Does losing games bother this Patriots' team as much as it should? The boss man described the locker room following Sunday's loss in Miami as such:
"The vibe in the Patriots' postgame locker room was ... interesting. Been trying to come up with the right word for it. I think I've settled on unbothered. I've been in a bunch of different NFL locker rooms over the years, including several on the other side when the Dolphins weren't so hot post-Dan Marino. And in most, if you laid an egg like that (they trailed 31-0 at one point) against a divisional opponent — especially one that entered with a 4-6 record — you'd pretty much expect everyone to be miserable, irritable and not a whole lot of fun to talk to. ...
It wasn't that way in the Patriots' locker room after the game. Guys were affable and insightful. There were even smiles and some jokes."
Bedard didn't overstate matters. He gave you reasons why this might be (read his column). But as reporters, our job is, in part, to observe and relay what we see; that column has been a topic of conversation this week because, let's face it, at 3-9 and having already locked up a third straight losing season, you'd hope that losses like the one in Miami would piss off the players and coaching staff.
So this week, I asked Kendrick Bourne, who has played on good and bad teams, if he thought losses hurt the 2024-25 Patriots enough.
"That's a great question," Bourne replied. "I look at losing, we have to learn from it. We've gotta use it in a certain way. I've seen the reports about us laughing or whatever. I don't really know. But I think it's a mindset. We can't be pouting around also. We can't just hold on to bad things. We have to move on.
"So I think there's a balance to it. Not taking it as a joke. It's not funny to lose. It's not a joke at all. But there's also a balance of, we can't hold on to the past and let our mistakes, let the losses affect this week. So, I think of that as balance. We take it serious. We want to be better. But, also not let it affect us moving forward."
Someone followed up and asked if this is how the newer generation of players processes wins and losses differently than, say, some of us old-school folks would.
"Everybody takes it differently," he responded. "I always try to think positive. So I kinda can move on fast. But I do take it to heart. I do go look in the mirror and honestly tell myself if I played good enough or bad enough. If I did anything to help the team. So if we evaluate it honestly, if we're being transparent with ourselves, I think that's the best way to look at it. But everybody is different. Some might just be mad for a week, and that's how they move. I'm not mad at that player or this player. If my teammate is smiling and happy and my other teammate is mad, I know (one) personality from building a relationship with him and I know (the other) personality from building a relationship with him. So, I don't look at it as that. I just look at it as I know my teammate."
I thought there was another notable theme from last weekend's beatdown in sunny Florida — a decided lack of focus that led to pre-snap penalties and communication breakdowns between defenders, linemates, quarterbacks, and receivers. Veteran Jonathan Jones was one of the players who mentioned it postgame, and again when we spoke to the defensive back on Tuesday, I wondered if he was seeing something during the week's preparation that led him to continue to harp on that word, 'focus.'
"It's a team sport, but it's a lot of individuals," he said. "And so at the end of the day, you got to be the best individual you can for the team, for the unit, and whatever role that is for the team. And so just trying to get guys to understand that and try to be their best version of themselves on Sunday."
How this team was constructed opened the possibility of the team's success becoming secondary to the individual's. How many players on this roster will be here next year, or when (if?) this franchise becomes viable again? The answer, barring a drastic turnaround in 2025, is not many. In the meantime, what you hope/need is veterans like Jones - and this thrown-together coaching staff - to find a way to reach the guys that could go either way (there's no changing the mentality of a select group of players. It's who they are and will always be). If they can convince those players, especially the young ones, that losing is unacceptable, this multi-year rebuild may be sped up. Otherwise, strap yourself in. This might take a while.
OH MY
There's a chance that by the time you're reading this, Chicago could have fired its head coach. Matt Eberflus conducted a masterclass on end-game mismanagement, and the Bears dropped a 23-20 decision on Thanksgiving day in Detroit.
That Chicago was even position was remarkable. They trailed to the 1-loss Lions 16-0 at the half and were on the verge of getting run out of the building. However, rookie Caleb Williams threw three second-half touchdowns and had the Bears in scoring range late in the fourth quarter. And that's where it unraveled.
The sequence went as follows:
With 46 seconds remaining from the Detroit 25, Williams took the snap and misfired on a short crossing route to D.J. Moore. Only three seconds elapsed, and the clock stopped.
Yet the Bears had to waste their second of three timeouts after struggling to get the play relayed to Williams.
With a chance to reset, the first overall pick in the 2024 Draft hit Keenan Allen for a dozen yards, but Teven Jenkins was flagged for illegal use of hands, pushing Chicago back to the Lions' 35-yard line.
Facing a 2nd and 20 with 36 seconds left, it appears interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown (Eberflus fired Shane Waldon after the loss to the Patriots) called a quarterback draw. It backfired as Williams was dropped for a 6-yard loss. Still, there were 32 seconds left when he hit the turf, so Eberflus called that final timeout, right?
Wrong. Not only that, but Williams didn't rush the offense back to the line of scrimmage. They took their sweet old time as the clock inched closer and closer to the buzzer: 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, and finally, at 6 seconds, the ball was snapped. Williams surveyed the field, put up a prayer to Rome Odunze, and the ball harmlessly fell incomplete with double zeroes on the scoreboard.
"I like what we did there," said Eberflus post-game. "Again, once it's under 12 (seconds) there, you're going to call time out there; you don't have an option … I think we handled it the right way. I do believe you re-rack the play, get it in bounds and then call time out. That's why we held it, and it didn't work out the way we wanted it to."
Considering the Williams loss happened on second down, the Bears could have completed a quicker, shorter pass (it would have been a 59-yarder) to improve their field goal odds. That they didn't and went into the locker room with that final timeout is indefensible, despite Eberflus insisting it was.
"I'm the head football coach, so I'm taking the blame, of course, that's what you do," he said. "We didn't get it done, and it starts at the top, and it starts right here. So, accountability is right here with me. We've got to do it better, and I've got to do it better."
Chicago is 4-8 after starting the season 4-2.
UNORTHODOX APPROACH
Imagine hiring a guy you fired to find someone to do the same job he did when he worked for you? Crazy, right? Unless you're Woody Johnson. The Jets owner has tabbed the 33rd Team, a media and consulting firm run by former New York general manager Mike Tannenbaum (and former Vikings boss Rick Spielman), to help him find the Jets next GM. Spielman assisted in Washington's process last off-season, which led to the hiring of Adam Peters and Dan Quinn.
Tannenbaum was the team's GM from 2006-2012. He hired Rex Ryan as head coach and Eric Mangini before that. Both men took Gang Green to the playoffs, and Ryan had them in back-to-back AFC title games - the last time that franchise was successful. Coincidentally (perhaps?), Ryan has conducted a full-on campaign to return to his old job despite not having coached in the league since 2016. Mangini also didn't rule out a return, and he's been out of the game since 2015.
Currently, Phil Savage is acting as Woody's interim GM after last week's firing of Joe Douglas. Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich is also expected to be out of a job at the end of the year. Oh, and Aaron Rodgers is likely to be released, although in true form, told 'The Pat McAfee Show' that he's not sure he wants to play in 2025, two weeks after saying he did want to play. The more things change...
RUNNING IT BACK AT THE STAR?
Mike McCarthy is in the fifth and final year of his contract as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Considering he didn't get an extension this off-season despite three straight 12-win seasons, it seemed fair to assume that McCarthy needed to not only get the Cowboys back to the postseason but make a legit run (just one playoff win in his tenure). It doesn't appear that's going to happen. Dallas is 4-7 and would need a miracle. Yet, owner Jerry Jones is threatening to go in another direction and is considering a contract extension instead.
"I don't think that's crazy at all," Jones told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas earlier this week. "That's not crazy. Listen, Mike McCarthy is an outstanding coach. … This is a Super Bowl-winning coach. Mike McCarthy has been there and done that. He has great ideas. Bottom line is that no place in my body language or anything else have you seen indications about what we're going to be doing relative to this (coaching) staff at the end of this year. And we shouldn't. We got a lot of football left."
McCarthy did win a Super Bowl in 2010. That was a long time ago, but the Cowboys owner has been living off three titles in five years, the last of which was achieved in 1996. Now, I'm no mathematician - you should see my checkbook - but that's damn near three decades of little to no success in January (McCarthy is 1-3 in the playoffs in Dallas).
Before this, Jones had been loathe to offer any insight into McCarthy's future despite receiving constant questions about it. The aging owner may think a run to respectability is possible - "This thing isn't over," he told The Fan - but that would be nothing more than fool's gold. Then again, maybe Jerry is a fool (football-wise), though his bank account surely has a lot more zeroes in it than mine.
NERD NUMBERS
- Drake Maye is the first rookie in NFL history to throw 10 consecutive pass TDs to 10 different receivers in starts. Only Marino has thrown 10 or more consecutive pass TDs to 10 different receivers within a single season (1997).
- Joe Burrow has 350+ pass yards, 3+ pass TDs, and 0 INTs in back-to-back games (both were losses). He's the 2nd quarterback in NFL history to lose back-to-back in such games (Matt Ryan Weeks 3-4, 2018).
- Trey Hendrickson leads the NFL with 11.5 sacks and 24 QB hits in 2024. Only Danielle Hunter (78) and Myles Garrett (58) have more pressures than Hendrickson (57) in 2024, per Next Gen Stats.
- George Pickens leads the NFL with 11 receptions of 30+ yards in 2024 (0 such TDs on those plays).
- The Texans have allowed opponents to score a TD on 67.9% of red zone possessions (3rd highest in the NFL behind DAL at 75.7% and CIN at 70.6%).
- Doug Pederson has lost 14 of his last 17 games as the Jaguars head coach. The Jaguars’ 3-14 record since Week 13, 2023, is the worst in the NFL.
- The Vikings blitz on 37.8% of opponent dropbacks in 2024 (2nd highest in the NFL behind the Broncos, 40.8%, per Next Gen Stats). The Vikings have 7 INTs when blitzing in 2024 (T-most in NFL, DET).
- Calvin Ridley leads the Titans with 41 receptions & 634 receiving yards
