FOXBOROUGH – It happened at the worst time.
Following a 45-yard run by Antonio Gibson, the Patriots were in field goal range in the fourth quarter of a tightly contested contest against the Seattle Seahawks. Then on third down, all hell broke loose.
After the ball was snapped, Jacoby Brissett had a little over three seconds to throw the ball. Before he knew it, Seahawks linebacker Boye Mafe, Byron Murphy II, and Leonard Williams were in the backfield.
The pressure came from all over – past the Patriots two tackles and one up the gut of the offensive line. The result was a sack for a loss of nine yards. To add insult to injury, on the next play, Joey Syle’s 48-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Julian Love.
It only got worse for the Patriots, who were left clinging to a three-point lead. Seattle charged down the field, tied the game, sent it into overtime, and beat the Patriots in Sunday’s home opener.
“It was just a bad play by me,” Brissett said of the sack. “I was trying to get the ball out and I just didn’t want to be careless with the ball and somebody strip sack me from behind because I felt somebody coming from behind. Yeah. So was trying to get the ball out. It was just a bad play by me.”
Although Brissett took the blame, a look into the Patriots loss on Sunday reveals an obvious weakness that’s plagued New England going past the last three seasons.
The offensive line wasn’t good enough.
In a pivotal moment where the Patriots needed to give Brissett time to throw, the group faltered. The team’s pass protection – or lack thereof – was a major reason the veteran quarterback threw for just 32 yards in the second half of Sunday’s loss.
Brissett finished the first half completing 11/19 passes for 117 yards with a touchdown. In that half, he was sacked and hit just once. In the second half, Brissett completed 4-of-8 passes for 32 yards. He was sacked twice and took seven hits.
In the locker room, after the game, Patriots offensive linemen said they’ll need to prove themselves after this loss.
“We definitely do. We play every game with a chip on our shoulder,” said left guard Michael Jordan. “I think that we, as an offensive line, we definitely have a lot to prove.”
“Honestly, it’s not necessarily proving to everybody. It’s proving to ourselves,” added backup guard/center Nick Leverett. “We put in the work. We’re a talented group. We don’t pay attention to the outside. We work on ourselves. We do it for each other. We do it for our brothers. That’s one of the main things we work off of.”
For the second week in a row, the Patriots were efficient in the running game but lacked when it came to throwing the ball downfield.
Last week, in their upset win over Cincinnati, the Patriots ran for 170 total yards while Brissett threw for 121 yards. The quarterback was under pressure against the Bengals, but did a good job of evading pressure, rushing for 32 yards on seven carries.
On Sunday, Brissett took off twice for six yards but had struggled to shake the Seahawks defense in the second half. As the game wore on, it became obvious that once the Patriots got into a passing situation, the team wasn’t equipped to deal with the Seahawks pass rush.
The only time Brissett was sacked in the first half led to a three-and-out for the offense. That was a constant theme in the second half.
In the Patriots second drive of the third quarter, Brissett was hit on an incomplete pass on second-and-10. That set up a third down, where he was sacked by Williams. The Pro Bowl defensive lineman beat Jordan on the play, but had he not sacked the quarterback, linebacker Trevis Gipson would’ve as he got passed Michael Onwenu.
In the fourth quarter, after the Seahawks game-tying field goal, the Patriots had a chance to win this game. Instead, Brissett was forced to throw the ball away two times, on first and third down, due to the pass rush. He was hit on both incomplete passes as the Patriots went three-and-out before losing in overtime.
“I think Jacoby got hit too much,” said center David Andrews. “I haven’t seen the film obviously but I’m turning around seeing things, feeling things. We’ve got to do a better job and get more production from our passing game which is something I’ve always said is a team effort from everybody.”
On Sunday, Brissett was hit or sacked in six separate drives. The Patriots went three-and-out in four of those drives. They finished with a field goal on one and had the blocked field goal on the other.
To make this situation, there’s a developing situation at left tackle.
On Saturday, Chuks Okorafor informed the Patriots he was leaving the team. A source told MassLive, the veteran tackle is contemplating retirement. The Patriots started Vederian Lowe at left tackle on Sunday, but he suffered a knee injury, didn’t finish the game, and was seen leaving the stadium with an IV in his arm.
The Patriots biggest question mark this offseason was if Eliot Wolf did enough to solve the Patriots offensive line woes. The team allowed 41 sacks in 2022 and 43 sacks in 2023. Those were the most sacks allowed by the Patriots since the 2008 season (48).
Although Brissett has only been sacked three times in two weeks, it’s clear there are issues with their pass protection. That’s a big reason the Patriots haven’t been able to move the ball in the air.
Players on the offensive line say they’ll press forward with a chip on their shoulder. They’ll face plenty of doubt come next Thursday night against the New York Jets.
The only way to silence the critics will be to play better.
“It may be the end of the battle, but it’s not the end of the war. We still have a long season ahead of us,” rookie guard Layden Robinson said. “We have time to turn it around. It’s never too late to change. We’re just going to get back in the lab and get back to work and correct what we did wrong.”
“We’ve just got to be better – including myself,” added Jordan. “It’s just focusing on the fundamentals and making sure what happened today doesn’t happen again.”
