Bedard: Belichick's Patriots are now a team that finds new ways to lose

FOXBOROUGH — For more than two decades, the New England Patriots were a team that seemed to make the improbable routine.

It seemed like every week, especially in the biggest games, the Patriots of Bill Belichick found a new way to emerge victorious.

Punt returns. Fourth-down goalline stops. Death-defying passes. Absurd catches. Broken tackles on big runs. Walk-off field goals in impossible conditions.

Those Patriots were something else. Every week you tuned in or trudged up Route 1, expecting to see something you've never seen before.

But those days, at least for now, are over.

These Patriots, the post-Tom Brady Patriots, are almost the complete opposite. Instead of finding ways to win, they find new ways to lose.

A week after Jakobi Meyers lost his head and threw a walk-off lateral touchdown to Chandler Jones, the Patriots were 5 yards and a couple plays from rekindling those old feelings of wonder.

And then these Patriots took that dream, ripped it from you, and stomped it out of existence as Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled with less than a minute to play to erase a possible walk-off score that could set everything right.

They are who we thought they were.

These are the un-Patriots. The Bizzaro Pats. I mean, just look at their losses this season. Each one seems worse than the next, which makes you fear the last two games against the Dolphins and Bills more than Christmas Eve at Wal-Mart.

Consider:

• Week 1 at Miami: Mac Jones is strip-sacked for a touchdown, and the Patriots allow a 42-yard touchdown on 4th and 7.
• Week 3 vs. Baltimore: Jones intercepted in the end zone down 5 on a miscommunication with DeVante Parker.
• Week 4 at Green Bay: Down to third-string QB Bailey Zappe, Patriots hold on defense in overtime and get the ball at their own 49 needing only a field goal. They go three-and-out and punt from the Green Bay 46.
• Week 7 vs. Chicago: Jones returns to the lineup, he gets pulled while Zappe chants ring out. Patriots take a 17-14 lead and get outscored 19-0 by Justin Fields.
• Week 12 at Minnesota: Patriots have a plethora of miscues - blown assignments and penalties - on key plays to lose a winnable game.
• Week 13 vs. Buffalo: Even down 17-7, the Patriots don't even try to compete — even punting on 4th and 7 from near midfield with 12:17 left.
• Week 15 at Las Vegas: Patriots allow two touchdowns in the final minute, including the Fail Lateral.
• Week 16 vs. Cincinnati: Trail 22-0 at halftime, fumble at the Bengals' 8-yard line with 59 seconds left.

Unless the Patriots somehow rally to win their final two games, they will finish with a losing record for the second time in three seasons. They are now 24-25 since Brady left town, and 26-31 since they started 10-1 and had the AFC's top seed in Brady's final season.

The question is why? Yes, Brady was the best of all time and he was a huge factor in the unprecedented run of success. But that doesn't explain all the mediocre football — especially since this started at when he was still here.

There seem to be two reasons, and you wonder just how much better it's going to get — and soon, which seems to be the biggest issue.

The first is talent. The Patriots don't lack for talent, but it's certainly limited. When you need rookie Marcus Jones to come up with plays in all three phases of the game just to compete in some of these games, that should tell you something.

It also doesn't help that a weapon that seems to contribute when he's given the chance — Kendrick Bourne — has been buried by the coaching staff and only allowed to participate in times of desperation.

But there's little doubt the Patriots lack game-breakers. There aren't singular talents. The quarterback is dependent on what's around him. The weapons need time to get open, and the offensive line has been in disarray all season so they can't provide that time. A very good running back needs blocking — the kind that doesn't knock him back 3 yards almost immediately when the goal line is in sight.

On defense, the Patriots have some nice players, like Matthew Judon and Josh Uche, but year after year there has been a slowing and aging middle to the defense — linebacker and safety — that seems to make fewer plays each game. To say nothing of a thin secondary that seems to give up huge plays on the regular.

Still, it's not just talent. There's enough there to win more than they have.

And that's the biggest issue — coaching. Belichick and his crew used to be able to make the team be better than the sum of its parts. But that was back when he had veteran coaches like Dante Scarnecchia, Ivan Fears and Josh McDaniels, to go along with young whiz kids like Brian Flores.

It shouldn't take anyone long to watch this team in just a few games, to realize the coaching in all three phases of the game is nowhere near the level it used to be. I mean, the Patriots lost their $25 million tight ends (combined) to injury against the Bengals simply because no one knows how to run the right pass routes, or they're not drawn up properly to begin with.

When there's not enough top-end talent on a roster, you need to make up for that by being great at the fundamentals and with execution.

The Patriots have neither at this point, which leaves them just like every other team.

It makes you worry even more for the future. Are the Patriots going to suddenly import great talent onto this team that transcends that of the opponent? Only in your wildest dreams.

Are the Patriots suddenly going to become a well-coached team again? If the Patriots can bring back Bill O'Brien or someone of his ilk to run the offense, that would help ... but what if Jerod Mayo leaves on defense? Are the Patriots suddenly, with just a few changes on the staff, suddenly going to be great at the fundamentals again in one offseason?

Another loss like Saturday's leaves you having these sobering, depressing thoughts during the holiday season.

It didn't used to be like this. You used to wonder what gifts the Patriots were about leave you after Christmas.

Now you just want it to stop, so you don't have to watch them find another way to lose.

But, unfortunately, these are the current New England Patriots.