The Patriots Season Might’ve Been Lost In The Summer

By: Steve Atkinson

The Patriots loss to the Raiders Sunday was just another example of bad offense and fundamentals. It’s really been like that all season long and it really started in July. I don’t have to say again what happened last off-season we’ve been talking about it non-stop. Mac Jones getting frustrated and yelling at Patricia even during the Raiders game early on you knew this game wasn’t going to go in the Patriots favor. Funny, how Jones wasn’t yelling at Josh McDaniel’s on the sideline last year if things weren’t going right. From the jump Bill Belichick has put both Matt Patricia and Mac Jones in a bad spot.

For Belichick to not hire an offensive coordinator because he didn’t want to lose one to head coaching job after one season is kind of selfish. Because instead he just brought Patricia from upstairs and gave him the offense. Mac Jones has regressed with the same group of offensive players that he had last season. That is one hundred percent on Bill Belichick when all he had to do was hire a real offensive coordinator.

The Raiders game was on the players mostly Mac Jones only passed for just over 100 yards. The offense couldn’t even score a touchdown which they haven’t been able to do consistently all season. The touchdown that wasn’t by the Raiders to tie the game is what it is. The lack of communication by not knowing it’s a tie game and playing hero ball is concerning. Jakobi Meyers obviously should’ve went down, or Stevenson should’ve gone down with the ball. The defense was playing good no need to play dumb. But when you lack discipline, and you don’t have the leadership you once had these mistakes happen.

Under Brady these things rarely happened the only thing that comes close is the Maimi miracle. But that wasn’t as bad as Sunday. The old Patriots knew what the score was, they didn’t have defensive coaches become offensive coaches, and they had discipline. When you have a leader like Brady, he brings everyone up around him to be better than they are. The only exception is 2019 his last year with the Patriots when he was checked out and 2022 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when he’s checked out of there also. Other than that, you can see the difference.

Here’s one of Mac’s quotes after the game about Jakobi Meyers

“I think Jakobi is one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. I mean, he’s a fighter, and he does everything he can to try and help the team. Obviously, you’d have to ask Coach [Belichick] about it and see what our plan was. At the end of the day, the guy’s out there fighting and trying to compete to win the game, and there’s a lot of things I could have done better in the game – like I said earlier – so we were not even in that situation. When I don’t play very well, we’re in that situation, and it’s terrible. It’s tough, but I love Jakobi, and I love all the guys on our team. It’s not to Jakobi’s fault. I think we just got to watch it and see what we can do better.”

Let’s look at the difference between last year and this year on offense. Last year they ranked 6th in offense with 462 points. This year they rank 17th with just 300 points. Remember they had the same players offensively like they do this year. Last year they ranked 15th in yards with 6,008 this year they rank 25th with 4,473 yards. In pass yards last year, they ranked 14th with 4,098 this year they rank 22nd with 3,128. Finally last year Jones was sacked 28 times last year which ranks 3rd. This year he’s been sacked 33 times which ranks 15th. Mac Jones has regressed not because of what’s around him on the field but what’s around him on the coaching staff period. The stats prove it. Now, next year if the get a real offensive coordinator and the numbers look like this year then I’ll jump off the Mac Jones train. Next year is crucial in his development.