It seems silly to think the second game of the NFL season is a must-win situation.
It also seems silly to think the Patriots will have any sort of a respectable, meaningful 2022 campaign if New England loses Sunday’s Week 2 trip to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers.
No, Bill Belichick’s seriously suspect squad will not technically be eliminated from the playoffs with a loss on Sunday at what should still be known as Heinz Field. Nope.
Sure, even if New England opens the year at 0-2 following last Sunday’s disappointing loss to the Dolphins it will have the possibility of winning plenty of games (15!), competing for the division or, for the real dreamers out there, even contending for a Super Bowl!
As farfetched as those things sound right now, they’ll seemingly trend from unlikely to damn near impossible to believe with a loss on Sunday.
There’s mathematical elimination and there’s realistic elimination, the latter coming if the Patriots open the year with two losses in two supposedly winnable games regardless of any circa 2020 “path” propaganda that might be spread at some later date. And sorry coach, it won’t matter if the next loss comes by two plays or twenty.
The Patriots need to just win, baby. Must win, even.
At 0-2, with mediocre Tua and the not-so-great Mitch Trubisky in the rearview mirror New England would have combined five-time NFL MVPs Lamar Jackson and Aaron Rodgers on horizon. An 0-4 start would become not just a real possibility but really likely.
Hitting the “soft” stretch of the schedule at 0-4 would mean playing catchup from here on out. Potential wins against the likes of the Lions, Browns, Bears and Jets (twice!), would be needed to simply keep New England’s organizational head above water before hitting the final hellacious six weeks of the season, a stretch run from Thanksgiving on that already feels like it might be closer to playing out the string than playing to string together wins to extend the season.
Want to have any shot at games in November and December maybe meaning anything? That has to include a win on this third Sunday of September.
It’s not like the Steelers are some indomitable opponent.
They’re very much beatable. Ask Joe Burrow and the rival Bengals, who should have beaten Pittsburgh on opening weekend even with the defending AFC champs turning the ball over too often to realistically expect to win.
Trubisky is anything but a daunting foe. T.J. Watt is already sidelined with a pec injury. Najee Harris is already less than 100-percent.
Forget about the opponent, though. Or even the schedule.
The week of the season.
Forget all of that.
New England just needs a win. A reason to feel good about itself. A reason to believe that brighter days are ahead.
It’s already been a challenging 2022 in a lot of regards, a year that began with the blowout beatdown at the hands of the Bills last January in Buffalo.
It trended into an offseason that saw maybe the Patriots’ best player – cornerback J.C. Jackson – and assistant coach – offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels – depart for the sexy competition of the AFC West.
Stories of streamlined offenses, a curiously concocted offensive coaching staff and practice/preseason field frustrations with both the “process” and the “result” have dogged Mac Jones all summer.
No. 10, you’re newly-minted captain and burgeoning franchise face, could certainly use a victory to validate his efforts, his leadership, his buy-in to the “new” offense he’s been harnessed to after a Pro Bowl rookie season that included a playoff berth.
Jones deserves a chance to head to a postgame podium emboldened by victory rather than licking his wounds from another defeat trying to say the right things while so few right things seem to be happening around him.
In his short time in New England, Jones has spoken often of trying to stay in the moment. To be where your feet are, as he likes to put it.
In this moment, he and the Patriots are in tenuous spot.
One week into the season the season hangs in the balance. Hope and optimism are in short supply these days in Patriot Nation.
Jones and the Patriots need a win Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Nay, New England must win in Week 2, as silly as that may sound.
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