Now that all the decorative holiday Nutcrackers have been put away for the year, it’s “nut-cutting time” for the Patriots.
At least that’s how New England guard Shaq Mason described the situation for his team on WEEI heading into the final two weeks of the regular season, starting with Sunday’s hosting of the two-win Jaguars at Gillette Stadium.
In case you’re not familiar with the classic phrase – one which has a long history in sports and politics with no certain origination point, although a literal translation rooted in the cattle industry is a very real possibility – nut-cutting time is pretty much crunch time.
A time to do something or get off the pot, so to speak.
The rubber is meeting the road.
Whichever phrase you use to describe it, it’s certainly that time for the Patriots.
A team that was once riding a seven-game winning streak and sitting atop the AFC standings as the No. 1 seed is now mired in an ugly two-game losing stretch that has New England fighting to secure even a Wild Card spot with the AFC East division title likely lost to the Bills last weekend in Foxborough.
A team that was once seen as balanced and maybe as well-rounded as any in football way back a month or so ago when Power Rankings and curious computer projections had it labeled as a top Super Bowl contender has stumbled like a caroler in the snow who had a little too much eggnog over Christmas break.
The losses in Indy and to the Bills put on display an alarmingly flawed football team. One that turned the ball over, had too many penalties, started too slowly, played the games on the opponents’ terms, couldn’t stay on the field on offense and could get the plays it needed on defense.
Whatever the technical, Belichickian term for the opposite of complementary winning football is, that’s what New England has been the last two times it’s taken the field. A franchise that built a reputation over the years for annually playing it's best football after Thanksgiving is failing to live up to that reputation for the third straight season.
It got, depending on which team leader described it, either a wakeup call or a reality check.
But, as New Year’s Weekend hits, all was not lost in the recent losses.
Bill Belichick’s team still has the chance to win its final two games of the regular season to earn a playoff spot and finished with an 11-win campaign, which would represent a marked improvement from a year ago when the playoffs were never realistic in the struggles of the Cam Newton-led first year post-Tom Brady.
While all the accomplishments of the seven-game winning streak and first 13 games of work took a blow in recent weeks, much can still be salvaged.
But it absolutely has to begin Sunday afternoon against Jacksonville.
There is no longer room for error. No time for slow starts or sloppy play. No excuse to do anything but control the game and cruise to victory against an opponent led by a struggling rookie QB in Trevor Lawrence who hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in nearly two months. A foe that already dismissed its overmatched college coach barely halfway through his debacle of first NFL season. On organization that’s more focused on finding its next coach than winning its next game.
The Jaguars are not good. They don’t play well. They are dealing with way more COVID issues than any other team in all of sports right now.
There is no reason for Mac Jones and Co. to do anything but dominate against his boyhood hometown team.
The Patriots have every reason, motivation and opportunity to go out against the Jaguars to enjoy a get right, feel good kind of game. A game where they show their abilities in all three phases, pushing pause on the concerns about Jones hitting the rookie wall, the defense looking slow and old or just about anything else that’s crept into the critical conversation in recent weeks.
It’s time to look like the New England team that beat up on Zack Wilson’s Jets. That went to L.A. and dismissed Justin Herbert’s Chargers.
It’s indeed “nut-cutting time” for the Patriots.
Otherwise it’ll indeed be time to admit that we as a football world overrated New England way more than we even realize.
We’ll find out on Sunday.
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