It's Impossible to Evaluate this Patriots Team
This is the most bizarre Patriots season in recent memory. It feels like each week is a game of "tug of war," where my patience is the rope and the teams are my sanity and utter confusion, with the final goal being which side can cause me to Google different types of knots and how much weight each knot can hold. It's quite astonishing... and I actually get excited to do it again each week. It's sickening, the hold this franchise has on my mental state should instantly get me qualified for some sort of class-action lawsuit. The worst part of it all is that I can't even place my finger on what the problem is.
If you scroll through social media you will see everyone has a slightly different opinion on what this team's problem is, but are pretty much the same. It's coaching, it's the roster, it's the owner, and all are true to some degree, but I can't quite figure out what the exact answer is.
Jerod Mayo's first year as a head coach has been a dumpster fire. This team is undisciplined. The amount of procedural penalties this team commits is atrocious. That falls on the head coach. Say what you want about Bill Belichick, but these errors didn't happen during his tenure. The Patriots had 13 penalties yesterday, with six of them being before the snap. The false starts and illegal shifts, and the holding penalties are costly for any team, let alone a team that is young and underskilled compared to most teams. These errors fall on the head coach.
Combine the penalties with Mayo's postgame press conferences, and it's a disaster. For example, when it comes to the numerous holding penalties that stalled out multiple drives in a row, while also erasing big plays. I'm not sure if it's a product of poor coaching because they're not prepared, or they're undisciplined, or having linemen on the field who might not even start on college teams. Aside from Mike Owenu, I don't want to see any active linemen on the field next year. I am willing to give David Andrews and Cole Strange a chance once they are healthy, but overall, the line needs to be fixed. Whether that be through free agency or through the draft, there needs to be changes. I am in the camp of passing on the wide receivers, even though I love Tetairoa McMillan. He's incredible, but a guy like Will Campbell changes everything instantly. Drake Maye is a budding superstar, and he needs to be protected. It doesn't matter that McMillan is wide open if the play gets called back or Maye is running for his life.
However, many players on the current roster were on last year's team. Kyle Dugger looks like a shell of himself. Jerod Mayo hasn't gotten a fraction of the production that Belichick got out of Dugger for three years. That's not a good thing. A guy entering his fourth year in the NFL shouldn't be regressing after so many good years. We championed this guy. He was a Division Two player in college and was widely considered a steal even by other teams. It's confusing.
There are also problems with their execution. I said earlier that the postgame press conferences are a disaster. Mayo consistently throws his team under the bus. Earlier this year, he referred to his team as soft, and now he is stating that they simply aren't executing properly. When questioned about the mistakes his team made in yesterday's game, Mayo quickly deflected responsibility and placed the blame on the players, saying, “Look, once those guys cross the white lines, there’s nothing I can do for them.”
What can possibly be made of that? It's easy to blame him for not taking responsibility, and I understand why. You'd probably be right, but what if he is right? To play devil's advocate, it is possible that they prepare a great game plan and the players fail to do their jobs. Yesterday, the Patriots allowed a touchdown to Miami runningback De'von Achane that anyone with feet could have scored on. That might be too generous too, because I've seen some babies crawl pretty fast, and they might've been able to score on that play too. Achane caught a pass in the flat and nobody was within 15 feet of him. That's either not being prepared (coach), not calling a play that accounts for one of the fastest players in the league (coach), or failure to execute (players/roster).
This then goes back to the problem of Robert Kraft's fault, the owner. There isn’t much to critique about Kraft's decisions this offseason. He didn’t spend a lot of money, but this wasn’t expected to be a year for the Patriots to contend, so I understand his approach to some extent. The real accountability for Kraft will come next year. The Patriots have an incredible quarterback, and it’s time to invest in better weapons and protection for him. Additionally, the secondary needs improvement; securing a cornerback to partner with Christian Gonzalez is crucial, as is adding an outside linebacker. If the Patriots fail to make any significant signings again and have the same issues as this year, then Kraft will rightly be viewed as a major problem for the team. Until then, I’m willing to give him a pass.
My biggest point is that the Patriots have more than one issue, so it's best to pump the breaks on passing blame because I'm not sure who deserves it. They all do. This is a bad team with a few exciting players. The penalties need to be figured out. Not during the offseason, but for next week. That's on Mayo. If he has to be the "bad guy" and threaten running, or benching players, he has to do it. The one thing I loved about Bill Belichick is that he would've played Joey Slye at left tackle before he allowed his team the embarrassment that came with the line play yesterday. So figure it out, build on the last few games of the year, and build a team that can be competitive next year.
