Three Key Takeaways From Another Tough Patriots Loss
Foxborough, MA - So close, yet so far. That was the story of the Patriots' 20-17 loss to the Commanders, and has been the story of the 2023 Patriots. In what has been a brutal season so far, what is often lost is the fact that New England has been a few bounces away from being 5-4 or 6-3. They've lost four one-score games, and all of them involved situations where they had legitimate chances to win them. Here are the key takeaways from Sunday's game.
Where Is The Weaponry?
The Patriots simply aren't surrounding Mac Jones with good weapons. There's no doubt that Mac had his flaws during that game. However, his weapons did nothing to help him. There was little to no separation by anyone not named Demario Douglas, the absence of Kendrick Bourne was felt big time and drops completely sunk any chance he had. On the other side of the ball, the positive impacts of Brian Robinson, Terry McLaurin and Jahan Dotson, and the way they simplified the equation for Sam Howell, created quite the painful dichotomy.
Mac actually was making some throws towards the end to put the team in a position to win. Jalen Reagor dropped what arguably was one of the best throws of the entire season by Mac Jones, a perfect deep bomb that would have put the Patriots in winning position. The interception was on an excellent throw to JuJu Smith-Schuster that was dropped, a throw that could have and should have gotten the Patriots a first down.
Ezekiel Elliot and Tyquan Thornton also dropped fairly easy catches - these were drive-killers and confidence killers, and frankly, the Patriots don't have the explosiveness to be able to make up for those kinds of mistakes. A guy in Smith-Schuster who, at one point in his career, had over 1400 receiving yards, was largely used in bubble screens. And without Parker and Bourne, there was basically nobody else of note on the field.
Complete Domination In Ball Control
The Commanders remained on the field when they had to, and the Patriots didn't. It was that simple. 4-14 on third and fourth downs for New England, and 9-17 for Washington told a story, but not as much of a story as 37 minutes to 23 minutes in time of possession tells. The Patriots were not able to
Their two touchdown drives were quick strike drives, one off a turnover, one off a long run by Rhamondre Stevenson. The two extended drives they were able to construct resulted in a turnover on downs and a field goal. A lot of this is related to balance. Despite the fact that the running game was humming more than in past weeks, and the big play from Stevenson, the Patriots only ran the ball 19 yards. And despite the fact that the receivers were extremely ineffective, the Patriots threw the ball 44 times, and in a whopping stat, had less yards per pass than per rush.
This year, the Patriots are dead last in the league in time of possession, and of course, the turnovers don't help, but the Patriots actually won the turnover battle on Sunday and didn't have a single allowed takeaway until the very end of the game. They were simply unable to keep themselves on the field offensively. If the defense weren't as good as they were, this would be even worse. There's very little aggression, and when there is, there's no execution: that's been the story of the 2023 offense.
Defense Continues To Be Promising
Facing an offensive in Washington that has a lot of playmakers, and having an offense behind them that kept them on the field (Washington ran 14 more plays than New England), the Patriots held up extremely well and did an excellent job keeping the game close.
New England got two massive takeaways, one of which prevented a Commanders TD at the end of the first half, and one of which led to a touchdown. They played extremely well in the red zone, forcing the Commanders to only 1-4 in the Red Zone, a category where they've been in the top 5 of the league this year. If the offense was better, the story of 2023 would have been one of a typical Belichickian bend-but-don't-break group.
Next year, with Judon, Gonzalez, and Marcus Jones coming back from injury, the defense will get considerably stronger, and that side of the ball serves as a positive to build on. The pass rush is strong, both on the interior and on the edge (they added three sacks to their season tally on Sunday), and their secondary (especially when healthy) is equally promising. This, in essence is why I don't believe that Belichick's head coaching spot should go anywhere - instead, he should get an offensive GM or co-GM to ensure proper tending to that side of the ball in the offseason.
Use code STADIUMRANT20 for a 20% discount at, Bulletproof Coffee, SwingJuice for your golf apparel needs, and Performix for protein and health supplements. If you're a fan of shotgunning beers, use code STADIUMRANT10 at Wild Man Drinking Company.
If you enjoyed this article, try Stadium Rant Original shows on our Youtube channel, and subscribe!