The Pats (2-4) Are Nearly Hopeless & I Don't Know How It Is Going To Get Much Better This Season

 

    In the middle of a pandemic, without Tom Brady for the first time in 19 years not to mention a bunch of other key players that chose to opt out, our expectations for the Patriots (2-4) were not all that high to begin with. Through the first three games (2-1), New England looked like they would at least be a playoff team albeit not much of a Super Bowl threat. That all has taken a drastic turn for the worst in the last month as they have dropped three straight games (for the 1st time since 2002) capped off by tonight's truly disgraceful 33-6 loss at Gillette Stadium to Jimmy Garoppolo (20-of-25 for 277 yards, 2 INTs) and San Francisco (4-3). Of course the Pats have suffered their share of heartbreaking losses over the years-these things happen when you are in the playoffs so often-but I have to say that this one hit differently as they say. Coming off last week's awful 18-12 loss to Denver (2-4), you figured that they would at least show some sort of pride and be competitive. NOPE.  

    Where do we begin on this disaster that was the second-worst loss ever under head coach Bill Belichick and the worst at home since he took over in 2000? This also marked the first time that the Pats have dropped back-to-back home games since 2002. The fact that this came on the same day that the Bucs (5-2) destroyed the Raiders (3-3) in Vegas 45-20 and Tom Brady (33-of-45 for 369 yards and 4 TDs; 1 rushing TD) had a monster performance made everything that much more depressing. It's too easy to dump all the blame on Cam Newton (9-of-15 for 98 yards, 3 INTs; 19 yards rushing) since honestly, what does he have around him? A washed up Julian Edelman (1 catch for 13 yards on 3 targets), N'Keal Harry (1 catch for 6 yards on 2 targets) who left in the first half with a possible concussion and no legitimate tight ends? However, Cam's dreadful numbers the last few weeks don't lie as he's thrown five interceptions combined against the Broncos and Niners. Things got so bad today that backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham (6-of-10 for 64 yards, INT) came in for him at the start of the fourth quarter but that did nothing to change things as Stidham hasn't shown any real potential in his two outings this season besides that sweet TD pass to Harry in Kansas City. 

    This was never even close: the Niners were up 7-0 after the first quarter, 23-3 at halftime and 30-6 after the third quarter. San Francisco battled through a Super Bowl hangover earlier this season and a crazy amount of injuries to quality players (Richard Sherman, Raheem Mostert, Nick Bosa, etc) but they are rounding into form now thanks to contributions from tons of random guys like third-string running back Jeff Wilson Jr. (17 catches, 112 yards, 3 TDs) who dominated until shredding his ankle on his last touchdown run in the third quarter. Rookie wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk (game-high 6 catches, game-high 115 yards) looks like a good one, Deebo Samuel (5 catches, 65 yards) is a playmaker and George Kittle (5 catches, 55 yards) is the best all-around tight end in the NFL and it's not really up for debate. 

    A pair of field goals by Nick Folk were the only thing separating the Patriots from the indignity of getting shut out on their home turf. Other than Damien Harris (10 carries, 58 yards; 12-yard catch) and Jakobi Meyers (4 catches, 60 yards), I couldn't tell you any other Patriots that had decent games offensively. Devin McCourty and J.C. Jackson notched the interceptions of Garoppolo-San Francisco's only real mistakes all day. The whole entire game was basically an extended kick to the nuts with Robbie Gould hitting two field goals and Harvard alum Kyle Juszczyk (the best fullback in the league) running for a four-yard touchdown to fill out the Niners' box score.

    We all believed that this was basically a must-win for New England but I can now say with certainty that next Sunday (1, CBS) in Buffalo (5-2) is no doubt a must-win for the Pats. The usual AFC East title already looks well out of their grasp and while the Bills have struggled lately-gutting out a gross 18-10 win today vs. the winless Jets-they are the unquestionably the team to beat in the division. Hell, the Dolphins (3-3) were off this week but they are trending up since the Patriots beat them in Week 1 which feels like a lifetime ago. Belichick already dubbed Newton his starter for the first meeting with the Bills in 2020 and I don't blame him for that. However, the timing of the matchup is quite relevant because the NFL trade deadline is two days later-November 3rd (aka Election Day). If Buffalo beats New England, Belichick will have no choice but to look ahead to next season and unload anyone on the roster (Joe Thuney and Stephon Gilmore!) that could bring back some talent or decent draft picks in return. Winter is just around the corner and it promises to be extra miserable if the Patriots officially become just another anonymous doormat in the AFC.

UPDATE 10/26/20: This isn't headline news but Patriots linebacker/special teamer Brandon Copeland tore a pectoral muscle in yesterday's game and now he's out for the season.

The Patriots Turn Back the Clocks With a Good Old Fashioned Ass Kicking of the Bears, 51-23

It's safe to say that nobody saw Sunday's result (a 51-23 beating handed out by the Patriots to the Bears) at Gillette Stadium coming. New England (6-2 overall, 4-0 home) was last seen in a very sketchy 27-25 win over the Jets on Thursday Night Football. Plus, Chandler Jones is out for maybe the entire season so that temporarily cast a dark cloud over the team. Chicago (3-5 overall, 3-2 away) had lost to Miami 27-14 last Sunday so they desperately needed a win to turn their season around.

You'll never find me falling into the same trap that too many people do by getting wrapped up in a single win or loss. Yes the Pats looked incredible and the Bears appear headed nowhere fast but that doesn't mean anything once they snap the ball next weekend against different teams. That's what makes the NFL so great: each week and game counts so if you lose focus for a second, you'll fall off the map.

Tom Brady (30 of 35 for 354 yards, 5 TDs) was flawless, finding Rob Gronkowski (9 catches, 149 yards) for three touchdowns. Brandon LaFell is really coming along as a weapon, he set a career-high for catches (11) and receiving yards (124), he also added a touchdown. Finally, Tim Wright (7 catches, 61 yards) caught the other touchdown and New England's defense produced a score as Rob Ninkovich scooped up a fumble by Jay Cutler (20 of 30 for 227 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT) and returned it 15 yards to the end zone.

This was like a high school game between a top team and a bad team since the Patriots were up 7-0 after the first quarter before they exploded for 31 points in the second quarter (including three TDs in 57 seconds). The Bears had no idea what hit them and that made the second half nothing more than a preseason game in October. Stephen Gostkowski hit three field goals in the contest and Jimmy Garoppolo even got to take a few snaps at the end.

Gronk's most impressive touchdown was a 46-yard catch and run that was vintage Gronk. He broke a few tackles then outran some Bears defensive players that wanted no part of him. With his wide variety of injuries suffered the last couple seasons, I'm hesitant to play doctor and say "he's fully recovered" but he sure looks like a different guy than the tentative one that we saw earlier in the season.

Darrelle Revis shadowed Brandon Marshall (3 catches, 35 yards) into obscurity and added an interception at the end of the first half when Cutler threw an ill-fated hail mary. Another interesting aspect of the victory for New England was the emergence of Jonas Gray (17 carries, 86 yards) who looks like he could be Stevan Ridley Jr. while he's out for the season. In other words, he's the running back that can get those tough yards between the tackles that nobody else can (with Ridley out).

It'll be funny, at least for a few days, to hear everyone locally (and nationally) jump back on the Patriots' bandwagon. Let's not forget that Chicago is much more of a mess than we expected and it turns out that New England is in much better shape than we could have imagined. There is no doubt that the next team coming to Gillette-Denver (6-1 overall, 1st in AFC West)-on Sunday (4:25, CBS) will present a formidable challenge. The Broncos are the best team in the AFC, again, so the Patriots need to proof that they can beat them. Odds are, this outcome could decide home field in January. Let the Pats-Broncos hype begin!

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Patriots Get Run Over In Kansas City, Suffer Second Worst Loss Ever Under Belichick (41-14)

There is not much to say when you watch one of your favorite teams get absolutely embarrassed on national television. New England (2-2) went into Arrowhead Stadium tonight for Monday Night Football and just laid down in a soul-crushing 41-14 loss to Kansas City (2-2). It was the second worst loss (by margin of defeat) under Bill Belichick, trumped only by the 31-0 loss at Buffalo in the 2003 season opener.

It was never remotely competitive after the first quarter as the Chiefs led 17-0 at halftime (and it should have been more) then 27-7 after three quarters. Alex Smith (20 of 26 for 248 yards, 3 TDs) had a nearly perfect quarterback rating of 144.4 while Jamaal Charles (92 yards rushing, TD; 2 TD catches) looked like the best all-around running back in the NFL. His backup Knile Davis (107 yards rushing) and tight end Travis Kelce (8 catches, 93 yards, TD) were also unstoppable.

Things got so bad that Tom Brady (14 of 24 for 159 yards, TD, 2 INTs) was benched in the fourth quarter (to make sure he wasn't maimed). Rookie Jimmy Garoppolo made his NFL debut and threw a meaningless 13-yard touchdown to Rob Gronkowski which is sure to set off reactionary idiots across New England for the next week ("he should start!").

The scary part is that Kansas City by all indications before tonight is nothing more than an average to fringe playoff team in the AFC. What happens when New England plays legitimate contenders like say Cincinnati (3-0) which just happens to be their next game on Sunday night (8:30, NBC) at Gillette Stadium?

I can't ever remember the Pats having so many critical deficiencies at one time: their offensive line is maybe the worst in the NFL, Brady isn't himself (understandably), they can't run the ball consistently and outside of Julian Edelman and the ghost of Gronk, who can he throw to? Aaron Dobson and Kenbrell Thompkins were inactive again tonight which makes zero sense unless there was some internal punishment that we'll never know about.

The defense seemed promising through the first three games but then this evening they imploded in spectacular fashion: missing millions of tackles, slipping constantly and above all, looking slow and lethargic.

Other than Matthew Slater on special teams (seriously, he's a beast), there was only one other guy on the Patriots that showed some signs of life: Brandon LaFell. He had six catches for a game-high 119 yards including a 44-yard catch and run for a score. After four catches last week vs. Oakland, he appears to be getting on the same page with Brady. My advice to Josh McDaniels: keep feeding him the ball, what's the worst that can happen?

The AFC East is still the worst division in football and you know at some point, New England will get better. However, nobody expected a catastrophic loss like this. The Patriots used to hand out beatings in similar fashion, not absorb them in front of the entire world. This will be the most critical week (in terms of negativity) surrounding the team since Belichick took over (minus Spygate of course).

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If You Need Me Today, I'll Be Driving Ryan Mallett to the Airport

I haven't looked lately but I'm pretty sure that if you opened a dictionary to either the world "useless" or "stiff", you'd see a picture of quarterback Ryan Mallett. That's why I'm so happy that after months and months of endless rumors, that bum is finally being shipped off to the Houston Texans for the pittance of a conditional sixth or seventh-round draft pick in 2016 (sure to be used on some scrub from Rutgers).

Mallett was a third-round pick (74th overall) in 2011 so this was the fourth year that he'd been in New England, with the last three serving as Tom Brady's main backup. Rather than improve year-to-year and develop at all, he only seemed to get worse the few times we saw him every August in JV preseason games. When the Pats drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in the second-round this spring (62nd overall) out of Eastern Illinois, it was obvious that Mallett's days in Foxborough were numbered.

After watching Garoppolo quickly surpass Mallett in training camp and in the preseason games, the only question left to answer was if the Patriots would be able to fleece some stupid team into trading for Mallett rather than just waiting for him to be released (which he would have been, no question). For his career's sake, Mallett is going to a much better situation. Houston is in full rebuilding mode, as evidenced by having Harvard's Ryan Fitzpatrick as their starting quarterback. Plus their head coach is former Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien who must see something in him.

If Mallett never does anything with the Texans, that will probably be it in terms of his time in the NFL. I've always said that he's a poor man's Drew Bledsoe and in 2014, that's not a compliment. He probably would have been good in the 80s or 90s with his throwback style (big, strong arm, bad feet) but it was clear that today's modern quarterback is all about making quick decisions and being mobile enough to make some happen should a play breakdown.

Brady and Peyton Manning are the dinosaurs in this game which is why odds are Mallett will never contribute something of note now that he's outside the comfort zone of a winning organization. There won't be anymore Patriots bobos and honks in the media to prop up his trade value with silly talk of him really turning the corner every summer. Nope, this is it for him and frankly, I'm thrilled to say so long. Should disaster strike the Patriots in 2014 (or the next few), I'm much more confident that Garoppolo at least could deliver some hope that the season won't be flushed down the toilet immediately.

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Patriots Finally Get a Legitimate Backup QB: Jimmy Garoppolo

We all know that Ryan Mallett is horrible and will never be a starter in the NFL. Also, Tom Brady turns 37 in August so while he's still playing at a very high level and signed through 2017, it's time to start thinking about the future as well since Mallett's contract runs out this year and there are rumors of Houston wanting him. The Pats showed their true intentions tonight in this most important department by using a second-round pick (62nd overall) on Eastern Illinois' Jimmy Garoppolo.

I actually saw him in a couple games since I love watching the FCS playoffs but I'm not going to be able to dissect his game like I'm Mel Kiper or local homeboy Tood McShay. This is what we know: he's relatively big (6-foot-3, 222 pounds), mobile with a good arm and he won the Walter Payton Award (the Heisman for FCS players). I was hoping that the Patriots would select Alabama QB A.J. McCarron and not just so I could ogle that smokeshow Katherine Webb, he seemed like a perfect fit. Still, Garoppolo is intriguing and the good news is that he might only be the third quarterback this season so he has plenty of time to learn the playbook and get used to life in the NFL.

None of us want to admit it or really think about it (for obvious reasons) but at some point, Brady won't be New England's starting quarterback anymore. Odds are that day isn't too far away so the sooner the Patriots address this the better. As I said, the limited amount that we've seen Mallett in the preseason is enough to show that he's a complete stiff. A very poor man's Drew Bledsoe if you will: huge, cannon arm, not mobile at all and really slow to get rid of the ball. Brady and Peyton Manning are the outliers in today's NFL. You need a quarterback these days that can at least move a little bit so in that regard, Garoppolo could be the guy somewhere down the road. Stay tuned.

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