Sunday’s 34-15 loss for the Patriots marked a return to some of the bad football that was commonplace earlier this season, as the Dolphins moved the ball with ease while New England’s offense mostly laid dormant.
On top of it all, New England was flagged 10 times on the day for a loss of 75 yards - the type of hole even the most talented teams in the league would have a hard time digging out of.
Four of those 10 penalties came from Patriots left tackle Vederian Lowe, who was flagged once for holding and three times (!) for false starts - all of which occurred in the first half.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Three false starts in one half is startlingly bad for a professional football player, and Lowe told the media on Tuesday that these types of mistakes are easily correctable on his end.
“Yeah - it’s just, you know, not being mentally focused enough,” said Lowe. “You know, it’s an easy fix. Like I said, it’s not nothing that, you know, the defense is doing. It’s not nothing that the coaches - it’s not a scheme thing, it’s not, you know, refs. It’s nobody else but yourself. So I would say it’s definitely lack of focus.”
With these types of penalties being so easily correctable and within Lowe’s control, he said that these flags are much more painful than the ones thrown post-snap.
“The pre-snap penalties hurt the most because, you know, that’s nothing that nobody else is doing,” said Lowe. “So, you know, by correcting that, you know, just being more mentally focused, being more locked-in, you know - I think that that will go a long way. And just correcting those pre-snap penalties so that way, you know, we give ourselves a chance.”
During his weekly appearance on Monday’s edition of The Greg Hill Show, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo agreed with the assertion that if his roster was constructed differently, players making repeated mistakes would lose playing time. Lowe’s first half on Sunday fits that bill to a tee.
But with the Patriots’ offensive line room looking as thin as it has in decades, Mayo was left with no choice but to leave Lowe in the game, and hope the 25-year-old locked in for the second half.
While his pass protection broke down, he did go the entire second half without being flagged for another false start.
So on one end, that’s progress!
“I knew I needed to be more mentally focused,” said Lowe of his second half. “It was something that, you know, I have time, you know? Told myself I needed to correct, and stop hurting the offense. Like, I know me personally, the multiple penalties that I had, you know, put us behind the sticks. You know, we were unable to convert. I don’t think we had a first down in the second quarter. And, you know, just making sure that I stopped hurting the offense, so that we were able to get stuff going.”
So when false start penalties pop up, what is it that’s leading to that lack of focus?
“I know me personally, there’s a lot of things that go through my head pre-snap,” said Lowe. “Trying to put myself in the best position possible to execute my job. And when you’re [playing on the road], you know you’re in a hostile environment - crowd noise, you’re going on a silent cadence. You know, there’s a lot of factors that go into it.
“I know me personally, just trying to do too much or think about too much can, you know, result in losing focus somewhere else. And I just know I need to be better this week.”
Lowe will attempt to bounce back in Week 13 against the Indianapolis Colts (5-7), who are currently listed as a 2.5-point road favorite at both BetMGM and FanDuel heading into Gillette Stadium.
The Colts pass rush is ranked 15th in the NFL, with 28 total sacks on the season.