Three times the Patriots have been home underdogs at Gillette Stadium this season. All three times New England dug an early deficit in Foxborough thanks to turnovers and lost, the latest a 34-0 beatdown at the hands of the Saints.
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Mac Jones was hit as he threw a first-quarter pick-6 to New Orleans' safety Tyrann Mathieu to fall behind 7-0 on the 27-yard touchdown, on the way to the visitors building a 21-0 halftime advantage. It was the third turnover involving Jones that led to opponents’ points in two games, including a fumble and pick-6 a week earlier in Dallas.
Things got no better in the second half as the turnovers continued and the banged up Patriots’ defense couldn’t make many plays to make a difference. And once again Bill Belichick decided to bench Jones in favor of Bailey Zappe, to a loud ovation from the Foxborough “Faithful.”
The Patriots dropped to 1-4 on the season, last place in the AFC East and falling deeper and deeper into an early season hole of misery in New England. A week after the worst loss of Belichick's career, his team put forth its worst home shutout defeat in franchise history, according to CBS.
Before turning the page to next Sunday’s trip to Las Vegas to take on Josh McDaniels, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jakobi Meyers and the Raiders, here are the lows from yet another ugly New England loss.
Thumbs up
None – A week after getting embarrassed by the Cowboys, New England returned home to put forth another team wid- embarrassing performance.
There were plenty of key mistakes in all three phases and no real playmaking in any of the phases. The wheels fell off in Dallas and the entire Patriots team continued to ride on rims against New Orleans. The coaching was bad. The playing was bad. No thumbs up for anyone after that performance.
Thumbs down
Mac Jones – A week after he was benched after three turnovers in Dallas, New England’s quarterback was back in the giveaway game against the Saints before getting benched in favor of Bailey Zappe again in the fourth quarter. Sure Jones was hit as he threw what ended up the Mathieu pick-6, but it’s not coincidence that negative plays continue to happen for Jones. Later Jones ruined a well-schemed fake QB sneak that should have been a big play on a pitch to Rhamondre Stevenson on third-and-short. But Jones’ pitch was behind his running back, leading to a fumble and turnover. Beyond the turnovers, Jones continues to be adversely affected by pressure, make questionable decisions down the field and even have too many inaccurate throws, including an ugly miss of Hunter Henry on the first third down of the day to force a punt. He even got a second tough-luck interception in the third quarter on a ball that was bobbled and deflected in the air by Ty Montgomery. Jones just isn’t playing well and continues to give evidence that he’s not the answer at the QB position in New England. In fact he almost feels jinxed right now.
Bill Belichick – New England’s boss man gets the nod to represent the overall coaching and team dynamic. But this is about more than Belichick. Bill O’Brien hasn’t exactly lit it up on offense, turning second-and-short situations into bad results. Adrian Klemm has not found a way to get the line to be effective in any way. And Belichick has not found a way to keep his team – the one he also put together with plenty of areas lacking representative talent – from embarrassing itself in consecutive weeks. Belichick likes to say after losses that it starts with him. It’s time for us to really listen to him and believe him. He’s right.
Offensive line – Trent Brown was beaten for a sack and looked disinterested. Atonio Mafi got beat for the hit that led to the Jones’ pick-6 interception. Vederian Lowe struggled at right tackle. David Andrews struggled to hold things together in the middle. The offensive line was the team’s biggest problem heading into the season. It hasn’t improved five games in and continues to be a major factor in the offensive struggles.
Joe Cardona – New England’s veteran is one of the highest paid long snappers in the NFL, but early in 2023 he’s been very inconsistent.
He had a poor snap that cost his rookie kicker a field goal last month. Sunday, he had two early bad snaps to rookie punter Bryce Baringer that led to less-than-ideal punts. Cardona is supposed to be the proven, known commodity in the Patriots special teams operation but he’s the one making mistakes and too often making life much harder on his rookie specialists.
Lack of takeaways – New England’s offense gets all the attention for giving the ball away and giving the opponents points. As it should. But the Patriots’ defense is very much failing to create turnovers, something that has been a team strength in the past. The pass rush struggled against the Saints in its first game without Matthew Judon. The coverage struggled in its first game without Christian Gonzalez. The run defense wasn’t great. New England is actually allowed to take the ball away from opponents, which it has done just twice this year compared to its offense’s 10 giveaways.
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