NFL
By: Steve Atkinson
The Patriots loss to the Bears on Monday night Football was embarrassing, to say the least. I predicted a blowout but by the Patriots. Instead, it was the total opposite, and the Bears kicked the crap out of the Patriots on both sides of the ball. The defense played like garbage letting Justin Fields run all over the place, but the real story of the night is how they handled the quarterback situation. I really want to know are Bill Belichick, Matt Patricia, and Joe Judge ruining Mac Jones development? I think so, starting in the offseason.
The Failures of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as Head Coaches
First, Bill Belichick brings in Joe Judge, who was awful with Daniel Jones and the New York Giants as head coach. Do you want to know what Joe Judge did to Daniel Jones while in New York? Completely messed up his development. In 2020 Daniel Jones threw for 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In 2021 Jones threw for 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. So far with Brian Daboll as head coach in 2022 Daniel Jones has thrown for 6 touchdowns and just two interceptions. The Giants are also 6-1 and in second place in the NFC East. Belichick decided to bring this clown to coach Mac Jones as quarterback’s coach. Now, let’s go to Belichick’s buddy Matt Patricia who is currently the Patriots offensive play caller.
Matt Patricia failed as a head coach with the Detroit Lions and ruined the locker room. Matt Stafford was drained by Patricia’s coaching style and didn’t like playing for him. Stafford could never elevate his game because of Patricia and his ways. Stafford then goes to the Rams and wins the Super Bowl last year without Matt Patricia.
Now, let us go to Mac Jones and last year with Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator. Mac Jones last year threw 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Jones and McDaniels had great chemistry, and Jones had the best season out of all the rookie quarterback’s last season.
Josh McDaniels was the answer for Mac Jones
With McDaniels taking the head coaching job with the Raiders, Belichick decides to bring in Patricia and Judge to work on the offensive side of the ball. After both of them failed at their respective organizations with Daniel Jones and Matt Stafford. Never mind, trying to put in a new offense that neither of them knows how to run. What sense does that even make? And we want to make it look like Jones is the baby and put it on him that he’s thrown just two touchdowns and 6 interceptions this year? The majority of the blame is on Bill, Patricia, and Judge.
The Plays are different for Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe
Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal put in the best last night in a recent article about the plays Mac was running vs the plays Zappe was running. According to Greg Bedard, Jones was in shotgun eight of his first nine plays. The first play-action game on the second series Jones was in which he felt pressure and was sacked. On the third possession Jones tried to find Tyquan Thorton but was dropped. They did a running play and instead of using play action on third down Jones was in shotgun again; nobody was open, and he ran for a first down.
After Jones hit tight end, Hunter Henry, for 12 yards. Matt Patricia called an outside zone run that goes for 1 yard. Jones would then be in shotgun again and have no choice but to take it himself for 8 yards. Right before Mac’s interception, he tried to find Damien Harris that was dropped. He then threw the interception which was his last play of the night.
However, when Bailey Zappe came in the playcalling was different, according to Greg Bedard. For the Jakobi Meyers touchdown, they put Myers in motion and set it up so Zappe could find Meyers for the wide-open touchdown. Great play call by Patricia there. Just one question where was those types of play calls for Mac Jones?
Coaching staff is setting up Mac Jones to Fail
Is it because Matt Patricia and Joe Judge think Zappe is fresh and new who doesn’t have experience in an NFL environment. So, let’s prove a point to Bill Belichick that Mac is a pain by drawing up plays that they know aren’t going to work so they can play Zappe. If last night isn’t setting up Mac Jones to fail, then I’m not sure what is. There was no reason to play him if he wasn’t mentally ready. I’m sure he wanted to play, and the Bears are a bad team, so Bill probably had no problem with it. But to pull him after 3 possessions and an interception is wrong. Feeding into the fraudulent crowd because they think every new quarterback that does well is the next Tom Brady is ridiculous.
The Dallas Cowboys handled the Dak Prescott situation after he was out for a couple of weeks with an injury. He didn’t play well, either. They didn’t pull him or make a big scene about it because of the crowd getting to them or whatever. They know Dak is the quarterback and when he was ready, then he’d be out there. The Cowboys handled that better than a Bill Belichick Patriots team did with Mac Jones.
Congratulations, Belichick your locker room is now a mess thanks to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. You are now the Giants and the Lions because when both Patricia and Judge were head coaches of those teams, they lost the locker room. Jakobi Meyers put it best after the game on Monday night.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/patriots-jakobi-meyers-gets-honest-mac-jones-leaving-mid-game“Not even as a football player, it’s tough as a man to see somebody who worked so hard, get that kind of treatment, but at the end of the day, we’re all trying to feed our families,” he said. “We gotta go out there and make plays with whoever throwing it.”
Now, what do you do? Zappe isn’t the answer he didn’t play well in the second half against a bad Bears team. Honestly, I hope Josh McDaniels gets fired from the Raiders and comes back here because if this doesn’t get fixed soon, Mac Jones will be on another team when his rookie contract is up I guarantee it.
