Nitpicks & Nitwits: Patriots Back On Playoff Track?

Isn’t this what we expected?

• A Patriots’ team capable of winning on the road?  Check.  Never mind that they’re 1-4 at home.
• A Patriots’ team capable of moving the football when offense is needed?  Check.  Mac Jones is proving to be a growing, capable QB at the least, a wunderkind at best.  If his backs and receivers can hold onto the ball, New England might have something (or someone) remotely familiar to most of us at the controls.
• A Patriots’ team that can make a stop every once in a while on defense?  Check, but keep your eraser handy.  If there’s a cornerback out there, somewhere, looking for work…you might want to send your resume to Foxboro.
• A Patriots’ team that can excel on special teams?  Bold check.  Big Kick Nick Folk and Jake Bailey may be as good a one-two kicking game punch as presently exists in the NFL.  Folk has converted on an astounding team-record 40 straight field goals under 50 yards in length.
• A Patriots’ team that can match wits, scheme-up, and out-coach the other side?  Incomplete.  Bill Belichick deserves a check for guiding the team through unsettled, turbulent territory in these first eight weeks.  But his lieutenants?

There have been some head-scratching calls, certainly.  Especially Sunday in Los Angeles.  And it’s true there are new names and faces in many of these decision-making spaces this season.  Except for Josh McDaniels.

But largely, isn’t this what you expected of the 2021 Patriots before the season kicked off?  Competitiveness?  A potential return to the postseason?  Challenging Buffalo in the AFC East?  Re-establishing a dynastic presence within the AFC?

Don’t laugh.  That’s a strong mindset from fans (and many in the media) who have witnessed the previous two-plus decades up close.  The thought is always, “if they’ve done it once, they can do it again.”

More appropriately, that thought should probably be, “they’ve done it once, they’re now in position to do it again.”  The game-clinching drive in Sunday’s 4th quarter was 14 plays and 54 yards of wicked smaht football. It chewed off nearly seven minutes on the clock, paying homage to the immediate past in its’ style, if not result.

The drive led to the ultimate game-deciding points (Folk’s 30 yard FG) in the 27-24 win over the Chargers.  It was a big-boy drive in every way, just like in the “old days.”

That was the real revelation in a third straight road win – and really, the first clue that these Patriots might actually be onto something again this season.

And isn’t that what you expected?

But those play calls…

Hey, we’re not out on the field, or on the sidelines with i-Pads at the ready.  But it was extraordinarily curious, to say the least, to see the Patriots winging the football down the field against a Chargers’ team that was DEAD last in the NFL against the run going into the game.

What were they thinking?  What did Josh McDaniels and Mac Jones see when the rest of us were yelling “run the ball!?!”

What they saw were the Chargers playing deeper than usual early, allowing for holes in the middle of the field and practically begging the Patriots to throw – because they know they can’t stop the run very well.  It worked for a while, and then it didn’t.

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Can we get a time out?

Not at the end of the game you couldn’t.  The Patriots burned all three of their second-half timeouts with nearly half of the 4th quarter still to play, largely due to game management issues (12 players on the field?) and an incorrect Belichick red-flag challenge.

The challenge of a possible holding call against LA in the end zone – which would have resulted in a possible safety – was a calculated gamble that nearly paid off.  Sometimes, you just gotta try.  But having to burn other time outs, with the clock already stopped, is just inattention to detail that should never happen.

Hold on…no wait, don’t

Penalties are easy to complain about.  Overall, the Patriots had four of them called for 30 yards, which seems manageable.  Until you realize that one holding call in particular, called on Justin Herron, wiped out a touchdown run from Damien Harris in the 3rd quarter.

And on the very next possession, it happened again: “Holding, number 76, 10-yard penalty, repeat first down.”  Isaiah Wynn‘s grab wiped out a 23 yard Harris run, and ultimately forced the team to try a 48-yard field goal.  Which they did get to take a 16-14 lead…but leaving points on the field (14 to 18 more in the first half, too) isn’t a healthy habit for any team to digest.

No matter how bad…

At least you’re not the Dolphins (now 1-7 with a lone win over NE), the Vikings (timeout mismanagement by Mike Zimmer cost Minnesota a chance to beat Dallas) or the Bengals (inexplicably losing to the J-E-T-S).

Do we have a QB controversy brewing now in New York after Mike White‘s stunning performance?  Rookie QB and #2 draft pick Zach Wilson may need to look over his shoulder at the blindside hit headed his way.