NASHVILLE — It's been said that the true measure of an NFL team is how they play on the road.
If that axiom is indeed true, then this Patriots team ... has a lot of work to do.
For the third time in five games away from the cozy confines of Gillette Stadium, the Patriots were thoroughly out-classed, out-coached, and out-played as they were soundly beaten 34-10 by the Titans on Sunday, who entered with a .500 record.
New England never got closer than seven points. It was the fourth-worst road loss for the Patriots under Bill Belichick. One came in 2000, and the other two came in the first month of the season — the 41-14 Monday Night Debacle at Kansas City in 2014, and the 31-0 "They Hate Their Coach" blowout at the hands of the Bills in the 2003 season opener.
But to lay an egg like this ... on Nov. 11? It's fair to say to see we've never seen anything like this before.
And when you put them together with the previous drubbings of 31-20 at Jacksonville in Week 2 and 26-10 at Detroit in Week 3 — teams that are now each 3-6 — you start to ask questions about this Patriots team.
When you consider their two road wins, it doesn't get much better. The Patriots trailed Chicago 17-7 (Titans led 17-3) and New England's margin of victory was decided by touchdowns on special teams and defense. The Patriots beat the lowly Bills, but it was a 12-6 game into the fourth quarter.
In the five road games to this point, the Patriots have trailed by a cumulative score of 101-73 through three quarters. In the home games (5-0), they have led 123-70.
New England went a combined 15-1 on the road the previous two seasons.
"I mean, you got to show up and play wherever you are. And we didn’t do that today," said center David Andrews.
The Patriots have 44 net points (the difference between points scored and points allowed) through 10 games. That's eighth in the league — and most of the teams in front of them have played one less game. New England, which has finished first in point differential three of the previous four seasons, have finished eighth or worse just four times under Belichick — 2013 (8th), '05 (13th), '02 (14th), '00 (23rd). They didn't advance to a Super Bowl in any of those seasons.
The Patriots are on pace for 70.4 net points. They haven't finished a season under 100 since '05 (41).
In other words, things are not good in Patriotsland ... and this bye couldn't come at a better time.
"You know, it’s frustrating, and the only thing we can do is go back to work this week," said Andrews. "We still have six games left. We got to take advantage of this week off and get better, improve on a lot of things and come roaring out the gate these last six games."
Among the things that need to be addressed:
- The force-feeding of Josh Gordon needs to stop: I'm sure the Patriots are going to him now to get him up to speed so it pays off in December and January, but they have to find a way to strike a better balance between winning down the road and now or else they're going to be playing on wild-card weekend. There is no way that Gordon needs 12 targets in this game only to produce four catches. In the past five games, Gordon has 44 targets and 24 receptions. Doesn't sound like Belichick is a fan of it. "You’ll have to ask Tom," Belichick said when he was asked a target-specific question about spreading the wealth among the receivers. Chris Hogan and Phillip Dorsett know the offense better, have been here and are much more reliable on a down-to-down basis. They can help move the chains. How about this: A hurry-up offense with five targets who actually know the Patriots' offense?
- Brady needs to fine-tune his game: By just about every measure, Brady's stats have declined in the past three games, with Sunday's bottoming out with a 51.2 completion percentage and 70.6 passer rating. Yes, there have been challenges with personnel and the protection hasn't been great. But Brady has played nowhere near his MVP-level of a year ago. He's feeling pressure when it's not there, he's not seeing the field and open receivers like he normally does, and he's flat missing on more throws than normal, often due to poor footwork. Like Brady said before the season, this team needs a great quarterback. To this point, Brady has not been great.
- The defense needs to show some consistency: After getting embarrassed and bailed out by the offense/special teams in wins over the Chiefs and Bears, the Patriots' defense looked like it had righted the ship by allowing a combined 23 points to the Bills and Packers. But against the Titans, it was the same forgettable defense with 42 percent third downs allowed, four touchdowns on six possessions in the red zone, and no game-changing plays. "You have to be prepared every week, and you have to play every week," said Stephon Gilmore, who was beaten by Corey Davis (7 for 125 yards, touchdown) all game. "No matter what you did last week, each week you have to take that approach. We didn’t play good this week." The Patriots are still on pace to allow 377 points — the most ever for a Belichick defense.
- Not-so-special teams: The Patriots keep more special teams players on the payroll than any other team, and you'd figured that would pay off it — but it hasn't. They allowed the opening kickoff to be returned 58 yards, allowed an average of 14.0 yards on three punt returns, Ryan Allen was out-punted, someone didn't properly down a good punt by Allen, Stephen Gostkowski missed a field goal, there was another penalty ... it wasn't good.