Bill Belichick is searching for answers after the New England Patriots witnessed another blowout loss.
Last Sunday’s 34-0 defeat by the New Orleans Saints was the biggest home loss Belichick has ever seen as a head coach. Plus last week’s 35-point drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys which is the largest defeat of his coaching career. Belichick’s frustrations are growing and his patience in the Patriots is thinning.
“Obviously, it was a poor performance today here,” Bill Belichick said after the game on Sunday. “Plain and simple, we’ve got to find a way to play and coach better than that. So let’s go start all over and get back on a better track than we’re on right now. Slow start, and then just couldn’t, could never really get the game under control.”
Teams don’t usually “start all over’’ after five games into a season, but Belichick, who was cagey as usual after the loss, said he’s “done it before’’ in the past. What his reset won’t include is a quarterback change despite pulling Mac Jones for a second successive game.
“It was 31-0 at the end of the third quarter,” Bill Belichick said when asked why he took Jones out. He later confirmed Jones would remain the starter, saying, “There was a lot of problems — it certainly wasn’t all on him.”
Jones was on the sidelines watching, as New England took the field for its first offensive possession for the fourth quarter. The third-year QB never recovered from what was a tough start after throwing a pick-six before finding his first completion in the game. Even when the Patriots gained some traction on the ensuing possession, Chad Ryland fumbled a 48-yarder, which ended up being the closest New England would come to scoring in the whole game.
“Really just not being ready to go, I guess,” said Jones, who finished 12-of-22 passing with two interceptions and a fumble. “As an offense, you want to go out there, you’ve practised all week, and you feel confident. So, definitely want to get improvement on that. Not any of these games are not starting off very hot, so just gotta improve.”
The Patriots managed a season-low 156 yards of total offense against the Saints and could not reach the red zone. With a rushing attack mustering only 45 yards (2.5 YPC), an offensive line offering shaky protection and wideout Ty Montogomery dropping a pass that resulted in a second INT, Jones’ struggling on Sunday should not be seen as an individual failure.
New England’s center David Andrews of the club’s longest-tenured players and leaders on the team also recognizes the overall issues plaguing the team that has not found the end zone since the second quarter of Week 3.
“I got belief in everybody,” Andrews told reporters after the game. “I got belief. If they’re on this football team, they’re here for a reason, right, including myself, including everybody in that locker room, right? We’re all here for a reason, we’re all here for a purpose. We just gotta go out there, do a better job as a football team overall. We’ve got to do a better job helping him. Everybody’s gotta do a better job.”
Related News:
Ex-NFL player Russ Francis killed alongside 2 others in Lake Placid plane crash.
