LONDON — As a crowd of Londoners chanted his name at a packed bar on Saturday night, Robert Kraft had a message for the Patriots fans at Greenwood Sports Pub.
“This is unbelievable. I came in here and I got inspired and I’ve gotta carry this to the locker room tomorrow,” Kraft said. “I’ll tell you, there’s nothing more important to our family than winning football games.”
On Sunday afternoon at Wembley Stadium, the only message that made it to the visitors’ locker room was that the Patriots were “a soft football team across the board.” That’s what Jerod Mayo said publicly, at least, after his team’s 32-16 loss to an underachieving Jacksonville team. Behind closed doors, Mayo’s message might’ve had even more vinegar.
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For the second straight season, the Patriots delivered an embarrassing performance on an international stage.
Last November’s 10-6 slog in Frankfurt, Germany gave way to Sunday’s drubbing in London. The Jaguars didn’t just beat Kraft’s team. They bullied the Patriots. Bleeding the clock with a two-score lead in the second half, the Jaguars ran the ball on 17 consecutive plays because they had so little respect for New England’s run defense.
“You talk about what makes a tough football team: That is being able to run the ball, that is being able to stop the run, being able to cover kicks. We did none of those today,” Mayo said.
The loss gave the 1-6 Patriots their first six-game losing streak since 1993, the year before Kraft bought the team, and now all eyes are on the 83-year-old owner who champions the importance of winning at every turn. Not only are the Patriots not winning, they’re not even playing in competitive fashion. Four of their last five losses have come by more than 15 points.
So with the painful reality of a rebuild setting in, does Kraft have the patience to stay the course? Or are heads going to begin to roll? It’s tough to say because Kraft’s expectations have been all over the place this season. At the Owners’ Meetings in March, they were quite lofty.
“My hope and expectations are to make the playoffs,” Kraft said. “That’s something realistically – we have a new leadership team, we’re going to have a lot of young players we don’t know. A lot can happen. We might struggle more than I want. But the good news when you’re running any business is, you try to figure out what the key variables are, and then try to put people in place that you think can react and adapt to what has to happen. I really feel we have a good young team. I just hope we don’t struggle.”
But now the struggle is real.
The Patriots — who haven’t won a playoff game since 2018 — are staring down a third straight losing season and this one is poised to be the worst of the bunch.
Will Kraft have the patience to let things play out? Or does a team that looks increasingly dysfunctional prompt some sort of action? Is there meddling in football ops with either play-caller — Alex Van Pelt or DeMarcus Covington — or even a firing somewhere, whether coaching staff or front office?
While Bill Belichick left the Patriots offense starved for talent just about everywhere, Eliot Wolf and company have whiffed with quite a few of their own Band-Aids. Jacoby Brissett was benched earlier than anticipated as he struggled, Chuks Okorafor left the team, Nick Leverett has been cut, Antonio Gibson ran for four yards on three carries Sunday, Austin Hooper lamented his slow start last week, and K.J. Osborn has fallen down the wide receiver depth chart — though he did snare a touchdown catch at Wembley.
As for some of the offensive pieces in the 2024 NFL Draft class, Ja’Lynn Polk has been making headlines for the wrong reasons, Caedan Wallace is stuck on injured reserve, Layden Robinson has been in and out of the lineup, and Javon Baker hasn’t played since Week 3; point is, the blame isn’t all Belichick’s roster at this point. There’s plenty to go around.
However, the promise of Drake Maye could be everybody’s saving grace.
The No. 3 overall pick looks like he can play, and a locker room that’s all over the place right now seems unified in one thing: They believe in Maye.
The rookie took another step forward in Sunday’s loss, going 26-of-37 for 276 yards and throwing a pair of touchdown passes. Maye didn’t turn the ball over, only took two sacks, and is clearly trending in the right direction. The offense was at its best when he was standing tall in the pocket and slinging the football. It just looks better when Maye is back there.
Is a better-looking passing game alone enough to convince Kraft his team is on a winning path? While the undermanned Patriots play largely uninspiring football, Maye is the lone source of hope to cling after another lopsided loss in London.
