Two home games. Two losses to top-notch opponents.
Let’s face it, the close-but-no-cigar games involving the Patriots no longer cut it, especially against the better teams.
It’s one thing to be hampered with injuries to key players on the offensive line and secondary, due in part to having little to no depth in those areas. It’s another to keep shooting yourself in the foot with turnovers, penalties and slow starts.
As it is, there’s so little margin of error where the Patriots are concerned.
They’ve had to play from behind in both games, with comeback efforts falling short both times.
While the never-say-die attitude is commendable, it’s not much consolation with the losses piling up.
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Against the Dolphins, along with killer mistakes, both the offensive and defensive lines got manhandled for most of the game.
Mostly, that’s a talent issue. They also lack explosive players. They need to plod down the field to score, as opposed to having the ability to affect the game with one explosive play.
The Patriots aren’t a bad team. As we keep saying over and over, they’re mediocre. The trouble with that is everything has to go right to pull off a win against the really good teams.
At this stage, the Patriots aren’t close to playing mistake-free. And in truth, they still aren’t all that close to beating the better teams.
So here’s the Week 2 grades:
Quarterback: B
Once again, Mac Jones had to try and take down a good team playing behind a banged up offensive line with no running game, and zero game-changing receivers.
The one explosive player at this disposal – Pop Douglas – was essentially benched after a costly first quarter fumble.
So basically he went to battle with a pop gun against Tua Tagovailoa and his vaunted arsenal.
Jones, who was pressured and hounded nearly every pass play, still managed to keep the Patriots in the game. He was especially effective in the no-huddle in the second half, creating plays on the move. He really made some nice throws throughout the contest.
On the downside, Jones loses points for forcing a ball to DeVante Parker in the third quarter that was picked off by Xavien Howard down the right sideline.
The Pats had the ball on Miami’s 22-yard line trailing by two touchdowns, and had some momentum after Brenden Schooler’s block of a Dolphins field goal attempt. But Mac’s poor decision there, along with an under-thrown ball, cost them points at the worst possible time.
He also couldn’t turn a Christian Gonzalez pick into points in the fourth quarter. And later, given another chance to tie the game after drawing to one-score, Jones and the offense fell short, just like the previous week.
Statistically, Jones completed 31 of 41 passes for 231 yards. He threw a touchdown pass, had the pick, and was sacked four times. He was also the team’s second-best rusher with 25 yards on 5 carries.
He was perfect in the red zone (2-for-2), and converted nearly 50 percent on third down (7-for-15).
It still wasn’t good enough.
Running back: C-minus
A good part of this grade is on the offensive line, but it’s still hard to ignore that for two straight weeks, there’s been little to no run game to speak of.
Rhamondre Stevenson (15 carries, 50 yards) and Ezekiel Elliott (5 carries, 13 yards) struggled once again. Having a paltry three yards per carry doesn’t cut it, no matter which way you slice it.
Stevenson caught three passes, but didn’t do much coming out of the backfield, either. He did score a rushing touchdown breaking through from the two, but the Patriots still aren’t getting the best bang for their buck from the backs.
Ty Montgomery lined up as a receiver a few times but was only targeted once.
Wide receivers : C-minus
DeVante Parker, who missed the first game due to injury, made his presence felt as the Patriots leading receiver with six catches for 57 yards.
Parker, however, for whatever reason, was content to be out-of-bounds and not even give himself a chance to compete on the ball Jones threw for a pick. Granted, the ball was under-thrown, but he basically boxed himself out on that play with Howard landing the interception.
With the Dolphins playing two deep safeties, and subpar pass blocking, it was tough to get the ball downfield, although Jones made several attempts to Kendrick Bourne.
On one of those, Bourne got his left hand on the ball, as Jones put it in a good place. Bourne might have been able to pull the ball in if he used both hands, but the defender had a bit of a hold of his right arm (no penalty called). He also didn’t get a second foot in bounds on another potential long gainer. He wound up catching four balls for 29 yards, and wasn’t quite as effective as the previous week.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, meanwhile, made some tough catches (5 catches, 28 yards), none better than one he came down with at the goal line with Jones scrambling for his life. But there wasn’t much action after the catch from JuJu. Smith-Schuster’s knee problem is clearly hampering him, even if he won’t admit it.
Then, there’s rookie Pop Douglas. The two times he caught the ball in the first quarter, he made people miss and gained extra yards, which is his forte. On the second catch, as he broke into daylight and appeared to be headed for a huge gain, linebacker Bradley Chubb came up from behind and punched the ball out.
So instead of the Patriots potentially putting points on the board, the turnover resulted in a Miami touchdown.
Tight ends: A-minus
Amid a sea of failing grades, tight ends Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki performed well.
Henry continues to be a force in the red zone, catching his second touchdown pass on the season. In all he pulled in six passes for 52 yards, making several conversions on third down.
As for Gesicki, he added five catches for 33. On the final play, which came up just short, the tight end had the presence of mind and awareness to lateral back to guard Cole Strange when he knew he wasn’t going to make it to the stakes.
Gesicki, who’s not known for his blocking prowess, did make a nice block on Rhamondre Stevenson’s best gain on the afternoon which went for 12 yards.
Offensive line: D
Aside from Cole Strange having the wherewithal to head up field and be within shouting distance of Mike Gesicki to receive a lateral on the final play – making a great grab in the process – the offensive line was nothing short of a disaster.
Right tackle Calvin Anderson allowed a sack and three quarterback hits. He was no match for Andrew Van Ginkel. Antonio Mafi, who subbed in for Michael Onwenu in the fourth quarter, allowed a critical sack. So did left tackle Vedrian Lowe.
Mac Jones was never comfortable in the pocket, getting blown up by a blitzing linebacker David Lowe on the first series. In all, he was sacked four times, and could have gone down countless other times.
Beyond the bogus pass-blocking, the line got no push on the Dolphins front, which had allowed 233 rushing yards the previous week. So for the second straight week, the Patriots had no run game.
Yes, they had backups playing at tackle. And both Strange and Onwenu were seeing their first action after missing most of training camp and the preseason. The excuse of having a makeshift line merely prevented an ‘F’ grade.
Defensive line: D
While doing a good job last week against the Eagles, the line was gashed for gains by Raheem Mostert, who rushed for 121 yards on 18 carries. His 6.7 yards per carry was a killer.
One play, Mostert busted for a 43-yard score, flying through the line, right up the gut as Devon Godchaux and Daniel Ekuale got walled off.
Collectively, the Fins rushed for 4.8 yards per carry, which doesn’t cut it by any measure.
There was just one pressure generated by the line. They hardly bothered Tua Tagovailoa.
Linebacker : C-minus
While a liability against the run, Josh Uche did have four pressures. Matthew Judon had two more along with the sack.
Both Uche and Jahlani Tavai, however, struggled to hold the edge on numerous run plays by the Dolphins leading to long drives in the first half. The Patriots did adjust in the second half with Deatrich Wise and Judon seeing more time on the early downs, but the damage was done.
Rookie Marte Mapu was called for unnecessary roughness on Jaylen Waddle (concussion) after a 15-yard catch. That was a debatable call.
Ja’Whaun Bentley also missed a couple tackles, leading to a so-so grade.
Secondary: B-minus
Christian Gonzalez continues to show why he was a first-round pick. He was even better against the Dolphins than Week 1 against the Eagles. His pick, leaping in front of Tyreek Hill and high-pointing the under-thrown ball by Tagovailoa, was a thing of beauty.
Gonzalez had safety help manning Hill, and while the Dolphins receiver vowed to “dominate” whoever the Patriots put on him, that didn’t happen. Gonzalez allowed just three catches on five targets for 32 yards, with the interceptions. In all, Hill had a modest five catches for 40 yards.
Jaylen Waddle was effective (4 catches, 86 yards) but with that duo, it’s more of a pick your poison situation. Tackling was an issue on some plays most notably Mostert’s 43-yard touchdown run. Kyle Dugger was the last line of defense, but took a bad angle. Peppers also took himself out of the play.
Specialists: A-minus
Rookie Chad Ryland notched his first field goal, a 49-yarder. Punter Bryce Baringer pinned the Dolphins inside the 20 three times with no touchbacks.
But the play of the game, even if the Patriots couldn’t take advantage, was Brenden Schooler’s block of Jason Sanders 49-yard attempt in the third quarter. He was nearly lined up by the sideline, but got a running start before the ball was snapped and timed his cut toward the kicker perfectly before going airborne and blocking the kick. Schooler’s effort took potential points off the board, but also set the Patriots up on Miami’s 49.
Coaching : D
Mike McDaniel and Vic Fangio got the better of Bill Belichick, Bill O’Brien, Steve Belichick and Jerod Mayo.
While the Patriots won the Tyreek Hill battle on defense, limiting him to just 40 yards by employing three deep safeties for much of the game, that didn’t deter McDaniel from producing offense, or points.
He just called plays that took advantage of what the Patriots gave him, as the Dolphins engineered long scoring drives.
The coaches did make adjustments, but in most instances, the damage was already done. After largely playing zone, the Patriots stuck Christian Gonzalez in Tyreek Hill’s grill after Marcus Jones got hurt while Jabril Peppers provided safety help over the top. That was effective.
And after the Fins successfully attacked the edges with their ground game in the first half (Jahlani Tavai and Josh Uche were getting run over), the Pats used Deatrich Wise ahd Matthew Judon more on early downs which helped stop the bleeding.
Offensively, O’Brien once again did his best with a shoddy offensive line, but Fangio’s defense, which was shredded the previous week by the Chargers, still had the upper hand.
Beyond that, Bill Belichick lost a timeout after challenging the spot on a Rhamondre Stevenson run on a third-and-2 play in the third quarter. Belichick thought Stevenson made the line to gain, but was ruled short by an inch. The challenge failed. His percentage has gone down since Ernie Adams retired.
As for benching Pop Douglas after his first quarter fumble, it’s understandable trying to make a point with a rookie.
And that’s fine if the team is good enough to make do without him. But this team isn’t good enough, especially taking away one of the few explosive players it has on offense. The Patriots needs all the help they can get.
The grade wasn’t an F. The play Joe Judge and the special teams coaches designed to have Brenden Schooler essentially start way off the line, and go into motion to get a head of steam to try and block a field goal was innovative, and effective. Schooler made a sensational block of Jason Sanders third quarter field goal attempt of 49 yards. Look for other teams to adapt that wrinkle.
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