A Patriots team that had seemingly been playing about as well and as consistently as almost any team in football over its seven-game winning streak made about as many mistakes as any team can in all three phases in Saturday night’s ugly 27-17 loss to the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Coming off the bye week and heading into the final four-game stretch with its hold on the No. 1 seed in the AFC on the line, Mac Jones threw a pair of interceptions, New England got pushed around on the ground on defense to the tune of 226 yards, allowed a blocked punt touchdown in the kicking game and fell victim to unacceptable unforced penalties throughout.
Players described their effort as “flat” early. Indy marched 78 yards to a first quarter touchdown that was essentially all on the ground, even though the 8-yard score on a trick play was technically a little push-pass touchdown for Carson Wentz. The deficit grew to 14-0 a few plays later on the blocked punt, incredibly New England’s third allowed on the season.
“I’ve said it five times. I can say it five more times. We didn’t do anything well enough to win,” Bill Belichick said in his postgame press conference, probably as annoyed by reporters’ questions as fans were by his team’s performance.
No one would argue his point. The real questions are what led to the loss and what it indicates.
Was this performance simply an outlier, an aberration on the road against a solid opposing squad in its own borderline must-win situation?
Was it a wakeup call for a team that, as Matthew Slater alluded to, maybe started to believe too much in its own two-month run of winning success?
Or, worst case scenario, was it a bit of reality check for a squad that at various points this year has been more than susceptible on the ground – New England has now allowed 200-plus yards rushing in two of its last three games – and dating back to the early-season losing was prone to key mistakes and penalties in key times.
Slater, for one, would like to think it’s indeed an aberration.
“I certainly hope so. I hope that’s not us. I don’t believe that that’s us. I think we’ve shown that we can be much better than we were tonight,” Slater said before opening the door for factors that may have contributed to the dismal performance. “But again I think as you begin to have success there is a tendency sometimes to start to read your own press clippings. Not to say that we did that, but I think human nature, you can kind of say ‘hey, we’ve got this thing figured out.’ I think this is a good wakeup call. Like I said to those guys, we have to keep the main thing the main thing, and the main thing is us having success and winning games and playing well. It doesn’t matter what you guys write about us. It doesn’t matter what people think or say about us. It doesn’t matter what people think or say about individuals on our team. It’s about our team playing well when our best is needed. I certainly hope we respond the right way moving forward.”
“I’ve been in seasons before where we’ve had some tough losses at the end of the season,” Devin McCourty said. “It’s all about how you react, how you turn around. Whether you call it a wakeup call or just get punched in the mouth for a night it’s about the reaction to that.”
McCourty, who along with Dont’a Hightower was unblocked yet couldn’t hem in Jonathan Taylor on his game-clinching 67-yard touchdown with just more than two minutes to play, is right. There is nothing New England can do now about the losing effort and putrid performance in Indy. The game was certainly very much lost, but all is not. Not yet anyway.
“It’s one loss. We can’t let it snowball,” Matthew Judon declared. “Watch film, get better, make corrections and then come back as a team. Just don’t let it keep affecting you. Don’t let one loss turn into two.”
Sometimes, that can be easier said than done. New England already proven it could be opportunistic and string together wins. Now it must prove resilient to avoid its first losing streak since Week 4.
“We’ll see,” Belichick grumbled when asked how quickly he thought his team could turn the page to next Sunday’s critical rematch with the Bills at Gillette Stadium.
Yes, yes we will.
Because if New England plays like it did Saturday night in Indy, if it can’t bounce back to clean up its mistakes and get back to playing the game on its terms the results will be obvious.
“If we don’t handle it well, then that’ll be our season,” McCourty said openly and ominously of a team that only a few hours earlier was considered a prime Super Bowl contender and as hot as any in the league.
Boy, life comes at you fast in the NFL in December.
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