As issues pile up, Patriots are starting to run out of excuses originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Another year, another European embarrassment. Missing the playoffs is becoming a real concern.
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Each of the Patriots’ six losses have had a different vibe in the aftermath.
Loss to Seahawks? Damn. Coulda been 2-0. Kinda beat themselves.
Loss to the Jets? Wow. Short week and injuries but that was a no-show.
Loss to Niners? Bad spot against a good team. But non-competitive. It’s getting bad.
Loss to Dolphins? Can’t beat Snoop Huntley at home? It’s bad. Heads gotta roll.
Loss to Texans? Houston’s way better. DRAKE!!!!
Loss to Jaguars? Welcome to Dysfunction Dome.
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There were two objectives for the 2024 Patriots.
First, find a quarterback with guts, potential, talent, arm strength, suitable size and the right mental makeup to be a good soldier in a rebuild.
Second, stabilize an organization that, over the previous two seasons, had descended into dysfunction. Become a team that oozes competency and stability. One that, by the end of the season, nobody wants to play because they’re so damn plucky, tough and smart.
They nailed the first one. On No. 2, they are worse now than they were last year.
It’s not surprising that a first-year head coach overseeing a team with a new offensive coordinator (and first-time play-caller), a first-year defensive coordinator, a first-year offensive line coach, a new wide receivers coach (etc.) and a mess of new players is struggling to find his footing. Especially with an absurd number of destabilizing injuries to the most important players and leaders on the roster.
But it does not have to look like this.
Monday morning featured Jerod Mayo once again trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube after saying something incendiary that caused a firestorm.
This time, he was asking for a mulligan on calling his team “soft” after the Jaguars tore their collective heart from their chest and showed it to them while it was still beating.
Mayo went on WEEI and said he meant to say the team was “playing soft.” I get the difference. I’m sure you do too. But damn, the verbal rake-stepping has been an almost weekly feature.
It started with “burn some cash,” slid into mixed messaging with the quarterbacks and has continued along steadily during the regular season.
It causes peripheral brushfires that need stomping out, distracting from the fully-involved blaze going on with the football team.
Actually, this was a little more than a brushfire. Mayo using the S-word at about 1 p.m. ET meant it was right in the sweet spot for football-watching America. By 7 p.m., his former teammate, close friend and fellow Quick Slants co-host Devin McCourty was on NBC’s Football Night in America saying the following:
“Toughness isn’t a skillset. You don’t need to be fast or do anything special to be tough. The second part of that is, ‘Why, Jerod? Why is this team not tough?’
“When you hear a team isn’t tough and they are soft, you think, ‘What is the head coach doing? How is he getting them ready to go?’ Mayo and that staff have a lot of questions to answer going in the next week.”
The questions should be coming from within the building. From players to coaches.
Tabling the offense and special teams for a moment, how can a serious football team allow itself to be run on 18 consecutive times without putting more and more defenders in the box or at the line of scrimmage until they just won’t run it?
The team is missing its defensive spinal column of Christian Barmore, Ja’Whaun Bentley and Jabrill Peppers. Even so, they should be able to bow up and not get gashed.
But if they fail, do you just dangle them out there as coaches and let it keep happening? If players aren’t doing their jobs — as veterans Davon Godchaux and Daniel Ekuale insinuate is happening on the defensive line — where’s the fallout from that?
Coaches pointing fingers at players. Players pointing fingers at teammates. It’s dysfunctional. It’s disorganized. And the “it starts with me…” qualifier being frequently tacked on to these criticisms doesn’t feel wholly sincere.
As for the offense? We all understand the extenuating circumstances of the injuries up front and the shoddy effort made to prioritize the line in the offseason.
You can make the case that — for the better part of three weeks — the cast of offensive line castoffs (Demontrey Jacobs, Michael Jordan, Ben Brown, Vederian Lowe) have been brilliant relative to expectations. It’s the “good” players who are hurting them.
Rookie Ja’Lynn Polk has hands like feet but somehow looks in the mirror and sees Reggie Wayne looking back. Hunter Henry will smuggle in an inopportune false start every other game. Mike Onwenu too. Rhamondre Stevenson has fumble issues. They won’t even use Javon Baker or 2022 second-rounder Tyquan Thornton anymore.
Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is going 57 MPH in the left lane with his hands at 10-and-2. Open. Up. The. Offense. It was fine to coach “not to lose” for the first five games or so. But the cat’s out of the bag, the horse is out of the barn and it’s time to give up the ghost.
The best player on the team is at quarterback. In two games, he’s had two not-so-bright throwing decisions and a couple wild throws. Van Pelt (and the rest of the staff) did a great job developing Maye from April to now. So might as well buckle up and see what Maye can do if you really wind it out.
Clearly, the Patriots aren’t going to start winning anytime soon with suffocating defense. Adjust. The. Plan.
As McCourty said, “Mayo and his staff have a lot of questions to answer this week.” That being the case, it would be wise to figure out exactly what they want to say. Literally at the podium. Figuratively on the field and with their decisions.
Because the mulligans have just about run out.
