Patriots Have Another Must Win Against the Saints

By Steve Atkinson

There is no doubt the Patriots have to win against the Saints on Sunday. After the brutal loss to the Cowboys last week the Patriots find themselves 1-3 again and a win on Sunday could bring back some stability. I think Sunday’s Patriots game will be much like the Jets game. Not a lot of scoring because both offenses can’t move the ball. It will probably come down to a defensive turnover by the Patriot’s defense since that seems to be the side of the ball that only Belichick cares about.

Patriots Need To Win On Sunday

After the Saints game they travel to Vegas to play the Raiders which also should be a win to get back to 500. Then it’s Buffalo and Miami which will probably be losses. That’s why the Saints game is important because things could easily get out of control and players will start checking out on the season. For some reason, Belichick thinks it’s twenty years ago and they have the team to overcome things when it gets bad. This isn’t twenty years ago when Tom Brady was here winning Super Bowls lifting the players around him to be better. Mac Jones isn’t able to do that and neither is any quarterback in the league other than maybe Mahomes.

The game has passed Belichick by and really should not care about passing Don Shula’s wins record. You should credit Brady for the wins record since Belichick has been under .500 since Brady left.

As the Patriots battle the Saints on Sunday Belichick said this past week that they are a tough team

Alright, always interesting to watch the Saints, pretty impressive team here. They’ve done a good job in really maintaining the program they’ve had over the last three years. They’ve done a really good job with the team. They’re well balanced. This is a solid team. Mickey [Loomis] and Dennis [Allen] have acquired a lot of players here to, say, compensate for some of the losses they’ve had. You know, drafted well. So, a really, really solid group here. The coaches are really the same ones we’ve seen for quite a while, minus Sean [Payton]. But, with Dennis, Pete [Carmichael] and Darren [Rizzi] as the coordinators and a lot of the key players, not all, but a lot of the key players are still there from earlier in that 2017 to 2020 period, and then even since we played them in 2’1.

Mac Jones is going up against a defense that is easier than the Cowboy’s defense. I would expect he takes care of the football better and hopefully Hunter Henry, DeVante Parker, and bad knees Smith-Schuster can make plays. Even Mike Gesicki got him more involved.

A good defense. Obviously, Dennis [Allen], he does a great job. They’re very sound everywhere across the board. They’ve got experienced players on all three levels and like I said, it kind of starts with us. What can we do better and what can I do better? That’s just focus on each play. What’s the design of the play? If it’s a run, hand it off, if it’s a pass, throw it, if it’s RPO, read it out. That’s kind of the main thing I’m focusing on. But, they definitely have talent. They have great coaching and really just a good defense.

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