Sunday’s loss was inexcusable … there is no way the Patriots should have lost to Denver.\u00a0 Yes, they only had one padded practice in two weeks and they definitely looked like it.\u00a0 The offensive line was all shook up and had further disarray when Jermaine Eluemunor went down early.\u00a0 Despite this they still should have beat the Broncos.\u00a0 The blame sits squarely on the shoulders of Cam Newton.\u00a0 He was flat out awful.<\/p>\n
Newton\u2019s failure to pick out secondary receivers, bad pre-snap reads, and terrible passing fundamentals led to this defeat.\u00a0 He had receivers open but couldn\u2019t find them.\u00a0 Julian Edeleman wasn\u2019t targeted once in the 1st<\/sup> half and only twice in the game.\u00a0 Devin Asiasi was open on multiple times (and I mean wide open) and Newton just didn\u2019t look for him. \u00a0His passes out of the backfield are downward or flat and are easily tipped or blocked which led to the 1st<\/sup> INT.\u00a0 He has no touch on his passes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n He had Damiere Byrd 4 steps ahead of the nearest defender and Newton underthrew him.\u00a0 Evan Lazar did a nice analysis of that play and correctly pointed out that Newton stepped toward the sideline with is front foot rather than pointing toward where he was throwing.\u00a0 There was good protection on that play and he could have stepped up to throw.\u00a0 Instead his foot went to the sideline and Newton was throwing strictly with arm strength.\u00a0 Hence the underthrow on what should have been a TD.<\/p>\n Newton saunters to the line and takes too much time to get the play off.\u00a0 The defense can get off on his cadence and get a great jump.\u00a0 The Patriots need to get him under center and run no huddle, quick tempo.\u00a0 The running game was stymied because the Broncos were loading the box.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t help that the offensive line were not playing their natural positions and didn\u2019t have practice time at these positions.\u00a0 How about throwing on 1st<\/sup> down?\u00a0 <\/p>\n Newton was horrible in reading the blitz.\u00a0 He never checked off at the line of scrimmage.\u00a0 I know we were spoiled by Tom Brady\u2019s ability to pick up the blitz and torture teams that blitzed, but that hasn’t been the case with Newton. However, it doesn\u2019t help when Newton makes a good throw to someone like tight end Ryan Izzo, only to fumble it because he was holding the ball in the wrong hand.<\/p>\n Julian Edelman is a shell of himself right now.\u00a0 Several times it looked like he could run an arrow route and free himself, but he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Some said that Edelman looked like he didn\u2019t want to be there.\u00a0 He is 34, has no future with the team and if he can\u2019t contribute, he should be replaced.\u00a0 Reports have it that he is playing with a knee injury.\u00a0 They should sit him if it’s that bad so he can get healthy, because they’re going to need him down the stretch.\u00a0 Gunner Olszewski \u00a0didn\u2019t play a snap on offense.<\/p>\n The Patriots squandered a great effort by the Defense holding the Broncos to no TD\u2019s.\u00a0 Jonathan Jones was immense against speedy Jerry Jeudy.\u00a0 Seven passes against Jones and only one completion.\u00a0 He had a spectacular INT late in the game.<\/p>\n You have to give Denver credit for a great defensive game plan and kicker Brandon McManus was terrific with 6 FG\u2019s including 2 over 50 yards.\u00a0 Bill Belichick refused a 5 yard penalty which would have given Denver another 3rd down try and McManus still made the 54 yd FG with ease.<\/p>\n The Patriots have to do a lot of self- scouting after this game.\u00a0 I would hate to be in those position meetings having to review this game film.<\/p>\n Jeff Howe of the Athletic talked about burying the football after the game. Put this stinker behind them and move onto the 49ers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday’s loss was inexcusable … there is no way the Patriots should have lost to Denver.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":32782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-news"],"yoast_head":"\n