FOXBOROUGH — You could understand the Cam Newton year between Covid and the QB being a stopgap, especially if you believed Bill Belichick's spiel about how they had to reset the cap because they did oh so much for Tom Brady.
You stayed patient after the team crumbled down the stretch last year with a 1-4 record with lopsided defeats to the Bills 33-21 and 47-17. Belichick said that it was basically a one-off and the secondary was battling injuries. Plus, they had a rookie QB and a bunch of new free agents. That was just the baseline, you told yourself. Those guys will make a collective jump in 2022 that will have them back competing for the division.
Things didn't look great this season at 6-5 heading into Thursday night's rematch with the Bills. But the offense looked better against the Vikings, you told yourself, plus the Patriots were close against the Dolphins and Ravens earlier in the season. All the Patriots needed to do was pull off a mild upset against a weakened Bills team at home. Surely Belichick, with a relatively healthy defense, had a decent shot to slow down Josh Allen and knock off a Bills team that had dropped consecutive games to the Jets and Vikings, and had to scrap their way by the Browns and Lions.
Then the game started, and you were hit square between the eyes by an Allen-shaped 2x4 back to reality, the Patriots' reality, which is this: they aren't remotely close to the Bills. Not only did they not close the gap, they are even further away.
That much was abundantly clear to the 65,878 in attendance for what could (should?) be rock bottom for Belichick's tenure with the Patriots, as they reigned down boos on the team and the coaches. Mostly, the coaches.
A lot of diehard Patriots fans are probably reeling after this. An offseason, after a 10-7 record and playoff appearance, was spent doing what exactly? Where are the upgrades? Where's the improvement? All those practices, from August until now were spent doing what exactly?
What progress had the Patriots made in all that time to allow 22 first downs, 60 percent third downs and the Bills to score on their first three possessions to take a 17-7 lead that felt like 57-7?
None defensively.
What about the offense, where the appointment of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as chief offensive coaches continues to look worse by the week? Take out Marcus Jones' trick play touchdown, the Patriots averaged 4 plays and 17 yards on their first eight possessions — and the Browns and Lions scored at will on this defense.
The Patriots have decidedly gone backward on offense, to the point that the players are now popping off for the nation and reporters to see.
Mac Jones is not happy with the way the #Patriots offense is being called…
— Mike Kadlick (@mikekadlick) December 2, 2022
From the @PrimeVideo broadcast:
pic.twitter.com/giMO6oEAV6
"Obviously, just kind of let my emotions get to me but we're kind of playing from behind," Jones said after the game. "What I said was about throwing it deeper in the short game. I got to execute that part better. But it's the short game we kept going to, which is working. But I felt like we needed chunk plays. I shouted that out to kind of get everyone going. That's emotional. That's football. I'm passionate about this game. Obviously, you don't want to let your emotions get the best of you. But yeah, I think that's pretty much it. It wasn't directed at anybody. Just emotion coming out and we kind of needed a spark. When you're playing from behind against a pretty good team and a good offense, you need to go out there and make better plays. That starts with me."
Jones wasn't the only one crowing about the direction of the passing offense, or lack thereof. Kendrick Bourne, who went from big-play receiver at the end of last season to afterthought this year, defended the players and Jones by voicing his frustration to reporters that the scheme is too simple.
“Yeah, man, we need to scheme up better. We need to know what they’re doing. We need to know what they wanna do on third down. We’re kind of sporadic,” Bourne said. “They call this, and we call that, and it falls right into what they want. We need to have it where they’re falling into what we want and things like that.”
Basically, Bourne is saying Patricia and Judge have no idea how to attack an opposing defense, let alone set up plays to put Patriots players in a better position.
“No Von Miller, we gotta take advantage of that," he said of the injured Bills defensive starters. "No Micah Hyde, things like that. We have to take advantage of those things. They’re playing a different scheme. They’re more soft in what they’re doing, so they’re more conservative. We’ve gotta take advantage and not just have 5-yard throws and moving slow. We need to be able to attack and put pressure on the defense.”
Bourne also defended Jones, who was constantly harassed again.
“We’ve got to get the ball downfield," Bourne said. "Mac needs more time. He’s obviously running around. It’s hard to get the ball downfield when you can’t really have time to throw. No knock to the line, it’s just what we need to work on. The receivers can’t do nothing if the ball can’t get downfield, if we can’t throw it past 5 yards, it’s going to be a long game.
“... We have to be able to get the ball downfield. We have plays, we can’t get to them. We’re calling them. They’re just not working, so we’re throwing 5-yard routes and that’s what we catch so it looks one way. Hopefully we can get Mac more time so he can make the plays.”
This is Week 13 mind you, and the Bills had the ball for nearly 40 minutes in this game. That's absurd and should be a point of embarrassment.
Not to Belichick.
"I thought actually we played pretty competitively," he said of the defense.
Excuse me? What game was he watching? The Bills averaged 10.6 plays on their first three drives to go up 17-7. That's competitive? Maybe if you're the JV hoops team in a scrimmage against the varsity, which is exactly how this game looked.
Round of applause for Bourne having the guts to put his name on the frustration that is permeating the locker room — and it's not just the offense. Players on defense are frustrated as well because they realize that none of this is right. This is not how a good NFL team operates — like the Patriots used to be before becoming the middling 23-23 outfit they've been since Brady left.
And it feels like it's getting worse, not better.
And that's on Belichick.
He decided Patricia and Judge were the right course for the offense after Josh McDaniels. Same players, a year later and they've done a 180, especially the quarterback. They've gone from an ascending offense to a national joke.
Belichick also decided the losses last year to the Bills were just a one-off defensively. Same scheme, same playcaller. A few different players. Are they better? No, not really. The Bills toyed with the Patriots and never, ever looked threatened.
After a pathetic showing Thursday night, the Patriots look like they're playing another sport than the Bills.
And that's all on Belichick.
Now the question is, can they salvage their season with four wins in their final five games? At this point, it feels like they'll be fortunate to win once.
That's the state of Belichick's Patriots.
