Sunday's game with Miami was one the Patriots couldn't lose. It didn't matter how they got it; just find a way. They didn't, and what was trending in the wrong direction is now all the way there.
The Pats are 1-4 and losers of four straight. That confidence-building season-opening win in Cincinnati feels like it was in another lifetime.
The honeymoon with Jerod Mayo and his "transparency" is over. It's done with. It doesn't matter — quite frankly, it never mattered to me, even if it's a change from the snot rockets the previous head coach fired upon us. What does matter is seeing a team improve. Do you see that? Because I sure as hell am not. It's about seeing a team not repeat their mistakes. As far as I can tell, the Pats are the clubhouse leader in doing the same dumb bleep over and over again. Fourteen penalties against the Dolphins (two were declined). 14. That cost the Pats, who are as talent-challenged as any roster in the NFL, 105 yards. So what's Mayo saying?
"That we can't do it. We preach all the time about pre-snap and post-snap penalties. It just wasn't a good day."
So, on an afternoon when the Pats could ill afford to give another struggling team a break, that's all they did. The Dolphins missed one field goal, had another field goal snap that was as bad as you'll see, got a punt blocked deep in their own territory, and had the center snap a ball past an unsuspecting quarterback, Tyler Huntley, for a loss of 22 yards to force a punt instead of another field goal attempt. Think about that. The Pats somehow, someway, managed to be even more inept. That takes work. That takes poor execution. That takes something special. So, I guess if you're going to be bad, you might as well lean into it.
"We've got to play better, man.," said a beleaguered Jacoby Brissett. "There's no magic thing that we need to do. We've just got to play better. We've got to execute better. We've got to play with good fundamentals better. We've got to do all the little things better. When we go back and watch this film, it's not about this person, that person, this play, that play. We've just got to play better as a unit."
That'd be nice, but at this point, this team hasn't given us any reason to be confident that they can dig themselves out of this hole any time soon.
PICK A LANE. ANY WILL DO
The Pats once again tried to middle an end-of-the-half situation. The offense got the ball back with 1:43 in the second quarter from their five-yard line. After a run for 8, they inexplicably tried to throw the ball on back-to-back downs. This is the least impressive passing game in the league, for crying out loud. Unsurprisingly, both passes fell incomplete, and there were still 55 seconds left on the clock when the punt team came on. Bryce Baringer didn't hit a good one, and if the Dolphins were semi-competent, they would have gotten a cheap three points on the board (that was the 22-yard misfire on the shotgun snap to Huntley).
"Those were the – I mean, it was like a carbon copy of that game," said Mayo. "What I would say is, our execution throughout the season at the end of the half and the end of the game, they just have to be better. That's exactly what you saw at the end of the game, where we ran out of time. Once again, it wasn't the call. It was just that we didn't execute the play call."
Here's an idea, and I'm willing to share it for free. Jerod, if your team isn't near midfield, don't do that again.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Two Sundays ago, Ja'Lynn Polk walked off the field as 49ers linebacker Fred Warner was in the process of turning an interception into a touchdown. Oh sure, Polk was nowhere near the play, but that's not the point. It was another sign of frustration bubbling to the surface, and if we're being real, he doesn't have a long enough resume to be doing that nonsense.
So what's Polk do one week later? The second-rounder was near midfield, exhorting the crowd to express their displeasure after his touchdown catch was overturned. Mind you, his teammates were in the huddle preparing for the next play. Not a great look, again. Mayo wants to treat the players as men, but some are proving they can't handle it, at least not yet. So, it's time to put him under their thumb until he's mature enough to not let those emotions spill out at the wrong time.
WHILE WE'RE AT IT
You may have seen numbers circulating before last week's game that Polk was one of the league's best separators. I don't know what formula they dug up to get that stat, but as someone who rewatches the game in painful detail, it's not true, at least not against man-to-man, which is the most critical time to create that space. Like fellow wideouts K.J. Osborn, Kayshon Boutte, and Tyquan Thornton, Polk rarely wins one-on-one. It's a problem. It's been a problem. It will continue to be a problem unless Alex Van Pelt can figure out ways to give them help. More motion, which I wrote about last week, could pay dividends, but the Pats only had a slight uptick in that department this weekend.
GO NUTS FOR GONZO
Christian Gonzalez may not be fond of tackling - he had to fill a gap inside the tackle box Sunday and said screw it, ducking his head and aiming for a blade of fake grass, I guess - but that dude can cover.
I had him allowing just three catches in man versus Tyreek Hill. And while it wasn't as if he went wire-to-wire playing one-on-one, when he did, his quickness and burst to close gaps when Hill came out of his breaks was impressive. Gonzalez isn't in Patrick Surtain's class yet, but string together another handful of games like this, and I'll be willing to have that conversation. He's good and getting better.
The other aspect I'm enjoying about the second-year pro's growth is that DeMarcus Covington has had no qualms about lining him up against the opposition's best, no matter their strengths. It's D.K. Metcalf one week, Garrett Wilson the next, and now the smaller but faster (fastest?) in Hill. Having that type of skillset is critical for a defense that has been underwhelming so far (albeit much better against Huntley Sunday, as they should be).
SORRY, BOSS MAN
I know Bedard has his three up and three down. But he didn't trademark that, so I'd like to have my own in this column going forward.
Thumbs up for Brenden Schooler, who has cleaned up his penalty problem from a season ago and has to be playing as well as any coverage guy in the league. He's in every play, never mind the punt block.
Thumbs down for Raekwon McMillan. He swings and misses more than the Red Sox lineup, and his continued struggles should force the Pats to turn elsewhere.
Thumbs up to Marte Mapu. Not only did he play every defensive snap, but he did so wearing the green dot. He was impactful on Sunday. Covington had him in the box, then as the single-high safety, then back into the box. Mapu moved well. The start of something?
Thumbs down for Keion White. The two penalties on the same drive were egregious (despite Zolak screaming about the second one on the radio broadcast). He struggled to get home in four-man rushes and hasn't been great against the run for much of the season, and that didn't change vs. Miami. We crowned White's ass after the first couple weeks, and the film nerds on 'X' were fawning over him based on a clip here or clip there, but the reality is there have been fewer splash plays in recent weeks, and the consistency is lacking.
Thumbs down for Christian Elliss, who became the team's lone linebacker in dime and acquitted himself well. However, he had that hideous pass interference on what turned out to be a game-winning drive by the Dolphins. Situationally, Elliss has to know not to do that to Raheem Mostert, who was never getting to the first down marker had he caught the ball.
Thumbs up to left guard Michael Jordan. He played well against the Jets, got hurt, missed the 49ers game, and, in my estimation, was their best offensive lineman against the Fins. Who knew?