A year ago, everything Mike Vrabel touched with the Patriots — including injured players on the field — turned to gold during a surprising run to the Super Bowl in his first season.
What's the exact opposite of that? Because that's what has happened to Vrabel and the Patriots this season. Everything Vrabel has touched this season, starting with the offseason moves sending out players (Stefon Diggs, Kayshon Boutte, Khyiris Tonga, Jaylinn Hawkins) and bringing new ones in (A.J. Brown, Romeo Doubs, Kevin Byard, etc.), has turned into whatever the hell the Bruins were wearing during that ridiculous Causeway University promotion.
The Patriots hit rock bottom in Germany on Sunday, losing 35-10 to the Lions in a game that wasn't even that close. Actually, it might not be rock bottom. We thought it was the blowout loss to the Jaguars, and then the Packers debacle happened at home. It couldn't be any worse than that, right? Then the Patriots said, "Halt mal meinen Bierkrug" (Hold my beer stein) in Munich. At this point, who knows what's in store — especially if Drake Maye is on the shelf for an extended period of time — against the Bills, Vikings (who blew out those same Packers 31-10 in Lambeau), Chiefs (blew out the Falcons), and Broncos?
What a completely pathetic display of football, again, for the entire nation — make that two — to see on Sunday morning.
You knew the Patriots were going to take an obvious hit on offense after Maye was lost for the game, as Will Campbell blew his block against Aidan Hutchinson. But that bad? It took Tommy DeVito eight drives — eight — to match the four first downs Maye and the Patriots converted on the opening drive. They had two first downs on DeVito's first seven drives.
And that was against an improving but still porous Lions defense that was missing their star pass rusher (lost for the season, Martin Gramatica-style, celebrating his sack of Maye). DeVito looked like he had never played quarterback before. Between the TV replays and Greg Olsen's commentary, it seemed like players were running open all game. Yet, DeVito stood in the pocket like he had a blindfold on. What does he do during the week? Not much, by the looks of it. DeVito looked like me taking some of my college exams, like I hadn't cracked open a book.
There's no excuse for DeVito looking that unprepared. It's not like he's backing up Tom Brady or Brett Favre. He's backing up an athletic quarterback who isn't afraid to hold the ball and put himself in harm's way. At some point in time — like seemingly every other team in the NFL — Maye was going to miss time.
Nobody expected DeVito to come in and spark a quarterback controversy — actually, some of our commenters might have been rooting for that — but the drop-off from Maye to DeVito looked like Brady to Ryan Mallett. He finished 12 of 24 for 81 yards, 1 INT, 1 garbage-time TD, and he was sacked four times for a passer rating of 54.3. He had an expected completion percentage of 62.5%, so he was a -12.5.
DeVito's EPA per dropback of -0.482 was the 9th-worst of the 225 qualifying quarterback games (minimum of 30 dropbacks) this season. DeVito ranked third-worst of the 225 qualifying quarterback games by pass success rate (25.8%). Ranked from best to worst, that game is 223rd of 225.
If that's what we should expect from DeVito going forward, he needs to go. Get Brian Hoyer off his podcast. That was beyond awful.
Also pathetic: the Patriots' defense, which allowed at least 35 points in consecutive games since the first two weeks of the 1994 season. It was the third game this season the Patriots have allowed at least 35 points, the most in a single season since 1990 (five times).
What in the name of Rod Rust is going on around here?
"Yeah, two tough teams," Vrabel said of the 80 points allowed to the Packers and Lions. "There's a lot we have to fix, right? You play good teams in this league and you don't play well, you have no chance and we know that. There's glimpses of good defense. Give up too many plays, too many mixed tackles, too many clean pockets for the quarterback and don't affect them."
I'm kind of getting sick of hearing Vrabel kind of shrug off some of these defensive performances due to the competition. So we should just expect the Patriots to allow 30+ points against every offense ranked in the top 10 of offensive DVOA? The Lions were 10th and hadn't scored more than 20 points in their previous three games, including 19 and 270 total yards against the freaking Dolphins last week. The Lions put up 35 and 494 after taking their foot off the gas in the second half (312 total yards in the first half). I guess with the Bills (3rd in offensive DVOA) and Chiefs (4th) coming up, we should just bet over 30 points allowed now.
"We've gotten beat two weeks in a row. That starts with me," Vrabel said. "And, again, we're professionals. We're grown men. We all have to recognize what it is we need to do better and improve. That's what winners do. Winners figure out ways to help the team win. They don't bitch and complain. They try to find ways to help the team."
Um, excuse me? Who's bitching and complaining?
"Just in general," Vrabel said. "I said that winners don't do that. Winners find ways to win; losers bitch and complain. I say things and then you just automatically assume. I apologize ... I didn't mean to say it that way. I meant that we need a winner's mentality at this point in time. There's a lot of season left and we know how these things go in the National Football League. But you're going to have to start playing better where we're at here in November."
Despite Vrabel's backtracking, it sure sounds like something smells in that Patriots' locker room, especially on the defensive side of the ball when you pair Vrabel's comments with the on-field lack of production against the Jaguars, Bears, Packers and Lions (thank goodness the Patriots aren't in the NFC North, where they're 0-3 with the 7-2 Vikings to play).
There is way too much talent and money invested in that side of the ball for New England to be playing like this. The Patriots' defensive payroll of $164.9 million is the