Frustrated Patriots Take On Bengals Saturday

By: Steve Atkinson

The Patriots will play Christmas Eve Day on Saturday against the Bengals. The Bengals are coming off a win against Brady and the Buccaneers while the Patriots are coming off an embarrassing loss to the Raiders. The Patriots are very inconsistent and a dysfunctional mess on offense. We’ve been over and over the reason why all season, but Patricia really does need to go. Put him back upstairs like last year and nowhere near the sidelines. He and Belichick are running Mac in his second season. Hopefully with a real offensive coordinator next year they can get the Jones back they had in 2021.

The Patriots look at these last three games two ways either they pack it in and just prepare for 2023. Or give their all and get bounced in the first round of the playoffs again by either Buffalo or Kansas City. Either way, the Patriots wouldn’t go far this year anyway. Regardless if they make the playoffs or not changes need to be done in the offseason.

Mac Jones is the future of the franchise as calls for Zappe to start is probably not going to happen. Jones has a lot of friends in the locker room and Belichick runs the risk of losing the locker room if he were to switch the quarterback. We saw how Zappe did against the Browns and Lions. Then we saw him in the second half of the Bears game. Really nothing special, but we also haven’t seen anything special from Jones either because of the coaching and not putting him in a position to succeed.

Joe Burrow and the Bengals may run the Patriots defense out of the building. Burrow is a special kind of talent who can even take down Mahomes and the Chiefs. There is no fear in Burrow and could be a Super Bowl-winning quarterback soon. The Bengals were in it last year and could go back this year. The Bengals also have an offensive coordinator who runs a good system. I really don’t see the Patriots beating the Bengals Saturday.

Mac Jones was asked about third down and how they haven’t been good in that area. His answer was pretty long but basically said how they need to improve on third down.

 I think third down is definitely a big down, especially in the National Football League. Then as you get further away from the sticks, your percentages go down. So that’s just a fact. So you want to try and keep it as close as you can to the third-and-shorts, third-and-mediums. But going backwards on first and second down doesn’t help. Definitely want to improve. But the other part of it is you can’t over emphasize a certain down and put too much pressure on that situation. It’s another play. Yes, you’re trying to get past the sticks, but you have to play the play for what it is. Sometimes that might be taking the check down or whatever it may be. We’re just trying to end every drive in a kick. So that’s the important part. Whether that be an extra point, or a PAT that’s great. Or if it’s a punt, obviously we don’t want those. But that’s also better than interceptions, turnovers and stuff. So that’s a big part of it, too. We definitely need to be better on third downs. So we have to improve that area.

Do I think the offense will be better this game? No, because I think the offense is broken and can’t be fixed this season. Get someone in there that knows what they’re doing on that side of the ball. They have the same players as last year it should be better than what it is period.