The New England Patriots have officially dropped another game this season, a fourth straight after what looked to be a positive sign of things to come after a week one win over the more talented Cincinnati Bengals.
This is the worst offense in the NFL, and it isn’t even close. In weeks past, you could justify their performances: 20 points against the Seahawks – that’s not terrible! 13 against the 49ers – well their defense is great, maybe the best in the league! Six points against the Jets – it was a short week? However, the offense was never good. Then the injuries piled up: David Andrews, Sidy Sow, Caedan Wallace – two of last week’s starters on the offensive line plus the swing tackle out. They ran out their fifth combination across the line in as many games, and it looked horrid as ever. This is a prime example of why not to look at the box score: 89 yards at 7.4 yards per rush for Stevenson, and 52 on only six attempts for Gibson? Sounds good to me! Well, the running attack was a testament to those players, not the line in itself. Jacoby Brissett was pummeled all day, and if Drake Maye really is the future, it’ll be a short one if he’s put behind this line. Going player for player, Lowe is a sixth-round pick coming off an injury, Jordan, a perennial practice squadder, Leverett is playing out of position and Jacobs made his first NFL start of his career just last week.
Is there hope for development? Maybe, but as of now the sixty-million-dollar man, Mike Onwenu, is the only player demonstrating any level of consistent play, and even he hasn’t played his best this year, sporting his lowest career PFF season grade to date. The skill position players did little to help, and for as much hype as Ja’Lynn Polk has gotten these past few weeks, he ended the game with just one catch on six targets for 13 yards. He did draw a flag on the last meaningful drive immediately following his catch, but the receivers as a group are uninspiring. Could we see development within this group? That seems more likely. Polk, Pop Douglas and Kayshon Boutte seemed to be the three preferred wide outs in this game, and they combined for nine of the 10 catches made by the position group on the day. All three are in their first two years, so there is some promise on that front – while the production isn’t awe-inspiring, they’re at the least playing, something that couldn’t be said for 2022 second round pick Tyquan Thornton, who is reportedly seeking a trade. The play has been poor, for New England, and it doesn’t look to be going anywhere in the coming weeks.
Despite allowing only 15 points, it’s hard to give the defense a ton of credit as a unit. They were fine as a group, a handful of decent plays and some more notable poor ones, which we’ll get to soon enough. At the end of the day, they played a backup quarterback, and breakout running back De’Von Achane made it through just twelve minutes before being ruled out with a concussion. Tyreek Hill is always circled and underlined by defensive coordinators, and to DeMarcus Covington and company’s credit, they held him to just 69 yards, a very respectable total. Christian Gonzalez lined up in man coverage on most occasions with Hill, and he played what was his best football all year. Gonzalez had a diving first quarter interception on a pass intended for Odell Beckham Jr., and should have had a second in the endzone if not for Hill’s punch out effort at the last moment. Gonzalez was the only individual player I would say played well wire to wire. Now, as much as I can say I don’t credit the defense all too much, it’s hard to pick out anyone who played all too poorly either. While his play wasn’t poor overall, Keion White is starting to become a bit of a headache with his discipline. A pair of penalties cost the Patriots 30 yards on the same drive, one of just four they managed points on. The first was a horse collar tackle on a scrambling but slowing down Tyler Huntley who had multiple defenders in front of him ready to wrap him up. The penalty was unnecessary and was certainly a setback, but not the end of the world – Huntley already had gained the first down on the play, so it didn’t keep the defense on the field at the least. A few plays later, Jonathan Jones batted a ball down on 3rd & 13 to force the Dolphins to punt. A flag was thrown, however, for a blatant roughing of the passer – well after Huntley had thrown the ball – on White. These poor decisions in the end handed the Dolphins three points, which proved critical in the final minutes. Other than a few individuals though, they played fairly well as a unit. Not a whole lot more can be done than what they did, but they met expectations. I’ll give them a B for the day.
No one is that interested in Special Teams, including myself. But when the amount of activity happens in this phase as it did a week ago, it’s worth paying attention to. The Patriots managed to block a punt, while Miami missed a field goal and had trouble snapping a second. A Marcus Jones punt return with less than a minute to go gave the Patriots a half chance to win the game, so I’ll give him his flowers there. A 33-yard field goal miss from Joey Slye was very disappointing, but given the pair of Dolphin’s miscues, it’s fair to say the Patriots would have at least one. Somehow, the Special Teams has become the most exciting part of this team to watch. Yikes.
Next week, the Patriots kick off for a 1:00 p.m. match up against the Houston Texans, who are coming off a three-point win against the Patriots’ division rivals, the Buffalo Bills. Once again at home, it’ll certainly be a tough matchup, and one I can’t say I have much confidence in them winning. My week out prediction? A 27-6 win in favor of C.J. Stroud’s guys.