Perhaps David Andrews summed up the Patriots effort against the Saints the best of anyone: “Kind of the same old story.”
It sure was. It resembled last week’s loss to the Cowboys, and remnants of the two other losses on the season.
Poor quarterback play?
Check.
Turnovers by the offense?
Check.
Poor tackling?
Check.
No defensive turnovers?
Check.
Uninspired play at the start?
Check.
Once again, they hit all the boxes.
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The problem now is the level and degree of stink in each of those categories has grown. And Bill Belichick has no answers.
It’s the first time since 1970 that the team has suffered consecutive 30-point losses.
Belichick said the plan was to “start over.”
That’s fine, except there isn’t much to hang his hat on to accomplish the mission.
They had no life against the Saints, continuing their habit of falling behind to sizable deficits early. It was 21-0 against the Saints, 28-3 the previous week against the Cowboys. Before that, it was 16-0 to the Eagles, and 17-3 to the Dolphins.
The players say their performance/effort isn’t good enough. The game film says the same thing.
But the game film also shows a team that just doesn’t measure up in any phase from a talent perspective, whether it’s an elite opponent, or a middle-tier team.
This is the Patriots first 1-4 start since 2000. They’re 0-3 at home, and during the back-to-back blowouts, they’ve lost by a combined 72-3 to the Cowboys and Saints after Sunday’s 34-0 slaughter by the Saints.
It’s anyone’s guess what happens from here. But it’s about as bad as it could get for the Patriots.
Here’s the grades from their Week 5 loss:
Quarterback : F
Mac Jones needed to play a clean game. He was desperate to avoid having another mistake and turnover-filled performance.
It didn’t happen. Three turnovers last week against Dallas. Another three against the Saints on Sunday.
These weren’t quite as egregious as the previous week, but they were still deadly nonetheless.
Jones had two picks, both coming on third down plays.
On the first one, he stepped up in the pocket to make a play, got hit, and badly missed his intended target Rhamondre Stevenson. Tyrann Mathieu took it back to the house for a pick-six. With the walls collapsing around him, he should have just taken the sack and punted.
His second pick went off Ty Montgomery. Not his fault. His third turnover, meanwhile, a fumble, came on a poor flip to Stevenson. It was a panic pitch.
Outside of that, there were more throws off his back foot even without a pass rush in sight. He’s clearly spooked in the pocket.
Basically, the offense went nowhere. Jones (12 for 22, 110 yards, two picks) led 10 offensive drives. That amounted to six punts, two interceptions, a fumble, and missed field goal.
Bailey Zappe (3-for-9, 22 yards) came on in relief in the fourth quarter. He led four drives. He didn’t get a first down. He was off-target on his throws.
It doesn’t get much worse than that.
Jones has no confidence, and it’s getting to the point where it’s tough for anyone in the huddle to have confidence in him.
Running back : D
The only reason this isn’t an ‘F’ is thanks to having atrocious blocking up front. But the Patriots once again could only muster 2.5 yards per rush.
Things looked promising when Rhamondre Stevenson busted up the middle for an 8-yard gain on the Patriots first play from scrimmage. It went downhill from there. Minus that run, he had seven carries for 16 yards, or barely two yards per carry.
Ezekiel Elliott wasn’t much better with eight carries for 21 yards. He also had an eight-yard rush in the mix. So that leaves him with 13 yards on the remaining seven carries.
Ty Montgomery, meanwhile, came out of witness protection. He had one rushing attempt for no yards. He was called for an illegal shift penalty. He was also targeted four times, with one catch for five yards. He also couldn’t keep a handle on one Jones pass that bounced off his hands, into the awaiting arms of a Saints defender.
Elliott caught four passes for 17 yards. Stevenson was targeted twice, with no catches. Getting little to no production from this group has been deadly.
Wide receivers: D
Demario “Pop” Douglas once again flashed with the best play of the day, going airborne for a 24-yard catch. But he was forced to leave the game with a head injury, after taking a forearm to the head on the tackle.
After that, there wasn’t much to write home about.
Kendrick Bourne had a 28-yard receiving play, but he was also flagged twice for false starts, killing drives.
JuJu Smith Schuster had three catches for six whopping yards before leaving with a head injury. Bourne and Parker had two catches a piece.
Since Ty Montgomery is a running back/receiver, we can add his gaffe in here too.
Not the kind of output you’re looking for across the board.
Tight ends – D
Hunter Henry didn’t have a catch in this game. He was only targeted twice. Both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe overshot him in the first and fourth quarters respectively. The Saints knew Henry was Jones’ closest thing to a go-to-guy, so they made it tough for him to get open.
Mike Gesicki was the most productive, with two catches for 17 yards, but that’s not saying much.
Pharaoh Brown, meanwhile, was barely noticeable when he was in.
So for the group Bill O’Brien likes to build his offense around, not much to see here.
Offensive line – F
The Patriots had the same starting five as last week. Trent Brown and Vederian Lowe were the tackles. Antonio Mafi and Michael Onwenu the guards, with Riley Reiff subbing in at both guard spots, and David Andrews at center.
Lowe had a tough time at right tackle for the second straight week. Both Lowe and left tackle Trent Brown were beaten on sacks of Jones right before the half to nullify a possible scoring drive. Brown, who seemed to check out in the second half, also completely whiffed on Carl Granderson in the third quarter, forcing a five-yard loss on a Stevenson carry.
During one completion to Mike Gesicki, David Andrews missed a block leaving Mac to deal with pressure right up the middle.
So it was once again hard for Jones to feel comfortable with this unit allowing close to a 50 percent quarterback pressure rate. It was 50 percent the previous week in Dallas.
Add on the line getting little to no push up front in the run game (2.5 yards per carry), with edge runs a complete disaster, and it was another failed grade for this group.
Defensive line: C-minus
The Saints did their best to get Alvin Kamara going. The group up front did a decent job, keeping him to 3.6 yards per carry. His long was 10 yards. Collectively, the Saints had just 3.3 yards per carry.
Deatrich Wise led the group with seven tackles.
The one knock here, is the Patriots didn’t do much to halt Kamara’s runs down by the goal line, leading to a touchdown.
Also holding this grade back was the fact no one up front got in Derek Carr’s face. For the most part, the Saints quarterback wasn’t bothered by anyone up the middle. Davon Godchaux and Christian Barmore had little impact.
Carr pretty much had all day to make plays – see 5-yard touchdown pass to Chris Olave for details. So having the worst red zone team convert on three of four attempts wasn’t great.
Linebacker – C
Ja’Whaun Bentley came to play. Right from the first series, he tried to set the tone stopping Alvin Kamara on the first two running plays, before ending the series with a sack of Derek Carr on third down. Bentley shot in on a blitz and Carr was toast. He led the team with 11 tackles.
Jahlani Tavai chipped in eight tackles, but aside from those two, no one had much of an impact.
Playing without Matthew Judon, there was little push from the edge on either side. His absence was noticeable, as Keion White and Josh Uche didn’t generate much pressure.
Anfernee Jennings did have five tackles, but also couldn’t muster much in the way of a pass rush.
The Patriots only sacks came on blitzes.
Secondary – C
Derek Carr didn’t exactly torch the Patriots secondary (18 of 26 for 183 yards), but was effective when he needed to be.
J.C. Jackson saw his first action since being acquired in a trade and didn’t look out of place. He handled Chris Olave on occasion and defended him well. Jonathan Jones also returned after missing several weeks with an ankle injury.
Both Jones and Shaun Wade had pass breakups.
Myles Bryant picked up a sack on one blitz.
Safety Adrian Phillips missed a tackle on a 13-yard gain by Taysom Hill on a scoring drive. Jabrill Peppers was in coverage on a 25-yard pass play to Rashid Shaheed on what looked like a blown coverage.
With Christian Gonzalez out and likely gone for the season, the Patriots did their best to patch it together. It wasn’t perfect, but this group wasn’t the reason the Saints put up their largest point total.
Specialists: F
How bad was it?
Even 10-time Pro Bowl special teams standout Matthew Slater was flagged for two penalties during the game.
That just doesn’t compute.
Long snapper Joe Cardona, meanwhile, continues to struggle. He had two more bad snaps, leading to two shanked punts by rookie Bryce Baringer, who was otherwise good dropping five punts inside the 20.
Rookie kicker Chad Ryland missed a 48-yarder, as he’s only converted four of eight kicks this season.
Aside from that, Jabrill Peppers made some questionable decisions fielding punts that led to poor field position, once calling a fair catch at the 6-yard line that he probably should have let bounce. He also muffed a catch on a punt, luckily steering it out of bounds.
Ty Montgomery took several kickoff returns out that didn’t get to the 25-yard line. Collectively, not a good day.
Coaching : F
Coming off a beat-down in Dallas, the expectation was for the Patriots to rebound, especially at home.
Granted, the Patriots are dealing with injuries, with two of their best players (Judon, Gonzalez) out on defense.
And yet, getting throttled by the Saints was more shocking.
Have the players tuned out Bill Belichick?
With the exception of a few players, they came out flat, listless, and with no urgency. And for the umpteenth time, they got behind.
Coaching decisions?
Down 24-0, why did Bill Belichick opt to punt on 4th-and-3 from the Saints 40 on the second possession in the third quarter, why did the head coach opt to punt?
Why not try to make something happen? How does that not send a bad message to the players?
Belichick seemed like he was resigned to losing, had surrendered at that point, or was trying to make some kind of point.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t a good look.
Meanwhile, Bill O’Brien still can’t come up with answers for the offense, and the special teams were a mess.
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