Patriots Aren’t Going to Win on Turnovers

By Steve Atkinson 

The Patriots’ loss to Pittsburgh was inexcusable due to the turnovers and penalties. You can’t fumble the ball on the two-yard line after your defense has just made an interception deep in Pittsburgh territory. Stevenson’s fumble was inexcusable. I’ll give Drake Maye a pass on the interception before halftime because he took a hard hit and seemed a bit out of it for a moment. Still, they could have opted to run the ball with Henderson. The Patriots should have won that game; the Steelers aren’t that good.

The fourth-down play to Demario Douglas should have gone to Stefon Diggs. He’s the one who makes the first down in that situation. Diggs has consistently delivered for you when Drake throws him the ball. You got Diggs for a reason, so take advantage of that opportunity, especially late in the game. Before Sunday, the Patriots had a 50/50 chance of winning, but they really beat themselves in this one. The Patriots have accumulated more penalties in three games under Vrabel than they did in three games under Jerod Mayo. That said, they do look functional, and the schedule is getting easier.

I expect them to beat Carolina but lose to Buffalo. After that, the schedule looks pretty favorable with the Falcons and Browns, so maybe they can start a winning streak. Hey, can start a winning streak. Hey, can start a winning streak. Hey, can start a winning streak. Hey, can start a winning streak. Hey, can start a winning streak.

Here is Mike Vrabel making an excuse about the Patriots’ penalties. I did see Aaron Rodgers motion to the refs a lot, but Brady did the same thing.

The penalties, we cleaned them up, but the penalties … They called a couple of defensive holds, they called on them. You’d have to tell me that the penalty on Carlton Davis is actually defensive pass interference. That’s new for me. And again, I think that the turnovers are much more critical than the penalties, much more critical.”

“Ball security comes down to technique. It comes down to other people protecting the guy with the ball, the second guy in. Those are all things that we continue to talk about, have talked about, and will talk about, and decision-making. Decision making when you have the football in your hand, whether that’s a quarterback, whether that’s a player that’s reaching it, and it gets knocked out. So, we’ll watch the tape, and we’ll clearly address the ball security. We’ve got to move on, fix it, and move on.

There is no excuse when you’re driving down the field to not put up points.

Yeah, I appreciate that question. I do. We have to score. You have to score in this league. You have to… Again, I’m great with the long drives. We’re going to have to continue to use that and gain confidence, but we’re going to have to find ways to create explosive plays. It’s hard to drive the ball, 19 plays. Impressive that we can do that. But it’s also a reminder that you have to hit some X plays, and you have to continue to score touchdowns when you get down there after 19 plays. And I appreciate that.