FOXBOROUGH — We've heard Bill Belichick after lousy losses, similar to Sunday's disappointing 28-13 home defeat to the Saints that dropped New England to 1-2 and 0 for 2 at Gillette to start 2021.
We all know the drill. We heard it three times just last season.
Oct. 25, 2020: 49ers 33, Patriots 6.
"We were clearly out-coached, outplayed. Just out-everything."
Nov. 22, 2020: Texans (!!) 27, Patriots 20 (I still can't believe that really happened)
"They just out-coached us and outplayed us today."
Dec. 28, 2020: Bills 38, Patriots 9
"They outplayed us across the board, outplayed us and out-coached us."
Belichick was not in a great mood after Sunday's game, but he didn't say anything about being out-coached or outplayed. It was a much different message, one I'm not sure we've heard before — or at least in some time.
"They were certainly the better team," Belichick said. "They just did a better job than we did in every area and deserved to win. We've just got to play more consistently. We've got to play with more good plays out there and not as many that aren't good. That's what we have to do. We had some chances, but in the end, we just couldn't get it done. It's disappointing. There's no magic sauce here. Just have to go back to work and do better.
... We've got to be better in every area, including special teams.
... we were inconsistent in every area. We've just got to do a better job. Go back and look at the film, make some corrections. Obviously, New Orleans has a good defense, but we've got to move the ball better than we did today. Play better in the defense. Play better in the kicking game."
Why didn't he say the team was out-coached and out-played?
I have a couple of theories on that. One relates to the 2009 season. The other speaks to where this team is right now.
But basically, you need to start here: Being out-coached on an NFL Sunday has to do with that specific game. It has to do with gameplans, adjustments, un-scouted looks, imagination or lack thereof in coaching. Basically, for three-plus hours, you're out-foxed by the other sideline. Happens to everyone.
Sunday was not about that. Sean Payton did not have a masterful offensive gameplan. Dennis Allen wasn't two steps of Josh McDaniels all day. The Saints didn't pull a rabbit out of a hat.
The Patriots were just a bad football team on Sunday. That's not about one game. That's about several games, and many more practices.
In short, the Patriots looked like a poorly coached team against the Saints.
There's a difference.
You're not out-coached when your team just makes error after error. I went through the TV copy of the game quickly tonight (good lord is FOX a terrible product with either not enough replays, or from pointless close-up angles). The entire game was littered with errors in every phase of the game.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
Among the lowlights:
- Terrible pass protection issues where players weren't passing off defenders properly and getting Mac Jones rocked again;
- Allowing dangerous punt returner Deonte Harris to return the first punt 25 yards to set up a touchdown (by the way, who swapped Jake Bailey with Zoltan Mesko? ... we kid, we love)
- Defensive backs in the same part of the field, leaving receivers wide open (Kyle Dugger appeared to have a rough game in many areas);
- Linebackers not jamming Patriots Enemy No. 1 in this game, Alvin Kamara, on his way, way, way too-easy touchdown where Dugger might have been in the wrong coverage;
- Linemen not getting out properly on screens and missing cut blocks;
- Jonnu Smith dropping three passes and missing blocks;
- Yielding a blocked punt on a simple tactic by the Saints (Dugger) ... oh, and having two special teams penalties;
- Hunter Henry false-starting like a sprinter — not flinching, full-out running — on 4th and 1 deep in Saints territory;
- Going to pile on Smith ... drop for a pick-six, and then a third-down screen on the very next series. Bruh...
- Needing a stop to tie the game with 9 minutes left, allowing the other team to use 13 plays — just two pass plays, mind you — and nearly seven minutes to score a touchdown, rather easily.
Any one or a few of those errors — and that's just the starter pack — by an opponent against New England in years past would have left Patriots fans chuckling about how dumb the other team was, how inept the other coach was (Adam Gase sends his regards).
You combine all that on one Sunday afternoon, when the Patriots had to have this game?
That's Jets-level ineptness.
You'd never say the Jets were out-coached on a day like that. You'd say they were poorly coached, for a while.
And when you put this game together with the penalty- and fumble-fest loss to the Dolphins in the opener — which leaves the Patriots winless at home in two chances — you have to wonder what the heck is going on ... and say, "Thank goodness the rebuilding Jets were the Week 2 opponent and not a mediocre team or the Patriots would be 0-3."
That's why Belichick didn't say they were out-coached.
Do you remember one great play the Saints made on Sunday? Me neither. Their longest play was a 17-yard pass in the first quarter (on a busted coverage). The Patriots had four plays at least as long as New Orleans' biggest gainer.
Do you remember one great play the Dolphins made in Week 1? Outside a couple of nice/lucky Tua Tagovailoa passes, they didn't. The Patriots had more plays of 20-or-more yards than the Dolphins.
The Patriots just looked like they hadn't been coached hard or well enough in any area. Sloppy pass coverage. Sloppy route and hand combinations from Smith. Undisciplined special teams work. Not enough reps on stunts and twists in pass protection. Not enough practice at situational football. Neglected to work on getting off the field in the final minutes of games.
In years past, I've said the coaches are going to have to coach their way out of similar slow starts. Happened a lot. And they always did it. Of course, I'm sure many will point to Brady and say he was the reason they got better. You may be right.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
But it's also legit to question, now, whether the Patriots do have good enough coaching under Belichick. Especially since the Patriots have now gone 2-4 to finish 2019, were 7-9 in 2020 and have started 1-2 this season.
That's 10-15, and it's been a long time — the middle of the 2019 season (which in hindsight looks like fool's gold) — since the Patriots have played consistent winning football.
Are we sure Steve Belichick and Jerod Mayo can direct a defense, especially one that can close out a game? What's the evidence? The last time the Patriots won anything around here thanks to defense was when Brian Flores was in charge.
Are we sure DeMarcus Covington is a good defensive line coach? How has the line been the past two seasons since he switched from outside linebackers?
Are we sure Mick Lombardi is a good receivers coach? Year 2 for him too ...
Cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino started there in 2019 ... not a great defensive trend.
Devin McCourty and Adrian Phillips have been good players for a long time, how has Dugger come along under Brian Belichick?
How have tight ends developed here in the five years Nick Caley has been the position coach?
Mayo and Troy Brown were great, great players ... are they good coaches as well?
Have the Patriots' special teams, which has a higher payroll than some countries, really been as good since Joe Judge left? (I almost forgot about the final season in 2019 when he was special teams and receivers coach ... trust me, that was a disaster).
The offensive line was good last season under Carm Bricillo and Cole Popovich. Popovich is gone due to Covid policies, but still listed on the team's website. Is Bricillo falling prey to the same Year 2 After Dante Scarnecchia Curse that got Dave DeGugliemo fired despite a Super Bowl ring? Can Bricillo do the job largely by himself with Billy Yates, who was with Matt Patricia in Detroit?
Is this all some sort of Patricia-related curse?
I'm sure some, most or all of those coaches are very good at their jobs. Everyone can't be bad. But maybe the mix isn't great. Maybe the collective level has dipped.
(Adam Richins for BSJ)
But maybe it's not about that at all. It wasn't in 2009, the infamous "I just can't get this team to play the way we need to play. I just can't do it. So (explicit) frustrating" team.
It wasn't about the coaches that year. It might have been Belichick's best staff minus Josh McDaniels: Bill O'Brien, Chad O'Shea, Shane Waldron (now Seahawks OC), Dean Pees, Pepper Johnson, Patricia, Scott O'Brien and Brian Ferentz, Flores and Pat Graham were the coaching assistants. Nevermind the front office/assistance of Ernie Adams, Nick Caserio, Jon Robinson, Jason Licht and Bob Quinn.
(McDaniels didn't exactly have a banner day himself against the Saints, especially with back-to-back runs by Brandon Bolden — Brandon Bolden!! (who appears to have joined Dont'a Hightower in the Take A Year Off, Lose Two Steps Club) — and a screen to Smith deep in the Saints red zone.)
No, brainpower was not the issue in 2009. It was a poor mix of new players to the team: Shawn Springs, Leigh Bodden, Chris Baker, Joey Galloway, Brandon McGowan, Fred Taylor, Greg Lewis, Alex Smith, Derrick Burgess, et al.
Maybe that's the same thing here after The Great Spending Spree of 2021. The coaching could be fine, but the free agency splurge combined with younger players on the field may not a good mix. Devin McCourty doesn't think that's it.
"Obviously, building a team and coming together, it's not always easy to do, especially adding new guys, like you said, but I wouldn't say that's our issue," he said.
"It's not like we would be doing well if it wasn't for the new guys, you know what I mean?"
In almost every other year (yes, with Brady), you'd say there's time for things to come together for this team. There is, but by dropping two winnable games early, the Patriots have basically ripped out the safety net. If they fall to Brady and the Bucs, a 1-3 start will be very difficult — but not impossible — to overcome in a very talented AFC.
The Patriots know they are quickly running out of time.
"It's coming down to the point in the season, like ... you've got to do it," McCourty said, raising the immediate stakes. "When we talk about a lot of different things each week, we kind of live off of what the Patriots have done in the past with the fast starts and all of that. But for this team, we've got to go do those things and we've got to stop talking about it and get it done."
The turnaround is going to have to start, as it always does in New England, with the coaches. They let it get to this point. They allowed their team to look poorly coached, Jets-ish, in a bad loss to the Saints. They are going to have give the players a blueprint to getting better right now.
There is no more time to waste, not after what they allowed to happen on Sunday.