Nitpicks & Nitwits: You Have Questions, But Are There Answers?

Well, that was…um…interesting.

The lack of competitiveness was startling.  The final five weeks of the season resulted in four losses (and one win over lowly Jacksonville) following a bye week, which for this team and organization was unusual…if not unprecedented.

But it was the way the Patriots came out to play after that week off.   They were a different team.  Something that clicked before, was misfiring.

The Patriots defense didn’t – couldn’t – force the Bills’ offense to punt.  Not even one time, over two games.  Were there issues outside of the teams’ control?  Or were there problems growing from within, masked earlier by the relative well-being of a few key performers?

Were they just beaten up?  Did ‘the wall’ suddenly appear as a blockade to impede progress with New England sitting at 9-4, and in the top seeded slot within the AFC following Week 13?

There’s an adage that says “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  It takes time to build something that has a lasting presence, and in the case of the Patriots, it will certainly take some time to rebuild what was once dynastic in nature.

If it can be done at all.

But if you search where the shortcomings were coming from on this 2021 edition of New England football, even the most optimistic sort would have to agree – a stunning lack of discipline was an underlying cause of Le Probleme Du Jour.

• Drive-killing penalties
• Drive-extending penalties, and an inability for the defense to get off the field
• Lack of big-play execution, on both sides of the ball
• Turnovers
• Inattention to detail – small things became big problems
• Starting games slowly, and poorly
• Wash, rinse, and…repeat

When you’re digging yourself the kind of holes the Patriots dug themselves into (down a collective 84 to 10 in the first half of those four losses!), chances are very strong you won’t climb out of them.

You’ll find China first, before you find success.

Where do you fix this?  To begin with, the Patriots simply weren’t as talented as Buffalo, and the Bills deserve credit for being where they are.  But were they as talented as the Dolphins and Colts, with neither of those teams reaching the postseason?  New England failed to make the plays (and the stops) needed to show it.

It wasn’t a lack of talent.  The Patriots aren’t as bad as the last month of the season would indicate.  Sure, there were some smoke-and-mirror adjustments made to try and cover the blemishes.  There were also a few injuries, both obvious and not-so, that affected playmaking ability (Christian Barmore and Matt Judon, for two).

But what really needs to change within – starts with attitude.

The roster has improved over the past year, but it hasn’t improved enough.  And while Bill Belichick spent much of this year breaking in, guiding, teaching and allowing his younger assistants (and newer players) to learn on-the-job, the professor also needs to realize another thing.

Attitude starts at the top.  Demand attention to detail.  It’s how New England built dynastic success over the previous two decades.

Maybe there’s a disconnect within his classroom?  It’s one thing to have a better team beat you.  But when your shortcomings fall largely upon your own shoulders (see above), shouldn’t you take the time to find out why?

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The game was over when…

…the Patriots won the coin toss and elected to defer.

For a team that has struggled so mightily (again, see above) during the past month, getting off to a faster start was imperative.  And yet, stubbornness overusing a tactic (deferring the opening kickoff and electing to receive for a statistically small chance at back-to-back scores) rather than using common sense proves but one thing here.

The Emperors’ clothes are missing on this one.

What happens when a baseball pitcher keeps throwing fastballs?  Eventually, he gets hammered.  Gotta throw ’em a curve every once in a while.  Or a changeup, at least.  Repeating the same mistake – er, tactic – and expecting different results?

Insanity.  And ultimately, failure.

But they also didn’t…

…stop the Bills.  At all.  Not once.   Nine drives over two games, nine scores.  As long as we’ve introduced baseball into this equation, Buffalo threw a perfect game Saturday at New England.  The Patriots whiffed.

Trying to keep Josh Allen in the pocket, if that was part of the strategy, so he couldn’t use his legs to beat you didn’t work.  Why?  Not enough pressure up the middle, not enough penetration from the ends.  And when penetration did exist, it often went too far – and Allen made the Patriots pay dearly, by running right past it.

The Patriots defensive line hit Allen just once.  Allen threw for more touchdowns than incompletions.  You want insanity?  There it is, again.

And they didn’t…

…go for it when they probably should have.  4th and 1, on your own 34-yard line, already down 14-0 early in the second quarter and your world is spinning.  Life-support is failing.  Then later in the same period, with a 4th and 8 at their own 49, down 20-0.

Has anyone ever heard the line “fortune favors the bold?”

They punted twice.  And still were blown out.  Maybe a changeup in this case, coach?  What could it hurt?

You are not alone

This week’s candidate for “no matter how bad you have it, someone has it worse?”

The Dallas Cowboys.  At home as NFC East champs against San Francisco, the Cowboys lost a tough one, 23-17.  But it was in the WAY they lost, that was especially tough.

Dallas led the NFL as the most penalized team over the course of the season and didn’t disappoint.  14 penalties, including one for delay of game after converting a fake punt pass for a first down.

The worst mistake came at the very end, hoping for a reasonable shot at a Hail Mary throw to the end zone.  Dak Prescott scrambled up the middle with no timeouts remaining, but after being tackled could not spike the ball to stop the clock in time…because he was bumped into by the umpire, who had to spot the ball before it could be snapped.

The clock read 0:00.  The Cowboys have lost 11 of their last 15 playoff games.  Jerry Jones said he was “extraordinarily disappointed.”

Join the club, Jerry.