FOXBOROUGH — If the Patriots still "Ignore The Noise," this might be a good week to put it into action.
Of course, much like every other Patriot Way 2000s slogan, that might prove to be a fallacy as well.
The pitchforks will be out. For everyone, especially and including Bill Belichick, who is responsible for all things Patriots Football Club. There has been and will be talk about a possible in-season firing. The unfathomable is now in the realm of possibility now that his football team seems to get worse by the week.
It will all be justified after the team's first 1-4 start since 2000, including 0-3 at home, and successive losses by a combined 72-3 to the Cowboys and Saints after Sunday's 34-0 defeat by the Saints.
"Obviously it was a poor performance today here," Belichick mumbled after the game. "So just plain and simply, we've got to find a way to play and coach better than that. So that’s what we are going to do, start all over and get back on a better track than we're on right now. Slow start. And then just couldn't ever really get the game under control."
They looked completely listless against the Saints as they again opened to a huge early deficit, 21-0 to go along with 16-0 to the Eagles, 17-3 to the Dolphins, 28-3 to the Cowboys.
Where's the passion? Where's the enthusiasm? Where's the anger? Anything? Bueller?
The only person I saw Belichick get upset with was rookie left guard Atonio Mafi. I mean, what are we doing here?
The Patriots have taken on the personality of their coach: monotone, unemotional and, now, wholly ineffective.
I mean, I can't really blame them. The Patriots talked all week about bouncing back and taking care of the football. Of course, Mac Jones throws while getting hit and tosses another pick-six. I get it, it's terrible. Can't happen. But how about a response? How about some mental toughness?
Patriots actually came back down the field and got a big play to Demario Douglas — shocking, the only player who can get loose from tight coverage — and into Saints territory. And then Pharoah Brown misses a block, leading to 3rd and 11. Jones has a guy flying in his face, but he connects with Mike Gesicki for 8 yards.
4th and 3 coming up, at the Saints' 30 ... and ... Belichick elects for the field goal, which Chad Ryland misses (fourth miss in eight attempts).
Look, I understand in most circumstances kicking a feel-good field goal makes a ton of sense. But this Patriots offense might not get any closer based off the previous game-plus and that Saints defense (Psst ... it didn't). The mentality of this offense and the team needed to change. Belichick needed to show some aggression and belief in his team ... and he didn't.
And we're surprised they just kept turtling?
Then the biggest insult happened on the second drive of the second half. 4th and 3 at the Saints' 40 trailing 24-0.
Belichick punted. For 27 yards.
"Until we're better on third and fourth down, I don't think so," he said when asked if he thought about going for it.
What message do you think that sends to the team? Almost an entire half to play. Too far to trust Ryland. And he punted?
You might say Belichick punted on the rest of the season, at least to players. How else are they supposed to take it?
The Patriots' ineffectiveness on Sunday was something altogether different, which leads to some uncomfortable questions. Absolutely nothing worked.
The offense has forgotten was a touchdown is. The last score they put together was with 11:38 left in the second quarter against the Jets when Pharoah Brown was left wide open on a busted coverage. That's 10-plus quarters without a touchdown, and 34 straight possessions that have gone like this:
Jets: Punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt
Cowboys: Field goal, downs, fumble, punt, interception, punt, interception, punt, punt, punt, missed FG
Saints: Punt, interception, missed FG, punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, punt, interception, punt, downs, punt, down
Holy cow. Do you know how hard that is in today's NFL, with rules tilted to the offense?
The offensive line is, by every measure, the worst in the league. Another 2.5 yards per rush, and nearly 50 percent QB pressure rate. When the receivers and tight ends aren't easily locked up by man coverage (both the Cowboys and Saints clearly were not afraid of getting beat and were in their jock straps), they're dropping contested catches. Sunday we had a twist: Ty Montgomery dropped one right to the defense for an interception.
The special teams have been awful. Joe "Contract Extension" Cardona had two more terrible snaps, leading to shanked punts. Matthew Slater had two penalties. If that doesn't tell you what kind of funk the Patriots are in right now...
Don't let Bill's prized defense off the hook. What the Saints offense did in putting together back-to-back touchdown drives of at least 59 yards in the second quarter was akin to the Patriots doing the same. New Orleans was the NFC version of the Patriots, totally ineffective on offense. Against the Patriots, they got plays of 33, 26 and 25 yards with an injured Derek Carr to boost the score to 21-0.
This is Belichick's mess. He screwed up his promising young quarterback with three different offensive coordinators. He hired an offensive line coach in Adrian Klemm, who didn't even last a season in the same role with the Steelers — the hardest team in the league to get mutually departed (or whatever you want to call it) from. Belichick refused to invest in offensive tackles and heaped his hopes on Trent Brown (Calvin Anderson, one of the prized tackle signings in the offseason was a healthy scratch, and the other Riley Reiff, hasn't been seen at tackle since about Aug. 1). The trash collection of targets (DeVante Parker, Juju Smith-Schuster, Mike Gesicki) haven't made any plays. There's still no third-down back.
All his investments in defense have gotten Belichick what exactly? Prevent defenses against the Bills and Dolphins? The Patriots are tied for a league-low with just two takeaways (0.4 per game). A year ago, they finished second with 30 (1.76 per game).
What exactly works on this team?
I've got nothing.
You can pin this all on the quarterback all you want, but even Belichick couldn't bring himself to do that.
"Yeah, there was a lot of problems. It certainly wasn't all him," he said when asked if Jones would start next week against by far the worst defense they have seen so far.
That would jive with the demeanor both Belichick and Bill O'Brien had on the sidelines after the series. They had no answers because the personnel's not good enough. They seemed resigned to their fate, and that of Jones.
So what now?
"It's what I just said: Start over again," Belichick said.
Five games into this season, the Patriots are going to apparently tear this thing down to the studs, and rebuild it (I would not be surprised if that entails the offense going extremely run-heavy with a very limited passing playbook). That sounds painful, like things could get worse before they get better.
The roster, due to years of poor drafting, is devoid of players with Patriots-bred mental toughness. This is what happens when you plug your many roster holes with the most cost-effective options you can find.
Belichick being in charge of every single decision in regards to this football team served him very well for 20-plus years, made him a lot of money.
It might end up cutting short his Patriot reign.
I have a hard time seeing that happening during this season — the Raiders' porous defense, after five straight brutal challenges, should allow the offense to crawl a bit. But we can no longer take things like buy-in and Belichick's messaging getting across to players he doesn't have that much history with.
Like his football team, Belichick just has to find a way.
Or the Krafts will be ready to "start over again" sooner rather than later.