LAS VEGAS — After back-to-back blowout losses, the Patriots preached “starting over” all week.
Bill Belichick began it in his press conference after a 34-0 drubbing at the hands of the Saints, and his players parroted it in the locker room at Gillette Stadium, though their definitions of “starting over” were all over the place. At 1-4, the Patriots said they needed a fresh start, and Tony Romo kept the train rolling as Sunday’s game in Las Vegas was about to kick off.
“You’re going to see some changes out there today,” Romo said on the CBS broadcast. “Watch out. You’re going to see some new stuff.”
But the eye in the sky never lies.
When the “new” Patriots offense took the field at Allegiant Stadium there were a couple new wrinkles — hello, Malik Cunningham — but ultimately they were killed by the exact same issues once again. A new buzz phrase didn’t eliminate their long-standing flaws.
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The offensive line is shoddy, Mac Jones is prone to head-scratching mistakes, and the Patriots can’t get any production from wide receivers that aren’t named Kendrick Bourne. That isn’t going to be remedied by changing the practice schedule around, which Belichick did last week.
“(Mistakes) are a part of the game, but at the same time, I like to put them in different buckets,” said Jones, who threw another befuddling interception. “Was it a forced penalty? Or were you giving effort and they just called it. It is what it is. The unforced ones are the ones that you want to take away and we have too many of those — penalties, turnovers, all that stuff.”
The final drive proved to be the perfect microcosm for all that’s wrong with the offense’s DNA.
Trailing 19-17 with 2:23 to play, the Patriots got the football back at their own 9-yard line. Jones had a chance to lead his second career game-winning drive. His only other came in his fifth career start against a Houston Texans team that wound up finishing 4-13. The Raiders were imploding and the stage was set.
On first down, Jones hit Rhamondre Stevenson for a short gain. On second, Atonio Mafi was whistled for a holding penalty that pushed them backwards. Looking at a second-and-11, Jones decided to take a deep shot down the left sideline. He threw a beautiful ball that whizzed 45 yards in the air, but bounced right off DeVante Parker’s hands and fell incomplete.
“Probably hit my fingertips, I think,” Parker said. “But I didn’t get a full grasp of it.”
Come on. It should have been a game-changing reception and the ball was perfectly placed, but Parker couldn’t make the catch. The 30-year-old’s contract extension was baffling when Belichick signed him to it over the summer, and it’s aging even more poorly.
“Just tough play. If it goes one way, we might go down there and win,” Jones said.
Alas, they did not. Jones turned third-and-11 into third-and-15 when he inexplicably took a delay of game that moved them even closer to their own goal line. It was New England’s tenth penalty of the afternoon.
Then, on the game’s most crucial play, Bill O’Brien opted to have Mike Gesicki chip block All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby and leave him to Vederian Lowe. Gesicki whiffed on the chip, Lowe whiffed on the block, and Jones went down for a safety to end the game.
And that’s the new Patriots offense? Because it sure looks like the same thing they’ve put on tape all season long.
The issues with this unit are deeply-rooted and there’s no miracle fix. “Starting over” doesn’t mean anything when the roster remains the same, and it isn’t a new offense because Cunningham took two snaps at quarterback. Belichick wouldn’t even commit to the dual-threat as the backup after the game, saying he was simply signed to the 53-man roster because “there’s a lot of people that are hurt.”
At 1-5, the Patriots offense is what it is. Look no further than their final drive for validation of that.
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