ARLINGTON, TEXAS - What a mess. Any signs of progress - of hope that this season might be different than the last three - took it straight to the kisser Sunday in Jerry World, where bigger is better, faster is too fast, and an above-average quarterback is better than what you got. The well-armed Cowboys team proved, once again, that talent does matter.
The Patriots are currently a bunch of middlers, trying to beat the opponents with scheme and coaching, toughness, and whatever other intangibles you want to throw out there. This league doesn't work that way anymore. The Chiefs have Mahomes and Kelce and Chris Jones. The Bills have Allen and Diggs, Matt Milano, and (soon) Von Miller. The Fins have Hill and Waddle. The Ravens let Lamar loose every week, which elevates those around him. Cincy has Burrow, Chase, and Higgins (and put the record aside because Burrow isn't himself with that calf). You'll notice most of those names are on offense, and the best in the conference have A DUDE at quarterback, and in KC's case, THE DUDE. What do you have? A first-round signal caller who hasn't made the leap in this, year three, and a collection of distressed "assets" acquired for cheap.
"It wasn't my day today. Hopefully, there are better days ahead," said Mac Jones after the 38-3 drubbing, the worst loss of Bill Belichick's head coaching career. "I feel really bad. I let my team down. Let my coaches down. The whole organization. Everybody. The fans. Got a great fan base, and I gotta put a better product out there to beat good teams."
Jones' performance wasn't the nadir of last year's "benching" against the Chicago Bears on a Monday night. It was worse. Last year, there were valid excuses, starting with Belichick's decision to turn the offense over to Matt Patricia and the quarterback room to Joe Judge. We told you it was going to be ugly, and it was.
This year? The Pats will tell you they invested in their offense. Indeed, the addition of Bill O'Brien, despite the stats, has been an improvement, but elsewhere? Moving on from Jakobi Meyers for an impaired JuJu Smith-Schuster gets worse by the week, and Mike Gesicki is an upgrade over Jonnu Smith, but that a) wouldn't be hard and b) hasn't made a difference.
DeVante Parker didn't make his first catch until late in the third quarter. Smith-Schuster made one nice catch - his only catch - when the game was still a game, working into a hole against zone and snaring a 14-yarder. But he also had an easy drop earlier in the contest and was the intended target on the second of two interceptions by DaRon Bland. That play was all kinds of gross, from design (no rubs out of trips??) to the route by Smith-Schuster (rounded and slow) to the noodle-armed throw by Mac—a trifecta of suck that hits all levels - team building, coaching, and execution.
But the Cowboys saw this coming. They kept their man-heavy approach the same, even with Trevon Diggs lost for the season with a torn ACL. Part of that is because that's defensive coordinator Dan Quinn's plan with this group. Still, the other part is that there isn't a single, solitary player at the receiver position that frightens a defense, not even a little. Forget about Rated R, with Jason or Freddy slicing and dicing all living things. The movie the Pats offense is showing in film rooms across the league isn't even PG-13. It's rated G. It's "Bambi" without the mom getting shot (off-screen) at the film's beginning. It's "Finding Nemo" without the sharks. Only a 6th round rookie, Demario Douglas, is showing he can create any modicum of separation and make a defender miss. But even he isn't the answer (though more involvement couldn't possibly hurt). The answer isn't on the roster. And even if this team decides they need to add at that position, one piece won't do. This group needs an enema.
Do you want disrespect? It was as plain as day from my bird's eye view in the press box. The Cowboys squatting on damn near every route run by every receiver. That could be an overstatement, but it happened repeatedly, with the Dallas defensive backs unconcerned about double moves or the quarterback being able to push the ball to deeper parts of the field.
"Yes," acknowledged Stephon Gilmore when I asked, with a big smile. But he chose the following words carefully, "That's how I always play. I'm going to try to make it tough on receivers and play tight coverage. Today, I kind of sat in there a little more. I don't play everybody the same way."
Gilmore played nice. But his on-field actions betrayed the gentle delivery of his words.
"I think they got guys, but at the end of the day, we gonna play our game no matter who it is," said Gilmore. "It can be anybody out there. We're going to trust our technique and our pass rush and make plays. We did that today."
Fellow corner Bland, who took an ill-advised, cross-the-field softball from Mac 54 yards to the house, also smiled when asked about the play. Hell, everybody in that Cowboys locker room was smiling. You can understand why. They weren't just one step ahead of the Pats; they were miles.
"He (Mac) got an early one across the field, so I couldn't let him do that again," said Bland, laughing. "It was just what we saw on film. We were trying to make plays."
The Cowboys did that. Over and over again. But the Patriots offense was complicit in their opponent's success, another problem that has reared its head in three of their four games this season. And just when you thought that maybe they were discovering a formula for success, the Cowboys - and the Pats themselves - showed that no amount of intangibles can overcome their decided lack of talent at some of the game's most important positions. And until that is addressed, they'll remain right where they are now, stuck in the middle with no easy way out.