economy to watch two forgettable games.
Enough already.
Keion White: The Patriots’ second-year edge player spoke with MassLive’s Karen Guregian on Thursday, and it wasn’t what anyone at One Patriot Place wanted to hear. White feels his play is part of the problem and added he doesn’t know if his career will move forward with the Patriots.
“I’m going to try to get through these next two games, and then figure it out after that, and see where the cards may lie for my future,”
White said to her. Guregian asked White what he meant exactly by the “where the cards may lie” comment. White’s answer showed his frustration with his own production or lack thereof.
“Just in general. In terms of everything,” White added. “I mean, anything is possible. It’s the NFL. Anything can happen from year to year. It’s a production-based business. It is what it is. You just figure out where you go.
“… Something’s gotta change. That’s the way I feel at this point.”
“I don’t think it’s just one thing. I think it’s a lot of things. First and foremost, it’s me,” he said. “I need to improve myself, and be on the same page with what the coaches want. But I think it’s a lot of other things as well. Without going too much into details, that’s how I feel.”
Jerod Mayo: The Patriots head coach is catching a ton of flak from both media and fans. And with the team 3-12, many call for the ownership to fire Mayo after just one season. However, after the Buffalo game, where Drake Maye and Hunter Henry spoke highly about Mayo and Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt, it resonated with former players Brian Hoyer and Ted Johnson.
“The New England Patriots organization is lucky to have a young man who is as talented as he is,” Hoyer said on the Patriots Postgame Live. “He goes up there and takes the ownership and puts his own reputation on the line for the coach that everybody is trying to get out of here.”
“If you really want to know if you’ve lost the team, you’ll hear it in the players’ voices,” Johnson said on Patriots Postgame Live. “Brian and I looked over each other at the exact same time when Drake Maye (essentially) said, ‘It’s AVP? Please, that’s B.S. It’s on me for turning the ball over.’ I mean, for him to do that, he didn’t even think about it. It was just such a natural thing for him to say.
“… Hunter Henry in his postgame interview, he absolutely said, ‘I love playing with Jerod. I love playing with AVP.’ Players don’t say that if they (don’t) mean it. If players aren’t happy with the coach, (if) they want him out of here, they’re not going to throw flowers like these guys are in this postgame for Jerod Mayo and Alex Van Pelt.“
Intriguingly, the team’s veteran players are stepping up and taking responsibility while defending their coaches. As Hoyer said, how the organization feels internally about its coaches should trump any outside criticism.
Patriots 4th & 2 Podcast: Derek and I recorded this week’s podcast. We discussed the loss to Buffalo and predicted the Patriots’ game against the Chargers and other games. Please check us out and give us a listen on YouTube, Apple, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed how teams used the tight end position. This will be discussed in our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t even in the team’s HOF.
The Patriots were dominated in all phases of the game on Saturday and at times it didn’t look competitive. After last week’s tough showing against the Bills, it was hoped that this one would be at least somewhat competitive. But LA pretty much dominated right from the start.
Justin Herbert completed 26-38 for 281 yards, with three TDs and 0 INTs for a passer rating of 116.2. His favorite target was Ladd McConkey who had eight catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns. Running back J.K. Dobbins returned from IR and had a nice day running the ball with 19 carries for 76 yards and a touchdown.
The Patriots run defense allowed 147 yards and never really had an answer. But it was LA’s passing game that really made them pay. McConkey had his way with Jonathan Jones. On his second TD, McConkey dusted Jones at the line and had a far too easy 40-yard touchdown.
Christian Gonzalez was injured in the first half and didn’t return with a concussion. After the game, Keion White reiterated what he’d been saying about the defense and his game.
The offense was stuck in neutral all game by a good Chargers defense. But the play of the offensive line, particularly the tackles was downright hard to watch. It looked at first glance like several times the Patriots’ tackles whiffed completely on edge rushers Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, without even touching them.
The Patriots backs Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson combined for 14 carries for 64 yards, with 50 of them coming on the team’s final garbage time drive.
Sacks, penalties, and crunching QB hits continues to be a big issue. During the radio broadcast, Scott Zolak the Patriots color analyst, commented after the 3rd quarter opening drive holding penalty, “We can kill a drive as good as Round-Up kills grass.” And it is true.
However, Cole Strange played his first ever game at center and wasn’t bad. None of the snaps were off the mark and he held up in pass protection. He had some issues with positioning, but that will come with time.
Drake Maye was injured on the first series by a helmet-to-helmet hit that went uncalled. He left the game and didn’t return until the 2nd quarter.
The Patriots had brief life at the end of the half when Drake Maye led them to their only scoring drive of the game. He hit Kendrick Bourne for 18 yards and then scrambled for 12. On the next snap, the Chargers jumped offside, giving Maye a free play.
He had pressure in his face on a blitz up the middle, but he heaved it deep off his back foot and Demario Douglas was able to haul it in at the goalline for a 36-yard touchdown. But any hope went right out the window when Herbert led the Chargers to a field goal drive before the half.
Maye finished 12-22 for 117 yards and a touchdown.
In the third quarter, the Chargers resumed running the ball down New England’s throat and put the game out of reach.
The Bills take on the Jets today. The Jets could be without CB Sauce Gardner and WR Davante Adams, who are both injured. Gardner has already missed a few weeks with a hamstring issue, while Adams has a hip injury. The feeling is that Adams will play.
If the Bills win, they will secure the #2 seed in the playoffs, guaranteeing them at least two home playoff games. Josh Allen is also banged up. It has been reported that he’s been playing with a broken left hand all season, but he injured an elbow last week against the Patriots. He said he hit his funny bone and lost feeling in his hand for a bit but he expects to be fine.
The Dolphins finally released OLB Shaq Barrett from the Reserved/Retired list, and he promptly returned to the Bucs. Barrett retired from the NFL during training camp to spend more time with his family, but changed his mind in November, but Miami declined to add him to their roster.
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Christmas Day Football:
Kansas City over Pittsburgh 1-0
Baltimore over Houston 2-0
Thursday Night Football:
Seattle over Chicago 3-0
Saturday, December 28
LA Chargers over New England
Cincinnati over Denver
LA Rams over Arizona
Sunday, December 29
Buffalo over NYJ
Las Vegas over New Orleans
Indianapolis over NYG
Philadelphia over Dallas
Tampa Bay over Carolina
Tennessee over Jacksonville
Miami over Cleveland
Minnesota over Green Bay
Sunday Night Football:
Washington over Atlanta
Monday Night Football:
Detroit over San Francisco
Bye Week: None
Last week: 11—5
2024 Season 179—61
2023 Season 178—94
2022 Season: 178—92—2
2021 Season: 183—88—1
2020 Season: 169—86—1
2019 Season: 162—93—1
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“Just the lack of execution. Look, that’s a good football team, and they’re a well-coached football team. We just didn’t play well enough in any phase of the game. No complementary football. That’s what you get. Fire away”
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo in his post-game interview on the team’s lack of overall production in the loss to the Chargers.
“I think they’re still bringing it every week. I think that’s the biggest thing you see. They’re not quitting. They’re still coaching as hard. Since week one, they’re still studying film as hard, still meeting, they’re still meeting as hard. So the biggest thing is, you don’t see those guys quitting. And I think the score may not tell the day, but I feel like these guys are still wanting to win. We’re still leaving all out there every week. I think that was kind of my message to the team, ‘Give it all you got our last two games and this one today.’ We got one more chance next week and just leave it all out there.”
Patriots QB Drake Maye discussing why he feels passionate about Mayo and AVP moving in the right direction.
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“Talent sets the floor; Character sets the ceiling.” Bill Belichick
Follow me on Twitter @SteveB7SFG or email me at [email protected]
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“Talent sets the floor; Character sets the ceiling.” There’s not a whole lot of character in today’s athletes. It’s all about money and celebrating.
The Dynasty is over. It ended in 2018 when Tom Brady walked. For those of us keeping track, we are in year six of the post Brady dumpster fire that is the Patriots. In that time the team has gone from bad to embarrassing to a joke. It’s getting stale. Worse yet, the current leadership shows no evidence of ever being able to get better. Bob Kraft. He is not the young man he was when the dynasty began. At this point he is more interested in defining his legacy that putting a competitive team on the field. We have giant light houses and video boards. (nothing… Read more »
Brady played here through 2019. So it’s 5 years of sliding backwards and not 6. How tortured we are as pats fans for having 5 years and with no super bowl party…. only one wild card playoff game. Look around the league at the teams that never won or never appeared in a super bowl ever. Ever! It’s below. And we whine and whale over dropping back out of dynasty mode? The real question is, how did we not drop back into the pack for so long given the parity model in the NFL? As for Mayo, Kraft never said… Read more »
It isn’t the losses per se, but in the manner that they are losing. And they’re not improving, but getting worse. That is the troubling part.
Hi Brent,
Thanks for commenting. I thought they’d never fire Mayo after one year, but I wonder now. Look, I’d love to see Mayo and Wolf turn things around and have a great run, but do I see that happening? No. I also think it has been unfair to Mayo given the roster he and the other coaches. But right now, I have serious doubts about his ability to turn things around. If they like Vrabel, he won’t be around next fall, if things fall apart again. A lot of things MUST change.
Steve B, Good article. A key thing I’d challenge anyone to dispute is the Hunter Henry and Maye and others comments backing Mayo and AVP etc. Wins were not expected by Vegas this year (4). And that is before things went bad on the tackles etc. The drafting is certainly a watch item, but this year’s pats product should not have been a surprise to anyone that paid any attention.