Before the game, Tedy Bruschi, one of Bill Belichick’s all-time favorite players, suggested it was time for the Patriots coach to hang it up after the season.
Appearing on ESPN’s Sunday morning, Bruschi maintained that Belichick didn’t need to stay on a few more years to try and break Don Shula’s record. the former Patriots great believes the record is irrelevant, and that Belichick, who is 18 wins away, stands alone as the greatest coach of all time record or not.
It was Bruschi’s hope that Belichick would turn things around, get the Patriots up to 7 or 8 wins, and retire on his own terms.
At this point, after one more ugly loss on the books, that falls under the heading of wishful thinking on both counts.
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Belichick is merely falling further into an abyss with a Patriots team that keeps losing and doesn’t resemble any team Bruschi played for.
This group commits killer penalties. They make back-breaking turnovers. They have poor decision-making under pressure. And their top players fail to deliver in the clutch.
That pretty much sums up Belichick’s 2023 team. It also applies to the Patriots the past few seasons.
When it comes to self-inflicted wounds, this team takes the cake.
Belichick’s teams have never been known to beat themselves. That was a long-held distinction. Only it’s become a regular habit of late. It’s the same broken record. All of which reflects poorly on the head coach.
The Patriots now have more losses in the first six games than they’ve had at any other time under Belichick’s watch.
They’re 1-5, and look like a good bet for 1-7 with Buffalo and Miami on deck. Talk about adding insult to injury, it’s possible they might not win another game, much less 7 or 8, as Bruschi hoped.
And there’s the rub.
With an inferior roster – one put together by Belichick – they’re outmanned every week. And while Belichick has beaten teams with lesser rosters before – thank you Tom Brady – he comes up short almost every week nowadays.
It’s been the same commentary, over and over.
No matter what Belichick does, he can’t fix it. After his “starting over” mantra after back-to-back losses, his team was beaten by a bunch of Patriots castoffs (Jimmy Garoppolo, Brian Hoyer, Jakobi Meyers). That’s why this is especially damning. And he knows it.
Whether Belichick likes it or not, the time for a rebuild has arrived. They’re done. They need to think about the future, not the present. They need to think about trading away players before the Oct. 31 deadline.
Although, it’s hard to believe that’s what the coach, who is 71, has in mind. Belichick is not likely to give in to that school of thought, even though the team it out of it, and continues to drive him crazy.
Belichick gave a glimpse of his frustration by destroying a tablet after a holding call on rookie left guard Antonio Mafi negated a first-down run by Rhamondre Stevenson on the final drive.
All the Patriots needed to do was get into field goal range, but that final drive was a microcosm of what’s gone wrong this season.
Down by two, the Patriots started out with the ball on their own nine-yard line. They had 2:30 left. The first play was a pass to Stevenson for six yards. Stevenson carried the ball for a first down, only a holding penalty on Mafi rubbed that out.
The two-minute warning sounded, and the Pats faced a second-and-12 at their seven-yard line. Mac Jones dropped back, and launched the ball deep down the left side. It was a perfect throw, only DeVante Parker, the alleged king of contested catches, the receiver they gave an extension to before the season, couldn’t hang on.
“DP is a great deep-ball threat. We kind of agreed that we wanted that route,” Jones said after the loss. “Just tough, tough play. If it goes one way, we might go down there and win.”
Only, that didn’t happen.
On third down, Jones couldn’t get the snap off in time. Mental mistake. Delay of game. That made it third-and-15, and Jones was sacked by Maxx Crosby, who pretty much owned Vederian Lowe all game. That was a safety and the end of the ball game.
As it was, the game started much like it ended.
On the Patriots first series, Lowe was flagged for a false start on the very first play. Stevenson then dropped a swing pass after taking his eye off the ball. And they went three-and-out.
Later in the first half, a 74-yard touchdown pass from Jones to Ezekiel Elliott went for not thanks to a holding penalty on Hunter Henry.
Not long after that, Jones made a poor decision rolling out, then opting to sling the ball toward an open Henry. It wasn’t anywhere near him. That ball was picked off.
Bad teams can’t afford to make mistakes like the ones the Patriots continue to make every single week.
Add in the fact that they showed now urgency on the 17-play, 75 yard-drive that drew them to within two points with a little more than three minutes left to play. That drive ate 9:30 off the clock. Down two scores, time was of the essence. Their season was on the line.
Only they ate up gobs of time between plays.
Situational football, taking care of the details, taking care of the football no longer qualifies as a strength of the Patriots. It’s one of the biggest reasons they sit in last place in the AFC East with no sign of leaving the basement. It’s also one of the primary reasons Robert Kraft should think long and hard about moving on from his head coach, and engaging in a huge makeover.
“We had our opportunities. We need to do a better job in just about every area,” a somber Belichick said after the game. “Any number of things could have made a difference. Coach better, play better, execute better, that was really the story again.”
It’s a story that’s not likely going to have a happy ending.
