For a few seconds late in the third quarter, there was a split-second reprieve.
Jacoby Brissett dropped back and threw a short pass to Pop Douglas three yards past the line of scrimmage. He then turned and flipped the ball to Rhamondre Stevenson running up the sideline. The play that looked like something Rube Goldberg might have drawn up was fun. In a game defined by the drudgerous inefficiency of the Patriots offense, this was a little razzle-dazzle, dipsy-do. Like when an economics professor sneaks a pretty good joke into that boring lecture that had caused most listeners to nod off, it was fun, even if just for a second.
But that didn’t stand. Somewhere so far away from the play that it wasn’t on the TV screen, Tyquan Thornton was (barely) illegally blocking somebody.
What little fun there was didn’t count. Even the FOX team of Joe Davis and Greg Olsen seemed annoyed.
“It’s an offense that’s overall pretty boring and that was anything but,” Davis said.
For the second straight week, there was considerable incentive for fans to do something else or at least watch something else while the second half played itself out. New England is not only bad, but almost as hard to watch as the New Hampshire political ads that infest the breaks in every broadcast.
This is a team with no stars and few compelling personalities. Keeping Drake Maye on the bench has been the right call given the lack of protection behind their woeful offensive line. But his absence is just one fewer reason to watch.
The Patriots fell behind 20-0 and needed a Joey Slye kick from Napa to avoid being shut out in the first half. But even his franchise-record-breaking 63-year kick didn’t actually change anything.
ESPN’s win probability project gave the 49ers an 84.5% chance of winning, when they led just 6-0 after the first quarter. That jumped to 93.8% after Fred Warner returned Brissett’s interception for a touchdown.
It’s hard to fault whatever math creates that. The Patriots are not built to come from behind. They can’t move the ball well enough. Their best and often only hope right now is to play outstanding defense, keep it close, control the clock and hope to catch a few breaks.
It’s why Jerod Mayo should have gone for it on fourth and 3 rather than punting from the Niners’ 41 on New England’s opening drive with the game still scoreless.
If they’re forced to try to rally, they’re not talented enough to avoid the mistakes being aggressive opens them up to. This game added a new wrinkle to the misery. Despite being sacked nine times and spending his season under siege, Brissett hadn’t lost the ball. That streak ended Sunday. He was intercepted for a touchdown and fumbled three times (the Patriots recovered two of them).
Watching Brissett is like watching a gazelle in nature documentaries. His grace and toughness make him easy to root for, but the viewer always knows the lion, crocodile, leopard or 49er, is eventually going to bring him down. The substandard offensive line makes that inevitable. He was hit 10 times including six sacks on Sunday.
Jacoby Brissett (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)Getty Images
Add that to Rhamondre Stevenson’s unexpected fumble woes and the hole gets even deeper. The Patriots’ already-bad, already-banged-up offensive line lost David Andrews, its leader and one of it’s most reliable players in the first quarter.
It could have been worse. Slye could have missed the 63-yarder or his 54-yarder. If Isaac Guerendo hadn’t fumbled the kickoff, the Patriots might never have gotten close enough to the end zone to score. The special teams and the defense are good, but they can’t overcome the offensive woes.
The win over Cincinnati feels like an aberration now.
What happened against the Jets and the 49ers is what people predicted would happen coming into the year. Without an unlikely influx of offensive line help, it’s hard to imagine it won’t keep happening. For decades Patriots fans were spoiled by unprecedented success. Did Bill Belichick and Tom Brady make New England a football area or did they simply create sports’ longest-standing bandwagon?
It’ll be interesting to see just how far fan support fades. If this keeps up, there are going to be a lot of empty seats and a lot of televisions turned to something else or turned off altogether.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
